Chapter 63

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 63

Chapter Title: The Crown I'll Take from You

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"Medea! Is this truly how you intend to act?"

Right now, the only lifeline for Etienne that they could find was Medea.

If persuasion failed, they had to pressure her into action by the end of the day, no matter what.

"Very well, let's say that's how you feel. But won't your uncle beg you like this?"

The duke slammed his foot down as if in a rage.

"Until now, I've cherished you more than my own daughter. Everyone opposed it, saying you were a cursed child whose misfortune had driven your father to death and that it would spread to me too, but I never abandoned you!"

The duke knew better than anyone the deep-seated fear of abandonment rooted in his niece's subconscious.

They had wormed their way into Medea's life and isolated her, all for a moment just like this.

Even if her mind understood the truth, the fear of being discarded would force her to comply with their demands.

"Your aunt set aside her own children to care for you. Was all the love we gave you meaningless? Is that why you're ignoring your uncle like this? I'm truly disappointed."

He exchanged a glance with Catherine. Understanding the signal, she draped her arm around her husband's shoulders as if to calm him.

"Uncle, please compose yourself. You know that's not what she means."

Medea's voice remained calm, but her large emerald eyes wavered. The tips of her fingers clutching her dress trembled as she tried to hide her agitation.

Confirming that his intimidation had fully taken hold, the duke pressed even harder with feigned outrage.

"No, I don't understand at all. All I know is that Medea—no, our 'Princess'—is a heartless woman with no familial bonds."

"Uncle..."

"Familial bonds? What a joke!"

As Medea's voice faltered, something flew straight at the duke.

Crash!

The teacup narrowly grazed past the duke and shattered into pieces.

The scroll rolled from the startled duke's hand.

"Medea, you just...!"

When the duke looked up in shock, he froze in place.

"M-Mother, how are you here...?"

The Queen Dowager stepped out from behind a large curtain. It was a blind spot slightly recessed inward, hidden from the view of the regent duke and duchess.

"I've heard every bit of your scheming and threats perfectly!"

The Queen Dowager's fury was so vivid it felt almost tangible, turning the air blue.

"Is this how you use the king's seal? Threatening your own niece to save a filthy wretch like Etienne? You've treated Medea like some plaything all this time. You wicked things—God won't forgive you either!"

"Mother, th-that's not it, it's a misunderstanding. Please calm down. We'll explain everything carefully—"

"Misunderstanding? Are you saying what I've seen with my eyes and heard with my ears is a misunderstanding?!"

How long had the Queen Dowager been there?

Only then did it dawn on him.

The impeccably tidy drawing room, the maids standing ramrod straight, and Medea's flushed face.

All of it was because the Queen Dowager had arrived first.

"Get out! You're the traitors ruining Baldina! I can't even stand the sight of you! Go die outside!"

"Mother, please calm down!"

"Quiet. Why don't you try calling me an old woman with no love for her children this time! What are you waiting for? Drive these vermin out of the palace!"

The Queen Dowager flew into a rage.

The Claudio duke and duchess were dragged out like luggage by the royal knights before they could even make excuses.

"Even if human hearts are unknowable, I never dreamed I'd fail to see the blackness in the son I birthed! How could such a monster be mixed in Baldina's bloodline?!"

The Queen Dowager bellowed in fury.

"Medea, has your uncle always acted like this?"

Medea lowered her head silently. Sometimes, one moment of silence spoke louder than a hundred words.

The Queen Dowager's face grew even more anguished.

'I thought this child meddled in state affairs out of youthful folly... But maybe none of the things done with Medea's seal were her will after all.'

It had all been Joaquin's schemes, with his niece Medea as the front.

'Using his own flesh and blood as a shield?'

Who was truly devoid of familial affection? It was her one remaining son!

"Grandmother, please calm down. Sir Hertos will blame me if it harms your health."

Medea handed a cup of warm tea to her grandmother, who was still heaving with anger.

"Grandmother, wouldn't it be better to move the minister to a more isolated location?"

Once the Queen Dowager's fury seemed to subside a little, Medea made her suggestion in a calm voice.

'I can't be the one to separate the minister and my uncle.'

Medea still had much to do ahead. She couldn't reveal her full hand just to take down a mere minister.

The Claudio ducal house could only realize her true nature after Peleus returned—at the earliest.

The Queen Dowager raised an eyebrow.

"And why is that?"

"Sir Sise mentioned that even in prison, the minister kept reaching out to Uncle through contacts. Plenty of people have been visiting him too."

"Ha! A man facing court-martial under military law? Does he think he's convalescing in the prison or something?"

The Queen Dowager's face twisted in disgust.

"Grandmother, try to understand Uncle. As the minister's old friend, it must be hard for him to turn a blind eye."

Pretending to sympathize while highlighting the pathetic truth wasn't a skill unique to the Claudio ducal house.

As Medea calmly pointed out the flaw while showing understanding for her uncle, the Queen Dowager's eyes softened.

"Count Etienne had many followers as Interior Minister. Even a shrewd man like Uncle gets swayed by sentiment—his people would be even more so."

The Queen Dowager nodded at the reasonable point.

"Very well. This old woman will handle it."

The Queen Dowager's decision was carried out immediately.

"What is this? Where are you taking me?!"

Etienne, who had been dragged out, was isolated in a special prison reserved for the most vicious criminals.

The deepest, darkest solitary cell among them.

The previous prison had been suffocating enough, but this new one made that seem like paradise by comparison.

The guards were all replaced, and as a condemned prisoner, no access was allowed whatsoever. All his incoming and outgoing messages were discovered and confiscated.

Being beaten for their amusement was routine, and their crude harassments piled on top, driving Etienne to the brink of madness.

Days passed with no visitors, no one coming at all.

The Claudio duke, even forbidden from entering the palace in the Queen Dowager's anger, was still unaware that Etienne had been secretly relocated.

His shadows tried infiltrating the palace prison multiple times, but Sise had tightened surveillance.

Cut off from all news outside, the minister had no choice but to grow anxious.

The midnight bell tolled.

It was the time when the prison gatekeepers changed shifts.

Etienne opened his eyes.

'Could it really be... that Sise was right?'

If silence persisted until execution day, he'd be dragged to the scaffold without a chance to fight back.

'If Claudio wants me gone, this is the most convenient way.'

But Etienne shook his head soon after.

No, that couldn't be. He held the weakness that kept the regent duke—and his entire faction—in check.

'And the regent duke knows that full well.'

Unless senility had rotted his brain in old age, he wouldn't openly turn enemy like this.

In that frigid night, as Etienne drifted into a light sleep while wavering between emotion and reason—

"Gack!"

His breath was cut off.

His hand groped his throat and felt a rough, sturdy rope. Someone was strangling him.

"Guh! Ack! Sp... spare... guh!"

He couldn't even groan properly.

Red nail marks marred his neck as he desperately tried to pry off the rope.

Craining his head back, the minister saw an assassin in a black mask.

The noose tightened further.

"Wh-who... guh, sen...t... guh. Spare... me... ack, I... can... give... more... ack, gold... guh, any...thing."

The minister desperately tried to persuade the assassin. He pulled out and tossed every gold ingot hidden in his undergarments.

Roll, roll. Even in the darkness, the yellow gold gleamed as it tumbled across the prison floor, but the assailant didn't flinch.

'Not some mere assassin.'

This one had a purpose.

Even in the struggle for life, the minister's eyes sank deep. His goal was probably...

"Die. It's the only way to shut your mouth."

"Ack!"

Seal his lips in death!

There was only one who would want to silence him now.

'Regent Duke! You bastard, so it was you after all!'