"This, this...What the hell..."
The Count had long craved power, and when he was old, he had a desire for youth. For the Count, growing old was synonymous with becoming weak.
After being strangled by Fernand, the Count's obsession with youth became more intense. The humiliation of being thrown to the wall without a single vein in his son's grasp left a deep scar on him.
The day when the world of the Count, who considered himself a powerful man, and Fernand, as nothing more than a young son under his protection, was shattered.
After that day when the father-son hierarchy was reversed, every time the count looked in the mirror, he saw only a middle-aged man who had shrunk to his heart's content. He has no sturdiness and enthusiasm as a young man, and he is a sordid self who has already weakened and will only be weakened in the future.
When Fernand died, he was even relieved. Rather than the sadness of putting his child first, he was more willing to avoid the sense of weakness that he felt every time he saw Fernand.
He had painfully realized that even his son would be humiliated when he grew old, so he couldn't accept his face as a helpless old man in an instant.
'...Why on earth am I suddenly... Am I so old?'
He stared at himself in disbelief for a long time, and then panted as he grabbed the back of his neck.
'How could you be so angry...'
Sasha deserved to laugh at him. Eyes with no firearms, breathlessness, legs that trembled slightly even if they tried to stay still. It was a ridiculous figure that seemed to be overwhelmed by even his own body. It looked like a toothless tiger when his father was half a year away from death.
"I guess God is just as careless! You have received a proper punishment!"
Sasha screamed in a voice that even felt exhilarating.
"Yes. Paula is my daughter. I got pregnant before marriage!"
Even if it was a once-in-a-lifetime secret, she wasn't afraid of being found out by the Count.
The Count still had a Count. He could sue Sasha again, or he could have fought a public opinion war as a prodigal daughter.
'But... And yet...!'
"Why? What can you do? Do you want to file a lawsuit again?"
"You, you..."
"Look at you, do you think you'll be alive until the outcome of the lawsuit?"
Sasha was well aware of the Count's weaknesses as they had once been a couple.
"No, before that, is it possible for you to stand in front of others like that? You... too many enemies to go out like that, right?"
Therefore, every word that came out of her mouth pierced his heart.
Sasha had just done as she had said.
The Count could not appear in front of the people in such a weak manner.
The Count had committed evil deeds throughout his life, and he had chosen to trample on his victims more completely as a way to avoid retribution.
By force. With money. By reputation. All their evil words have been dismissed as 'nonsense' and blocked.
However, even if you trample it to the end and completely destroy it, it will not completely disappear. Even if it crumbled into powder, there would always be debris under the bottom of the shoe.
The Brentano family is in ruins. Albrecht Pharmaceuticals' competitors. The bereaved families of the low-ranking servants who died suddenly at the Count's residence. Countless commoners killed by the Count...
And the debris was preparing for 'someday'. One day, even those who have been trampled on and have nothing left in their hands will be able to attack the Count.
The Count knew that "someday" had come to him.
What if those crumbs that he thought were ridiculous knew what he is now? The Count could be confident. They would rush at him more willingly than anyone else, like crows rushing at corpses.
"Above all, Ulrich, can you beat me now?"
As if to prove her, Sasha had completely changed their attitude.
Huh. Huh.
Paula's true Identity. The shock of being 30 years older in an instant. Sasha's sneer. And the fear of being weakened.
The Count's aging body could not withstand the successive shocks. He grabbed the back of his neck with a red face and fainted.
Loose.
Sasha, who had been laughing bitterly, let out a soft exclamation, as if genuinely surprised.
"Oh my God... really... It's just like your father, isn't it?"
Come to think of it...
The Count thought of his father's death through a fading consciousness.
After becoming an old man, the former Count easily had a stiff neck, a red face, and frequent nosebleeds. His father, who died after suffering from paralysis caused by a brain hemorrhage.
***
"Ulrich, you bastard! How dare you humiliate me like this? I will see your terrible end with my own eyes. Die! Disappear from the world as soon as possible!"
Ever since she was kicked out of the house due to her divorce, Sasha had been locked in a small closet every day, cursing the Count, but honestly, she didn't think her wish would come true.
Barely surviving in the dingy neighborhood, she was sure to die before the Count.
'But look at this! Isn't that curse going to come true soon?'
She thought that God was heartless and indifferent to her.
Sasha tried to smile at the fallen Count, but she couldn't.
"Now, come and say that I am your daughter? It's funny, Sasha."
Paula's sarcastic voice interrupted her joy
"Sa, Sasha...?"
Besides, she calls her by her first name.
Isn't it a title that draws a perfect line between not being regarded as a mother of a loyal lady?
"Why did you come now and tell the Count that I am your daughter? Now that you've fallen off the strings, I think you want to be treated like a mother, right? Ugh. Even if you don't have proper maternal love, isn't that too ugly?"
Paula and Sasha paid no attention to the fallen Count, but only focused on scratching each other.
'Yes. Now you're finally telling me honestly. In the end, the ultimate goal was to abandon me.'
Sasha was convinced. The reason why Paula avoided her by pretending to be missing, and even made a fake ring and pretended to return it, was because she wanted to cut ties with her completely.
"If that's the case, I'll just quit. You dared to come and make a fool of your mother!"
"I don't consider you a mother anymore. In fact, it wasn't that I cut you off, but that you cut me off when you abandoned me."
Look at that. When she was a Countess, Paula was willing to call her mother, but now she is very brazen in her attempt to make herself a sinner by covering up her past mistakes.
"Whether you cut it all off or not, do whatever you want. I don't want to have a scary girl like you as my daughter anymore. But give me the ring. Don't act like this."
Sasha had also run out of arrogance for Paula anyway. So it didn't matter if the kite was cut off. If only the ring were put out.
"Oh, will you eat me all the way? Then let's join the play. Aunt! I never got a ring from her. Which lady would give a maid a blue diamond because she was crazy?"
Paula was sarcastic.
"What?"
"How can I give you something that I have never received?"
Now that Sasha had realized that the ring was a fake, Paula seemed to have changed her strategy. She changed her words to say that she had never received a ring from Sasha from the beginning.
There is no way to prove it, but how can they lie so brazenly?
Sasha, who was distraught by Paula's provocative attitude, tried to attack Paula, but Paula spoke faster.
"Doorkeepers and servants! What are they doing? Aren't we going to chase away the damn Intruder and recover the fallen Count?"
The gatekeeper of the Count's residence, who had noticed this, belatedly grabbed the Countess's arms.
***
The gatekeepers and servants were breathless at the excitement of the unfolding situation in front of them, but when the Count collapsed on the ground in the garden, they were anxiously looking for the right time to intervene.
They can't just look at the old man lying in the garden.
A group of servants, including the gatekeeper, rushed Sasha to the front door, while another group of servants rushed into the mansion with the Count on their backs.
Odette looked down at the scene and thought.
"I need to get Gisela to prepare the materials."
Sasha was a good person in this matter, so on the way out, she would go straight to the Metropolitan Police Department to report Paula. She would shout at the cops, recite Paula's personal information, and accuse Paula of being a thief who stole an expensive diamond.
While the Investigation was ongoing, the Metropolitan Police Department was scheduled to receive a tip-off prepared by Odette.
Two years ago, there was a specific report about the Albrecht Institute fire incident. The moment Paula wears a hood creates embers in the lab, the moment she escapes from the lab, and the moment she abandons the hood after running into an alley. The report is a nicely arranged report of photos, suggesting that Paula is the culprit in the arson case.
The identity of the informant was to be an apothecary working in the Summer Palace. The photographs that Gisela took diligently would be disguised as photos taken by accident while the apothecary was visiting the vicinity of the laboratory
No one would find it strange for a pharmacist with a clear identity to go to an area where pharmaceutical research institutes and wholesalers of drugs are concentrated.
It was an arson Incident only two years ago. The Metropolitan Police Department must have been troubled by not being able to catch the culprit, so there was no way they would have wasted this credible tip. Moreover, Paula is a person who is deeply related to the Count, so the Investigation will not proceed clumsily
"I should ask Damien to sort out his identity."
Odette, sensing the end, let out a long sigh. At that moment, she suddenly felt uncomfortable.
'Even so, the Transcendents are too quiet.'
It was a moment when she felt something strange and looked back.
[ The World Tree gives an oracle to Odette! ]
[ 'Laurel of Light' is activated. ]
Snap.
Odette's view changed from the top floor of the Count's residence to the middle of the coniferous forest.
'...Nope. This place is more like a high mountain than a forest, right?"
Odette, looking around at the reflection of the full moon, guessed so. The floor where she was standing was made of dirt that could only be seen from the top of a mountain. She was able to stand on the ridge with just a few steps, whether her prediction was correct.
Looking down at the pine forest beneath her feet, Odette realized that what she was seeing was a moment in the future that would take place three months from the present. A future that Odette could change as much as she wanted.
'Why are you showing me this kind of mountain?'
Looking up at the dreamy silver moon, Odette wondered. No matter how she looked at it, it didn't seem like there was a future here that she needed to know. At that moment, he heard a gasping sound from somewhere.
Odette, who knew that the reason for the World Tree's oracle was where the sound was heard, walked to the place where the sound came from.
"...!"
He found John leaning against a pine tree and crouching down.
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