THSDR 56

Chapter 56

And the knights were watching that scene.

“Was His Grace always like that?”

“Like what?”

“He doesn’t seem… inhumanly noble anymore. I always thought dukes had blue blood running through them.”

“Blue blood, my foot. He’s just a human like everyone else.”

“…Still, ever since the Duchess arrived, he’s changed a bit.”

“Here we go again. Don’t start reading meaning into everything. It’s just because of young Master Hayden—!”

“You clearly don’t understand that look.”

“Well, not everyone’s experienced love, have they? Try to understand him. This guy’s a total virgin—”

“Hey! That was supposed to be a secret!”

The knights bickered among themselves.

Bogus was among them as well, watching Cheres. What they said wasn’t wrong.

From this distance, it was even clearer. Cheres was smiling more comfortably than ever beside Roana.

‘He’s smiling.’

Bogus repeated the thought to himself.

Ever since the death of the previous duke, Cheres had lost both his voice and his smile. The only reason he had lived even somewhat like a human being was for Hayden.

To a man who had no attachment to his own life, who merely endured it to repay a debt, it felt as if a single warm ray of sunlight had seeped into him.

Bogus took a breath.

It felt like spring was seeping into him as well.

His gaze locked onto Roana. And then to Hayden in her arms.

The child was smiling without a shred of caution.

They say children can sense danger. Yet Hayden was completely relaxed in Roana’s presence.

Bogus pressed a hand to his forehead.

Roana had already seeped into them long ago. At some point, the number of people he had to be loyal to had increased by one more.

Compared to the gentle spring weather outside, the air inside the reception room was as cold as ice.

The moment I saw the man and woman who entered under Lady Yurein’s guidance, I held my breath.

Linette’s parents—the Bureate couple.

As expected of people who had endured the harsh winds of the North, their knuckles were thick and rough, their faces gaunt and weathered. As soon as they entered, they spotted Linette sitting on the sofa.

“……Linette!”

Lady Bureate screamed and ran to her daughter. Linette tried to stand, but her strength gave out and she collapsed back down. Lady Bureate hugged her as if she might break.

Count Bureate stood beside them, clenching his fists so tightly he could not bring himself to properly look at his daughter’s face.

The moment she was in her mother’s arms, Linette broke into tears. Only broken, animal-like sobs escaped her lips.

Rough breathing and wet coughing scattered through the empty air.

This was what Petunia had done—pushed an entire family into ruin. And even now, Petunia was likely living comfortably.

“What in the world happened? What occurred? The Drothe lady said it was just an accident…”

After the long tearful reunion, Linette steadied herself and, with trembling hands, picked up a pen. Her eyes shone with a determination I had never seen before. She had regained her courage in her parents’ arms.

[That is not true, Mother.]

The first sentence she wrote made the Bureate couple freeze.

Linette pressed down on the paper so hard it looked as if she might tear through it.

[That morning… I was on my way back after meeting Lady Yurein. I just thought, as Lady Yurein said, that things between Duchess Petunia and Duchess Roana might improve.]

Linette sniffled.

[I simply ate snacks and relayed what Duchess Petunia said. But on my way back, Lady Drothe stopped me. She snatched the money pouch from my laundry basket and dragged me to Duchess Petunia.]

Her hand trembled violently, crumpling the paper. Tears and ink blurred the writing. She wiped her face with her sleeve and continued.

[Lady Drothe grabbed me and shoved something like a silver needle directly into my tongue. I didn’t even have time to scream. She smiled and said I could become a “gift.” I still don’t understand what that means. She never explained anything. I fainted… and when I woke up, no one was there… and my tongue felt wrong.]

Linette broke down again, as if she still had not exhausted all her tears.

“……!”

A beast-like cry erupted from Lady Bureate.

Petunia.

After losing Morgana, that woman had become consumed by poison and committed such an act against a child. Of course, perhaps Lady Yurein had planted the initial seed. But no one had ordered Petunia to mutilate a child like this.

Just imagining her face made my stomach churn.

Count Bureate steadied his collapsing wife and turned toward me. His eyes were already unhinged—shaking with nothing but a bloodthirsty desire for revenge.

“I admit we gave them an opening. But this was absolutely not a justified punishment.”

Spying and bribing for information—everyone did it. But not everyone went this far. And they hadn’t even heard the full story before acting. There had been no respect for House Bureate at all.

“First… I apologize for trying to use Lady Linette.”

“……She said she didn’t want to go.”

At the Count’s sudden words, I looked at him in confusion.

“I pushed her anyway. I told her, ‘What are you afraid of when the Duchess will protect you?’ I thought she could succeed. I told my daughter—who still had no fiancé—that this was an investment in her future. That she would return unharmed.”

As he spoke, Linette’s sobs grew louder.

“We were all complicit.”

The Count suddenly dropped to his knees in front of me—almost collapsing onto the floor.

“Duchess. Please use us. We are not lowly Northerners. We will become hounds that tear out that woman’s throat. If you allow us revenge against Petunia, we will offer not only our lives—but our souls.”

When he lifted his head, his bloodshot eyes held nothing of pride or dignity. Only rage and desperation burned within them.

“She is a precious daughter we struggled to have. We vowed to give her only the best in the world. We obeyed them for Linette’s sake… and yet she returned without her tongue.”

I had expected poison in food or water. Something like that.

But piercing her tongue with a needle—that was torture.

Forcing open a seventeen-year-old girl’s mouth, holding her tongue, and stabbing it with a needle. I could almost feel the terror Linette must have experienced.

Lady Bureate covered her mouth and turned away.

“They turned my daughter into this… and left as if nothing happened. They told me my daughter simply fell ill!”

The Count’s eyes were different now. Beneath the sorrow, something sharp and burning had taken root.

“Linette told me the Duchess is different from them. That you walk a different path from the Duchess of Hegest. I know how that woman treats her own daughters.”

Flames seemed to ignite in his gaze.

“Duchess… are you enemies with the Duchess of Hegest?”

There is a saying: one inevitably reaps what one sows. Petunia would one day face the consequences of her sins—without fail.

I nodded.

“It seems our goals are aligned, Count.”