137 - Evil Husband (15th Anniversary Edition) Chapter 137
137
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The Count, who had a somewhat nervous and fastidious air, collapsed to the floor as if breaking, and wept like a child.
It was the first time Aileen had seen the Count like this. She was so surprised that she could only hug her bag tightly and stare at him. Then, snapping out of it, she firmly tucked the bag under her arm. After that, she grabbed Count Domenico's forearm and tried to lift him up.
"Count Domenico! This is no time to be like this."
She wanted to comfort the Count, but more than anything, administering the painkiller was the most urgent thing to do right now.
"First, please don't cry, and let's go to your wife first."
Count Domenico stood up abruptly as soon as he heard those words. He sobbed and led Aileen. Aileen walked alongside him, quickly explaining about Morpheus.
"It's still a prototype, but I've administered it myself, and there may be side effects such as nausea or dizziness."
Count Domenico's wet eyes widened at Aileen's words that she had administered it herself. Aileen looked around for a moment. After confirming that the servants were also far away, she continued.
"In small doses, it's not very addictive. But your wife may inevitably become addicted because of the dosage."
Count Domenico and Aileen entered the Countess's bedroom. The patient's groan was low and subdued. She was suffering from terrible pain, but she was too weak to even scream properly. Count Domenico looked at Aileen with a dumbfounded expression.
"Addiction... you mean."
Aileen closed the door and faced the Count. She had to tell him everything honestly.
"The raw material for the painkiller I made is... opium."
Count Domenico's eyes shook greatly. Aileen continued calmly.
"But this is the only painkiller that can relieve your wife's pain."
It was a statement she was sure of as a pharmacist. Among all existing painkillers, Morpheus would be the most powerful. In the first place, it was not a drug researched for general pain. It was a painkiller for soldiers who had suffered fatal injuries on the battlefield.
"...Opium."
Count Domenico opened his trembling lips.
"I also know that it has been used as a painkiller. Because I have searched for all kinds of medicines for my wife."
The Count had searched for medicine for his wife all over the continent, and had even contacted Palerchia University, where Aileen had studied. Therefore, he had more knowledge of pharmacy than others.
"I trust Aileen. How can I not trust you?"
He asked himself as he smiled and cried with a distorted face.
"Aileen chose my wife over the Grand Duchess's safety..."
She made a drug that was banned in the Empire into a medicine. Count Domenico knew better than anyone what it meant for Aileen, the Grand Duchess, to confess that the raw material of the drug was opium.
"I am grateful just for the opportunity to administer it."
As he was about to kneel on the floor again, Aileen hurriedly grabbed the Count. Then, she opened her bag and began to prepare for the injection.
She checked when the existing painkiller was last administered and the dosage, and adjusted the dosage of Morpheus.
Count Domenico, who was watching the preparation process, suddenly asked.
"Does the painkiller have a name?"
"The name is... Morpheus."
Hopefully, in a comfortable and good dream, she would not feel any pain, even for a moment.
That was the wish Aileen had when she first created Morpheus.
Count Bonepar couldn't understand the situation he was in. He had never, not even in a vague dream, harbored any intention of assassinating Archduke Erzeht.
Of course, he had committed a slight sin. While Archduke Erzeht was fighting the war, he had helped the Calpen Kingdom from behind.
But at the time, the atmosphere was that the Traon Empire was certain to lose. The nobles were lining up to side with Calpen in advance, in preparation for when the Calpen Kingdom would swallow up the Traon Empire. It was a way to maintain their vested interests.
At the right time, Calpen was also actively contacting the Traon nobles. At the time, there were hardly any nobles in Traon who helped Archduke Erzeht's Imperial Army. Far from helping, they even wondered why nobles didn't cooperate with Calpen.
Helping Calpen was a treasonous act, but Count Bonepar thought that his family would not have been so miserably ruined for that sin, which so many others had committed.
If he was being accused of assassinating the Grand Duke and punished because of Calpen, at least a third of Traon's aristocratic society would be stirred up. Clearly, there must have been a serious misunderstanding.
"Your Highness..."
Count Bonepar, sitting naked on a chair, was in a state so miserable that the word 'pathetic' was not enough to describe it. His whole body was covered in bruises, and he was wet with blood and filth.
Every time he opened his mouth, blood gushed out. Count Bonepar, with his reddened teeth, pleaded with the man in front of him.
"Your Highness... Don't you know of my innocence..."
He was the only man in the damp underground prison who was clean and without a drop of blood on him. Whether Count Bonepar pleaded or not, the Grand Duke leisurely lit a cigarette.
Bonepar coughed at the smoke he exhaled. He tried to hold it in, but it was already after a bout of coughing. Cesare lowered the cigarette he was holding in his mouth.
"I heard the Count had pneumonia when he was young."
"Yes, yes...!"
Because of that, his respiratory system was not good. As Count Bonepar answered hastily, the Grand Duke chuckled. The Grand Duke's knight, who was standing next to him, kicked the chair the Count was sitting on and said nonchalantly.
"Hold out your hand."
If he had been naked in front of a young woman, he would have felt ashamed. But after days of pain, he had long forgotten shame.
Count Bonepar carefully watched the knight and politely held out his hands together. The Grand Duke stubbed out the cigarette on the Count's hand.
"...!"
He had been subjected to terrible torture, but the pain of stubbing out a cigarette on his bare skin was still terrible. But the Count gritted his teeth and swallowed his groan. He knew that this was the last chance he had been given.
Sweating profusely and enduring the pain, the Count hid the cigarette butt in his hand and smiled obsequiously.
"Y-Your Highness, Grand Duke, how dare I assassinate Your Highness, how could I commit such an outrageous act? Ask me anything, order me anything. I will tell you everything and follow you. Please, if you would just spare my life..."
When the Count was first arrested and dragged away, no matter how much he protested his innocence, they wouldn't even listen for days. He was just beaten up and tortured without interrogation.
Only today, when his body and mind were tattered, did Archduke Erzeht come to find him. The Count sensed that this was the last chance he had been given.
The story of the former Speaker of the Senate, who was one-eyed, clashing with Archduke Erzeht, plucking out his remaining eye with his own hand, and being banished to the countryside was already famous.
If he resisted here, he would not only have his eyes plucked out, but he would not even be able to save his life. Bonepar was prepared to turn his stomach inside out and tell the Grand Duke everything he knew.
Crimson eyes of unknown depth stared at the Count. The Count felt like he was going to wet himself and tightened his lower abdomen. The Grand Duke said in a leisurely tone.
"What was the order that the King of Calpen gave to the spies of Traon?"
"The Imperial Army's..."
"Aileen Elrod."
The Grand Duke cut off the Count's words with a short word.
"There's no reason to waste each other's time, Count."
At the generous addition, Count Bonepar nodded frantically and said.
"T-The King of Calpen! He was heinous! He harbored a grudge against my son's death and dared to touch Lady Elrod, whom Your Highness cherished."
Count Bonepar hurriedly rummaged through his memories and pulled out what he knew as accurately as possible.
"So, he, he tried to execute Lady Elrod on ridiculous charges, but then Your Highness achieved a great victory in the conquest of Calpen and at the same time executed the King..."
Since the head of the king who gave the order was cut off, the work he was promoting was scattered in a vague manner. If even the Crown Prince of Calpen had held out, the nobles would have forced the execution of Aileen Elrod on drug charges in order to curb the Grand Duke's power.
But the Grand Duke overwhelmingly crushed even the Crown Prince's resistance. So it was gone, and it was something Count Bonepar had already half forgotten.
"So."
The Grand Duke asked quietly.
"Who told the King of Calpen about the existence of Aileen Elrod?"
