5. The Proper Attitude Towards the Tragedy of an Enemy

Episode 53

Despite falling asleep late, I strangely awoke early.

It was the early morning, with the chill of dawn still lingering, and I felt uneasy, perhaps due to fatigue.

I pulled the cord to summon a maid, but instead, I heard a familiar voice from beyond the door.

“Your Majesty, it’s Tito. May I come in?”

It was unusual for Tito to come to my room at this hour.

Moreover, his immediate response meant he had been waiting outside my door until I woke up.

I slipped my arms into my robe and rose from the bed as I spoke.

“Come in, Tito.”

The door opened, and Tito entered with a few maids, their expressions stiff as they bowed.

“Your Majesty, I apologize for disturbing you at this early hour.”

“It’s alright. But what’s the matter? Has something happened in the palace?”

“Well…”

Tito’s face was grim, and he struggled to find his words.

The elderly chamberlain, who had aged rapidly over the past few months, looked even more haggard today.

“Tito, what’s going on?”

At my urging, Tito took a deep breath and spoke.

“Last night, Marquis Senwood murdered the Marchioness and his son before taking his own life.”

“…What?”

“Duke Tilender and the guards are currently handling the situation. He will report to you shortly.”

“Wait, hold on. Tito, what are you saying? The Marquis of Senwood did what?”

Tito bowed his head, unable to repeat the news.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t heard him the first time—I simply couldn’t comprehend what he had said.

Marquis Senwood was known as a man utterly devoted to his wife, to the point where people called him Bonita’s puppet.

And now he had killed Bonita, even his son Henry, and then himself?

“Why on earth…?”

“We don’t know the full details yet, but it seems he believed the Marchioness was having an affair.”

Tito’s voice trembled as he answered.

He had always believed that Bonita couldn’t have murdered the Emperor. Having known her since childhood, he couldn’t let go of that final shred of faith, so this must have been a severe shock to him.

I was just as shocked. The weight of her crimes had already sealed her fate, but to die like this…

Lost for words, I ran my fingers through my hair, and then Lothania suddenly came to mind.

“What about Lottie? Does she know about this?”

“I believe she hasn’t woken up yet.”

“Don’t tell her. At least not right away.”

“I’ll make sure to keep everyone quiet.”

“Good. And… no, just bring Aiden to me as soon as he arrives.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

After Tito left to ensure the palace staff kept silent, I collapsed into a chair.

What in the world is happening? How could something like this occur?

It was all so sudden, and so terribly coincidental.

“Your Majesty, should I bring you some water?”

One of the maids asked cautiously, likely worried by how dazed I appeared.

The dawn was breaking outside the window.

The night had already passed, and I needed to collect myself to face the day ahead.

“Yes, please. And some water for washing, too.”

“Right away, Your Majesty.”

Aiden would soon arrive, and then I might understand what had happened.

After drinking a glass of cold water and quickly washing up, I dressed appropriately.

Not long after, Aiden, looking exhausted, came to see me.

* * *

It must have been around two in the morning.

Aiden was in the interrogation room of the Tilender annex, questioning the rat they had captured.

The testimony was flawless.

The rat detailed how Bonita had bribed a forest keeper to set traps on the Emperor’s path and then killed the forest keeper to silence him. He also described in detail how Bonita had contacted an assassin to target Sione.

Deputy Commander Eric, seething with betrayal, clenched his teeth, but Aiden grew increasingly suspicious.

The rat knew too much and in too much detail.

It was one thing for the rat to have been bribed by Bonita since last year, plotting to betray the Emperor and the White Shadow. But how could he know every detail of events he hadn’t been directly involved in?

When Aiden voiced his doubts, Eric tilted his head and said.

“Could it be because Bonita completely trusted him?”

“You mean he betrayed the organization he was part of and the one who bribed him?”

“When you put it that way, it does sound strange. But thanks to him, we uncovered all of the Marchioness of Senwood’s crimes, didn’t we?”

“That’s true. We now have proof of her involvement in both the Emperor’s murder and the attempted assassination of the Empress. Even as a direct descendant of Luminal, she won’t escape punishment for such grave crimes.”

Aiden responded with a furrowed brow.

While other evidence also pointed to Bonita, aside from the rat’s testimony, this lingering unease could only be resolved by a thorough investigation.

Just as he was about to rise, one of the shadows they had stationed at the Senwood estate rushed in, panic evident on his face.

“Commander!”

“What’s going on?”

“The Marquis… he killed the Marchioness and their son, and then took his own life!”

“What?”

Aiden and Eric both shot to their feet.

“What could have happened, Commander? The Marquis didn’t seem like someone who would do such a thing.”

Eric asked as he ran alongside Aiden.

“Deploy the guards and seal off the Senwood estate. Make sure no word of this leaks out until we’ve secured the situation.”

“Yes, sir!”

Eric quickly changed direction and sprinted off to carry out the orders.

Mounting his horse, Aiden raced through the dawn toward the Senwood estate, arriving at a scene of utter chaos.

The reports were accurate.

Around midnight, the Marquis and Marchioness had begun a rare argument, and the Marquis, usually submissive to his wife, had raised his voice in a fury.

He had accused his wife of infidelity, demanding to know whose bloodline Henry truly belonged to, before finally drawing his sword and heading to his son’s room.

The Marquis had swung his sword at the servants who tried to stop him, as well as at his wife and son.

After weeping hysterically over his wife’s body, he then stabbed himself.

Dozens of servants at the estate had witnessed the gruesome scene.

Aiden questioned the witnesses.

“Did they often argue about this?”

“No, sir. This was the first time.”

“Was it true that the Marchioness was having an affair?”

“Absolutely not! The Marchioness hadn’t even attended social gatherings since last year. If she had met someone, we would have known.”

One of Bonita’s maids answered through her tears.

The estate’s butler added that even if Bonita had been unfaithful, the Marquis was not the sort of man who would do such a thing, finding the whole situation suspicious.

The shadows who had infiltrated the estate also said the same thing.

They couldn’t make sense of what had happened either.

Aiden called the shadows aside and questioned them further.

“Who did the Marquis meet with today?”

“Some close nobles visited in the morning, but there were no visitors afterward. He skipped dinner and stayed in his study until he went to bed.”

“And then he suddenly started arguing with the Marchioness?”

“Yes, Commander. The first loud voices were heard around midnight from the Marquis’s chambers. After that, there were sounds of fighting and screams, and then the Marquis emerged with a sword.”

“What were they arguing about?”

“Exactly what the other servants reported: whose child Henry was and whether the Marchioness had deceived him all this time…”

Bonita had tried to calm him down, but it hadn’t worked, according to the aide’s account, prompting Aiden to ask again.

“Was the Marquis alone in the study the entire time?”

“Yes. He usually preferred to work alone, so no one else entered.”

“So you have no idea what might have happened in the study. Even if someone had visited secretly.”

The members of the White Shadow exchanged glances before lowering their heads.

It would have been nearly impossible for someone to sneak into the study without being seen by the estate’s knights or the shadows, but the possibility couldn’t be entirely ruled out.

They hadn’t been watching the Marquis constantly, after all.

Aiden clicked his tongue, looking down at his subordinates.

Then, when Eric arrived with the guards, Aiden gave him another order.

“Inform the palace’s chamberlain and put the Royal Guard on high alert.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And…”

Aiden paused for a moment, roughly running his fingers through his hair.

“Damn it, this is insane…”

He muttered a curse under his breath, then gave Eric another command.

“Seal off every noble’s estate. No one is to move until I report to Her Majesty. And make sure not a single rat leaves the Zernia Ducal estate.”

“Yes, Commander!”

As Eric responded with a booming voice and hurried off, Aiden let out a long sigh, staring at the ground.

When someone does something utterly unthinkable, there are only two possible reasons.

Either they’ve gone mad, or they’re being controlled.