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Chapter 109
I Will Be Happy
My steps felt light. I’d planned to keep pretending to be kind until the end, but looking at that brazen face made it hard to hold back.
I never expected that person to be reformed.
But that didn’t matter.
In fact, I hoped they’d act boldly so I could take my revenge. The moment they attacked Diana, who’d shown them kindness, their honor would be ruined. Oddly, a buoyant feeling rose in me. Diana left the prison and headed for the underground cells.
One last thing remained to be settled.
The heavy door of the underground prison opened willingly, as if they’d received word from Giskar. Diana entered cautiously, receiving a knight’s salute. Lordbrock’s subterranean prison was even more brutal.
It was far filthier and damper than where Princess Revian had been held. The deeper she walked, the more oppressive and fishy the stench became.
Diana gripped her pounding heart. It felt like returning to the old mansion’s basement. Cold sweat broke out; she clenched her damp fist and reached the final cell.
The air smelled of blood. Still, she reassured herself that it was something she had to finish today. She didn’t want to put it off. She would purge all the filthy feelings here. Diana stopped before Mirva’s cell.
Under a small glowstone, Mirva lay collapsed and shabby. A groan stopped as soon as Mirva heard Diana’s voice.
“So we meet here again, Mirva.”
“……”
“Our final meeting always seems to be in a place like this.”
She looked even more wretched than in the mansion. Seeing her body, clearly marked by torture, Diana did not turn away from the horror.
“Ugh… ugh.”
“As expected, His Majesty didn’t cut out your tongue.” Diana’s remark sounded almost mocking. A loud bang followed — Mirva had grabbed the bars. She braced herself against the thick iron and managed to pull her body upright. Diana watched each miserable detail.
Mirva sneered through clenched teeth.
“Really… what a disappointment. You failed to take that woman out.”
At Mirva’s scorn, Diana tilted her head.
“That woman? Ah, you mean Princess Revian.”
Diana laughed.
“I never intended to ‘take her out.’ Ha. You held out under torture and didn’t talk about the princess. Such loyalty. Though she’d abandoned you.”
Mirva’s eyes filled with murderous intent. Diana met that gaze and spoke directly.
“You tried to kidnap me and make me a slave — that plan failed. Isn’t it you who failed, not me?”
“Ugh!”
“Let me ask plainly, Mirva. Did you really think I followed you? I wasn’t crazy like you.”
Diana let herself mock her freely. Seeing Mirva’s ferocious face made Diana feel a strange nostalgia — this was the look she knew. Because she knew that expression, unlike her past life, she no longer trusted Mirva when they met again.
“Then why did you bring me here? Miss… why did you come?”
“Maybe you actually came thinking of me, if by any chance.”
“How naive! Ha!”
“Right. I was naive.”
In my previous life I was so naïve that even when I pushed Mirva away, I ended up relying on her. I had been driven to the point where I leaned on the servant I had expelled.
“And I wanted to see how you would act with my own eyes.”
How you drove me into ruin. How you isolated me.
In my previous life Mirva arrived far earlier than she did in this one. It was probably because of the rift with Mabel. Revian was likely behind her then, too.
Mirva had burrowed close to Diana in a way that blocked everyone else from reaching her. She turned potential allies into enemies; even ordinary people became ‘against’ Diana.
She constantly made people think they were dismissing Diana, and she ensured Diana actually was dismissed.
“You drove a wedge between Giskar and me too.”
In truth, she did that more actively in the previous life. Mirva didn’t deny it. Diana thought back to how, in that life, she and Giskar had crossed an irreversible river.
She had accepted her father’s and brother’s deaths. But seeing Mirva now, Diana lost even that faint hope she had once held for Giskar.
Mirva’s death, in the end, had completed the perfect estrangement.
“Why did you do it? I want to ask. I was the one who drove you away, but it was Father and Emil who truly turned their backs on you.”
“……”
“Why me — the youngest and most easy to take advantage of? Why come to find me? You could have stayed by Emil’s side.”
Mirva slammed herself as if unable to contain her rage.
“You still don’t know?”
“What?”
“Me and my son hated you! We couldn’t stand the thought of you becoming happy!”
“What?”
“Because of you — because you freed that slave bastard — all of this happened! The duke died, and my son was left disabled!”
“……”
“But you dared marry that bastard and become happy? That could never be! You must be punished again! Stay by Emil’s side, like that! Emil promised to welcome me brightly!”
So that was it — she wanted Emil. Diana sighed. With Mirva’s temperament, there was no way Emil would accept her.
“I will never see you become happy, even if I die for it! Emil is like this now, so there is no way you can be happy!”
Bang — Mirva struck the bars like a madwoman. The noise rang in Diana’s ears. Diana watched Mirva and remembered the past life.
Mirva in that life probably hadn’t been so different. The duke and Emil were dead; Diana alone had survived, and Alexa’s whereabouts were unknown. Seeing Diana become queen consort of Lordbrock, what would Mirva have done?
Of course she would have wanted to ruin Diana’s happiness. She was always the same. If Diana had been fooled by that pitying look and followed Mirva, in the worst case… Mirva would have dragged Diana into hell.
Some things changed between lives; others didn’t. Mirva was one of the unchanged things.
“Then Mirva, you must die.”
“……”
“When you die, I will be happy.”
Diana whispered quietly. Mirva shrieked.
“No — you will never be happy!”
“……”
“Do you know what your father did? He chased after that slave’s mother like a dog! When that didn’t work, he accused her of witchcraft and had her burned alive. In front of that slave bastard! That woman wouldn’t die easily; she begged to be killed!”
“……”
“He will never forget! You think being made queen makes you remarkable? No — you’re just the daughter of that enemy!”
Mirva laughed loudly. Diana squeezed her eyes shut. She looked up the name Herya. Diana learned that the woman was a half-sibling of the dead king of Panburrow.
Meaning Giskar carried blood of Lordbrock’s royal family. She already knew that; she’d heard it as a child.
Her father had killed Giskar’s mother. But she hadn’t known he’d had her burned. He even made the son into a slave and violated him. That bastard called my father. Hearing their twisted history sent a chill through her. Diana tried not to be swayed by Mirva’s words — but Mirva wouldn’t stop.
“Diana. Aren’t you the same?!”
“……”
“You crazy woman! You were a slave because of him too. Ha! He doesn’t know that?”
“……”
“Do you think you could be happy? Even if I don’t step in, you two were already doomed! You cannot become happy again!”
Hearing that cursed proclamation, Diana bowed her head. Mirva seemed pleased by Diana’s meekness and raised her voice in triumphant laughter. In that moment Mirva was not a criminal but a righteous punisher with elevated purpose.
“At best you’re a foreign queen. The daughter of the family that killed the king’s mother. How could you ever be a real queen? Don’t you know that monster is taking revenge on you?”
At Mirva’s harsh shout, Diana thought of Mirva’s repeated words in the previous life: revenge. Giskar did it for revenge, she had been told.
Diana quelled her trembling heart. Keeping calm, she opened her mouth.
“Yes. I know Giskar is seeking revenge. If he takes revenge, I’ll accept it. It’s my father’s fault.”
“……”
“But the stupid one is you, Mirva. I didn’t raise my slave to be someone who can’t repay kindness.”
“……”
“You said it yourself. I was the one who saved Giskar. I restored that boy’s status. So he wouldn’t want me unhappy. He wouldn’t want me hurt. If I want something, he’ll go out of his way to grant it.”
Diana deliberately mimicked Giskar’s words and smiled brightly.
“Lies? Am I deluding myself alone?”
Now she would awaken from Mirva’s curse-like nightmare. The first step was to invert all those words.
“The proof is here.”
“What, what?”
“You, Mirva. You’re in this prison now. You dared to try to hurt me, the wife of the very man you accused of being a slave. And that’s why you now lie in this miserable state.”
Diana fixed Mirva with an unwavering gaze. Mirva’s pupils began to waver.
“My happiness is mine to decide. I don’t care about your curse anymore. Whatever Giskar does to me, I’ll persevere. If I can’t….”
“……”
“I’ll just die.”
She had already tried suicide once; twice would not be difficult. The thought steeled her. She could do it. She could live differently. Diana whispered to the one who had once been her maid, with much clearer eyes than before.
“And I… will take revenge too, Mirva.”
“……”
“His Majesty invited the Panburrow nobles. For me, sunk in despair.”
Diana smiled as if she were truly beloved.
“Think about it. This is Lordbrock, and Panburrow is essentially destroyed. His Majesty said I could invite my family. Even Emil.”
“…Huh, ugh!”
“Emil said he would wait for me, right? This time, I’m thinking I’ll try waiting for Emil.”
Why hadn’t she realized this before? Why hadn’t she tried? At first she hadn’t even thought of it — she wanted to run. But Mirva’s words spurred her stubbornness.
“You, obsessed with revenge, will understand my feelings, won’t you?”
“…Miss!”
“Isn’t it a pity to die without seeing Emil? Goodbye, Mirva. Let’s not meet in the next life.”
Watching Mirva’s face contort in despair, Diana gave a bitter smile.
“Save me, save me! Let me see Emil even once!”
“……”
“Please, don’t hurt Emil! It’s all my fault!”
“……”
“Miss! Miss! Don’t abandon me! I’m sorry!”
Mirva’s pleas were desperate. But Diana did not look back even once.
