Count Cromwell’s eyes were bloodshot. No matter how many letters he sent, there was no reply from Mercedes.

Even the money he had swindled from the king was almost all spent…… The taxes coming from his territory were woefully inadequate. Previously, he had lived lavishly by getting involved in various businesses and making money by trading on the name of Crown Princess Mercedes.

But now there were only taxes. That was not enough to manage this large townhouse.

What should he do?

Was Argos a fraud too? Did that wench fool him? No. She wasn’t a wench with the brains for that in the first place.

If she was smart, she would have done well as the crown princess and later the queen of this country! Would she have been framed for killing the crown prince?

The count wanted to go to her room right now, remind Mercedes of her lowly lineage, and receive the treatment befitting the grace he had shown in raising her.

‘You are never the same as nobility. You are just a lowborn who owes me gratitude!’

‘All you have is your face. Make sure to take good care of it. So that your stupidity doesn’t show!’

That’s what he had said until his mouth wore out, telling her to be grateful to him for raising her well!

He had already written it in the letter. Maybe she didn’t receive the letter?

He heard that since there were so many anonymous secret letters circulating, the king was monitoring all the couriers coming and going throughout the country these days and shooting them all down.

But he was told that the couriers of the merchant group he had entrusted with letters every day by shelling out money were really well-trained…… One never knows. Maybe the king found out……

The count, trembling, wondered if he should go threaten the king or prostrate himself lowly once again.

But threatening was dangerous, and prostrating himself was the last thing he wanted to do. If the king used this territory war as an excuse to demand reparations from him again, it would be the end. If he couldn’t pay, he would have to return the territory, and even the minimum tax revenue would disappear.

Knock, knock.

Then someone knocked on the door. His wife entered the study. As always, she was dressed lavishly.

“What is it? Did you come to nag me again? My head already hurts!”

“Why are you getting angry as soon as I come in? I just came to ask about the situation!”

“The situation? Do you want to hear that we’ll be ruined at this rate?”

“What? How can you be so consis-.”

The harpy scratched at his already rotten insides. As their fight intensified, the expressions of the attendants standing outside became bizarre.

And at that moment.

“Fire! There’s a fire!”

“Evacuate!”

There was a great commotion outside.

“Wh, what’s going on?”

The startled count rose from his seat. The countess was the same. The count hurriedly opened the safe and gathered important things, while the countess left her husband behind and ran out.

Not looking out for each other and running out to escape the fire, they could witness the blaze in the garden.

The fire had not started in the main building.

The fire……

“…… Damn it!”

The fire was coming from the annex where Richard’s illegitimate child was hidden. As soon as he saw it, the count had a lightning realization.

“It’s the king, the king!”

He had threatened him a little, but hadn’t demanded much. He had only demanded a few gold coins and the lifting of his confinement, but to go this far!

The count’s feet moved without him realizing it. If he could save the child in the annex, he could make a comeback. Believing that, he ran.

The startled countess tried to stop him, but the count pushed her away and stood in front of the annex.

But his feet wouldn’t move.

The annex was ablaze.

The count didn’t have the courage to go in there and risk his life.

“Move! It’s a fire!”

The panicked servants who didn’t recognize him in the chaos pushed the count aside and poured dirt and water on the annex.

But it was of no use. The huge fire quickly spread to the uselessly fancy garden trees.

It was literally a firestorm.

“Ah, no!”

Like a tongue-flicking snake, the flames clung stickily to the count’s residence. No matter how much dirt they threw or water they drew, it was useless.

Now it was heading to the main building through the garden.

“N, not the main building. No, no!”

He clutched Richard’s pendant tightly in his hand and shouted. Yet he didn’t think to help put out the fire and just muttered curses.

“Damn it, damn those bastards. Damn……!”

Even in the midst of this, the face that came to mind was Mercedes’ face. If it weren’t for that wench.

No, if that wench’s mother had never entered this house as a maid! If she had never seduced him.

It was the count who had willfully embraced Mercedes’ mother. But at this moment, in his memory, Mercedes’ mother had turned into a wicked temptress who seduced him with her beautiful face.

In the first place, he had to prostrate himself before the king, and had to fight the territory war! And had to lose everything. Why was that? Because of Mercedes!

So that damn mother and daughter…… were no different from demons who had ruined his life.

The count sat on the ground and screamed with fury.

“Can’t you move faster! Y, you useless things! Put out the fire quickly, I say!”

“Here, here! Is there no water?”

“Damn, it’s too far!”

“Faster!”

Even without him shouting, the servants were doing their best. The count was just cursing at them.

“Ah, ahhh! F, fire!”

Then, as the flames got a little closer to him, he sat down in fear and hurriedly backed away. The way he moved his bottom was ridiculous, and his clothes were a mess.

“Master? Why are you here! It’s dangerous. Please step back!”

The butler, who was frantically directing the servants, was startled to see the pitiful count and tried to push him back.

Then the count slapped the butler’s cheek.

“Argh! You go and put out the fire too! What the, what’s happening to me!”

The aged butler clutched his slapped cheek and turned around. Perhaps he was used to being hit. He began directing the servants again to prevent the fire from spreading further.

The count ran out from the annex again and stood far from the flames. His daughter in sleepwear, who had run outside at some point, a strange woman, and his son with his upper body undressed were already standing there.

Thus, the Cromwell family members stood with miserable faces, watching the fire. Without getting close or helping.

Just when it seemed the fire in the annex was dying down a little, the flames flowed along the garden trees and reached the main building.

Like that.

Count Cromwell had to watch the house he had built in his lifetime disappear in a fire.

As the flames intensified, worried that the fire would spread, nobles from the surrounding streets sent their servants, and merchants from the streets also ran out. With more people, the flames began to be brought under control.

And so, only after dawn had passed and morning came, was the fire extinguished.

The Cromwell residence was unrecognizable, with only a few pillars that had once supported the enormous mansion, some unburned walls, and a few pieces of furniture that had become useless.

“Ah, aahh……”

The Cromwell family collapsed on the spot.

The servants quietly looked at the count, then left the place.

The count had lost everything.

So they could no longer work as servants here either.

It was a place that paid quite well as hush money…… but it was also a place they were sick of. The servants walked out of the count’s residence with a strange lightness.

There were also some who spat on the count’s fire-ravaged residence before disappearing.

The count gathered the ashes of the fire scene, squeezed them, and laughed hysterically.

“Haha, ha…….”

This country. The king. Everything had turned its back on him.

Then he would take it back.

From the root of all evil.

He checked the valuables he had barely managed to bring out and looked around at his family.

“Do you think…… I’ll fall like this?”

“…… You…… what are you saying. Aah, we’re really finished now…… Finished.”

The countess, weakened from watching the firestorm all night, staggered, holding her forehead. Her son supported her.

“Mother. Calm down. We have the territory, so if we go down there…….”

“You mean that damn territory that was defeated in battle recently? You think we can live like we do now if we go there?”

The countess rebuked her son with realistic words. The son shut his mouth. She was right.

“This, this is all…… This is all because of you. What on earth have you been doing? Why did a fire suddenly break out! Is someone taking revenge for what you did? I told you to fix that temper of yours!”

As if she didn’t remember how she had whipped and tormented Mercedes, the countess got angry at the count.

The count laughed with a soot-covered face.

“Hey, huh? I…… I’m saying.”

The count laughed, cough, cough.

“I have to get it back.”

“From whom!”

“From that devilish wench!”

He thought that everything that had happened to him was all Mercedes’ fault. So that child had to return everything to him.

With that thought, the count gathered his remaining money.

He got on a public carriage that he would never have taken normally and headed to the merchant group where he had rented couriers every day.

“She may ignore the letters. But ignoring me would be going against the natural order. Mercedes…….”

The count muttered ominously. He had wailed and focused so much that the whites of his eyes were all bloodshot from burst blood vessels.

* * *

“We intercepted a courier heading to the empress.”

“What? Didn’t you say it’s difficult to catch the emperor’s couriers because they are well-trained? And it must have been difficult with the strict surveillance.”

At the empress dowager’s meeting held today as well, good news was delivered. The empress dowager’s eyes twinkled as she looked at the lady of the knight family sitting in front of her.

“Well…… it wasn’t the emperor’s courier. Since the couriers operated by the Shame Merchant Group come in and out every day, it wasn’t difficult to pilfer one or two.”

The other party answered with a smile and placed a thick letter on a silver tray to present to the empress dowager.

The empress dowager, engulfed in a strange excitement, took out the letter and read it. As she read the six pages of reproachful letters, the corners of her mouth slowly turned up.

“Also, about looking into Count Cromwell’s position as you ordered…….”

After the empress dowager finished reading the letter, the marchioness of the Richmond family, who ran the merchant group, stepped forward.

As she listened to the information, the empress dowager’s face now fully brightened.

“Ah. After taking the empress as a daughter-in-law, I rudely did not exchange greetings with the in-laws. An invitation will be needed. Aren’t they the parents of the very first empress?”

The empress dowager said with a very bright smile.

All the ladies sitting around the table with the empress dowager at the center nodded and laughed.

It was an extremely peaceful afternoon.