On the day Selena fainted, the Duke and Lucas were engaged in the urgent task to raid and investigate the Marquisate.

The investigation was swift. They were armed with authorization from the imperial family and led the imperial troops to storm the Marquis’ house.

Taken aback, the Marquis tried to fend off the intruders, but with the palace’s intervention, he couldn’t resist actively.

The Marquis thought to himself.

In fact, he had foreseen such a day since the time the High Priest went crazy.

No, perhaps it had been foreseen from the moment he whispered sweet temptations and extended his hand to himself… That this moment was foreseen from the start.

As he watched the imperial troops rushing down to the basement, he gave a helpless smile.

The Marquis was soon arrested. It was because a secret underground prison covered in blood was discovered in the Marquis’ basement.

Soon, bodies began to be excavated from the backyard of the mansion.

Everyone inside let out a sigh of despair.

It was truly terrible. It was clear that people had been kidnapped and confined in the basement, then killed and buried in the yard.

They must have been brutally murdered like the previous bodies.

How many of those confined in the basement had directly witnessed the deaths of so many people? They must have trembled in fear, dreading their turn.

“Truly inhumane…”

Someone murmured softly, and the others nodded in agreement.

The Marquis’ wrists were soon bound with magical ropes. They were enchanted ropes that couldn’t be easily untied.

The ropes connecting his wrists were held by the imperial investigators ahead of him.

It was as if they were leading a beast.

The Marquis stared at the rope binding his wrists, then carefully looked at Lucas and the Duke, who had come along to command on scene.

As they passed by, the Marquis stopped in his tracks.

“…That person….what happened?”

“That person?… You mean the high priest?”

The Duke replied as the Marquis stopped in front of him.

Unable to discuss the High Priest, the Marquis merely raised his eyebrows in a silent affirmation.

“What happened?”

The Duke responded coldly when the Marquis asked again.

“Dead.”

It was a decisive and stern statement.

Locking eyes with the Duke, the Marquis chuckled. It was eerie to see a criminal laughing while being taken away… It was beyond unsettling.

“Good.”

The Marquis pronounced and started walking. His steps seemed to falter, and his shoulders were heaving up and down.

If the High Priest had pinned the blame on him and escaped, how unbearable that would have been. But to hear that the High Priest had died first… it was somewhat gratifying.

In death, everyone was equal. It would likely be the same even after death. In that case, he would meet the High Priest in hell and settle their score.

“My daughter.”

Before Marquis Lachapelle’s foot crossed the threshold, he stopped once again and gazed at the sky.

The blue sky, with the clouds parting, was incredibly bright. It resembled the blue eyes of the girl at the Duke’s house.

“She knows nothing.”

Lucas sneered at the Marquis. It was almost laughable how a criminal responsible for so many deaths could still think of his family.

He was the epitome of a selfish noble, much like his aunt in her younger days.

“That will come to light once we investigate.”

Lucas’ tone was tender, contrasting with the sharpness of the words he uttered.

It was far more chilling to hear cruel words whispered in a gentle voice.

The Marquis glanced back for a moment. He looked at the two people staring at him from a distance and then turned his head without hesitation.

It was fortunate that his daughter had been sent elsewhere. She didn’t need to see her father in this state.

His words were not lies. Mia truly knew nothing.

She might have known that he wanted the glory of the past, but that was about the extent of it.

She had no idea about the dirty deeds he and the High Priest had engaged in….The child knew nothing.

‘Mia…’

Thinking of Mia’s smiling face, Marquis Lachapelle gazed at the blazing sun and smiled broadly, just as he always had in front of his daughter.

The investigator who had been dragging him along tugged the rope. It was a signal to not waste any more time.

The Marquis had stood there dazed, and as the rope tightened around him his body swayed slightly.

Yes, it was time to end it. There was no point in prolonging it. It would only leave miserable memories for those people.

“…..the High Priest. He was my accomplice. The one I joined hands with… my accomplice.”

The Duke and Lucas looked at the Marquis with a mix of doubt and suspicion. They were trying to guess the reason behind his sudden confession.

However, they would never learn the reason.

The Marquis’ body slowly began to buckle. He fell to his knees in agony and soon collapsed to the ground.

That was how the Marquis met his end. Bound like an animal with rope, he lay sprawled on the cold floor, his eyes unable to close.

It was a pitiful end befitting a sinner.

* * *

Today, we were planning to have a family meal together, which was a rare occasion. A week had passed since I first woke ….since our last meal together almost three to four weeks have gone by.

During that time, I had been confined to my room as a patient, forced to eat tasteless soup, all the while keenly feeling the value of the simple pleasure of chewing.

The rest of the family had been busy with their own affairs. The High Priest’s death and the disappearance of the monsters didn’t mean the end of all our troubles.

Thanks to the subjugation ending earlier than expected, we had to redistribute the budget that had been allocated for military purposes, and reassess the extent of the damage to the territory.

The knights who had worked hard were still on their way back to the Duke’s residence, so there would be a small party for them in a week after we checked their accommodations again.

Ah… there was really so much to do. After all, dealing with the aftermath is often more tedious than the actual cooking.

I idly twiddled my fingers for a while before heading to the dining area at the scheduled time.
 

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