Chapter 22
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It swayed back and forth with a creak, hanging from the ceiling by a long rope.
It wasn't a chandelier, for it lacked even a glimmer of light, and there was nothing else that could possibly be hanging from the ceiling.
“……Uh…….”
I stood frozen for a long time, unable to grasp the identity of the thing that looked like a silkworm cocoon or perhaps bait dangling from a fishing line.
It took time for the situation to sink in.
A pungent, stinging odor pierced my nose.
Something was dripping onto the floor, and the swaying object, unable to withstand the vibration, began to rotate slowly.
“Ah.”
I had come face-to-face with ‘it.’
My entire body turned to ice.
I had no idea what that was.
The long, protruding tongue looked like something out of a nightmare, a horrific monster.
The most terrifying part was.
“Ah……!”
The fact that the monster was wearing my mother’s dress.
“Aaaaaah!”
“My Lady? Why are you suddenly……. Gasp!”
“Kyaaaaaa!”
Someone let out a sharp scream.
I clawed at my hair.
The tiara, tangled between my braids, fell to the floor with a clear, ringing sound.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
The monster was wearing my mother’s dress, had hair the same color as my mother’s, and eyes of the same color…….
No.
Those were not my mother’s sparkling, jewel-like eyes.
Those dull, lifeless, blood-stained eyes were…….
“No, no, no, no!”
“Take the Lady away! Don’t let her see!”
“Mother!”
“Sister……. Why on earth are you screaming…… huh?”
“Take down the Grand Duchess’s body, quickly!”
My younger brother, who must have been sleeping in the room right next door, also stood beside me, frozen.
Servants and maids came rushing in.
I felt someone grab my arm.
Someone else covered my eyes with their palm.
“Nooooooo!”
I shouted as if struggling for my life and shoved the hand away.
And then I saw it.
“Idir!”
My father, screaming while clutching the feet of my mother, who hung from the ceiling.
The despair of my father, desperately trying to lift her body by standing on his tiptoes.
From that day on, the Grand Duchy Castle changed.
The castle, which had been filled with laughter and bathed in warm sunlight through its wide windows, was swallowed by silence.
My father’s smile vanished, and my younger brother lost his voice.
The people who had once smiled and congratulated me now looked at me with pity, offering sympathy and consolation.
‘No.’
This is not my Grand Duchy.
This is not my country.
This is not what I loved.
‘I have to set it right.’
How do I set it right?
What must I do…….
‘Find the culprit.’
If I make them pay a price worthy of their crime, wouldn’t that be enough?
Then…….
“My Lady. The Grand Duke is looking for you.”
Just then, my father called me to the grand council.
I attended the meeting in neat attire, and the ministers who helped my father manage state affairs yielded the seat right next to the head of the table to me.
“I have a grave matter to announce.”
I naturally believed my father would say he had found the culprit.
“Idir Hubert. The search for the culprit who murdered the Grand Duchess…….”
However.
“Denied.”
My father did not do so.
I couldn’t believe it.
It felt as if I had been betrayed.
“W, why?”
I asked, looking down at the crown of my father’s head as he sat with his head bowed and fists clenched.
“What is the reason?”
“The cause of the Grand Duchess’s death has been announced as a sudden heart attack. The state funeral will be held starting tomorrow.”
“That’s not true!”
I lashed out.
“Mother was murdered! Someone murdered Mother!”
That day.
A banquet was held at the Grand Duchy Castle.
Diplomats from various countries and high-ranking nobles participated, drinking, dancing, and sharing many stories.
“We must find the culprit! We must find them and punish them!”
“Idir!”
*Bang!*
My father slammed his hand onto the desk, berating me.
Even though I had done nothing wrong.
“Shut your mouth! Do you have the right to question a decision I have made!”
“I……. I……!”
“The Grand Duchess died of illness. So, the Lady shall focus on preparing for her mother’s final journey!”
“But I am the Lady of the house!”
My mother. My country. My beloved…….
“I’m trying to find the person who murdered my mother, so why! Why are you scolding me, why!”
My inescapable prison.
My comfortable hell.
My father had to cover up my mother’s death, and consumed by that guilt, he eventually fled.
“F, Father…….”
“Idir.”
That day.
Wearing the very smile he had promised me back then.
“The day this country reaches 100 years of history, I will hand this position over to you.”
Repeating a promise that could have been kept later.
He locked himself in the time when Mother was still alive.
I think he was regretting it.
Would something have changed if he had found the culprit back then?
If he had drunk a little less that day.
If he hadn’t been up on the spire watching the stars with me alone.
If he had been with Mother instead.
If that were the case, could we still be happy?
Regretting, ruminating on the past, and blaming himself, he eventually decided to run away.
To the final moment of happiness.
My brother, who saw our father trapped in time, also locked himself in his room.
—That day. I was sleeping in the next room while Mother was being murdered.
He had lost his voice, leaving behind only a few words written on paper.
—If I hadn’t been asleep, would Mother still be alive?
I’m sorry, Sister.
My brother locked himself in a room filled with nothing but horrific memories and began his penance.
I don’t know if that was their way of swallowing their grief or what.
I was left behind, and I had to protect what remained for me.
“M, My Lady.”
“It’s fine, please sit.”
I entered the meeting hall with a smile and headed to the head of the table.
“I trust you are all aware of the situation.”
“My Lady. Are you alright?”
“Yes. I am fine.”
I reassured them with a picture-perfect smile.
“As I may still be lacking, I desperately need your help.”
I smiled with my eyes crinkled, begging for their hearts.
“Starting today, I will take over as Regent of the Grand Duchy of Plene.”
Idir Hubert.
The successor to the Grand Duchy of Plene.
The flower of Plene. The jewel. The noblest woman in the Grand Duchy.
The Shrimp Princess of the Shrimp Country.
Standing before all those praises and insults, I simply smiled.
You may chatter all you want.
I will simply remain aloof.
And in the distant future. When I have attained sufficient power.
I will punish you all with my own hands for mocking me.
This place is my precious hell.
It is my karma.
* * *
I had been glaring at the documents the entire time.
My eyes were dry from how intensely I had been staring at them.
Yet, the pile of documents hadn’t decreased in the slightest.
It was because my concentration had waned.
To soothe my fatigue, I lightly rubbed my eyelids with both hands and approached the map hanging on the wall.
‘Of all things, to have that dream again.’
Whenever nightmares visited me irregularly, a fog seemed to settle in my mind, and I would inevitably dwell on that day endlessly.
‘There was someone who witnessed a shadow sneaking out of the castle that day.’
I had tracked down the owner of that shadow by following the witness’s testimony.
He had been living in hiding deep in the mountains, and before I could even press him, he trembled and spilled the whole truth.
“I, it seemed like a person of high status. They said that to remove an obstacle, one must strike the head first…….”
The man was a homeless person who survived by begging in the village.
One day, while wandering the streets as usual, two men with their faces covered had dragged him away.
He explained that both of them wore high-quality clothing and spoke like nobles.
“I, I was scared at the time…….”
At first, he was afraid, and then he was tempted by the reward.
In the end, the homeless man took the money and, following their instructions, infiltrated the castle.
He had hidden himself by taking advantage of the many outside merchants coming and going for the Independence Day banquet.
And though he waited with bated breath, he ultimately could not carry out the plan.
“I, it was definitely poison. But, how……. How could I, who live with both feet planted in this country, feed poison to the master of this country!”
Driven by a faint conscience that he couldn’t bring himself to harm a member of the Grand Ducal family, and fear of the consequences, the homeless man had fled.
‘The culprit must have realized it then, since there was no commotion.’
So, they left the banquet hall and murdered the Grand Duchess themselves.
……This was the conclusion I had reached, having failed to arrive at any real truth.
The culprit had attended the banquet that day.
I believed at least this much was certain.
‘I have the list of all the nobles who were invited at the time, but there are too many variables to check them one by one.’
Moreover, most of them were nobles from other countries, so I couldn’t just lay a hand on them recklessly.
Time dragged on sluggishly, and I felt my patience reaching its limit.
It was around that time that I obtained the magic circle to summon a demon.
‘Come to think of it, I only attended the auction because of Joaquin Perez, didn’t I?’
This bastard is mentioned in every single problem.
Tsk.
I clicked my tongue irritably and stabbed a pin into the map.
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