I looked at Er’s desperate figure of trying to save Odelia for a moment and sighed briefly.
Fortunately, it didn’t look like they were hurt.
“Are you all right, Lia? Aren’t you surprised?”
When I asked in a friendly voice, Odelia glanced at me in surprise.
“Aren’t you mad?”
“No.”
Odelia’s eyes grew round when I replied with a smile.
Soon, tears filled up over the big, frizzly eyes.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Really, Really?”
“Mmhm.”
“Uh…Uh…woah…….”
Then Odelia burst into tears and ran to me before hugging me.
“Ugh, I’m sorry, Mommy…….”
“It’s all right. I’m glad you didn’t get hurt.”
I looked at her once more carefully for any injuries I hadn’t noticed.
“Lia didn’t make a fire on purpose…… By mistake… …there’s a lot of fire…….”
‘Did she really start a fire by mistake while playing fire-breathing squirrel?’
‘I should have told them to be careful from now on. But let’s soothe them first today.’
I stroked the child’s hair thinking so.
“Mom is happy that Lia and Er are not hurt.”
“It hurts a little, but Er blew it for me.”
Odelia said, sticking her fingers out.
“It hurt a little, but after Er blew it didn’t hurt anymore.”
“Woong-woong, Er blew! Er is a doctor!”
Erwin responded with a proud expression next to her.
I smiled lightly and patted Er’s head together, but I paused at the expression.
This was because his expression resembled Theodore’s expression, who looked proudly at me for sending Katarina to prison a while ago.
But I immediately erased the afterimage and smiled at Er.
“Did our Er protect Lia?”
“Er, you protected Lia!”
“Our Er is great.”
“Hehe.”
The atmosphere in the room brightened up before I knew it.
Erwin and Odieia, who had shaken off their melancholy energy, began to chatter next to me.
“Er blew and sang ‘Pain pain go away’. Like this….”
Lia mimicked Er and blew her breath on her fingers.
“Then, it sparkled and my pain went away. My fingers became all better!”
The childlike imagination was so cute that I clapped and pretended to admire it.
“Wow, that’s amazing!”
“Mom has to tell Er if Mom is hurt, too!”
“Yes, yes, Er. If I get sick, I’ll make sure to ask for Er’s help.”
Perhaps he was happy with the words, he grinned showing all his pearly white teeth.
The children’s chatter continued until the sun set, and although I think it was unfortunate that Laura announced the dinner time, we went for dinner.
＊ ＊ ＊
After an all-night interrogation, Katarina finally confessed.
“It, It was all done by Benjamin.”
Theodore looked down indifferently at Katarina, whose face was covered with tears and a runny nose.
“Benjamin threatened to kill me if I didn’t do that. So, so I had to…….”
“I know.”
Theodore cut off her persistent excuse.
“You and Benjamin Ferdinand had conspired and destroyed my memory.”
“No, it’s not a conspiracy, but he, he forced me to……”
“Ha ha!”
Suddenly a furious laugh burst into Theodore’s gums.
“Hahaha, hahahaha!”
Theodore, who roughly swept his face with one hand and burst into laughter like a madman, suddenly stopped laughing.
“He played such a prank by erasing my memory and separated me from Yves.”
Theodore lowered his hand slowly.
“You all did it.”
A fierce glare shone over his disheveled face.
He stayed up all night, but his mind was clearer and sharper than ever.
“Damn it. I will tear Ferdinand to death. I will kill all the Ferdinands. I’ll twist their necks to death. Those little things.”
The harsh words that were hard to describe popped out of his mouth one by one.
Theodore couldn’t believe he was actually subjected to black magic.
He wanted to destroy Ferdinand, it would not be enough for him just to chew and swallow them.
Kill, kill and kill them mercilessly. But even it wouldn’t offset the pain he had to feel.
It was natural.
Even if he kills them, Yves’s hurt past couldn’t be rewarded.
“You dare to harm the Emperor, so there should be enough justification.”
Benjamin Ferdinand, that sullen bastard.
He was well aware that the bastard’s eyes were suspicious when looking at Yves.
But he didn’t expect him(Benjamin) to hurt Yves and keep her away from him.
‘Come to think of it, Yves grew up isolated in Ferdinand. Maybe that’s…….’
Theodore has long thought it really doesn’t make sense. Benjamin is considered only a friend of such a pretty and lovely girl like Yves.
Even when she was a knight close to him at the palace, she was liked by her colleagues and courtiers.
Sometimes Theodore was jealous of the gaze toward her, but he was proud that such a lovely person was his lover.
‘He(Benjamin) stopped Yves from having another friend. If it was not, she would have others to rely on.’
He wanted to hurt her so that she could only rely on him?
‘Such a trashy guy really exists.’
Theodore trembled at his(Benjamin) way of gaining Yves’s love, which was much more terrible than he thought.
Although he was also an unrecyclable trash, who couldn’t say even a single good word to others, he felt like he was a very decent person compared to Benjamin.
‘I’ll let Yves know right away. That such a scum is her friend.….’
Didn’t Yves go to see the trash a day ago as a friend?
When it occurred to him that innocent Yves was being deceived by Benjamin, unbearable anger soared in him.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty.”
At that unusual moment, Katarina, who was terrified by the interrogation that continued throughout the night, begged while trembling non-stop.
“Please punish only Benjamin. He will kill, kill me. So please save…….”
Theodore looked at Katarina with contempt as if she were a trash.
“So the one who made me lose my memory was Benjamin Ferdinand, and you are not at fault?”
“Yes, yes, I am, I am falsely accused…….”
Katarina, who was kneeling on the floor, nodded her head violently and cried.
Theodore’s eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at her.
“You bullied Yves, posing as my fiance.”
“Well, that’s… Your Majesty, for the sake of the contract…….”
“Contact?”
Theodore burst out laughing at the absurd word.
“There was nothing written in the contract such as bullying Yves or having a child with you. They were actions done purely for your own benefit.”
His words drained the blood from Katarina’s face.
Of course, she used the status of his fiance to torment Yves, but it was cleverly done out of sight.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
Theodore looked down at her pale tired face and clicked his tongue. He didn’t feel pity for her, of course.
“And you even drove a wedge between me and Yves, didn’t you?”
“That, too, Benjamin…….”
“You said this to me, ‘Yves Lleywellyn is related to black black magic, so stay away from her’.”
The crystal ball sent by Katarina through Yves was black the moment he opened the wooden box.
He never imagined that he would have been under black magic, so he had no choice but to misunderstand Yves who was with him at that time.
But in fact, it was his idiotic memory that was tempered with black magic. And without knowing it, he fell for the subtle alienation of the serpent and further pushed Yves away.
“Well, that’s… It’s….”
Katarina’s teeth trembled and made a rattling sound.
There was no more excuse.
“And you hurt my Yves, scarring her pretty body.”
Grind.
A rough sound of grinding teeth was heard in the silent prison.
Katarina flinched back in fear.
“Your Majesty…… Your Majesty allowed me to do that, too.”
It was shameless to make excuses, Theodore knew it was not Katarina’s own fault.
“Yes, it was acquiesced by my bloody past who lost his memory.”
When Theodore admittedly said it, Katarina’s shoulders, which had shrunk, lost some tension.
But before she could feel relieved.
“But even before that, you’ve been bothering Yves for a very long time. Trusting the damn master document.”
Theodore’s voice, which then flowed out through the clenched teeth fiercely as if wanting to chew her to death.
“How can I…! Oh, no, I’m not…….”
Whoosh!
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”!
As soon as Katarina tried to make another excuse, there was an explosion and a sharp golden dagger brushed past her cheek.
The wall behind her, which was already worn out and difficult to recognize, collapsed in an instant.
“Are you afraid?”
“Ah, ah, uh, argh…….”
Katarina shook her head violently along with a trembling body.
“No, I’m sorry, Your Majesty. It’s my fault. It’s my fault.….”
Katarina kneeled in front of Theodore and touched the ground with her forehead as she kept repeating the same words. Theodore indifferently looked at her as if he were looking at a bug.
Theodore couldn’t believe that such a woman had so viciously tormented his Yves.
However, it was all his fault that she(Katarina) was able to bully Yves. So as his anger toward Katarina intensified, the hatred for himself also grew.
“Do you want to live?”
“S, save…”
“Then answer my question correctly.”
Of course, he never had any plans to let her live.
How could he let her live? She’s a gift for Yves after all.
However, Theodore was a person who could tell as many lies as he wanted without blinking an eye. As Yves guessed.
“Why did you reappear?”
“……!”
“You disappeared four years ago and suddenly reappeared yesterday. With something that Isn’t yours either.”
The questioning voice was filled with suspicion.
Her sudden appearance didn’t seem to be complicit with Benjamin.
Seeing her at Ferdinand’s mansion, Benjamin also seemed surprised by her unexpected appearance.
Toward Katarina, who couldn’t answer easily, Theodore gave a sweet smile.
“If you answer honestly, I’ll save you. I promise you in the name of the Emperor.”
“Well, that’s….”
Soon, Katarina’s mouth trembled to answer something.
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Er has divine power like his father then?