ATPE 13

Chapter 13

After the Escape Was Over

But Angela did not stop there.

Once she started talking about her passionate admiration, her words continued endlessly.

“Ah, of course, his physical qualities are wonderful too. He’s handsome, expressive, and even his voice is amazing!”

“Aah. Yes⋯⋯.”

“And not only that, but he’s really good with his tongue too.”

Angela had only been praising his excellent pronunciation and vocal skills that allowed him to flawlessly deliver even extremely difficult rapid-fire lines.

But naturally, Serenia misunderstood it in a strange way.

Serenia’s ears turned bright red.

“Ah! But it’s not just his tongue. He uses his body really well too!”

“⋯⋯Pardon?”

“Unlike those stiff stick-like people, the way his dynamic lines are expressed is truly exceptional⋯⋯.”

Unable to endure Angela’s vulgar-sounding comments any longer (at least to Serenia, they sounded vulgar), she loudly shouted:

“Aaaah! Please stop already!”

Serenia became red from head to toe and covered her ears while nearly crying.

“I don’t want to know things like that!”

Seeing her reaction, Angela gasped and covered her mouth.

“Oh my. I’m sorry. Did my words just become spoilers?”

“⋯⋯Pardon?”

Spoilers? What was that? Something edible? Some kind of soup?

Even while nearly tearing up from extreme embarrassment, Serenia tilted her head in confusion.

Angela looked at her strangely before slowly nodding.

“It seems you still haven’t seen Ain while he’s working.”

Serenia desperately held back the urge to shout:

‘I don’t plan to see something like that, and I don’t want to either!’

At her silence, Angela smiled brightly and said:

“If you ever have time, you should definitely go watch him once. Ain always humbly says it’s just work, but it’s truly an incredible work of art.”

At those words, Serenia’s face became even redder than a tomato as she stutteringly asked:

“D-Doesn’t your husband say anything⋯⋯ about you going to places like that?”

Angela paused briefly but soon shrugged her shoulders.

“What would he say? If anything, he would probably praise me from afar. Thanks to Ain, I gained the determination to continue living without my husband.”

Unfortunately, Serenia misunderstood those words to mean Angela divorced her husband because of Ain.

Serenia clenched her fists tightly.

‘You horrible destroyer of families! You’re worse than a loan shark! Worse than the Devil King himself!’

Meanwhile, Angela gently smiled and wrapped up the conversation.

“Oh dear. I enjoyed talking too much and ended up saying far too many things.”

“⋯⋯.”

“It’s already late, so I’ll take my leave now. Please have a peaceful night, dear guest.”

After Angela left, Serenia locked every single lock on the hotel room door before diving onto the bed and pulling the blanket over her head.

Then she shouted with all her strength:

“What do I do?! I don’t want to get married!! I really don’t want to!!”

If she followed her heart, she wanted to tear apart the contract no matter what happened to the six million crovats.

But the rational side of her, worn down by harsh reality, would not allow such self-destructive behavior.

Rolling around on the bed in misery while struggling against a reality she did not want to admit, she quietly sniffled for quite a while.

Then suddenly she rustled around and crawled out from under the blanket.

She found the medicine container she received earlier on the table near the room door and roughly applied the medicine onto her cheek without even looking in the mirror.

Then she crawled back under the blanket and slowly fell asleep.

If someone had seen her, they would probably have nodded and said:

“Ah, so this is what marriage blues look like.”

Meanwhile, at the same time, this was happening at the Barishart estate.

Because the reporters still refused to leave even late at night, nearby residents filed a complaint with the capital guards.

After receiving the report, the capital guards drove away the reporters surrounding the estate and knocked on the mansion door to check inside.

However, no matter how much they knocked, there was no response from within.

Not knowing that the Barishart Count family, which was practically ruined already, no longer had butlers or servants, they took the silence as a sign of trouble and broke down the front door before rushing inside.

The cold, lifeless air inside greeted them.

There was not even a trace of warmth or human presence.

Looking at the nearly empty mansion with most of its belongings already gone, they thought:

‘Was there a robbery?’

But after thinking about it again, that made no sense.

Reporters testified that Serenia Barishart had definitely been inside the estate earlier that morning.

And after that, reporters had continuously surrounded the estate, leaving no chance for thieves to break in.

Unable to understand the situation, the guards searched throughout the mansion and eventually discovered a hidden escape route in the basement.

There was only one conclusion they could reach.

A group of ignorant thieves had luckily discovered the secret passage and entered the mansion.

Then they stole everything valuable and even kidnapped the beautiful count’s daughter, who was soon supposed to become the Duke’s bride.

The guards immediately turned pale and hurriedly reported the situation to their superiors.

And shortly afterward—

Rascal Admancanon, Duke of the Kingdom and Minister of Military Affairs responsible for national defense and security, personally arrived at the Barishart estate.

The moment he saw the traces left behind in the mansion, he let out a dry laugh.

“⋯⋯She ran away.”

“Pardon?”

“And with one unwelcome guest too.”

“An unwelcome guest⋯⋯?”

Leaving the confused guards behind, he walked out of the estate.

Then he coldly spoke to his adjutant, Joshua Milton, who was waiting outside.

“Tell Marquis Milton to clean up the reporters properly.”

Then he added in a low voice:

“Once that’s done, bring me Nelson Gallute.”

Nelson Gallute was the true boss of the Gallute Family, the massive criminal organization controlling the First District of Pledes.

Even though it was not a name that should casually come from the mouth of a duke and military minister of this kingdom, Joshua showed no sign of surprise and simply nodded.

“The usual place we always meet at. Right?”

Before being Rascal’s adjutant, he was his friend of ten years.

Despite Rascal’s terrible personality being bad enough to make people question his humanity, Joshua had survived beside him for an entire decade.

He was calm enough to not lose his composure even when sudden work dropped on him in the middle of the night.

To him, Rascal gave only a short nod in response.

While Joshua quietly disappeared into the darkness, Rascal let out a long breath into the empty air.

“⋯⋯Why do humans only learn after experiencing it themselves that escaping is pointless for creatures as small as fleas?”

“Tsk.”

The sound of someone clicking their tongue sharply escaped from inside a pitch-black carriage.

The owner of that sound was Bianca Admancanon, Dalia Admancanon’s distant niece and also her secretary.

Lowering the telescope in her hand, she grumbled:

“They’re completely involved already. Completely.”

She could not hide her displeased expression at how differently things had turned out from her original plan.

When she received orders from the former Duchess earlier that morning, she thought she had gained a perfect opportunity.

A perfect chance to test the masterpiece she had recently created—

A colorless, odorless, tasteless poison.

Her masterpiece had sacrificed quite a lot of toxicity in order to become completely “tasteless,” so within the family it was considered mostly useless.

However, it was still more than enough to ruin the body of a woman with no poison resistance whatsoever.

To be honest, Bianca had no personal grudge against Serenia Barishart.

But through this incident, she absolutely needed her work to be recognized by the family.

“That way I can get more research funding!”

Driven only by the desire to secure more research money, she was currently hiding late at night on a hill overlooking the Barishart estate.

She had been debating whether to bribe the cook, bribe a maid, or directly poison the ingredients delivered to the mansion.

But somehow, this stupid estate had no cook, no maid, no ingredients, and not even the count’s daughter herself!

“I waited just in case, but instead of the person I wanted, Rascal showed up.”

While continuously clicking her tongue, Bianca quickly changed her plans.

If poison was impossible now, then?

“⋯⋯Then I just need to surround her with enough scandal to destroy the marriage talks.”

For example, rumors that she was a promiscuous, vulgar, and immoral woman frequently visiting entertainment establishments despite being engaged.

Muttering to herself in satisfaction at her new plan, Bianca said:

“I’ll need a black wig.”

Serenia woke up at the sound of a morning newspaper dropping in front of the hotel room door.

Still half asleep, she got up and picked up the newspaper with her slightly swollen face.

Then she quickly washed her face with freezing cold water and immediately returned to her usual neat appearance.

Letting out a sigh, she applied medicine to her cheek and opened the newspaper with the face of someone already exhausted by life.

A very familiar face occupied the front page of the kingdom’s only daily newspaper, the Shedron Times.

“Ugh.”

Looking at the perfectly timed photograph of herself making a startled expression while awkwardly trying to close the window in panic, she clicked her tongue.