—If you really cared about Her Majesty the Empress, and if you feel the slightest bit of guilt for your mother's crimes...
Bring her down by deliberately appealing to her sense of guilt, which led her to feel responsible to almost foolish extremes.
And, as expected, Blair looked hopelessly disturbed by those words alone.
Herdin felt a strange calm at that pitiful sight and finished.
—I trust that you will at least show that degree of responsibility.
—…
—We will talk about the end of the contract later.
Herdin looked at her as he notified her.
Blair, who had been watching him with momentarily agitated eyes, finally lowered her gaze in resignation and opened her mouth.
-… OK.
But you have to hurry as much as possible.
The tranquility in the face of his docile response did not last long; The words that followed grated on Herdin's nerves.
Instead of responding to his innocent wife's words, he attached his lips to hers immediately.
At the same time, his large body naturally rose and covered hers.
Without giving the surprised Blair time to stop him, the blanket covering them both shook violently once.
—Ah…!
Blair frowned and sucked in a breath.
Her body, filled with the semen he had deposited in abundance during the night, received it painlessly when he suddenly entered her, but it was still overwhelming.
There was Blair's pill bottle, which hadn't been opened in days, no, which hadn't been given a chance to open.
He looked down at Blair, who was watching him from below with a suffering face.
Then he hugged her and kissed her.
The belated response came in the brief instant their lips parted.
—Yes, as quickly as possible.
At all costs.
⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅
Gerard, who was returning to his room in the annex after midday prayer, stopped short as soon as he opened the door.
There was a note fallen on the floor at his feet.
He calmly entered the room, closed the door and picked up the note to open it.
[They have stepped on our heels.]
That was the entire content of the letter: no addressee, no sender, no subject.
Gerard's normally affable face twisted in a completely different way as he read the short note.
—Chss, damn useless people.
As soon as he finished reading it, the spell he had activated went off and burned the paper without leaving a trace.
The original plan was to help Katrina completely erase the memories of Blair's accident using black magic, but as things stood, it ran the risk of the Duke of Delmark discovering her identity.
"Then it would be better to cut the thread here."
The Empress Dowager was a useful piece, but he had no intention of ruining the grand plan by stupidly clinging to her.
And, above all...
"Because it is already a piece that has fulfilled its purpose."
His grand design was already in the final phase.
So now it was time to clean up the surroundings and calmly wait for that design to complete on its own.
Gerard took out his pocket watch.
3 o'clock.
Probably at this time today, your faithful child would be praying in the chapel.
Gerard left the annex and headed to the small chapel located to the east of the temple.
That small chapel was where the children of the temple orphanage gathered weekly for religious service, and occasionally those who, having come of age, had come out into society, also returned to pray.
Upon entering the chapel, he saw a familiar back praying.
Gerard approached from behind with a cold smile on his lips.
—You always come to pray with devotion, Kalligo.
Then, Kalligo, who was praying, turned and smiled widely, as if he had already noticed her presence.
—Didn't I promise His Holiness?
—That was more than ten years ago, you could pretend you've forgotten and skip it from time to time.
—Couldn't I fall to hell if I betray a faithful servant of God?
I want to go to heaven.
At Kalligo's joke, Gerard let out a mocking laugh and lightly patted him on his sturdy shoulder.
—God will also be moved by your devotion.
—I would like you to recognize it.
—By the way, I thought I remembered that you said that you were busy with a job that was assigned to you recently.
It's great that you were able to make time.
Has the matter been resolved well?
—No, not yet.
I pay attention to it day and night, but I don't see any gap.
Kalligo could not give details about the secret mission that Herdin had given him, so he limited himself to evasive.
Gerard was his benefactor, who had taken him in, but just as he was kind to everyone, he was also kind to Katrina, and he served as lord to Herdin, who was facing that same Katrina.
"So, do you want me to give you a hand?"
-Sorry?
How could His Holiness…?
Gerard took a step towards Kalligo, who was looking at him in bewilderment, and opened his mouth.
—Kalligo, my faithful boy.
Gerard's eyes were tinted red, and a strange voice, as if it were not human, came from his lips.
Then, a circle of black magic appeared on the back of Kalligo's neck, and the focus disappeared from his eyes.
Gerard whispered in Kalligo's ear with a chilling voice.
—Go to the Duke of Delmark and give him the proof.
—…
—Proof that the Dowager Empress Katrina killed the late Emerald Empress.
His eyes, as he whispered, gave off a sinister glow.
⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅
—So this is the proof that Marina Florang received in exchange for the assassination of Her Majesty the Empress?
That night, Herdin brought Kalligo, who had urgently looked for him, into his office.
What Kalligo had brought as evidence of the fire ten years ago was a coin with a peculiar engraving.
Kalligo nodded.
-Yeah.
As soon as I took her to the pawn shop, they recognized her instantly.
They said that if anyone brought this coin, they should give him the agreed payment.
—Who should make that payment?
—It was registered in the name of Viscount Vernon, the younger brother of the Countess of Margrid.
Marina Florang was one of the Empress's Palace maids serving Esmeralda at the time of the incident.
At the time, it was assumed that she had tried to stop Esmeralda, who wanted to kill Blair.
But the testimony of Blair, who had recovered his memory, was different.
Marina Florang killed Esmeralda without knowing that Blair was there.
That is, his goal from the beginning was to kill Esmeralda.
«He was probably planning to assassinate Her Majesty the Empress and flee with the money.
Take this coin to the pawnshop and receive the promised payment.
But, surprised by Blair's emergence, she died stupidly after hitting her head, and the plan failed.
…To be continued