Chapter 125

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 125

Chapter Title: Igor Marsu

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Duke Ballua let out a tsk-tsk as if he were thoroughly enjoying himself, then continued.

"That child is now deprived of everything she should be enjoying, living without even knowing who her parents are."

"……."

"It's all your fault."

It was a voice as viciously deep as if casting a curse.

"My fault?"

"Theodor and Duvered clung to a thread of hope right up until you were adopted. They threw nearly all their shadow crows into a frenzy searching for their fourth child. And this year, after the fake appeared, they completely halted the search."

"……."

"If they hadn't stopped searching, they could've found the fourth. Isn't it all your fault?"

"……."

"That child is alive. Someday she'll return and strip you of everything. Only then will you finally understand. The anguish I feel…!"

Duke Ballua laughed arrogantly.

"The Apostle Trial is where all the Five Great Ducal Houses gather. Your father will be in the courtroom too. What will you do if I tell him everything?"

"……."

"The search will start up again, and you'll be pushed aside. This time, the real daughter might appear and reclaim everything you have."

"……."

"How about it? Will you arrange for me to meet Theodor?"

He twisted his lips.

"But if you help me escape, I'll bury all of this."

Duke Ballua pressed close to the bars and whispered.

"The empire's greatest magnate. A beautiful father with eyes only for you. Brothers whose futures shine so brightly they're frightening, showering you with love. A special, wonderful aunt drawing the gaze of every citizen in the empire. You'll lose them all—those precious people who tremble at even a scratch on your finger. Come now, little one. This is your one and only chance."

In that instant, visions flashed through my mind: my family smiling at me, the people I cherished.

I bowed my head and muttered weakly.

"……Yes."

"Good, then get me out of—"

"Still trash, I see."

"……What?"

I thrust my hand through the bars and seized his collar.

His body, wrecked by prolonged starvation, couldn't even fend off a child's grip.

"If I'm scared of the fourth coming back, I can just kill you right here."

"M-Murder's not like the arena. Think your conscience can bear taking a life?!"

"Hiding that the fourth is alive is already a sin against your family. If you're callous enough to live with that, murder won't faze you either. Right?"

"You, you…!"

"What an idiot."

As I let out a hollow laugh, Duke Ballua went rigid.

This brand of blackmail was something I'd heard ad nauseam in my second life.

[Since you still can't draw out divine power, the whole world will soon know you're a fake. The temple will abandon you, and even the Empress Dowager won't shield you anymore. I've prepared an 'experiment' for a pathetic thing like you.]

He'd hounded me that way and gotten exactly what he wanted.

'But you think I'll fall for it again?'

"Kill me—the man slated for the Apostle Trial—and you'll spend your life hunted by the imperial army. Even your almighty father couldn't clean up the mess if you're caught!"

"Isn't it the same if I let Uncle go?"

"So I don't have to answer your questions anymore?"

I flashed a bright smile.

"Why'd you bother creating Mireyu and sending her? To rattle Duvered? No—if you knew where the fourth was, you wouldn't have risked making a fake. You'd have held the real one hostage and blackmailed them outright."

"……!"

"With your temperament, alchemy or experiments be damned—you'd have turned the fourth into a puppet and jerked her strings."

Duke Ballua's brow furrowed. I knew the sign from living as his daughter in my second life. He was rattled.

"What puzzled me was why you picked Mireyu of all people as the fourth's double."

"……."

"Mireyu was your lover. You knew damn well she wasn't perfect for impersonating the fourth. So why send her in and let her get exposed? I had my suspicions, but you've already given me the answer."

His own threatening words had revealed his aim crystal clear.

"……What?"

"You wanted to unnerve me."

He froze solid and swallowed hard.

"If I stayed under Duvered protection forever, you couldn't pry me loose. So rattle me enough that I'd reach out and grab someone's hand myself."

When I was little, a 'guest' had tried kidnapping me.

That botched attempt nearly exposed his tail, so he switched tactics.

Make me take their hand willingly.

I shoved him back, brushed my hands with a brisk pat-pat, and laughed.

"So there's something about me I don't know. Something your puppet master desperately craves."

"Vicious little bitch…."

"Now I've got just one question left. Who's pulling your strings?"

Duke Ballua flinched and recoiled.

"You think I'll tell you?"

I smiled sweetly.

I didn't need a mirror to know I wore an expression eerily like his own.

I'd learned it watching him in my second life.

"Plenty of time. Let's experiment how much agony a person can take."

I gave Glashalabolras a nod, and Duke Ballua blanched.

Soon the cell reeked of blood, screams ripping through the air.

Only when he was scarcely human anymore did he spill it.

"Igor Marsu!!"

The father of Empress Ivonne. The Empress Dowager's cousin.

The name of a power broker unbound, eclipsing even Duvered.

My face hardened as Duke Ballua crawled forth on his belly, pleading desperately.

"That enough? Spare me. Please…!"

"……."

"Please…."

[Please spare me, Father. Please!]

The me from my second life overlaid his face, wailing.

I fixed him with a steady gaze and told the demon,

"I'll grant your wish. Take that deep, festering grudge—all of it, till you're sick of it."

Glashalabolras's lips curled in a wicked grin.

I strode out without a backward glance. Agonized death rattles chased my heels.

Duke Ballua's death was disguised as suicide before the Apostle Trial.

Suicide on the eve was as good as confessing forbidden power's use. Ballua couldn't dodge clan extermination.

Only Hayton and Nils—who'd turned in their father—escaped the purge.

The trial fizzled out. Duke Ballua's corpse dangled from the ramparts, pelted with stones even by the crowd.

"Pathetic fool. How do his spawn survive with a father like that?"

Marquis Irosen clucked his tongue, and nobles assembled for the trial chimed in one after another.

"At least the kids skipped trial. Calling children as witnesses sat wrong with me. Apostle Trials are too brutal for young eyes."

Count Venice eyed me, perched primly beside Daddy.

As the proprietor of the former Ballua holdings, I'd been slated as witness.

I rose, playing dumb.

"Daddy, head back to the mansion now?"

"You go first."

"What about you?"

"Talks with the nobles."

About the Ballua territories, no doubt.

Clan wiped out meant someone else took the duchy.

Ballua lands weren't as sprawling as Duvered's or as rich as Marsu's, but a duchy all the same—ripe for the picking.

'Grimoire Duke and Duke Amities skipped even by imperial decree, so it'll go to Daddy or Marsu.'

I cheered Daddy on in my head.

If he claimed Ballua Castle, I'd slip in and out easy.

'Gotta see what's hidden there.'

Something on the fourth child might lurk.

'No—with Ballua's paranoia, he wouldn't trust Marsu Duke fully. Bound to have some leash on him.'

I whispered to the councilor at my side.

"Snag Ballua territory, whatever it takes. Start by throttling Spinello."

"Yes, milady."

I bid Daddy farewell and exited the courtroom with the councilor.

'Why target me, Marsu?'

Temple or royals? Made sense—I was the Child of Destiny.

But I was a liability to Marsu.

He chafed at the devout Empress Dowager's antics as much as the Emperor. Never cozy with the temple.

'Why she skipped her own Marsu kin when picking my adoptive home.'

Deep in thought, I bumped into someone.

"Ow!"

"Oh my."

Rubbing my forehead, a hand reached out.

"You alright?"

I looked up. A kindly old man extended his palm.

'Duke Marsu!'

I startled but smoothed my face, beaming innocently.

"Pardon me, Your Grace."

He bellowed a laugh at my proper curtsy. Trailing him: Empress Ivonne and a black-hatted man who looked like an adjutant.

Empress Ivonne introduced me.

"Lady Duvered."

"Ah, the Child of Destiny. Meeting such a celebrity—what a pleasure."

"I've wanted to meet you too."

"Me?"

"Nos said you're the empire's shield—a truly splendid man."

"Eugene Nos…."

He chuckled and nodded.

"Letting him slip away was a pity."

"You know Nos?"

I widened my eyes on purpose.

"Leblain."

Daddy approached from where he'd watched afar.

"Long time, Duke Duvered."

"Yes."

"Still terse as ever. Young or old, unchanged. First time I saw you with your father at the Moon Festival, thought you were quite the character."

Empress Ivonne laughed and shot back.

"Not your first meeting at the Moon Festival. There was before. Remember when the young ladies and lords brawled in the market district, each claiming their 'Three Flower Princes' were best? Father had to break it up."

"Three Flower Princes… Ah, right! You were 'He of the Blue Rose'!"

He of the Blue Rose? What?

I shot Daddy a baffled look. His face was thunderous.

"……?"

Duke Marsu roared with laughter.

"Your father was wildly popular in his youth. Little girls called him that."

"Ah…."

As I mumbled, Duke Marsu pressed on.

"Even Princess Ingrid pined for 'He of the Blue Rose.' Ah—now Marchioness Nodelli."

I snuck another peek at Daddy. Teeth grinding.

"Enough of that in front of my daughter."

'Three Flower Princes—so two more?'

Who were they?

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