Chapter 30

“H-How did you…?”

Viscount Liden stammered, his voice trembling with fear.

‘Did he really think I’d blindly follow two suspicious men without any precautions?’

Doha glanced down at the shattered remains of her bracelet. It was an artifact Angelus had given her, imbued with a summoning spell that instantly relayed her location the moment the gemstone was broken.

At that moment, the cold gleam of a sword hovered over Liden’s throat.

“Talk. Who’s backing you?”

Angelus’s piercing blue eyes locked onto Liden, their sharp intensity enough to freeze him in place. Unlike Salvador, who burned with barely contained rage, Angelus’s fury was eerily silent. It was the kind of rage that lurked in the depths of a dark forest at midnight, a quiet and suffocating stillness where a predator could strike at any moment.

“How did you learn about blood magic and pass those books to her?”

The moment Bunny had completely fallen out of Kredel’s favor, stripped of all opportunities and locked away in the tower, had been because of blood magic. The forbidden ritual that allowed one to exchange fates with another.

Through her counseling sessions, Doha had revealed the truth: the one who had introduced Bunny to blood magic was none other than Viscount Liden.

Angelus couldn’t help but blame himself.

‘Why didn’t I question the source of the blood magic sooner? Why did I just assume she picked it up from some trash heap? While Bunny was living in hell within these luxurious walls, why did I look down on her, dismiss her, and scorn her instead of asking why? Liden conditioned her, brainwashed her, manipulated her… and I believed it. I punished her. And all she wanted was to be loved.’

“You… how dare you…” No. ‘How dare I.’

Angelus whispered under his breath, his voice as fragile as a flickering candle. Then, his expression went blank, even the remnants of anger vanishing.

Without hesitation, he grabbed the poison from Liden’s hand and shoved it into the viscount’s mouth.

“Mmmpfh—!”

Liden’s eyes widened in horror as the bitter liquid slid down his throat. His face rapidly turned pale.

“If you tell the truth,” Angelus said, “I’ll give you a chance to run to where the antidote is.”

His killing intent faded, replaced by an eerie, detached indifference. He looked down at Liden as one would a lifeless object. His voice was devoid of emotion.

Liden trembled violently. Then, suddenly—

“Cough!”

Blood splattered from his lips as his body convulsed.

“Gaaah! Krrgh…!”

“…The hell? You were planning to force her to drink that?” Salvador muttered darkly, his hand still firmly covering Doha’s eyes. Just imagining Bunny writhing in pain instead of Liden made his blood boil.

“I-I… t-the… cough… drawer… the drawer…!”

Liden wheezed, clawing his way toward the desk.

Angelus stomped down on his hand.

“Talk. You won’t get another chance. Who’s backing you?”

Liden couldn’t have left the castle alone. If he had tried to escape, he would have been caught immediately. And yet, he had vanished. Even if it was only a matter of time before he was found, the fact that he had managed to hide at all meant he had help. Someone powerful. Someone who had been able to plant spies within Kredel’s household—Angelus’s own aide, Salvador’s personal knight. Whoever it was, they had the resources and influence to orchestrate this.

“Krrgh… h-heh…”

Liden suddenly let out a hoarse, deranged laugh, blood still dripping from his lips.

“I acted alone.”

“…What?”

“I did it. All of it. Alone.”

He had made up his mind. He would take the fall for everything.

He had seen what happened to Head Maid Angela when she confessed the truth before Salvador. She had been discarded, used and then thrown away. But him? Even after being caught, he had still received protection. And his plan to poison Bunny had been allowed.

‘That means… I’m still useful.’

If he held his tongue, his allies would secretly help him escape. If he kept his silence, at the very least, he would be kept alive.

‘Besides, it’s Angelus. He’s a rational man. He’ll send me to prison first—he won’t execute me immediately.’

And in the meantime—he would find a way out.

“Yes… I did it,” Liden said, nodding feverishly. “It was all me.”

Angelus’s fingers curled, his grip tightening as if drawing back a bowstring. Then, he released.

“You are sentenced to immediate execution.”

“…What?”

Liden blinked, dumbfounded.

Unfortunately, those were his final words.

At the same time—

Slash.

There was no scream.

Crack.

Only the sickening sound of flesh being torn apart.

Doha blinked beneath Salvador’s palm.

It took her a moment to fully process. The sound of a body collapsing. The final, gurgling breath.

And then—silence.

When she finally understood, the only three people left in the underground passage were her, Angelus, and Salvador.

Angelus had kept his word.

There had been no second chance.

* * *

“Are you okay?”

Salvador asked cautiously.

Doha remained still, making no attempt to resist. In fact, she was so still that her breathing trembled.

As soon as she sensed the tension beginning to ease, she placed her hand over the back of Salvador’s and squeezed it tightly.

When his hand flinched slightly, she released it without hesitation.

“I’m fine now.”

The truth was, she had frozen up from shock. Her entire body still shook slightly.

But if she wanted to survive in this world, she had to get used to things like this. This wasn’t the modern world.

She had to adapt.

‘If it weren’t for Bunny’s memories in my head…’

At least, she knew she could adjust quickly. In the slums, corpses were as common as living people—perhaps even more so.

“By the way, if you kill them all, how do you expect to uncover who’s behind this?”

Were they complete idiots?

Doha looked at them with a mixture of disappointment and frustration. Salvador, who had been staring blankly at his own hands, scoffed.

“You think I didn’t plan for that? Obviously, I made sure to keep them alive.”

But when they turned around, the aide and the knight were already cold corpses.

“…What the hell?”

Salvador hurriedly checked their bodies, realizing they had both taken their own lives, biting down on concealed poison before they could be interrogated.

“Wow… these guys were thorough.”

Doha gave him a flat look, as if to say, Oh, you have the nerve to be surprised?

Salvador looked away, embarrassed.

“Fine. I messed up too.”

Angelus let out a long sigh as he wiped the blood off his sword.

He should have kept Viscount Liden alive.

His rage had been so overwhelming that his ears rang, his head pounded, and his vision turned white for a brief moment.

And before he realized it—this was the result.

‘When was the last time I reacted so emotionally?’

Ever since that day, when a girl who resembled Ophelia had barged into his life.

He could no longer push Bunny away, nor could he deny her existence.

“I can’t change what happened, but I promise you this—I will find out who was behind it, no matter what it takes.”

Doha barely stopped herself from looking at him like he was the biggest fool alive. Instead, she quickly masked her expression with a polite smile.

“Thank you for saying that.”

She knew he wouldn’t find anything.

Because the ever-righteous eldest son of Kredel, with his blind sense of honor, wouldn’t even think to suspect Fluvia.

‘It doesn’t matter. At least he won’t hate Bunny anymore.’

Doha had no intention of exposing the Grand Duchess’s crimes to the world or getting her exiled from the palace.

Why would she? She was planning to escape within the next eight years anyway.

All she needed to do was warn Fluvia not to interfere with her.

‘I’m too busy as it is. I don’t have time to deal with Fluvia on top of everything else. As long as she doesn’t get in my way, that’s enough.’

That was what she thought—until Angelus suddenly knelt to meet her gaze.

“I’m serious.”

His tone carried the weight of an oath.

“The bracelet I gave you is proof of that. I’ll have a new one made soon, so if anything happens—no matter how small—break it. I’ll come running.”

“…”

“If it breaks, I’ll get you another one. Again and again, until you can live in this castle without fear. That’s why I gave it to you.”

The moment she heard those words, Doha had a realization.

Bunny had never been accused of stealing jewelry—she had simply never received a gift before.

For some reason, she suddenly wanted to see his face twist in despair.

‘What kind of expression would he make?’

What if she told him that the person he trusted the most, the woman who raised him, was the very one who ruined Bunny?

What if she told him that he, too, had played a part in breaking her?

‘I really want to see his reaction.’

Was she turning into a worse person?

She suppressed the urge by repeating Give me peace like a river in her head.

But she already knew the answer.

If she told him, he would only glare at her, call her a liar, and refuse to believe it.

She didn’t trust him at all.

So instead, she smiled sweetly, as if she believed every word.

“Yes, please keep that promise.”

* * *

‘Why isn’t he responding?’

Doha clenched the artifact hanging around her neck, staring at it.

Ever since Damian’s birthday, she had been unable to reach him.

‘He looked like he was seriously hurt.’

At first, she had only wanted to check if he had found the medicine safely, if he had gotten treatment.

But ever since that day, there had been nothing.

And even now, after all this time—still silence.