IWAP - Chapter 6

The Marchioness's body was also scheduled to be cremated in accordance with funeral procedures and interred in the Elliott family's mausoleum.

The cremation was carried out after everyone had left, with only the deceased's immediate family remaining. People could only see the body until it was cremated.

The coffin containing the Marchioness's body was revealed before the people. The coffin holding the body was carried by the deceased's family.

Alternatively, it was customary for it to be carried by acquaintances. The coffin, wrapped in black velvet, was carried before the people by the father of the Marquis and the Marchioness, as well as the family's knights.

According to procedure, the lid of the coffin is opened to reveal the deceased's appearance to the public. Upon seeing the revealed image, people bid their final farewell and pray for blessings for the afterlife.

Here, the afterlife is not the world of rebirth described in Buddhism. The people here believed that when they died, they went to another world while retaining their current form exactly as it is.

I was convinced that the more beautiful the deceased's final moments were, the happier they would be in the afterlife. For that reason, the deceased's final appearance, as revealed, was generally elaborately styled.

They meticulously cleaned the deceased's body and applied makeup to the pale skin to restore the healthy complexion of their appearance during their lifetime. They dressed the deceased in the most extravagant clothes they owned, adorned them with jewelry, and did their utmost to make them look as close as possible to their living self. There were even people whose sole specialty was dressing up corpses.

The people gathered at the Marchioness's funeral waited for the Marquis to open the coffin lid. Usually, the person who reveals the deceased's final appearance was the husband, father, or son.

When the coffin lid is opened and the body is revealed, the final farewells begin with those closest to the deceased. They place a single yellow flower near the body and speak to it as if it were a living person. Only when everyone in the funeral home has finished saying their goodbyes does the funeral procedure, which is then revealed to the outside world, finally conclude.

Since the procession proceeds one by one, starting with those closest to the deceased, there were cases where the farewells alone lasted for several days.

'Among all these people, how many will truly mourn her death?'

I looked around at the people gathered at the funeral. There were some familiar faces, but there were far more I didn't know. Even the Marchioness probably didn't know half of the people here. There were so many people gathered that it sparked a needless curiosity. It seemed that even a few days wouldn't be enough for everyone here to say their goodbyes.

I was frowning at the schedule that seemed like it would drag on when I sensed a commotion among the people. Before I could even wonder, I knew the cause immediately.

"..."

The Marquis did not open the lid of the coffin containing the Marchioness's body, but placed a yellow flower directly on top of it. He stepped away from the coffin without saying a word.

There were no words of farewell. Nor was there a blessing from the Marchioness for the afterlife. He felt that he had fulfilled his duty with that.

He returned to his seat and stood upright.

"Ha."

It was a fact I already knew, but I couldn't help but sigh.

It was the exact same situation as back then. At that time, I cried and wailed, screaming in agony. It was not because of the grief of losing my mother. Having never experienced maternal love since birth, there was no way I could feel sadness. Rather, I think I felt a slight sense of relief.

At that time, I did not know the exact reason for the Marchioness's death. This was because the Marquis had ordered strict silence. Only a select few, including the Marquis, knew the precise cause of her death. Unable to understand the reason, I was angry at the Marquis for dishonoring the Marchioness by even violating funeral etiquette. I thought that the Marquis hated her so much that he would not even wish her happiness in the afterlife. At that time, I was under the strange delusion that the Marquis must have hated me just as much as he hated the Marchioness.

"It seems the rumors were true."

"As expected, the Marquis to his wife..."

The murmuring of the crowd grew louder. They could not understand the Marquis's attitude. Various speculative remarks ran rampant among the people. Among their speculations, there were some stories that sounded quite plausible, and others that were close to the truth.

They chattered about the story they had speculated on as if it were the truth. From mouth to mouth, several novels featuring the Duke and the Marchioness as protagonists have been written.

There were at least 100 people gathered at the funeral. No matter how quietly they spoke, their conversation was not entirely inaudible. No way would anything audible to me go unheard by the Marquis. Nevertheless, he silently held his ground. Such an attitude of the Marquis only further fueled the people's misunderstanding.

"Then, Lady Elliott is just as the rumors say..."

"Shh, they'll hear! Lower your voice."

Some people, having accepted their conjectures as established facts, looked at me with pity. Seeing the Marquis’s attitude of not even glancing at me throughout the funeral, they became even more convinced of their imagination. In their eyes, I was a poor child abandoned by the Marquis.

Back then, knowing nothing, I could not bear the Marquis's indifferent attitude, the whispering of the people, and their pitying gazes, so I stormed out of the funeral hall in a fit of rage. I paid no attention to the fact that I had to say my final goodbyes to the deceased as they departed for another world.

The Marquis did not stop me. Even if I were to storm out again now, he would not stop me like he did back then.

I saw the Marquis standing silently in the sunlight. Just as he had before, he was ignoring the whispers around him. Although the whispers included accusations against the Marquis, he did not move a muscle, as if he could not hear them.

It is rare for a body not to be displayed at a funeral. If there are exceptions, there are only about two cases. These exceptions occurred when the body was horribly mutilated beyond recognition or when the person died of an infectious disease. In cases where it was unavoidable to display the body, the attendees had to be informed in advance and asked for their understanding.

The Marquis did not even ask for such understanding from the people. No, from his standpoint, he probably could not have asked for understanding. In order to ask for understanding by informing them in advance that the body could not be revealed, he should have provided the exact reason why it could not be disclosed.

'There's no way he could reveal it.'

The Marchioness committed suicide.

While the ladies-in-waiting briefly looked away, she jumped from the window of her room. Her room was located on the third floor. It was the Marquis's mansion. It certainly couldn't be small. Even though it was the third floor, the ceilings on each level were quite high. She died instantly, before they could do anything to stop it.

Her head was shattered, and her limbs were all twisted. She had been incredibly unlucky. Her body was not intact. It was too severely mutilated to be shown to the public. The Marchioness's suicide would not only bring shame to the family but would also be fatal to her honor.

Suicide was a highly taboo subject in the Empire. People believed that those who committed suicide would only experience misfortune in the afterlife. No one offered a final farewell or blessings for the afterlife to those who died by suicide. In severe cases, a family member who had died by suicide was even treated as a potential criminal.

This was also the reason why I did not know the cause of the Marchioness's death. The Marquis's order to keep silent was absolute. None of the attendants told me the truth. I could not even have suspected the Marchioness's suicide until a long time later, when the nanny informed me.

The Marchioness's official cause of death was illness. She had spent quite a long time confined to the mansion and had engaged in no social activities in recent years. Her seclusion gave rise to many speculative rumors, ranging from claims that she was ill to rumors that she had died. There were even rumors that she had gone mad, but they did not receive much attention due to the sheer volume of speculative rumors surrounding her.

The Marquis took advantage of one of the rumors. He announced her death, stating that she, who had been unable to leave her home due to poor health, had finally passed away. Since the Marchioness had remained secluded for quite some time, people accepted the news without suspicion.

'The problem is...'

It was a funeral. If the body were revealed, her suicide could not be concealed. The Marquis handled the matter by not revealing the body, saying nothing of the sort.

He chose to be the subject of gossip rather than face public condemnation for the Marchioness's suicide. Even if someone knew about her suicide, they would not be able to speak of it openly. Unless there was concrete evidence, the cause of the Marchioness's death, which had already been ruled as natural causes, would never be revealed publicly. By not disclosing the body, the Marquis eliminated even the slightest possibility of such a revelation.

Exposing the Marchioness's shameful secret was tantamount to severing ties with the ducal family of Elliot. Unless one was prepared to become an enemy of the Marquis, one could not speak the truth. The Marchioness's true cause of death would remain hidden forever.

“Huh!”

"Oh!"

I slowly approached the coffin containing the Marchioness's body. The people who had been busy whispering fell silent at my action and watched me. Among them were those who looked at me with interest, and those who felt pity. Occasionally, I could feel gazes filled with an inexplicable malice.

For the first time today, the Marquis's gaze turned toward me. I smiled faintly at him. He remained expressionless. At times, he felt like a robot, not a human.

I placed the yellow rose I was holding on the velvet. The yellow rose stood out against the black velvet.

"..."

I did not bid her farewell or offer blessings for the afterlife, just as the Marquis had done. I bowed toward the coffin without a word. It was a simplified bow, with my left hand on my chest and my right hand grasping the hem of her skirt. However, instead of bending my knees, I bowed at the waist to show my respect to her.

Having finished my work, I went and stood beside the Marquis. His expression remained unchanged. However, standing close by, I could see his eyes wavering. His gaze, which had lingered on me for a moment, soon returned to its original state. Like him, I also stood rigidly and stared straight ahead.

The people were dead silent. They looked back and forth between the Marquis and me, not knowing what to do. Amidst them, unable to do anything, a person approached holding a yellow flower.

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