ITIF Chapter 121

Tremble in Fear Until the Moment of Death

Through the trial, Lady Oppenheimer’s false accusation for Trinity’s murder was cleared.

Accordingly, Lady Oppenheimer was to receive substantial compensation.

There was no other way to compensate for the hardships she had endured in prison.

“You’ve been through… so much.”

Giselle Grante spoke with difficulty to Lady Oppenheimer, who was looking around the interior before leaving the prison.

In truth, there was something else she really wanted to say. But if she apologized, Lady Oppenheimer would only be confused.

Because she didn’t know that the person inside Giselle Grante was Trinity.

Then Lady Oppenheimer took out parchment and began writing something.

<I’ve been through so much. I’ll never come near a place like this again.>

In Lady Oppenheimer’s expression, one could read both bitter pain and a somehow relieved emotion.

“How is your body?”

<I’ve become unable to speak… but I’m still happy and grateful just to be able to leave the prison. To be honest, living while waiting only for the day I would die was too difficult. And to do so unjustly… Anyway, thank you. I heard that Lady Amaterasu worked hard for me.>

After reading the characters written on the parchment, Giselle Grante hesitated for a moment.

In fact, after learning that Lady Oppenheimer had become unable to speak, she had made inquiries everywhere.

Whether there might be a way to heal the severed tongue when she eventually rescued her from prison.

She had consulted with Kavelaseth about this matter, and thanks to his excellent information network, they were able to find a case where a tongue that had been cut off in an accident had grown back.

So she was looking into it.

The words that perhaps she might be able to speak again surged to the tip of her throat, but she swallowed them down.

She didn’t want to give her false hope unnecessarily.

When Giselle Grante, who had been heading outside, suddenly stopped in her tracks, Lady Oppenheimer asked.

<What’s wrong?>

“I remembered some business I need to attend to here.”

Saying this, Giselle Grante glanced at the man beyond the iron bars.

Lady Oppenheimer nodded as if she understood and left the prison first.

“…….”

Giselle Grante, who had been watching Lady Oppenheimer’s retreating figure, leaned her back against the cold stone wall and approached the man who was sitting and staring blankly somewhere.

“Have you heard the news that the Empress’s sentence has been confirmed?”

Only then did Joshua raise his head. And he made eye contact with Giselle Grante.

Joshua’s green eyes, tinged with gray, were trembling finely.

“Are you scared?”

Giselle Grante bent her knees slightly to meet Joshua’s eye level.

She could clearly see Joshua’s expression distorting in real time as she faced him more closely.

“Did you come to mock me?”

Joshua glared at Giselle Grante with narrowed eyes and spoke.

“…….”

“Lady Amaterasu. You weren’t the only one. Besides you, several people came to visit and mock my current state before leaving.”

Giselle Grante clicked her tongue softly.

“Ah… I see.”

The voice that came out was so calm and composed that even she was surprised.

It was because she had no intention of mocking or ridiculing Joshua.

She could feel Joshua’s blatant gaze pouring onto her face.

As if trying to figure out what expression she was making now, what thoughts she was facing him with.

“You don’t seem to have come to mock me. Then why did you come to see me?”

Giselle Grante nodded to indicate her agreement with Joshua’s words.

Then a light of hope began to faintly shine in Joshua’s green eyes.

“Has it been revealed that the mark on that bastard Kavelaseth’s body was fake? I knew it. There couldn’t be anyone else besides me who was born with the mark of the divine descendant…”

Judging that the words he had uttered were quite plausible, Joshua nodded and added.

“Then the position of the next emperor would be vacant, which would be troublesome.”

She was a bit curious about how his thoughts could spread so conveniently in his favor, but she didn’t bother to ask.

Instead, she said what she wanted to say.

“That’s not it. Shu.”

At the dry voice flowing from between Giselle Grante’s teeth, Joshua’s expression stiffened instantly.

Joshua, who had blinked slowly a few times, asked.

“Lady Amaterasu… did you just call me Shu?”

Joshua’s voice was trembling finely.

“Yes. Shu.”

Giselle Grante put Joshua’s childhood nickname on her lips once more.

Joshua, who had been glaring at her as if he would tear her to death, soon opened his mouth as if he had realized something.

“Princess Trinity, my sister, must have told you stories from childhood. Is that it?”

To Joshua’s gaze asking if what he thought was correct, Giselle Grante shook her head slowly while wearing a faint smile.

“You’re completely wrong. Shu.”

With her mouth closed for a moment, Giselle Grante stared intently at Joshua’s wavering eyes. Then she continued speaking.

“First of all, I didn’t come to mock you. I didn’t come to see you either. The person I came to see was Lady Oppenheimer.”

Joshua’s eyes began to shake violently.

Even though he didn’t speak, she could tell what his feelings must be like now.

Joshua had always been treated as the most important person in the world.

To such a person, the words Giselle Grante had just conveyed held great meaning.

‘You’re not special, you’re not an important person to me.’

She knew how much such words could ruin Joshua’s mood.

‘It must feel like his world is collapsing.’

Joshua asked back in a trembling voice.

“You mean you just came to see Lady Oppenheimer and happened to run into me by chance?”

“That’s right.”

Looking at Joshua’s face, frozen in shock, Giselle Grante continued speaking.

“Lady Oppenheimer suffered too much because of your mother’s greed. Physical wounds can be healed. But wounds inflicted on the heart remain for a long time.”

Looking at Joshua’s face, which seemed full of thoughts, Giselle Grante continued.

“…Shu, you knew everything, didn’t you? What the Empress—no, your mother—tried to do to me, how she killed father. Don’t say you didn’t know. You knew and did nothing. You only took advantage of what your mother did.”

There’s no need to take on the wrongdoings of family members.

But if he at least knew, couldn’t he have done something?

So Joshua had been complicit in everything the Empress did, and that too was ultimately Joshua’s choice.

“So in all matters, you’re an accomplice.”

With those words, Giselle Grante straightened her knees that she had bent to match his eye level.

Accomplice. Joshua would know well what that word meant. And the Empress, who was Joshua’s accomplice, was facing execution.

‘Let’s see you tremble in fear until the moment of death.’

****

Giselle Grante boarded the carriage with a somewhat troubled mind. The reason wasn’t solely because of Joshua and the Empress who would soon die.

This morning—that is, before she went to the imperial palace and accidentally ran into Joshua—it was because of what Kavelaseth had said.

[I’d like to spend this evening together if possible. Do you have time?]

Was it just her imagination that his expression and tone at that time felt somehow meaningful?

‘It seemed like he had something to say…’

Since Kavelaseth’s psychology was hard to predict, she tried to ask him why, but Count Preston spoke to him first.

As the two men’s conversation grew longer, Giselle Grante had to leave the Cardia ducal residence, promising to meet later.

‘Well… I’ll find out when I meet him later.’

Thinking that, she turned her head toward the window when the carriage stopped.

Giselle Grante’s face was reflected in the large glass window on the bustling street lined with luxury shops.

She stared intently at her own appearance.

The violet eyes that had been like charoite now had a deep, ocean-blue color, and the ashen hair that had looked cold was now sparkling blonde.

All of it felt like an indicator that things could never return to how they were before.

There was no way to reclaim what had been taken.

She could only repay them by taking what was theirs. And that end was approaching.

It was the moment she decided that when this revenge was over, she would truly forget Trinity’s life and live as Giselle Grante.

The carriage that had been stopped for a moment started moving.

“…….”

Just then, a breeze that blew gently swayed a few strands of Giselle Grante’s blonde hair.

The wind blowing through the window gap felt particularly refreshing today.

She swept back the hair brushing her cheek and turned her head forward.

By the time the scenery outside the carriage showed the now-familiar Cardia ducal residence, the sun was already setting.

After getting off the carriage, Giselle Grante stopped for a moment before entering the mansion and looked up at the sky.

She was captivated by the beautiful yet disparate scenery of the sun dyed golden and the sky as if painted over with blue and red paint.

It was then.

“Giselle.”

A soft, low voice called out to her.

She slowly turned her head and took in the sight of Kavelaseth walking toward her.

“Are you just returning now?”

Kavelaseth, who had nodded, asked back.

“How about taking a walk with me for a moment?”

She had just been thinking that the weather outside was too nice to go straight into the mansion.

As the harvest season was approaching, the blowing wind was quite refreshing.

“That sounds good.”

Thus, the two entered the path leading to the garden.

“…?”

But Kavelaseth was acting strange as expected.

He clearly seemed to have something to say, but not bringing up his business right away was also unlike him.