Ch#83
2023.11.22.
"If that's not the case, then it seems premature to talk about ending the contract."
"But... there's nothing more I can do now. That's all I remember."
"Have you forgotten? You are the sole survivor and witness of that incident. Your testimony in court will serve as powerful evidence to clear Empress Esmeralda's wrongful death."
After thinking and thinking again, the method he came up with was...
"If you truly cared for Empress Esmeralda, and if you feel even a shred of guilt for your mother's sins."
Deliberately prodding the guilt of the woman who felt an excessive sense of responsibility even for trivial matters, making her crumble.
And as expected, Blair shook helplessly at just that one sentence.
Herdin felt a strange sense of relief at her pitiful sight and drove the wedge in.
"I believe you have at least that much sense of responsibility."
"......"
"We'll discuss ending the contract later."
Herdin declared it so and looked at Blair.
Blair, who had been staring at him with wavering eyes for a moment, soon lowered her gaze as if resigned and opened her mouth.
"......I understand. But we must hurry as much as possible."
Relief at her compliant answer was brief; the words that followed grated on Herdin's nerves.
In response to his naive wife's words, he overlapped their lips instead of replying. At the same time, his naturally risen large frame covered her body.
Before the startled Blair could stop him, the blanket covering them shook violently once.
"Ngh......"
Blair furrowed her brow and inhaled sharply. There was no pain thanks to the traces he had filled her with all night, but it was still overwhelming.
Herdin pulled her even deeper into his embrace and glanced at the bedside table.
There sat Blair's medicine bottle, unopened for days—no, he hadn't given it a chance to be opened.
He lowered his gaze to her, who looked up at him with a pitiful face, and overlapped their lips.
His belated reply came in the fleeting moment their lips parted.
"Yes, as quickly as possible."
By any means necessary.
* * *
After finishing noon prayers, Gerard paused the moment he opened the door to his annex room.
A note lay at his feet.
He entered calmly, closed the door, picked up the note, and unfolded it.
[Our tails have been stepped on.]
The brief content of the letter, lacking sender, recipient, or subject, was just that.
Gerard's face crumpled into something entirely unlike his usual gentle expression upon reading the short note.
"Tsk, those fools."
The moment he finished reading, the embedded magic activated, burning the paper tracelessly.
The original plan had been to help Katrina erase Blair's incident memories completely with Black Magic, but now they risked exposure to Duke Delmark in reverse.
'In that case, it's time to cut off the tails.'
The Retired Empress was a useful card, but he had no intention of ruining the grand plan by clinging to it foolishly.
And above all...
'It's a card that's served its purpose now.'
His grand design was already in its final stages.
Now it was time to tidy up the surroundings and quietly wait for the picture to complete itself.
Gerard took out his pocket watch.
3 o'clock.
His faithful child would likely be praying in the chapel at this hour.
Gerard left the annex and headed to the small chapel on the east side of the Temple.
This small chapel was where the Temple orphanage children gathered weekly for worship, and occasionally, orphanage graduates who had come of age and entered society returned for prayers.
Entering the chapel, he saw a familiar back in prayer.
Gerard approached from behind with a chilling smile.
"You come so diligently to pray every time, Kalligo."
Kalligo, who had been praying, turned as if he had already sensed the presence, grinning.
"Of course. I made a promise with Your Holiness."
"That was over ten years ago, so you could have pretended to forget and skipped it."
"Betraying God's faithful servant might send me to hell. I want to go to heaven."
At Kalligo's jest, Gerard chuckled and lightly patted his sturdy shoulder.
"God will surely be moved by your devotion."
"I hope so."
"By the way, you said you were busy with a recent task—yet you've made time. Did it go well?"
"No, not yet. I'm working on it day and night, but I can't find an opening."
Kalligo glossed over the details of the confidential mission from Herdin, as he couldn't speak of it openly.
Gerard was his benefactor who had taken him in, but he was benevolent to all, including Katrina, and Kalligo served Herdin, who opposed such Katrina.
The soft gaze Gerard had been giving Kalligo changed in the next moment.
"Then, shall I help you a bit?"
"Pardon? How would Your Holiness...?"
Gerard stepped closer to the puzzled Kalligo and spoke.
"Kalligo, my faithful child."
Gerard's eyes turned red, and a grotesque voice unlike a human's flowed from his mouth.
A Black Magic circle appeared on the back of Kalligo's neck, and the focus vanished from his eyes.
Gerard whispered chillingly into Kalligo's ear.
"Go to Duke Delmark and deliver the evidence."
"......"
"The evidence that Retired Empress Katrina killed former Empress Esmeralda."
His whispering eyes gleamed coldly.
* * *
"So this is the token Marina Florang received as payment for assassinating Empress Esmeralda?"
That night, Herdin brought the urgently visiting Kalligo to his study.
What Kalligo had brought as evidence from the fire incident ten years ago was a coin engraved with a unique pattern.
Kalligo nodded.
"Yes. The pawnshop recognized it immediately. They said if someone brought this coin, to pay them the amount."
"And who was listed as the payer?"
"It was Viscount Vernon, the younger brother of Countess Magrid."
Marina Florang had been one of the maids in the Empress Palace under Esmeralda at the time of the incident. She was also found as a corpse right beside Esmeralda.
At the time, it was speculated she had tried to stop Esmeralda from killing Blair, but Blair's recovered memories told a different story.
Marina Florang had killed Esmeralda without knowing Blair was there.
Meaning her purpose had been assassination from the start.
'She probably planned to assassinate Empress Esmeralda and flee, taking the promised payment from the pawnshop with this coin.'
But due to Blair's sudden attack, she hit her head and died pathetically, foiling the plan.
Thus, Marina Florang died, and the soldier who first arrived to clean up the fire scene found and collected this coin from her bosom.
Not knowing its purpose, the soldier tried to sell it to a junk dealer for drinking money, but realized it was a key piece of evidence in the incident.
Fearing punishment for concealing major evidence if he sold it, he hid it for ten years...
That was the full story Kalligo relayed.
'If it were me, I would have thrown it into the river the moment I learned the truth.'
He wondered why the soldier had kept it for over ten years despite his fear, but regardless, since the payer was linked to Katrina, this coin was compelling evidence.
Viscount Vernon, the younger brother of Katrina's confidante maid, no less.
But Herdin's expression darkened as he gazed at the coin glinting in the candlelight.
"......You've done well so far. Go rest today, and tomorrow track down who minted this coin and secure their testimony."
At that moment, the Black Magic circle appeared on the back of Kalligo's neck and soon faded away with a hiss. His unfocused eyes sharpened.
"Uh...... Pardon?"
The memories remained intact, yet felt like something from a dream, not his own.
Herdin looked at Kalligo quizzically as he repeated in bewilderment, then spoke once more.
"I said go rest."
"Ah...... Yes. Good night, Your Grace."
Kalligo scratched the back of his neck and bowed before leaving the study.
Alone in the study, Herdin stared blankly at the coin in his hand.
Once testimony was secured, he could clear Esmeralda's name. It was what he had desperately wished for over the past ten years.
With the moment of fulfilling that earnest wish so close, to hesitate over mere personal feelings...
As Herdin mocked himself, the faint chime of the grandfather clock echoed through the quiet residence.
Suddenly, he recalled leaving Blair asleep in the bedroom that morning after tormenting her from dawn till night.
Her long lashes wet with tears as she slept soundly, her small lips reddened from being sucked and bitten all day, her soft body burrowing back into the arms of the very man who had tormented her so.
The moment he thought of her sleeping defenselessly alone in the bedroom, his body reacted instinctively.
"......Ha."
Even now, after holding her ceaselessly, he craved her endlessly without tiring—it was absurd.
Feeling the ache in his lower abdomen, Herdin put the coin in his drawer, locked it, and hurriedly left the study.
But what awaited him upon returning to the bedroom was...
"......Blair?"
An empty bed.
