You are at the End of the Downfall

‘How could this happen?’

Beatrice wanted to grab someone and ask, but the only people who visited her in the barely heated room she was staying in after leaving the hideous and cold Grand Duchess’s bedroom were the maid bringing three meals a day and the doctor who came once daily. This couldn’t be happening.

As if that wasn’t enough, there had been some problem during her journey here. She couldn’t bring even half of her trunks, so she was missing essential clothes and accessories like dresses for having tea alone, pajamas to wear when in a bad mood, a fur hat for small gatherings, a fan, pearl necklace and bracelet, light shoes for balls and riding boots.

“Damn, and there were also medicines…!”

As she snapped in irritation, she broke into a severe coughing fit. Her throat still hurt terribly, and her voice was strangely hoarse. Beatrice lay down, fuming.

‘No, I don’t need things like aphrodisiacs.’

That wasn’t important. With her years of experience, why would she rely on such tricks to seduce a man? She could do it without them now. Tying down Peon, that stupid and dull man, was as easy and natural as breathing.

But she didn’t have the chance!

“Excuse me. I’m coming in.”

She really disliked that female doctor who knocked on the door and entered before getting permission.

Lusenford was too barbaric a place, completely ignorant of refined manners. The etiquette of subordinates towards their superiors was a mess. But Beatrice was struggling to breathe, so she could only glare at the doctor with her eyes.

“You seem lively. You’ll be up soon.”

“Don’t you know manners?”

Oh my, this young lady is throwing a fit again. Darinka thought she wouldn’t even need to examine her, seeing that spirit.

“Your voice is still barking, but you’re speaking quite well. You should be fully recovered in about two weeks.”

She looks pretty, but her eyes are full of venom. The castle staff said this young lady was His Highness the Grand Duke’s first love and childhood friend, but Darinka didn’t see it that way at all.

They might have been childhood friends, but well. Isn’t it common for childhood playmates not to last a lifetime?

When the trajectories of their lives diverge, they naturally drift apart without mutual effort. Effort is based on affection. And affection starts with basic liking.

In Darinka’s view, this young lady wasn’t the Grand Duke’s type. Therefore, it would be difficult for the kind of liking, affection, and effort needed to endure for a long time to bloom.

“Let’s start by taking your temperature.”

It’s really strange that they’re childhood friends and first loves. Darinka thought it was very odd. Even when boys play together, it’s normal for them to start swinging swords and spears as soon as their heads grow a bit.

“You still have a slight fever. Be careful of cold drafts. Drink plenty of water.”

“The water is ice cold.”

“I told you to keep it by the fireplace. Walking a bit will also help move your muscles. It’s not good to sit in bed too much.”

“Hey.”

This kind of address was the problem to begin with. It doesn’t match at all with the Grand Duke, who strictly observes etiquette and respects his subordinates.

“Has the… inspector come?”

She finally asked in a voice mixed with coughing, so Darinka answered anyway.

“Yes.”

“Then why isn’t there a banquet?”

Her quick retort was full of disbelief. After that, she coughed so much that Darinka quietly brought her a glass of water.

She’s only now drinking water because she’s too lazy to walk the few steps to the fireplace. At this rate, it will take a long time to recover. But with that temperament, she probably will recover eventually.

“We were planning to…”

“So?” Beatrice looked at Darinka, who was answering slowly, as if urging her to respond quickly.

“The inspector said not to do it.”

“Why!”

“Don’t shout. It’s bad for your throat.”

Beatrice quickly gestured while drinking water again. It meant to answer quickly.

“He said what kind of welcome banquet is this when he came to investigate His Highness’s affairs, and told us to postpone it. Maybe we’ll have a brief one when he returns to Crania?”

“Damn, that Isidore, that blockheaded bastard…!”

No matter how quietly she whispered, there was no way Darinka, who had treated women on the streets, wouldn’t understand the curse.

See? I told you she’s not the Grand Duke’s type. Darinka quietly observed Beatrice Ravalley, who acted arrogantly towards subordinates as if they had no eyes or ears.

“Even if there’s a banquet, you can’t attend.”

“What?”

“How can you go out in that condition? It’s serious. Serious. If you get pneumonia, you won’t be able to move at all.”

“I don’t catch things like that.”

“Oh my, you caught a cold, why couldn’t you catch pneumonia?”

“Speak properly. I can’t understand what you’re saying. Why do all of you have that accent?”

To Beatrice’s ears, the accent of Lusenford people was rustic and rough.

Peon used a clean and sophisticated Cranian accent, but sometimes a Lusenford accent would slip out, and Beatrice would cringe every time, calling it rustic.

“Whatever the accent, it’s fine as long as you speak properly. Miss, you can’t even speak properly. Stop talking, it’s hurting your throat. Oh my, you must be struggling.”

Darinka coaxed and soothed Beatrice as if she were a naive younger sister. If another maid had done this, objects would have been thrown or cheeks slapped by now, but Beatrice just frowned deeply and lay back down.

“When did they say the banquet would be?”

“Well, I don’t know. You don’t know how stern the inspector is.”

“Damn, that shouldn’t happen…! Then is there nothing else?”

“Oh my, you keep using your voice. What do you mean by something else?”

“A ball, concert, tea party, play, ballet performance, something like that?”

“Oh please, where would you find such things in Lusenford? Miss, really. There’s nothing like that. I don’t know what His Highness might do, but not in this situation.”

Darinka gestured around. It indicated that the inspector’s people were everywhere.

“Not a chance. Not a chance at all.”

Damn it! Beatrice fumed. This shouldn’t be happening. A banquet, ball, concert, anything – her playground and space she could dominate needed to unfold.

While coming and going to Lusenford, she had created many admirers here, even if it was a bit shabby and rustic.

‘I need to use those people to put that even shabbier Kaela de Chasser in her place, but Isidore, that bastard, is not helping, not helping at all.’

The flower of high society exerts the strongest influence in high society, so what could she possibly do buried in this gloomy and unpleasant bed!

Moreover, banquets, balls, and concerts are important opportunities to meet Peon, along with gathering many people.

Just one such event. Just once would be enough to put Kaela, who dared to take away Peon who belonged to her, in her place and also accomplish the mission the Emperor sent her here for.

“Take your medicine. I’ll come again tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

“And don’t use your voice.”

“I have no one else to talk to. The person I should talk to was stolen by a girl who doesn’t know her place. Those types are always stupid. They need to be educated periodically to know their limits.”

Darinka left quietly without answering.

Beatrice was no longer looking at the departing doctor. She recalled the man she had looked up at from the bottom of the stairs on a very cold, late night. He was suddenly the most intense and enchanting man she had ever seen.

Alone in her bedroom, Beatrice chuckled with her hoarse voice.

Ah. Men indeed become much more delectable after they get married.

****

“This is a complete mess.”

Isidore Dakiten furrowed his brow at the words of the inspector experienced in such matters. The crackling of firewood in the fireplace made a cozy sound, and the inspectors were thoroughly reading through dense case files.

“To serve something His Highness clearly said not to eat, and to the Princess of Ostein no less! How does this make any sense?”

“I’m telling you, this place is no ordinary peculiar place. It’s Crania Empire in name only, they ignore all laws and manners as they please… tsk, tsk.”

“His Highness must have suffered greatly. To face such insubordination as soon as she arrived in this cold place.”

“By the way, these records are surprisingly objective, inspector. They match the testimonies, especially that doctor who became the personal physician. She doesn’t seem to be lying.”

Darinka, with her medicine bag slung over her shoulder, testified with wide eyes about how critical the Grand Duchess’s condition had been at the time.

“I thought they’d be in a frenzy trying to hide things, but the records are thorough and the witnesses cooperative.”

Isidore, who had been listening, muttered.

“The Grand Duke’s paperwork is always perfect.”

The inspectors closed their mouths and looked at Isidore.

“We need to poke his head a bit.”

Isidore stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“To His Highness.”

“Are you going to interview him now?”

“No. To ask him to hold a welcome banquet.”

It would be better to see the Grand Duke in such a setting. Faced with an unexpected situation, Isidore immediately changed his strategy.

He planned to ask the Grand Duchess, his childhood friend and sister-like victim, to set the stage, while he would keep an eye on the perpetrators.

He walked through Lusenford Castle, more dreary than winter in early spring. No matter how he looked at it, this was no place for Kaela, who loved flowers.

Well, it was difficult for a noble lady to have the marriage she wanted, let alone a ‘good’ one. Families without money tried to become in-laws with wealthy families.

Families with short histories sought connections with long-established ones. Families with both money and history tried to maintain their prestige. Those at the peak of power, like Kaela, were inevitably swayed by the Emperor.

‘The Duke of Ostein must have tried to arrange a marriage without considering conditions.’

A marriage that even the bride’s father couldn’t control was severely rocky from the start. The signs were quite ominous. Well, since Isidore’s aunt, the Empress, was forced to marry the Emperor, perhaps it was her son’s fate to have an unhappy marriage too.

Isidore, entering through the door opened by a maid, involuntarily smiled when his eyes met Kaela’s.

“Welcome, oppa. Would you like some tea?”

“Sure. What were you doing?”

“Nothing, really.”

Isidore smiled bitterly as if he understood.

“There’s not much to do in Lusenford, is there?”

One must answer carefully to an inspector’s question. What did I do around this time? Kaela, sitting blankly in her office, habitually tried to recall. She had been making effort after effort to improve the castle, clashing with the head maid.

But she was often driven back into her room, seemingly spending most of her time in shock. Perhaps, even more stubbornly, she tried to secure the Grand Duchess’s office and figure out how to do real work here.

She burned with an inability to give up. She looked for work, and if there was none, she created it. It was around this time that she started endlessly trying to prove herself, thinking, “If I just do a little more, they’ll recognize me, they’ll acknowledge me.”

Maybe that’s how she tried to cope with the shock of her father’s death and the emptiness of having everything taken away. She blindly clung to things not worth clinging to.

“Thanks to your visit, I’m resting, but there’s a lot to do. As you can see, there’s no end to the places that need attention.”

“I see. It’s a bit surprising. But it’s good that at least the kitchen is under renovation.”

Whether that’s where it starts or where it ends, I can’t tell.

“The Duke of Ostein must have heard the news of your collapse.”

“I’ve already sent a letter telling him not to worry.”

Besides the letter she gave to Marie, she wrote and sent a new one.

“He can’t help but worry in this situation, Kaela. Are you really alright?”

Peon had not only applied the charge of attempted murder but also naturally added the charge of disobeying orders, and dealt with it severely.

How much pain and shock must Kaela have received from being insulted by mere local nobles, including the head maid? If it were Isidore, he would have ordered all their heads cut off, but even in that situation, she was kind enough to spare the head maid’s life.

“I mustn’t waver.”

“I knew you’d say that again. If you hold on, will your oppa support you from behind? Why did Beatrice come here? How did she come?”

Well. Not knowing that, Kaela closed her mouth, but suddenly the door opened with a knock.

“Your High… I’ll be stepping out for a moment…”

Peon, who had entered naturally, stopped briefly upon discovering Isidore.

“Ah, were you in conversation with Sir Dakiten?”

Isidore stood up.

“It’s nothing special. I heard you were planning a welcome banquet, so I came to request that it be held this evening. I haven’t started the interview yet, Your Highness.”

As Isidore explained, shaking his head, Peon nodded slowly a couple of times.

“I see. Your Highness, I’ll be out patrolling the border for a while. I’ll be back before the banquet.”

“Ah, yes. Take care.”

Although Kaela didn’t understand why he was specifically saying where he was going, she hesitated before adding,

“Be careful.”

Peon was about to turn around but smiled slightly at her.

“Yes.”

Then he left the Grand Duchess’s office again. Isidore looked back and forth between the door and Kaela.

“Is he always like that?”

“We share a bed, so…”

Kaela muttered indifferently.

“Ah, I don’t want to hear things like that. You and hyung, ugh… It’s strange, we used to all play hide-and-seek together.”

“We’re not the only ones like that.”

It’s not just Kaela and Peon. Peon and Beatrice are the same.

“But, oppa, you said you’re going to have a welcome banquet?”

She shifted the topic, moving away from thoughts that were eating at her.