Chapter 81
Crash—!
A top-quality porcelain vase worth dozens of gold coins smashed into the wall and shattered to pieces.
That wasn't all.
Silk curtains torn to shreds.
A jewelry box rolling around on the floor.
Broken teacups and even the table.
The bedroom where Florencia, the Duchess of Edelheid and mistress of the house, stayed was a mess, as if it had been attacked.
But it hadn't been an attack. It was all the devastation Florencia herself had caused.
“That lowly bitch, how dare she...!”
Florencia, having smashed everything in the room, drew in ragged breaths.
Her blue eyes were so bloodshot they looked purple.
She, the noble mistress of Edelheid, had knelt at the feet of the bastard she'd treated as less than a bug all her life.
That arrogant gaze looking down at her kneeling form. Even the threat whispered in her ear.
It was an outrage she could never forgive.
“I can't forgive her. I'll never let her live. I'll cut off her head, hang it up, tear her to pieces, and feed her to the pigs!”
Florencia was huffing as if she might spit blood at any moment.
She realized that simply flying into a rage and smashing things wouldn't wash away this miserable humiliation.
Biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, she yanked irritably at the rumpled hem of her dress.
“It's all his fault.”
Florencia's anger reached even the duke.
If he hadn't brought in some unknown concubine, then something like that mongrel wouldn't have existed.
She had reached her limit. She would make him take responsibility for what he had done.
Florencia tossed propriety aside and strode off. Soon, she arrived at the head of the house's laboratory.
Until not so long ago, she had been able to come and go freely in the laboratory and watch his research.
But at some point, the duke had strictly forbidden anyone else from entering.
At most, only Cassius had been allowed to go in.
Ironically, that period also coincided with when the duke brought in a concubine.
“This one too. That one too. Even that one. Everything is because of that bitch!”
Today, she would settle things once and for all.
Florencia knocked on the laboratory door.
-쿵쿵쿵!
“You! Come out and talk to me for a minute!”
“…….”
“I know you're in there, so come out already!”
Even though she hammered on the door and shouted, there was no response.
Normally Florencia would have gotten tired and gone back by now, but today she had no intention of letting it slide.
“If you won't come out, I'll force my way in!”
A barrier had been set up so no one could carelessly enter the duke's laboratory.
Florencia wasn't a mage, so she couldn't dispel the barrier.
But as a wife, it was her duty to know every move her husband made.
She had prepared to break the barrier long ago.
“I need to know what on earth you're doing in there.”
Florencia pulled a magical tool from inside her clothes.
A barrier-dispelling tool she had obtained by secretly badgering the family mages.
When she pressed the magical tool against the door, blue sparks flew and ripples of mana spread.
The transparent curtain filling the air crumbled like paper scorched by fire.
-끼기기긱.
The study door, which hadn't moved an inch, began to move. Florencia strode in without hesitation.
“Pascal! Come out right now! Look me in the eye and explain yourself!”
As Florencia shouted in a voice full of venom and stepped forward, she suddenly froze.
Her eyes, which had looked ready to grab her husband's collar on the spot, trembled violently.
The shape of the study before her was completely different from the memory in her mind.
The duke's study she had once freely come and gone from had been a cozy, intellectual space.
A room of a typical noble scholar, with things neatly arranged and a faint scent of ink.
But the scene spread out before her now was bizarre itself.
A dark, windowless chamber where not a single ray of light could seep in.
Dolls stitched together haphazardly until their original shapes were unrecognizable.
Magic circles were densely engraved from floor to ceiling, and in the glass tubes set up here and there, unidentified liquids bubbled and boiled.
The sour smell of chemicals and the nauseating stench of blood made it hard to breathe.
“What on earth...?”
Florencia stared blankly around the study before spotting Duke Pascal in one place.
“Should I cut away only the hardened part of the mana core and attach a new one? Ah, but if I get it wrong, it'll all be ruined... Should I make a new one now? You want me to wait another twenty years? No, I can't stand that. More than anything, there's no vessel as good as this!”
The duke was so absorbed in something that he didn't even notice Florencia had come in.
Even the way he muttered to himself carried a chilling madness.
“You...?”
“It's all because of that bitch Bibi. I saved her when she was on the brink of death, and she dared betray me without even knowing gratitude!”
“Pascal!”
“Mm?”
At Florencia's shout, the duke finally noticed her.
“F-Florencia? How are you here...?”
“You're the one I should be asking that to! What on earth are you doing in here? What are all these things? Don't tell me you were researching black magic?”
“The... I'm a bit out of it right now, so let's talk later. No, let's talk later.”
“No. I need to talk to you right now.”
Florencia strode toward him.
“Do you know what happened today? That lowly... The daughter of the woman you brought home on your own hit Sylvia and made me kneel. Does that even make sense?”
“Don't raise your voice like that. I'm really out of it right now. It doesn't seem that important, so let's talk later. Later, okay?”
“Not that important? Are you serious? Your wife! The mistress of Edelheid was made to kneel by some bastard! What in the world could be more important than that!”
No matter how much Florencia shouted beside him, the duke didn't care and kept busily doing his own work.
Florencia was already furious to the point of explosion, and she couldn't control her emotions any longer.
She grabbed the duke's arm hard.
“If someone is talking to you, you should stop what you're doing and pay attention!”
“I'm busy, damn it!”
That was the moment.
A flash burst from the duke's fingertips. An unconscious, reflexive act, as if swatting away a fly.
-푸욱!
A tearing sound like a knife stabbing into flesh sliced through the air.
“……어?”
Florencia's eyes bulged grotesquely wide.
Without even understanding what had happened to her, she staggered, groping at the air.
-툭, 투둑.
Her chest grew warm, and something began to fall to the floor in dotted drops.
As Florencia slowly lowered her head, her gaze fell on the hole in her chest.
Her splendid dress was soaked darkly with the blood gushing from her heart.
“커, 헉…….”
She tried to move her lips, but what rose up her throat was not a voice, but bright red blood.
Her vision shook violently. Florencia's staggering body crumpled weakly to the floor.
‘어…째서?’
Why had it been the duke?
Why should she, who had ruled as the mistress of Edelheid, die with her heart pierced by her husband's hand?
There was no one there to answer that question.
“So why do you keep pestering me when I said I'm busy.”
Through her fading vision, the duke's voice reached her.
A voice so chillingly flat that it held not the slightest guilt, even before his wife's death.
With that, the blue of Florencia's pupils sank completely into black.
It was a far too futile end for the mistress of the ducal house.
Looking down at Florencia sprawled on the floor, Duke Pascal Cersia scratched his head irritably.
“I'm already busy enough. How am I supposed to deal with this too?”
Florencia was nothing more than the role of a mother acting out a harmonious family. Nothing else.
Since she wasn't a mage, she couldn't even be used as a test subject.
He could throw her away like this, but things had been going badly lately.
If word got out that the duchess had died as well, it would only cause even more chaos.
For now, he still needed her to keep playing her part.
-딱.
Cersia flicked his finger. From the darkness, a slender silver needle shot out.
Like sewing up a torn doll, he began stitching together Florencia's burst heart and torn flesh.
By the time the sewing was finished, only a grotesque scar remained.
“Get up.”
Cersia's command fell.
Florencia's body, lying on the floor, rose slowly as if pulled by something unseen.
The blackened eyes blinked a few times, then soon regained their original color.
“Now, from today on, you're Duchess Florencia. Who?”
“Duchess... Florencia.”
“Mm-hm, good, good. That's working fine.”
Cersia nodded with satisfaction.
“Now go back to your original place. And please, just don't cause any trouble.”
***
A mealtime with nothing but the clatter of dishes and utensils.
That was the usual mealtime scene in the Edelheid family.
Many of them would rather not gather and eat quietly in their own rooms.
But because of the duke's firm insistence that a harmonious family must eat together, they had no choice but to meet here.
‘Though the person in question isn't here.’
Looking at the empty seat of honor, the eldest daughter Idella gnawed on a fork.
I was young, so I don't remember well, but I feel like things used to be more harmonious than this.
Now, not only Pascal but Cassius had completely changed as well.
At least I'm grateful that the youngest, Sylvia, is busily trying to liven up the mood.
‘Though even that has been lessening ever since that viper joined us.’
The target of Idella's displeased gaze was Lenoa.
After ruining the whole family, she was still happily feeding her escort knight.
And yesterday, she even hit Sylvia and made Florencia kneel, didn't she?
She's not just some ordinary crazy bitch.
She must have inherited her mother's lowly blood.
‘Just what is going to happen to this family?’
The future was pitch-black.
While Idella worried about the family's future, Sylvia was fiercely glaring at Lenoa in front of her.
Yesterday, she'd been so flustered by the sudden violence that she'd let it slide.
But not today.
She was going to get revenge for yesterday.
Sylvia stomped down with all her strength, aiming for Lenoa's foot with her shoe.
-콰악!
“Ugh...!”
“Miss? Are you unwell?”
Lenoa frowned in pain. After looking around, her gaze met Sylvia's across the table.
“What's this? What are you doing?”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Don't pretend. You stepped on my foot.”
“When did I ever? Don't accuse an innocent person without proof. Are you suffering from paranoia or something?”
“......”
Lenoa glared at her, while Sylvia insisted she knew nothing.
With the dishes between them, the two continued their staring contest.
“Sylvia. You shouldn't say things like that to your older sister.”
Just as Idella, unable to stand it any longer, was about to say something, a mature woman's gentle voice cut in.
The owner of that voice was none other than Duchess Florencia.
“Apologize to your sister at once.”