“That’s nonsense!”
The Count of Elba, a lawyer employed by the Bartolini family, shouted.
“Do you have any evidence?!”
Clemente wanted to shut the mouth of the Viscount of Elba. He was such an ignorant bookworm! As expected, the Marquis of Campa snickered and said,
“No, it’s not like I’m the type to write love letters.”
He rubbed his hands dirty and said sinisterly.
“There’s a heart-shaped milk spot on that girl’s butt.”
The audience was shocked. You could hear them gasping for breath. The ladies, in particular, were shocked to the point of dizziness.
“How do you check that?”
“Shame on you! Shame on you!”
“If it’s not true, then what are you doing?”
It was a sorry and embarrassing situation to even bring up the subject of checking. If Clemente's buttocks were cracked, and there were no heart-shaped milk spots, there would be no reason to stop Count Bartolini from beating the Marquis of Campa to the brink of death with his cane. But our Leo III did not yield.
“Oh? Then, should I do a physical evaluation?”
He looked around without hesitation.
“I should bring a maid to the inn...”
“Your Majesty, you don’t have to do that.”
Sir Delpiano, who was standing behind the King, whispered quietly.
“What the Marquis of Campa said is true.”
“How could you know that...!”
Leo III, who realized something in the middle of talking, looked at Sir Delpiano with wide eyes. Sir Delpiano simply nodded with a blushing face.
Leo III looked around the room. There were many men in the audience who were quietly nodding their heads. Ten? It was more than thirty, closer to fifty. Considering that many people were not present and those who came with their wives were pretending not to know, it was an absurd number.
“You too... You too... You too?”
Leo III opened his mouth wide.
“No, everyone was having so much fun except me?!”
The face of Count Bartolini was a sight to behold. He turned blue, then white, then red. His old cheeks trembled in all the changes. Count Bartolini sprang up from his seat without saying a word.
“...!”
Clemente, who saw her husband's reaction, belatedly fainted. It was after missing the timing to collapse by a long time. Count Bartolini walked out of the courtroom with a thumping sound without looking back. It was a footstep of anger, even with the cane.
“Hey, sister! Sister!”
Clemente, who had fainted for real, did not fall gracefully from the high platform, but rather slid down while leaning against the chair. Only Ottavio ran frantically to support his sister.
The Marquis of Campa asked, still grinning.
“I came all the way here today to testify, but what do I have? A hat or something...”
Leo III looked down at the Marquis of Campa with disdainful eyes. The Marquis of Campa asked undeterred.
“...Even gold coins?”
“Put that away.”
The guards rushed forward at Leo III's signal, seized the Marquis of Campa by his limbs, and dragged him away. The Marquis of Campa cried out.
“No, if you take people’s time, shouldn’t there be compensation? At least lift the ban on entering the palace!”
The further he was dragged down the hallway, the quieter his voice became.
“I came in today, so the ban on entry has been lifted, right? It has been lifted, right?!”
After that echo, the panicked voice of a palace official echoed through the palace court.
“Well, then, is this something that Countess Bartolini has admitted to? Count Bartolini is gone... Countess? Countess? You must answer.”
Ottavio answered roughly.
“Who pushed her?”
“Uh... Since you are a married person, your younger brother does not have the right to represent you? Since your husband is not here, you have to answer yourself? Are you even acknowledging that I am a married person? 3, 2, 1...”
“What? You say I have the power of attorney? Then I will admit it on her behalf, Isabella de Contarini pushed!”
“Since the other person is awake, the husband has no right to speak? Come back and discuss with your wife? 0... Ding!”
“Ugh!”
The Viscount of Elba had also run out after Count Bartolini, so no one in the courtroom could represent the Bartolini family. It was a mess.
Amid this chaos, Isabella wiped her tears on her handkerchief. She looked down at the fainted Clemente. The crisp, dry handkerchief felt so soft and pleasant. She had no one to talk to, but she muttered to herself.
“I’m so glad that my name has been cleared at least like this...!”
Clear everything perfectly, including the Marquis of Campa's work and Clemente's.
Isabella's monologue, excluding the afterword, was heard only by Leo III, who was also in a high place. After a moment of reflection, the King called Duchess Rubina, who was busy trying to appease Countess Pinatelli in the lower auditorium.
“Hey, sister!”
“How could Count Pinatelli do something like that?”
“Hey sister!!”
Duchess Rubina looked up at Leo III, high on the dais, holding the hand of Countess Pinatelli, who was furious at her husband for wanting to know why Clemente had a heart-shaped birthmark on his buttocks.
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“You have to answer quickly!”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, it’s too noisy in here.”
“You did it too?!”
“No, that’s not it...”
“Take her away!”
"Yes?"
“I just heard, I heard someone else did it.”
“That makes no sense!”
“I laughed because it was funny. You know I always turn off the lights, right? There’s no way I saw that myself...”
“Who do you want me to take with you?”
“This guy, this guy!”
Leo III pointed to Isabella, who was wiping away tears on the left dais.
“With the house in such a state, there’s no place for her to go. The master will take her as a maid and keep her for the time being!”
“Wait a minute, so you’re saying you turned on the lights and had sex with that bitch?!”
Duchess Rubina's expression changed to that of Countess Pinatelli.
“What did you say?”
However, Leo III was a villain who could not even compare to Count Pinatelli, who even tried to explain himself to his wife.
“Doesn’t my sister have any sympathy?”
He lost his temper.
“Don’t you feel sorry for the young woman?!”
Isabella glanced between Leo III and Duchess Rubina through her handkerchief.
“Oh! My wicked sister-in-law is harassing me, and my husband, who is not even a man, is ignoring me! Oh! I barely managed to rely on the King to save me with my bare body! You are throwing that poor girl out because she is annoying? Do you have any intention of becoming the Mother of the nation?!”
Rubina bit her lip desperately.
'Mother of the nation? You have no intention of making me Queen, do you!'
There was a lot she wanted to say, but she couldn't.
'Who do you think you are selling drugs to?'
The feeling of injustice only piled up. However, Leo III took advantage of the Duchess’s silence to hurl all sorts of accusations at the Duchess Rubina. Isabella laughed heartily behind her handkerchief.
'Yes.'
Leo III was not a psychopath who enjoyed tormenting others without gaining anything in return. His decision to leave Isabella in the care of Duchess Rubina was purely a strategic one.
Isabella can never return to the Bartolini or Contarini families. Count Bartolini would shudder at anything to do with the Contarini family. Having done this to his sister, she is done with her husband. And for now, the Contarini family has no home in the capital.
However, Isabella was not very keen on sending her back to her parents' home. Her father, the former Cardinal de Mare, was planning to retire to the countryside, and if Isabella were sent there, there was a high possibility that she would never be able to see him again.
Isabella's sister, Countess Ariadne, head of the House of de Mare, had a stronghold in the capital, but sending Isabella to her sister would have meant putting Isabella within the sphere of influence of her son, Alfonso.
'That won't do!'
Leo III shuddered with instinctive disgust. As the saying goes, a pig only sees a pig, and he felt that Alfonso could not possibly leave the exquisite beauty Isabella alone.
So he decided to sacrifice the well-being of Rubina, with whom he had lived for nearly thirty years, to relieve his own imaginary anxiety. It was a long thought, but in terms of time, it was a thought that crossed his mind in less than three seconds.
After Leo III had decided that Isabella's residence would be that of the Duchess Rubina, he asked Isabella,
“Don’t you have anything to bring? Jewelry, clothes, or even a maid from your parents’ house.”
Isabella shook her head with a blank expression.
“No, Your Majesty. Since my mother passed away, you are the first person who has treated me this well.”
She looked at the distant mountains for a moment and then opened her mouth.
“...There is nothing of mine in the Contarini household, so I have nothing to bring.”
All she had left in the Contarini family was Agosto. And she never wanted to see Agosto again. He was the man who knew her most humiliating moments. If she had to kill him, she would have killed him, and she would never let him near her.
Giovanna had truly forgotten. Leo III was not a thoughtful man to remind the woman he had taken from him of such a thing.
“Oh my. Then you probably don’t have any necessities or clothes. Hey, sister!”
The King's great advantage lay in his meticulous attention to detail. Leo III called out loudly to Duchess Rubina.
“Come and give Countess Contarini the necessities of life, winter clothes for this season, and others!”
Although he was not very thoughtful, he was much more prudent and twice as fastidious as Cardinal de Mare, who had left Ariadne alone after he had brought her from the farm, expecting Lucrezia to take care of her herself.
“Now that this girl is your chief maid, what she wears is your face! You have to be nice and not look bad in front of foreign guests!”
Avoiding Leo III's gaze, Duchess Rubina glared at Isabella with her sparkling, aquamarine eyes.
'Who would have thought that such a thing were my chief maid?'
At that moment, Sir Delpiano came to see Leo III, saying that he had something that required the King's approval, and Leo III left the room with his aide. It was the perfect situation for the Duchess to harm Isabella. However, Isabella smiled calmly and asked.
“Madam, you don’t like me?”
The palace law that a subordinate cannot speak to a superior first is just plain bullshit.
“What, what, what?!”
Isabella answered cutely to the Duchess, who was about to swear.
“I will do better in the future. Please look upon me kindly.”
Knock knock!
The curtains in Duchess Rubina's inner chamber were drawn aside. Leo III rushed in as soon as he heard Rubina's voice sounding unusual.
“What are you talking about now?”
Isabella answered with a cute smile.
“Huh? Nothing happened?”
She hung on to Duchess Rubina, linking arms with her. Isabella, who was short, was hanging next to Rubina, who was tall and slender. While Rubina was freaking out as if there were bugs on her clothes, Isabella blinked and said,
“I was just thanking the Duchess for taking me in.”
Rubina couldn't bring herself to push Isabella away in front of the King. Leo III nodded with an expression that said Isabella was too pretty to pass up.
“Yes, get along well.”
“Yeah.”
“Be nice to Rubina.”
"Yes!"
The King turned and left the room again. Isabella winked at Rubina. Just as Rubina was about to raise her hand and make a squeak, she called out to the King loudly.
“Excuse me, Your Majesty!”
Isabella followed Leo III with a brisk pace without looking back. Rubina, who was left alone, muttered in despair.
“...That crazy bitch.”
The Count of Elba, a lawyer employed by the Bartolini family, shouted.
“Do you have any evidence?!”
Clemente wanted to shut the mouth of the Viscount of Elba. He was such an ignorant bookworm! As expected, the Marquis of Campa snickered and said,
“No, it’s not like I’m the type to write love letters.”
He rubbed his hands dirty and said sinisterly.
“There’s a heart-shaped milk spot on that girl’s butt.”
The audience was shocked. You could hear them gasping for breath. The ladies, in particular, were shocked to the point of dizziness.
“How do you check that?”
“Shame on you! Shame on you!”
“If it’s not true, then what are you doing?”
It was a sorry and embarrassing situation to even bring up the subject of checking. If Clemente's buttocks were cracked, and there were no heart-shaped milk spots, there would be no reason to stop Count Bartolini from beating the Marquis of Campa to the brink of death with his cane. But our Leo III did not yield.
“Oh? Then, should I do a physical evaluation?”
He looked around without hesitation.
“I should bring a maid to the inn...”
“Your Majesty, you don’t have to do that.”
Sir Delpiano, who was standing behind the King, whispered quietly.
“What the Marquis of Campa said is true.”
“How could you know that...!”
Leo III, who realized something in the middle of talking, looked at Sir Delpiano with wide eyes. Sir Delpiano simply nodded with a blushing face.
Leo III looked around the room. There were many men in the audience who were quietly nodding their heads. Ten? It was more than thirty, closer to fifty. Considering that many people were not present and those who came with their wives were pretending not to know, it was an absurd number.
“You too... You too... You too?”
Leo III opened his mouth wide.
“No, everyone was having so much fun except me?!”
The face of Count Bartolini was a sight to behold. He turned blue, then white, then red. His old cheeks trembled in all the changes. Count Bartolini sprang up from his seat without saying a word.
“...!”
Clemente, who saw her husband's reaction, belatedly fainted. It was after missing the timing to collapse by a long time. Count Bartolini walked out of the courtroom with a thumping sound without looking back. It was a footstep of anger, even with the cane.
“Hey, sister! Sister!”
Clemente, who had fainted for real, did not fall gracefully from the high platform, but rather slid down while leaning against the chair. Only Ottavio ran frantically to support his sister.
The Marquis of Campa asked, still grinning.
“I came all the way here today to testify, but what do I have? A hat or something...”
Leo III looked down at the Marquis of Campa with disdainful eyes. The Marquis of Campa asked undeterred.
“...Even gold coins?”
“Put that away.”
The guards rushed forward at Leo III's signal, seized the Marquis of Campa by his limbs, and dragged him away. The Marquis of Campa cried out.
“No, if you take people’s time, shouldn’t there be compensation? At least lift the ban on entering the palace!”
The further he was dragged down the hallway, the quieter his voice became.
“I came in today, so the ban on entry has been lifted, right? It has been lifted, right?!”
After that echo, the panicked voice of a palace official echoed through the palace court.
“Well, then, is this something that Countess Bartolini has admitted to? Count Bartolini is gone... Countess? Countess? You must answer.”
Ottavio answered roughly.
“Who pushed her?”
“Uh... Since you are a married person, your younger brother does not have the right to represent you? Since your husband is not here, you have to answer yourself? Are you even acknowledging that I am a married person? 3, 2, 1...”
“What? You say I have the power of attorney? Then I will admit it on her behalf, Isabella de Contarini pushed!”
“Since the other person is awake, the husband has no right to speak? Come back and discuss with your wife? 0... Ding!”
“Ugh!”
The Viscount of Elba had also run out after Count Bartolini, so no one in the courtroom could represent the Bartolini family. It was a mess.
Amid this chaos, Isabella wiped her tears on her handkerchief. She looked down at the fainted Clemente. The crisp, dry handkerchief felt so soft and pleasant. She had no one to talk to, but she muttered to herself.
“I’m so glad that my name has been cleared at least like this...!”
Clear everything perfectly, including the Marquis of Campa's work and Clemente's.
Isabella's monologue, excluding the afterword, was heard only by Leo III, who was also in a high place. After a moment of reflection, the King called Duchess Rubina, who was busy trying to appease Countess Pinatelli in the lower auditorium.
“Hey, sister!”
“How could Count Pinatelli do something like that?”
“Hey sister!!”
Duchess Rubina looked up at Leo III, high on the dais, holding the hand of Countess Pinatelli, who was furious at her husband for wanting to know why Clemente had a heart-shaped birthmark on his buttocks.
“Yes, Your Majesty?”
“You have to answer quickly!”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, it’s too noisy in here.”
“You did it too?!”
“No, that’s not it...”
“Take her away!”
"Yes?"
“I just heard, I heard someone else did it.”
“That makes no sense!”
“I laughed because it was funny. You know I always turn off the lights, right? There’s no way I saw that myself...”
“Who do you want me to take with you?”
“This guy, this guy!”
Leo III pointed to Isabella, who was wiping away tears on the left dais.
“With the house in such a state, there’s no place for her to go. The master will take her as a maid and keep her for the time being!”
“Wait a minute, so you’re saying you turned on the lights and had sex with that bitch?!”
Duchess Rubina's expression changed to that of Countess Pinatelli.
“What did you say?”
However, Leo III was a villain who could not even compare to Count Pinatelli, who even tried to explain himself to his wife.
“Doesn’t my sister have any sympathy?”
He lost his temper.
“Don’t you feel sorry for the young woman?!”
Isabella glanced between Leo III and Duchess Rubina through her handkerchief.
“Oh! My wicked sister-in-law is harassing me, and my husband, who is not even a man, is ignoring me! Oh! I barely managed to rely on the King to save me with my bare body! You are throwing that poor girl out because she is annoying? Do you have any intention of becoming the Mother of the nation?!”
Rubina bit her lip desperately.
'Mother of the nation? You have no intention of making me Queen, do you!'
There was a lot she wanted to say, but she couldn't.
'Who do you think you are selling drugs to?'
The feeling of injustice only piled up. However, Leo III took advantage of the Duchess’s silence to hurl all sorts of accusations at the Duchess Rubina. Isabella laughed heartily behind her handkerchief.
'Yes.'
***
Leo III was not a psychopath who enjoyed tormenting others without gaining anything in return. His decision to leave Isabella in the care of Duchess Rubina was purely a strategic one.
Isabella can never return to the Bartolini or Contarini families. Count Bartolini would shudder at anything to do with the Contarini family. Having done this to his sister, she is done with her husband. And for now, the Contarini family has no home in the capital.
However, Isabella was not very keen on sending her back to her parents' home. Her father, the former Cardinal de Mare, was planning to retire to the countryside, and if Isabella were sent there, there was a high possibility that she would never be able to see him again.
Isabella's sister, Countess Ariadne, head of the House of de Mare, had a stronghold in the capital, but sending Isabella to her sister would have meant putting Isabella within the sphere of influence of her son, Alfonso.
'That won't do!'
Leo III shuddered with instinctive disgust. As the saying goes, a pig only sees a pig, and he felt that Alfonso could not possibly leave the exquisite beauty Isabella alone.
So he decided to sacrifice the well-being of Rubina, with whom he had lived for nearly thirty years, to relieve his own imaginary anxiety. It was a long thought, but in terms of time, it was a thought that crossed his mind in less than three seconds.
After Leo III had decided that Isabella's residence would be that of the Duchess Rubina, he asked Isabella,
“Don’t you have anything to bring? Jewelry, clothes, or even a maid from your parents’ house.”
Isabella shook her head with a blank expression.
“No, Your Majesty. Since my mother passed away, you are the first person who has treated me this well.”
She looked at the distant mountains for a moment and then opened her mouth.
“...There is nothing of mine in the Contarini household, so I have nothing to bring.”
All she had left in the Contarini family was Agosto. And she never wanted to see Agosto again. He was the man who knew her most humiliating moments. If she had to kill him, she would have killed him, and she would never let him near her.
Giovanna had truly forgotten. Leo III was not a thoughtful man to remind the woman he had taken from him of such a thing.
“Oh my. Then you probably don’t have any necessities or clothes. Hey, sister!”
The King's great advantage lay in his meticulous attention to detail. Leo III called out loudly to Duchess Rubina.
“Come and give Countess Contarini the necessities of life, winter clothes for this season, and others!”
Although he was not very thoughtful, he was much more prudent and twice as fastidious as Cardinal de Mare, who had left Ariadne alone after he had brought her from the farm, expecting Lucrezia to take care of her herself.
“Now that this girl is your chief maid, what she wears is your face! You have to be nice and not look bad in front of foreign guests!”
Avoiding Leo III's gaze, Duchess Rubina glared at Isabella with her sparkling, aquamarine eyes.
'Who would have thought that such a thing were my chief maid?'
At that moment, Sir Delpiano came to see Leo III, saying that he had something that required the King's approval, and Leo III left the room with his aide. It was the perfect situation for the Duchess to harm Isabella. However, Isabella smiled calmly and asked.
“Madam, you don’t like me?”
The palace law that a subordinate cannot speak to a superior first is just plain bullshit.
“What, what, what?!”
Isabella answered cutely to the Duchess, who was about to swear.
“I will do better in the future. Please look upon me kindly.”
Knock knock!
The curtains in Duchess Rubina's inner chamber were drawn aside. Leo III rushed in as soon as he heard Rubina's voice sounding unusual.
“What are you talking about now?”
Isabella answered with a cute smile.
“Huh? Nothing happened?”
She hung on to Duchess Rubina, linking arms with her. Isabella, who was short, was hanging next to Rubina, who was tall and slender. While Rubina was freaking out as if there were bugs on her clothes, Isabella blinked and said,
“I was just thanking the Duchess for taking me in.”
Rubina couldn't bring herself to push Isabella away in front of the King. Leo III nodded with an expression that said Isabella was too pretty to pass up.
“Yes, get along well.”
“Yeah.”
“Be nice to Rubina.”
"Yes!"
The King turned and left the room again. Isabella winked at Rubina. Just as Rubina was about to raise her hand and make a squeak, she called out to the King loudly.
“Excuse me, Your Majesty!”
Isabella followed Leo III with a brisk pace without looking back. Rubina, who was left alone, muttered in despair.
“...That crazy bitch.”
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