Chapter 92.
Information related to Rosary seed was received from the Fraus two days after the ball had ended, earlier than expected.
The response to their inquiry was as follows:
[Over the past three years, there have been no records of transactions related to Rosary seed.]
The military police members double-checked, but there were no entries in the ledgers concerning Rosary seed or any lethal poisonous substances.
Killian chuckled dryly and tossed the records sent by Fraus onto his desk.
There was no need to delve into the details.
Nicholas, the Deputy Commander of the Royal Guard, and Liam were the ones investigating Rosarphi, but what was the meaning of the military police members’ double-checking? It might have been that they were meticulously assisting Fraus in manipulating the ledger.
‘I was foolish to trust the military police members.’
After Nicholas and Liam’s incident, Killian couldn’t help but feel a deep-seated sense of distrust crawling in his chest.
Despite vowing to himself repeatedly not to trust anyone…
Killian chewed on his lips in frustration.
He found himself unwittingly relying on people once again.
He had thought the military police officers needed to be cautious, but his heart had betrayed his intentions.
When he was first appointed as the commander of the military police, he had been wary of everyone.
However, years had passed since then, and they had become a part of his daily life. They had been his companions, the ties that connected him to the world.
During this time, without him even realizing it, his heart had slowly opened up to them.
Killian felt disgusted with his own weakness, but he had lived his entire life confronting his own vulnerability, and he had no choice but to accept it.
Ironically, what sustained him in the face of his own weakness was his own foolishness.
He was once again putting his trust in people, a foolish act that seemed to defy ridicule.
Killian’s mocking gaze fell upon the ledger placed on his desk.
The name written on the front page of the ledger. Fraus.
Sophia Fraus.
He knew he should be suspicious of Sophia, at least rationally speaking.
But he couldn’t bring himself to doubt her, not in the slightest.
Killian Viprons Rivelon was utterly foolish when it came to Sophia Fraus.
‘I love you, Killian. Really’
How ridiculous it was.
Even in the midst of such despair, the fact that she had said those words to him over and over again, and that he found himself smiling as he repeated them in his mind.
In the face of despair that was not enough for him to cry and scream, he held on by clinging to the one memory he had with her.
As if he was addicted to something and was unable to think normally, he became intoxicated by Sophia’s words.
It was as if he were driven to seek solace in the extreme, looking for someone foolish enough to lean on.
Perhaps he was searching for someone who, pushed to the brink, couldn’t refuse a helping hand, even if that hand belonged to Sophia.
Even so, he had no other choice.
He couldn’t endure it without Sophia.
Even if he was strangled by her grasp, even if he is foolishly suffocated to death, he couldn’t let go of Sophia.
It was his first time.
The first person to whom he had been open and honest about his parents’ deaths.
The first person to lay bare the past he had been afraid to reveal to the world.
Killian stared at the ledger for a moment before closing his eyes.
He knew.
He knew that he could ask Sophia for help with matters concerning the Fraus family and Rosarphi.
Being part of the family, Sophia would have easy access to the information, and he had a feeling she could pull it off.
But he hadn’t done it.
Not because he didn’t trust her, but because he was afraid.
Afraid of what might happen if she got more deeply involved in this matter.
‘Just as expected, right? You want to protect me up close?’
Her words were right. He did want to protect Sophia.
He was afraid that the blade that should come to him might somehow end up going toward her.
He couldn’t be honest with those he trusted or those he didn’t.
He scoffed at himself, saying that he was horribly timid.
* * *
Beatrice gently stroked the white fur of the cat.
‘They said the illegitimate child had a scar on his back.’
She pondered the truth Nicholas had confessed.
‘There is still someone alive who remembers the face of an illegitimate child.’
She had thought that everyone related to this matter had been killed. Could it have been Howard, the former Duke, who was involved?
Her narrowed eyes reflected her thoughts.
“Moreover, he had the child adopted into a noble family?”
She chuckled at Howard’s audacity.
She knew that Howard had abducted the illegitimate child. She had thought he had hidden the child somewhere, like in an orphanage or sent him abroad.
But a noble family? Sending the child to a noble family that might be entangled with the imperial family?
Clever move, indeed.
She had never thought that there would be someone among the nobles who had the audacity to adopt the Emperor’s bastard. \
They must have known what kind of trouble this would cause for their family the moment they adopted the child.
“After all, you reap what you sow….”
Her white hand, which had been caressing Elizabeth, stopped.
But even Howard’s little tricks had their limits.
“Estelle Niore…?” (T/L: This dash empress is really smart.)
She knew of only one woman who fit all the conditions that Nicholas had mentioned.
“I had thought about it, but…”
A long time ago, there had been news that the Viscount Niore had adopted a daughter. For a brief moment, she had wondered if it could be that child.
However, the Niore family was a regional noble family that knew nothing about the illegimatw child, let alone the affairs of the royal family.
The head of the Niore family was a rough and aggressive man, always preoccupied with hunting beasts. He had no political ambitions and was hardly mentioned in society.
She had thought it impossible for someone like him to adopt the Emperor’s illegimate child. Furthermore, he had no close relationship with Howard…
“Besides, isn’t Estelle known for having pink hair?”
A long time ago, when I heard a rumour that Viscount Niore had adopted a young baby and investigated it, Estelle was excluded from the condition of being an illegitimate child.
As far as Beatrice knew, the Emperor’s child did not have such noble pink hair.
In the Empire, pink hair was treated as special and sacred, so that hair color must have caught her attention.
So, Beatrice had hastily ruled out Estelle as a potential candidate, without knowing the exact hair colour of the woman who was a slave. “Back then, I should have killed all those orphans and adopted children.”
If she had done that, there wouldn’t be these repercussions now…
The reason she was so fixated on killing the emperor’s child was all because of the emperor himself.
It would be troublesome if the big-headed child knew that she was the emperor’s daughter and harboured futile ambitions.
Moreover, the Emperor had loved the child’s mother quite dearly…
“As for the war slave…”
A dry sound emanated from within her beautiful lips.
A slave from the nobles of a defeated country.
An emperor who spent his nights indulging in such things and irresponsibly even created a child.
‘She must have thought that the emperor would protect her.’
The emperor released the slave less than a week after they were brought to the empire.
Although he could not give her status, he freed a woman who had been brought as a slave and allowed her to live as a commoner, and also freed her distant living relatives.
It was a privilege that would never be granted to the nobles of a defeated country.
Beatrix was furious at the young emperor for falling for her slave.
It wasn’t just Beatrice; other nobles were also worried that the Emperor was treating the defeated nation’s slave too well, and they voiced their concerns to him.
Nevertheless, even with their admonitions, the emperor showed unwarranted favour to the woman, even allowing her to bear his child.
Beatrice knew that the emperor, born and raised in the palace with all the adoration in the world, lacked intelligence. However, she hadn’t expected his lack of judgment to be so extreme.
Discovering this fact, Beatrice immediately ordered someone to set fire to the woman’s dwelling.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the woman survived the blaze, albeit with burns all over her body.
Beatrice couldn’t be certain of the woman’s hair colour, as the burns had melted her hair to an unrecognizable state.
The emperor suspected Beatrice’s involvement in the arson, but there was no evidence to prove it. By the time they searched for the arsonist, they had already vanished into hiding.
It seemed that the emperor, who had been so foolish, had finally come to his senses by then.
He quietly banished the woman he loved from the palace, without Beatrice’s knowledge, without anyone knowing.
‘I should have just openly driven her away, saying her burns were too horrifying.’
The emperor’s thoughts were truly fickle.
Sending her away secretly meant he still had feelings for her, didn’t it? Or perhaps he had different thoughts about the child growing within her.
The emperor’s less than astute choices only confirmed Beatrice’s suspicions.
“I must find a way to locate and eliminate them, no matter what, to ensure there are no future complications.”
Beatrice ordered people to search for the slave woman, but her whereabouts remained elusive for a long time.
When they finally found her, she had dired due to a high fever, and the emperor’s child had been secretly taken away by Howard.
In addition, the Grand Duke was suspicious of the fire that happened to the mother of the illegitimate child.
Howard Viprons Rivelon, the Duke, even started investigating Beatrice’s underground network.
‘He brought this upon himself.’
Beatrice couldn’t afford to spare Howard.
In the end, Howard met his demise.
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