You are at the End of the Downfall

He had shown enough mercy before the regression. Showing mercy only made them think it was their right and demand more. He needed to cut it off cleanly from the start and properly establish the Grand Duchess’s authority.

“You haven’t been married for long. It wouldn’t be good to have an execution during a joyous occasion. Moreover, you should consider her role of raising the Grand Duke. Just spare her life and confiscate the rest of her property and titles. As for her disrespect towards me, I’ve forgiven that.”

The words flowed more smoothly as she spoke. They sounded like something a truly generous Grand Duchess who had never experienced hardship would say. Kaela was impressed with herself.

“The Grand Duchess is merciful.”

Merciful? She scoffed inwardly. Mercy? Not at all! It was simply her terrifying desire not to see the head maid receive the death that even Kaela couldn’t have. Whether painful or peaceful, isn’t death ultimately the end?

She didn’t want to give the head maid the “end” that she herself so desperately wanted.

It was also revenge against the head maid who had tormented her by handing over the keys to the castle to Kaela but making sure all those managing the inventory were her own people, preventing them from cooperating with the Grand Duchess.

Kaela knew the head maid very well. The head maid’s pride, dignity, and honor all came from Peon. And the head maid knew this too. So taking that away was the proper revenge.

“I understand. I will spare her life, but only that.”

Peon emphasized that it would be just her life, nothing more.

One could say that the head maid before Kaela’s death and the current head maid were different people. But their essence remained the same. The head maid who had tried to break the Grand Duchess from day one would have no right to complain even if sentenced to hanging. People don’t change easily.

“And food using tour berry will never appear on the Lusenford table again.”

Kaela was surprised by this statement as well.

“Is that alright?”

“Even those who insist it’s an important dish only eat it once a year unless there’s a special occasion. What tradition could there be in that?”

In front of someone who had nearly died from eating it, Peon swallowed the words about how it wasn’t like they would die if they didn’t eat something that wasn’t essential.

“Tradition is what we, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, make together. Let’s research new dishes to serve at banquets together. I’ll change the head chef too, so choose whoever you want.”

These were the words of a loving husband comforting his young wife who had suffered greatly.

“But before that, let’s focus on your recovery for now. I hope you’ll be healthy.”

Peon spoke sincerely. He truly wished for Kaela, who was constantly collapsing and falling ill, to be healthy. He hoped she would leave Lusenford in good health.

“Thank you.”

Even if the response was entirely businesslike.

****

After hovering between life and death for three days and barely recovering, the Grand Duchess mercifully spared only the head maid’s life.

The reason given was in consideration of her long years of service to Lusenford Castle. For the sake of “the newlywed Grand Duke couple’s future,” she didn’t die, but nothing remained except her life.

Those of lower rank who had strongly supported her were executed, unable to receive the Grand Duchess’s grace. But uniquely, the head maid, who had everything including her property confiscated, was banished from Lusenford.

Where could a banished person go? The South? The crime of insulting Ostein and the Royal Family would become an even greater offense the moment she headed south.

There was nowhere in all of Crania where she could set foot. The only option was to go further north. To a place with harsher terrain and colder weather, the domain of the evil dragon Gusalante, or the lands of foreign tribes.

“There will surely be people who help those who have been banished,” the secretary muttered, laying out various blueprints before Peon.

“They’ll hide or help her behind the scenes. Especially the head maid. She had quite a following, after all.”

Peon, who had been engrossed in his work, looked up at the last words.

“Indeed she did.”

The problem was that she built this following selectively, and sometimes used it to torment others. Peon had been reflecting on the events from before the regression, from when Kaela collapsed until now.

“Above all, the Royal Family will know about this immediately. No, they probably already know. It’s impossible to escape His Majesty the Emperor’s eyes, isn’t it?”

Eyes were watching everywhere in Lusenford, and there were many traitors who sold information in exchange for money and positions in Craine. It was a difficult place to live. Peon’s life, trying to protect this place, had been incredibly tough as well.

“No, they don’t know yet. It will be known soon, but not that quickly.”

The secretary looked at the Grand Duke, who spoke with certainty, with puzzlement.

“Pardon? But doesn’t His Majesty the Emperor have a magical tool to see the world?”

“He can’t use it for a while.”

The secretary’s expression changed instantly.

“Really? Is that why you ordered the mine development?”

“Yes.”

The secretary looked at the Grand Duke with an indescribable expression before finally letting out a deep sigh of relief.

It was also a sigh of unburdening, feeling lighter. Although he had many questions, he couldn’t ask further if Peon only shared that much.

“I understand. We’ll speed things up from now on. It’s very comforting to know that the watching eyes are gone.”

Indeed. The Emperor, who couldn’t use magic himself, had gathered magical tools. All the powerful magical tools already concentrated in Crania had become the Emperor’s possessions. And the collapsed Empress was found in the room full of these magical tools.

Those who knew the situation lamented that the Empress might have been trying to see her distant son through the mirror in that room. In reality, the Emperor had focused that mirror on Lusenford to monitor Peon fighting against the evil dragon.

Looking back and ruminating on it all was suffocating. It had been overwhelming to endure his mother, Beatrice whom he thought he needed to save, the Emperor’s ever-present gaze, and the constantly encroaching evil dragon.

So Kaela, who often came to irritate him, scatter his focus, and disturb his mind, was tiring.

This fatigue stemmed from how easily Kaela could break down the center that Peon was holding together, yet he couldn’t touch her in return.

How exhausting it was to constantly rebuild that center, straighten his mind, break away from wandering gazes, and ceaselessly despise his own dirty blood, the blood that creates bastards.

‘Her Highness the Grand Duchess…’

Just hearing the head maid start with those words, wearing an expression of utter perplexity, was enough to give him a headache. The head maid, knowing that Peon showed negative reactions towards the Grand Duchess, always deliberately opened with those words.

Thinking about it now, the head maid must have been afraid. Afraid that a more sophisticated and educated Grand Duchess would come and take over the castle’s internal affairs that she had tightly controlled for nearly 20 years, and that she would be disregarded by the young Grand Duchess.

Like an old person who finds it difficult to accept their own aging as time passes, she must have felt it was hard to acknowledge and that her entire self was being negated.

And Kaela? Did Kaela know that the head maid felt this way?

“Regen.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Did the banished criminal say that I was bewitched by a woman?”

“How did you know? As soon as she heard about the execution, she collapsed and said such things.”

Her true feelings must have burst out quite honestly in the face of death. But those feelings probably retreated again when Kaela showed mercy.

“She dares to say words that even my mother wouldn’t utter.”

“She should be grateful for Her Highness’s mercy for the rest of her life.”

“Well. Call Rolf.”

To dare to treat the noble Grand Duke as if he were her own son. To dare to try to match the noble Grand Duchess.

Peon hadn’t forgotten that such people still existed within the castle. And he hadn’t forgotten that in the end, he himself was the one who needed to be completely removed from Kaela’s life.