63 - The Crown I Will Take From You
63
“Medeia! Is this truly how you will be?”
Right now, Medeia is the only lifeline Etienne has.
If persuasion doesn't work, they had to move Medeia today, even if it meant resorting to pressure.
"Alright, let's say that's what you think. But, isn't your uncle pleading with you so earnestly?"
The Duke stomped his foot as if he were greatly angered.
"Until now, I've cherished you more than my own daughter. Everyone opposed it, saying you were a cursed child, that your misfortune, which led your brother to his death, would be transferred to me, but I didn't abandon you!"
The Duke knew better than anyone the fear of abandonment that was deeply rooted in his niece's consciousness.
They had interfered in Medeia's life and isolated her, precisely for moments like this.
Even if she didn't understand it logically, they wanted her to give in to their demands out of fear of being abandoned.
"Your aunt took care of you, even putting you before her own children. Was all the affection we poured into you for nothing? Is that why you're disregarding your uncle's words like this? I'm truly disappointed."
He exchanged a look with Catherine. Understanding the signal, Catherine wrapped her arm around her husband as if to stop him.
"Uncle, please calm down. You know that's not what she means."
Medeia's voice was still calm, but her large green eyes flickered. The tips of her fingers, clutching her dress to hide her agitation, were trembling.
Confirming that his threat had worked completely, the Duke pretended to be even more menacing.
"No, I don't know. All I know is that Medeia, or rather our 'Princess,' is a heartless person with no familial affection."
"Uncle..."
"Familial affection, what a sight to behold!"
As Medeia's voice faded, something flew towards the Duke.
Clang-!
The teacup, narrowly missing the Duke, shattered into pieces.
The scroll rolled out of the startled Duke's hand.
"Medeia, what are you doing...!"
When the Duke looked up in surprise, he couldn't help but freeze.
"M-Mother, how did you..."
The Queen Dowager walked out from behind a large screen. It was a blind spot that wasn't visible from where the Regent Duke and his wife were, meant to conceal a slightly recessed empty space.
"I heard all of your cunning and threats very well!"
The Queen Dowager's anger was so vivid that it felt almost blue.
"To try to use the King's Seal in this way! And to threaten your niece to save a vulgar person like Etienne? You've been treating Medeia as a very easy toy all along. You wicked things, even the gods will not forgive you!"
"Mother, that's not, it's a misunderstanding. Please calm down. We'll explain it to you slowly-"
"Misunderstanding? Are you saying that what I saw and heard with my own eyes and ears is a misunderstanding?!"
Since when had the Queen Dowager been there?
Only then could they realize it.
The reception room, impeccably tidy, the Maids standing at attention, and Medeia, who was flustered.
All of this was because there was a prior guest, the Queen Dowager.
"Get out! You are traitors who are ruining Baldina! I don't even want to see your faces! Get out and die!"
"Mother, please calm down!"
"Quiet. Why don't you try calling me an old woman who doesn't know the affection of her children this time! What are you doing! Don't you dare chase those people out of the palace!"
The Queen Dowager was furious.
Duke Claudio and his wife had no chance to make excuses and were dragged out of the palace like baggage by the royal knights.
"Even if one cannot know the heart of a human, I never knew that I wouldn't be able to see the black heart of the child I bore! What kind of monstrous seed was mixed into the Blood of Baldina!"
The Queen Dowager burst out in anger.
"Medeia, has your uncle been like this every time?"
Medeia lowered her head without a word. Sometimes, a single silence is a more powerful answer than a hundred words.
The Queen Dowager's face became even more devastated.
'I thought this child was interfering in state affairs with a naive heart... The things that have been done with Medeia's Seal so far may not have been this child's will.'
It was all Joaquin's manipulation, with his niece Medeia at the forefront.
'Using his own niece as a shield?'
Who is it that truly doesn't know familial affection? Isn't it her only remaining son!
"Grandmother, please calm down. Lord Hertos will resent me if it harms your health."
Medeia handed a warm cup of tea to her grandmother, who was still panting with anger.
"Grandmother, how about moving the Minister to a more isolated place?"
And when the Queen Dowager's anger seemed to have subsided a little, Medeia suggested in a calm voice.
'The person who separates the Minister and my uncle shouldn't be me.'
Medeia still had a lot to do. She couldn't reveal her entire plan just to get rid of the Minister.
Duke Claudio had to realize their true nature, at least after Peleus returned.
The Queen Dowager raised her eyebrows.
"Why do you say that?"
"Siseo (Lord) whispered that the Minister kept using his connections to send Communication device to my uncle even in prison. There were quite a few people who came to see the Minister as well."
"Ha! A man who has been referred to military law, you say? Does he think he's getting a spa treatment in prison?"
The Queen Dowager's expression twisted.
"Grandmother, please understand my uncle. As the Minister's old friend, it must have been difficult for him to ignore his situation."
The art of highlighting the other person's patheticness while pretending to care for them isn't something only Duke Claudio can do.
As Medeia calmly pointed out the errors while showing understanding for her uncle, the Queen Dowager's eyes softened.
"Count Etienne had many followers as the Minister of the Palace. Even my wise uncle is swayed by affection, so wouldn't the Minister's people be even more so?"
The Queen Dowager nodded at the reasonable point.
"I understand. This old woman will take care of it."
\ \ *
The Queen Dowager's decision was immediately executed.
"What, where are you taking me!"
Etienne, who was dragged out, was isolated in the Special Prison where only heinous criminals were imprisoned.
Among them, the deepest and most secluded solitary cell.
The previous prison was already enough to make him faint, but the place he was moved to was the worst, as if that place was heaven.
All the guards were changed, and any access was forbidden on the grounds that he was an execution prisoner. The Communication device that had been going back and forth was also discovered and confiscated.
Being beaten for fun was commonplace, and with the addition of the guards' vulgar harassment, Etienne felt like he was going crazy.
Days passed with no one visiting and no one coming.
Duke Claudio, who was even banned from entering the palace due to the Queen Dowager's anger, was not even aware that Etienne had been secretly moved.
The shadows he controlled tried to infiltrate the palace prison several times, but Siseo (Lord) strengthened the surveillance even more.
As the Minister, who knew nothing about the situation outside the prison, he couldn't help but feel anxious about the sudden silence.
The bell rang, signaling midnight.
It was the time for the gatekeepers guarding the prison to change shifts.
Etienne opened his eyes.
'Really... Was Siseo (Lord) right?'
If there is no news like this until the day of the execution, I will be dragged to the execution ground without being able to do anything.
'If Claudio is trying to eliminate me, there couldn't be a more convenient way.'
But Etienne soon shook his head.
That can't be. I hold a weakness that makes the Regent Duke, and his entire power, unable to move.
'And the Regent Duke also knows that fact.'
Unless he's gone senile in his old age and lost his mind, he wouldn't try to turn against me so openly.
On that cold night, Etienne, who was going back and forth between emotion and reason, fell asleep lightly.
"Keuk keuk!"
He was suffocating.
A rough and hard rope was felt in the hand groping his neck. Someone was strangling him with a rope around his neck.
"Keuk! Keuk! Sa, save... keuk!"
He couldn't even let out a proper groan.
Red fingernail marks were all over his neck as he desperately tried to take off the rope.
In the eyes of the Minister, who had his head raised as much as possible, he saw an assassin wearing a black mask.
The noose tightened even more.
"Wh, who keuk, se, sent keuk. Sa, save, me, keuk, I, can, give, more keuk, money, keuk, any, thing."
The Minister tried to persuade the assassin in any way he could. He took out all the gold nuggets he had carefully hidden inside his underwear and threw them.
Clatter. The sound of yellow gold, shining even in the darkness, rolling across the prison floor echoed, but the other person didn't budge.
'Not just a mere assassin.'
He has a purpose.
Even in the midst of life and death, the Minister's eyes sank deeply. Perhaps his purpose is...
"Die. That's the only way you'll shut your mouth."
"Keuk!"
Shutting his mouth with death!
There is only one person who would try to shut his mouth now.
'Regent Duke! You finally!'
