ICM Chapter 119

“Don’t tell me you’re talking about Glenoa Schwern? The one who was Lord Oclein’s mistress?”

 

“This is a crime of passion. It seems that wasn’t the intention though…”

 

I caught a glimpse of the woman who was confined in a half-deranged state. Her face showed the shock of someone who couldn’t believe what she had done herself.

 

“Ha.”

 

A crime of passion, they said. I had expected there might be some greater conspiracy, but in fact it was an incident that was bewildering to both sides.

 

“The Marquis was very angry about that problem. He’ll probably send Lady Schwern outside the mansion soon. He has no interest in catching the real culprit.”

 

“Send her outside?”

 

“Well… the Marquis dislikes impurities getting mixed into his domain. He never gets his hands dirty directly. He always moves cunningly by using other people.”

 

“In other words, he’s sending her out to do something?”

 

The Marquis would probably want the current chaos to continue for a long time. To do that, he would try to deal with the real culprit as quietly as possible.

 

“So target that moment and take Lady Schwern. Marquis Oclein is petitioning to convene another Noble Council meeting, right? If we catch the real culprit, Lady Igraine will be able to escape from the scandal.”

 

“Shafri.”

 

A heavily settled voice flowed out.

 

“What do you want from me?”

 

She could have reasonably demanded a trade, yet she poured out information like a waterfall.

 

“You must want something to give me this kind of information, right?”

 

“I…”

 

Shafri moistened her dry lips and opened her mouth.

 

“I know the reason why Marquis Maiheller is obsessed with Igraine and Talion.”

 

A strange light appeared in Drushia’s eyes. Whatever Shafri wanted, the real main point was something else.

 

“Continue.”

 

“The Marquis Maiheller family was originally one of the founding contributors to the Empire.”

 

Ashika had mentioned this once before. Three families that received blessings and gained bloodline characteristics in the founding myth. She had also seen the same characteristics in Erwin. She had said that there were not three but four founding contributor families.

 

“Is that important now?”

 

“It’s important. Because it’s the beginning of all these problems.”

 

Shafri hesitated for a moment. She wasn’t sure how much Drushia would believe her.

 

“Do you know how old the Marquis is?”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Nobody knows his age, right? He’s had that same face since I first met the Marquis.”

 

Drushia’s expression became strange. Rather than being surprised, her attitude of waiting for what would come next made Shafri feel odd.

 

“He doesn’t age.”

 

The fact that Drushia wasn’t surprised made Shafri anxious.

 

“Why… aren’t you surprised? Don’t you believe it? In the Maiheller mansion, there are no portraits of previous family heads except for the founding patriarch’s portrait. Not just in the capital mansion, but in the territorial mansion as well. How thoroughly they’ve maintained this secret…”

 

“The Marquis must also know that you know that secret, right?”

 

The color drained from Shafri’s face. That answer was sufficient. Drushia nodded as the obvious fact struck her anew.

 

“Yes, he couldn’t not know. He would have been watching since childhood.”

 

That’s why Shafri had become so desperate. A consumable item that had outlived its usefulness knew the Marquis’s secret. Shafri was feeling threatened for her life. Yet she still couldn’t leave the Marquis family.

 

Shafri reached inside her coat and pulled out a palm-sized notebook.

 

“There’s a secret library in the capital mansion. The founding patriarch’s journal is hidden there, and this is a copy of it.”

 

The hidden side of history. It was a record of how the Maiheller family and the Empire’s royal family were intertwined.

 

“Do you think that has value to me?”

 

“This is… like insurance. That I will help you.”

 

“Don’t beat around the bush. Tell me what you want.”

 

Shafri gripped the notebook tightly in her hand. Her trembling lips opened and closed several times. She held out the notebook to Drushia.

 

Drushia silently took it. Before Shafri let go of the notebook, she barely managed to part her lips. A voice trembling with fear released a desperate wish.

 

“I want the destruction of Maiheller.”

 

It didn’t matter whether Erwin wanted it or not. Shafri wanted to escape. From the monster-like Marquis and the Marquis family that harbored all kinds of secrets. And she would obtain what she desired.

 

A cruel light appeared in her beautiful teal eyes. Maiheller, who had taken her in, used her, and now threatened her life. Anticipating the end of the family she had been part of for 17 years, Shafri’s eyes shone brighter than ever before.

 

Drushia looked down at such a Shafri coldly.

 

The reclusive family, Marquis Maiheller. Unknown to anyone, crouched behind the royal family, they had driven the Grand Duke’s family to destruction and now were targeting Igraine and Talion.

 

A fight that would only end when one side disappeared. Drushia would definitely save Ashika and himself. So there was only one predetermined answer.

 

In the space filled with chilling cold, an even more chilling voice flowed out.

 

“Even if you don’t want it, that’s how it will be.”

 

****

 

The gag in her mouth was soaked with saliva, damp throughout. She couldn’t see ahead because of the blindfold pulled over her eyes. Though she tried twisting her bound body and making sounds, the unidentified men carried her like luggage and dragged her somewhere.

 

Glenoa vaguely sensed her end.

 

‘This can’t be happening. Why me!’

 

It was unfair. She had met the wrong connection, fallen onto the wrong path, and reached this state.

 

‘I’m not the bad one. It’s because he did wrong. It’s Coral who did wrong…’

 

The price for daring to covet a Duke’s fiancée was high. With no family backing and her career as an opera singer already finished long ago, she had become treated as less than bottom-tier in the marriage market for having carried another woman’s man’s child.

 

All of this was because of Coral. She had been deceived by his false whispers of love. She had harbored the vain delusion that he might marry her instead of Ashika, whom he claimed to despise with revulsion.

 

But it wasn’t that he despised her with revulsion – he was trembling with rage because she wouldn’t look back at him. By the time she realized this, there was already a child in her womb.

 

Even when things reached that point, Glenoa waited. Though the situation was different from what she expected, she thought he couldn’t ignore the child she carried in her womb. In the end, he would have no choice but to accept her.

 

But the result was the opposite. Coral never appeared, and instead an aide from the Marquis Oclein family came to find her.

 

High nobles don’t carelessly abandon their bloodline, even if it’s an illegitimate child. The aide forced a choice upon her. Would she have the child taken away and be driven out empty-handed, or would she give up the child early and leave with money?

 

Glenoa chose the latter. Then she chased Coral to the Oclein territory. It was too unfair to end things like this.

 

Throwing away her pride, she clung to him. Rumors had spread so widely that she couldn’t even hold her head up in the capital. Coral, filled with resentment, met with Glenoa while being angry. Like the saying “even bad feelings are still feelings,” it was a relationship that was difficult to cut off easily.

 

For a while, Coral lived drowning in alcohol, but at some point he quit drinking and returned to his right mind. That wasn’t all. He occasionally mentioned that he would inherit Oclein, and then that accident happened.

 

When Glenoa heard the news that Oclein’s eldest son had died in an accident, she had an intuition. That Coral had been involved somehow. However, Glenoa turned away from the truth and clung to Coral. Perhaps this might become an opportunity for her.

 

But Coral ultimately abandoned her and returned to the capital. Seeing him hovering around Ashika again, Glenoa realized. That Coral would never give up on Ashika in the end.

 

She was frustrated and resentful. While his heart truly held another woman, he had deceived her eyes and ears and ultimately pushed her into the gutter. All of it was sins that Coral had committed.

 

She was dragged around for a full day. When she was finally thrown onto the cold dirt floor, someone removed the gag from her mouth for the first time.

 

“Heuup… please… save me.”

 

Even though the blindfold was removed, she couldn’t see ahead because she was covered in tears. When her hands were finally freed, she could barely wipe her eyes wet with dirt and dust and see ahead.

 

“Huk…”

 

The moment her vision cleared, she discovered a large-built man looking down at her. It was a face Glenoa knew.

 

“Du, Duke Talion?”

 

“Do you know you almost fell to your death from a cliff?”

 

“What do you mean…”

 

It was the middle of a forest where dry leaves rustled. Behind Drushia, she could see people who appeared to be knights dragging unconscious people somewhere.

 

She remembered the confused shouting sounds she had heard a little while ago. Her mind was so chaotic that she wanted to faint, so she didn’t know what was happening.

 

‘Those are the people who dragged me out. People from the Marquis Maiheller family.’

 

Glenoa trembled all over.

 

The last person she had seen was Erwin. When she realized she was being dragged to the Marquis Maiheller family, she was bewildered at first. Then, overhearing the conversations of those coming and going, she realized her situation.

 

That she had fallen into an irreversible quagmire. That her life hung by a thread. A mountain cliff near the capital. It was a good place to disguise it as an accident from a misstep or suicide.

 

“Your Grace…, please save me. Please…”

 

It didn’t matter why the person before her eyes was Drushia instead of Erwin. She just instinctively felt that at least he had no intention of harming her.

 

“I can save you. But I have to rescue the person who was unjustly caught up in scandal because of Lady Schwern.”

 

Knowing that the other party had fully regained her senses, Drushia stepped back. Instead, the knights who came with him surrounded her so she couldn’t escape.

 

“That… that is.”

 

“Confess, Lady Schwern. The crime you committed yourself.”