A wagon was filled and departed, and an empty wagon came in again. The knights continued to drag prisoners out of the underground prison.

It was a sickening sight. Bloody prisoners were loaded onto the wagon one by one and disappeared somewhere. Peon’s face, which was directing and quietly watching the scene, was eerily expressionless.

Beatrice, who was used to seeing mostly beautiful and pretty sights, had not lived without seeing such scenes at all, but somehow the continuous sight of prisoners being carried away felt extremely grotesque. The most grotesque was Peon, who was quietly watching them one by one.

Should she really face Peon at a time like this?

‘Why at a time like this….’

The former head maid, Doris Windgood, would never have guided Beatrice to such a brutal place. The problem was the changed head maid. It was clear that she deliberately guided her here now!

But what could be done? Now that the butler had become like that, Beatrice had to go through the head maid to see Peon. Before she knew it, the people Beatrice knew in Lucenford had disappeared one by one.

Moreover, it seemed unlikely that Peon would acknowledge her first. In the end, she had no choice but to approach him with a deliberately heavy expression and bow her head. It was a perfect etiquette.

“Your Highness, the Grand Duke.”

His gaze, resembling the cold winter, reached Beatrice.

“Could you spare some time?”

Unknowingly faltering, she added words she had never said before.

“I know you’re busy, but…”

Was it because of that? Peon laughed briefly. He laughed meaninglessly, stood alone, hollow and black, and nodded.

Beatrice couldn’t take her eyes off that fleeting moment. Everything seemed to rush towards one man, and he quietly stood and endlessly swallowed everything. It was an overwhelmingly beautiful and at the same time frightening sight.

“Sure.”

He nodded. But he didn’t move.

“I’d like to move to another place.”

“I’m busy.”

In the end, Beatrice had no choice but to go to Peon’s side while watching the terrible sight. She quickly racked her brain.

Kaella must have gone wrong for sure. And quite badly. Did she voluntarily confess, unable to bear the butler’s accusation out of her concubine’s pride? Or there could have been some accident.

Judging from Peon’s extremely dangerous atmosphere, Beatrice leaned towards that possibility. Sometimes, when triggered, the traps laid here and there can unexpectedly cause a huge earthquake.

“I think I’ve been here for too long. I want to go back.”

Peon, who had granted her time, quietly listened. He seemed more interested in the prisoners who were leaving in a miserable state than in Beatrice.

“Isidore has also returned, and if I stay longer, I think I’ll only be a burden while you’re dealing with the war.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I wanted to be of help to you, but I’m sorry I couldn’t. I have nothing to say for falling ill at a time like this.”

Peon was a taciturn person, so when the two were together, Beatrice usually led the conversation.

“I’m just so sorry to you. Before and after the wedding, I…, I was jealous and upset, as if a close friend was being taken away from me. I should have sent you off well, but I’m so ashamed and sorry that I couldn’t.”

He, who had been looking ahead, glanced down at her.

“I mean it. I should have been kinder to Kaella, but I behaved so badly. I didn’t act my age. I was so embarrassed that I got angrier.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I’ll apologize. I’m really sorry. I want to apologize to Kaella too, would there be time?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Nothing happened, right?”

Peon smiled softly. At that smile, Beatrice momentarily forgot her purpose and gazed at him as if entranced. No matter how much she looked, he was newly beautiful.

“I’m a bit busy. So I’m grateful, albeit regrettably, to hear that you’ll go back on your own.”

“Of course it’s regrettable. I should go back quickly. I’ve spent a lot of time here too. It’s a place I’ve grown quite attached to. I hope Lucenford will always be safe.”

Beatrice, who had been standing next to Peon, turned her body to face him.

“And I hope you’ll be happy, Peon.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You. I hope you live happily with Her Majesty the Empress, doing everything you couldn’t do before. I know that feeling of yours. Because I was by your side, I know it so well.”

From the last sentence, poison began to drip. The restraint was trying to bind stronger.

“I know your heart. It must be so hard for you to manage this place alone. With few people to trust. I heard there was a bad incident. I can’t speak rashly, but I’m always on your side, Peon. Because you’ve been with me all this time, and will continue to be, I’ll remain a faithful friend for life.”

Every single word was poison. While pretending to be humble and stepping back, it was ultimately a brainwashing that now, with the Empress unconscious, the only place for Peon to rely on was this one friend.

Beatrice watched with gleaming pink eyes as a dark, poisonous fog slowly enveloped Peon. It was a restraint that no one could see, known only to her.

“Beatrice.”

“Yes?”

Beatrice, who was watching the fog completely disappear around Peon, answered absentmindedly and looked up at him.

“You thought well. Go back.”

The eyes that should have been soaked in old memories and unfounded devotion if bound by the restraint were completely dry. She was startled despite herself by the eyes devoid of emotion.

The face resembling the Empress was so dazzlingly beautiful that it somehow didn’t look human.

No, perhaps it was because of the contradiction that coldness flowed from the face despite the smile, making him seem like a non-human being.

“Lucenford is a dangerous place, so go back before something happens.”

Somehow it sounded like a threat. Beatrice saw the prisoner being loaded just now. There were people she knew among the northern nobles, but the prisoners’ faces were so swollen that it was impossible to recognize who they were.

“Thank you for worrying about me. As expected, you’re the only one who thinks of me, Peon.”

As if resisting this eerie feeling that kept coming, Beatrice gritted her teeth and added more restraints. You have to look at me. You have to think only of me. I’m a pitiful person who has no one but you. So you have to be there for me.

“Don’t worry. It’ll be fun when you go back.”

Peon, who laughed as if saying ‘I never had such worries’, said something incomprehensible.

“More than Lucenford.”

Everywhere would be more fun than Lucenford. Beatrice looked at the miserable appearances of the prisoners who kept coming out, then glanced at Peon again. He was no longer looking at her, as if he had already finished his business.

The restraint was newly placed. Then, since she had completed all the Emperor’s orders, she could go back, right?

“Ugh…”

Startled by the groan of a prisoner, Beatrice unknowingly stepped back. Right. She had done everything she had to do, so she could go. She had to leave Lucenford right away. The eerie chill kept being felt.

*

Just as when Beatrice Lavalle arrived, she disappeared in a flash through the mysterious magical tool dispatched by the Emperor. Lucenford Castle, where she disappeared, remained gloomily sunken as prisoners continued to be dragged out.

The butler, who had arrogantly requested the Emperor’s investigator be sent to Klein and recited the list of names, was confined to the northernmost tower with his limbs broken.

“Then the guards will be Jane and Nader, you two for now…”

Although it wasn’t a situation where the criminals would escape, there had to be guards to prevent them from running away. As the knight who brought the wagon was selecting the guards, Sir Renar shook his head.

“No. Seal the door.”

“Pardon?”

Weren’t they supposed to be guarded since they were prisoners? At the words full of doubt, Sir Renar did not repeat himself. For a Lucenford knight, an order was sufficient only once.

“Yes, understood.”

The door was locked from the outside. Nails were hammered into the door so that no one could come out. Bang, bang, bang, what could Rolf Anderson, locked inside to the sound of the hammer striking the nails, be thinking? His title and property were stripped, and his name was erased from the noble registry.

Having lost everything and becoming crippled, he couldn’t even scream for help as the Grand Duke personally smashed his mouth. Now he could only quietly await death.

The knights expressionlessly sealed the nailed door with the Grand Duke’s crest. There was no one who dared to open this door and save the criminal against the Grand Duke.

The knights left without a single one remaining, leaving the sealed door behind.

*

Ten days later, when diligent farmers had finished sowing all the seeds, fishermen were actively catching fish in the river, Pueten Fortress became a bit sturdier, and Lucenford Castle’s kitchen entered the final stage of construction. The seal was torn off and the door opened.

The only being who could tear off the seal entered the tower filled with a foul stench. After directly confirming the corpse of the butler who had died with his body twisted, Peon spoke without any emotion.

“Clean it up.”

As the weather had warmed, the corpse had decayed quickly. Even in the terrible stench, the knights, without batting an eye, roughly swept up the corpse and dumped it in the mountains. A criminal has no right to be buried. They will leave it to be torn apart by beasts and birds.

The tower was empty. And quietly standing behind Peon, the next criminal arrived.

The former head maid, Doris Windgood, who had barely survived by eating and living with the help of relatives and narrowly escaped with her life in this war, was suddenly arrested and dragged here. Much older than when she was driven out, she unknowingly groped the floor and prostrated herself.

“Your Highness.”

It was vexing, resentful, and teeth-grinding, but she lay prostrate like a dead mouse.

Hoping that the butler or the people of Lucenford Castle would remember her and come back. She really did nothing wrong. But why did the Grand Duke arrest her again after expelling her?

“Have you heard the rumor that the Grand Duchess tried to poison me?”

“Pardon?”

Doris Windgood lifted her wrinkled and haggard face with a start. Could it be that the Grand Duke summoned her again because of that?

“Yes, yes, I knew it!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I recognized it from the beginning, Your Highness! I knew such a sad thing would happen! That woman is from the south. She’s the Emperor’s niece. In the end, she will sell us out…”

Before she could finish, Peon gestured.

“Lock her up.”

The knights threw Doris Windgood into the tower.

By the time she lifted her head after being tossed, the Grand Duke had already gone out, and the door was closed and completely locked. Dumbfounded, Doris Windgood called out to the Grand Duke, who was completely different from the one she remembered.

“Your Highness? Your Highness!”

The scream was muffled and faintly heard. The knights who coldly closed the door hammered nails as before and sealed it with the Grand Duke’s crest.

Although several criminals who had contacts with Klein and spread information were identified, the only one who senselessly rejected Kaella and kept saying the same thing as the butler was the head maid.

Traces from before the regression remain. Or, it means that in the end, people are all the same whether before the regression or now. Equally evil and equally cruel.

The Grand Duke tirelessly repeated the process of verifying and eliminating, as if without any emotion. Even when corpses were carried out of the tower again, the Grand Duchess still did not wake up. As if she was happy to run away from him, there was no sign of her returning at all.

The only thing a husband who had barely done anything for his wife could do was to offer the lives of all those who had tormented her.

It was shameful that there was nothing else he could do for her. Burn everything, and when he sets fire to this sinner’s body at the end, will she return then?

Peon.

The voice of a father deeply pitying his son was so close that he had become a being transcending humanity.

“Your Highness the Grand Duke. Klein will surely notice.”

“They have already noticed.”

No one could stop him, who acted as if he could ignore the fact that the Emperor was thoroughly searching Lucenford through magical tools and had numerous spies planted.

Peon laughed hollowly like a madman. He had to kill the Emperor anyway.

“But Your Highness.”

“Send the prepared gold ingots.”

“Pardon?”

The Grand Duke, who had always been upright, exemplary, and avoided immoral acts as if having a compulsion, seemed like a different person.

“Our Emperor should also see the gold from the mine.”

See it, go blind, and become deaf. Just as Peon had been before the regression.

He had already experienced the filthiest humiliation and committed the most horrible sins against his wife. So he could do anything. Set the entire Krania Empire on fire, rejoice at the sight of burning sinners, and clear the way for Kaella.

Then gouge out these useless eyes, cut off the ears that were as good as none, cut out the tongue that had hurt Kaella, and pierce the throat. Quietly disappear in front of Kaella. Remain as meaningless dust to the point that she won’t even know he’s gone.

Long after the enormous gold ingots, boasting an immense weight, departed for Klein, the Grand Duchess opened her eyes one day.