"Paula was sent to prison."
After receiving a short telegramSasha rushed into the main entrance of the Metropolitan Police Department.
'What the hell are you talking about? I found the ring, but why did you take the child?'
Sasha's purpose in reporting to the Metropolitan Police was to get money from Paula, but Sasha thought it wouldn't be a bad idea for Paula to bow back to her.
When she asked, she found that the cost of hiring a maid was much more expensive than Sasha had thought. In particular, a maid with a long career in an aristocratic family like Paula was expensive, so even if she sold blue diamonds, she couldn't make a fortune for the rest of her life.
Moreover, when Paula disappeared, Sasha had no one left. Being completely alone and having no one to wait for her was unbearably lonely. Sasha belatedly admitted that Paula, who had been visiting her every once in a while, had given her more comfort than she expected, so she revised her assessment of Paula.
From a very useless and ungrateful person to one who can forgive Blue Diamond if she reflects on her own mistakes.
So Sasha planned to reconcile with Paula when she returned from a scolding at the Metropolitan Police Department.
"Do you realize what you did wrong now? Have you reflected enough?"
With appropriate admonition.
But how did such a telegram come to her?
"Prison? Why is my daughter going to prison?"
After such a scuffle at the entrance of the government building, Sasha was able to obtain a record of the incident from the Metropolitan Police Department.
While reading the records, she found out the truth.
'Arson incident.'
Paula's affidavit stated that she had set fire to the Count's laboratory "for her mother's sake". With that bold and curious statement, her affection for Paula seemed to be revived like a small ember.
"Have you read the affidavit? When you've finished reading it, please return the record as soon as possible."
"How can you talk so casually? Is that all you have to say to the poor mother who lost her daughter?"
"Huh. Even if you do her a favor, she will give it back like a piece of cake. Get these bills first."
Sasha, who had been sentimental while reading the affidavit, looked up at the sound of the bill. Then the policeman put a piece of paper in Sasha's hand.
"What bill?"
"This is the cost you have to pay to the Count. The punishment is the punishment, and the price of burning the institute must be repaid. And this... It is the cost of mobilizing the police force of the Metropolitan Police Department."
The Metropolitan Police Department in Barceha was not free. When a criminal was innocent, the imperial family was willing to pay the price, but when he was convicted, he was charged all the costs of the trial, Investigation, and prison maintenance.
If the criminal could not repay the entire cost, the family had to pay it together.
Sasha's face changed when she realized this.
'Is there such an embarrassment? Damn! I shouldn't have identified her as my daughter.'
Sasha stared at the endless zeros. It was a long way for Sasha to repay it.
"Your daughter committed the fire and dragged on for two years, so there was a lot of mobilization of the Metropolitan Police Department. You will also be charged the cost of putting out the fire. Your property will be confiscated sometime this week, so please be aware."
Knowing that there was no such thing as tolerance for criminals' debts in Barceha, Sasha had no choice but to ask.
"Is there any way to cut this?"
It was an amount that would crush her to death.
"There is no other way than to negotiate the compensation directly with the victims. Since the current Count is dead, his daughter probably has the right to decide... Go find them and ask them to shorten them. Isn't that daughter my daughter anyway?"
Sasha laughed uncontrollably. How could that really reduce the debt? Sasha's life was completely over.
She'll be paying off her debts forever. paying off that huge amount of money.
Sasha seemed to understand. Paula, who had been yelling at her that she would no longer treat her as a mother, asked why she wrote "for my mother" in the Metropolitan Police Department's statement. It was to share the debt somehow. If she doesn't even have a family, she will have to take on all the debts on Paula alone.
'It's a terrible thing to fall into hell. I'd rather be comfortable in prison.'
Sasha's laughter grew louder and louder. Heh, heh, heh, heh. Seeing Sasha laughing with a bizarre laughter, the employees of the government office who were eavesdropping on Sasha's story winked at each other.
"Are you the Count again? Albrecht is also very loud, noisy."
"I mean. By the way, why is the Count again?"
"Didn't you know? He died last week, but he was treated as a dead man of illness at that time. But just before the funeral, the maid of the mansion accused her master of murder. Why were you so noisy before? Count Invisibility! I think the government suffocated the Count with a pillow."
"It's amazing. Really."
Sasha laughed in disbelief and couldn't hear the embarrassing words.
Her life, which had been shrouded in mud, fell into an abyss from which she could never be saved. Just imagining what she would do and what she would go through to repay that debt made her feel nauseous, and Sasha just laughed.
As if she could escape from that fate.
***
Mrs. Becker was accused. To the maid who trusted and cherished her more than anyone else, Maleah.
Maleah stated that she had personally seen Mrs. Becker murder the Count. The Count's room could see the corridor of the annex, and Maleah, who happened to be in the corridor of the annex, happened to see the murder scene through the window.
In addition, Maleah told the Metropolitan Police Department what Mrs. Becker had told her in secret. She said many times that she wanted Ulrich to die soon and that her son would become a Count.
For Mrs. Becker, it was a crazy and, jumping up and down. Because Maleah's statement could not be true.
No servant was allowed to enter the annex that day without Mrs. Becker's permission. She had purposely double-locked the entrance, and she had kept the key in her hand all day.
As she had planned to murder the Count in the first place, she even carefully drew the curtains in the Count's room in case he could be seen from the other side. Therefore, it could not be established that Maleah had witnessed the scene in the annex.
"Maleah, where are you lying? How could you tell such a red lie!"
But her description was so realistic that it was Impossible to see the murder firsthand.
Of course, this was possible because of the oracle that the World Tree showed to Odette, but Mrs. Becker had no way of knowing.
Based on Maleah's accusation, an autopsy was performed, which is rare for a nobleman's death, and the autopsy doctor concluded that Maleah's statement was true.
Mrs. Becker was also taken to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Mrs. Becker also had a good motive for the killing. The day she murdered the Count was not long before the Emperor officially announced a law that would allow women to succeed to the title.
"The government that murdered the Count to transfer the title to her son."
There have already been several cases in which governments in a similar situation to Mrs. Becker have attempted to usurp titles similarly. So the Metropolitan Police Department, like the autopsy doctor, was sure to arrive at the truth that Mrs. Becker was the culprit.
If that happens, Maximilian will be completely deprived of the right to succeed to the title.
It was stipulated that those who killed or injured a nobleman to deprive him of his title would be deprived of the right of succession. The sit-in system was naturally applied to that crime.
Since Maximilian was a child under the age of five, he would only be deprived of the right of succession, but he would still have the right to claim some of the family's property, but even that didn't mean much.
Albrecht's family already had no official property left. It has long since been turned into Odette's personal property.
Death of the Count. The arrest of the next Countess. Deprivation of the succession rights of the successor and temporary entrustment to a relative.
The maids and servants who remained were confused. It was Rize who wrote them letters of recommendation, along with a small severance pay, and made them all leave.
Rize was just a maid, but now all the high-class servants have disappeared, and even the masters have been ruined. This was because Rize, the longest-serving maid in the Count's residence, had the right to do so.
***
Late at night, inside the carriage with the Kleist's emblem.
'Mrs. Becker was good at getting the Count killed.'
Odette, who thought about the Count in the oracle again, laughed lightly. If she had killed him with her own hands, she would not have seen the Count's lonely expression.
No matter how much he was a Count, when he was so vulnerable, he would rely on the people who were close to him. It must have been bitter to learn Sasha and Paula's secret, so he must have given his heart to Mrs. Becker, at least for that moment.
The Count trusted Mrs. Becker at that moment. He felt grateful that she was the only one left.
At that moment, Odette wanted to let him die at the hands of Mrs. Becker. She wanted to let the only believer feel what it feels like to be killed at the moment when they believe the most. Only then will you know what the pain of abandonment is like. What it feels like to be betrayed by the person who held on to you like the last rope.
At the last moment, with his nose and mouth buried in the pillow, the Count died. Since Odette, the next generation of the family, had no intention of recovering his body after the autopsy, he was going to be miserable forever.
He will not be buried in Albrecht's grave, nor will he be remembered by people as Count Albrecht.
Because she will reveal that it was he who killed the previous Count Albrecht and his wife. Because it would wipe out the names of Ulrich and his family from the Albrecht family genealogy.
No honor or halo will remain in his life. Only the stigma of being a murderer and the ridicule towards him will remain forever in this world.
At that moment, the sound of horses' hooves gradually died down. It seemed that she had arrived at the Count's residence.
Odette, seeing the majestic Count's mansion through the window of the carriage, let out a short sigh.
'It was late at night, so I thought it would be quiet.'
Through the windows of the Count's mansion, which she thought would be dark, an unexpectedly warm light was leaking out.
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