When did Mercedes become so strong?

Since the day he confessed his love, Mercedes often honestly said she even disliked him. While acting confidently.

She was quite different from his timid self.

Carlos set aside his worries and nodded.

“Well then, let’s go in.”

“Yes.”

Carlos ordered the gatekeeper to open the underground prison door.

The heavy iron door with triple locks opened slowly.

Throughout descending the stairs, a damp smell filled the air, and chills rose up. Carlos wrapped his arm around Mercedes’ shoulders.

Mercedes quietly held the large hand embracing her shoulder and calmly went down the stairs.

Underground prisons seem similar everywhere, she thought.

She rather liked that chill and dampness.

Mercedes straightened her back even more.

After going down the stairs a bit, an even thicker iron door appeared, and it opened. After that, they had to open and enter through a door made of iron bars.

The security was much stricter than expected. It was natural since Carlos managed it directly.

They quickly scanned the prisoners confined in the underground prison, and headed to the innermost part.

And there they discovered.

“…Ugh. Uh…”

Count Cromwell, curled up tightly and groaning.

Mercedes patted Carlos’ hand a couple times before leaving his embrace and approaching the cell where Count Cromwell was confined alone.

“It’s better not to get too close-.”

Carlos worriedly tried to hold her back, but Mercedes shook her head.

And she called out to him with a very familiar title.

“Father.”

The count, terrified by pain, hunger, loneliness and fear, suddenly opened his eyes. The massive wig that had always proudly sat on his head was gone, replaced by shabby hair tangled in a mess.

The prisoner’s uniform was also worn out. Mercedes took in every detail of his appearance.

That shabby tangled hair was the hair the countess had grabbed. The lashes on his back were the scars she received from her father’s belt every time.

The torn clothes were the traces her brother left on her, treating her like trash while harassing her. The dirty smell was the filth her sister deliberately had the maids bring and pour on her.

Lastly, the shackles binding his hands and feet… were the gaze and life that everyone in Shame, that Richard, had thrown at her.

The count was accepting her entire life with his whole body.

“You look just like I did, father.”

Mercedes calmly addressed him.

“Me, Mer. Mercedes…! You, you dare to make me like this…! Ah, no. No. No! Right. Have you come to save your father. That’s right. You could tell… tell… *gasp* Your Majesty! Please listen to me just once. Argos really… really Your Majesty’s letter…!”

The count was said to have received 50 lashes before entering here.

Carlos ensured proper sewage treatment and prison hygiene in case of possible epidemics.

But that was it. He did not treat or care for individual prisoners.

Only those deserving death existed in this prison.

If symptoms of disease appeared, healers would be brought in immediately for basic epidemic prevention.

So the prisoners here were rotting away, sustaining themselves on hard bread with wounds that wouldn’t easily heal.

Count Cromwell was no exception.

He received 50 lashes for the first time in his life. If he fainted while being beaten, they poured cold water to make him regain consciousness. For the count who had never hurt even a fingertip in his life, it was pain enough to drive him mad.

So it was natural for him to now cling to her while also getting angry.

“Father. 50 lashes is truly a harsh punishment.”

Mercedes said calmly.

“Ye, yes…! That’s right. H-how, how painful…! Mercedes. How much I, your father, cared for and raised you! Get me out of here! Hurry! Ah… Your Majesty, please!”

The count crawled on the floor, approaching Mercedes. The daughter, radiant as the sun, looked down at her with an expressionless face.

“50 lashes…. Father. There’s something I’m curious about.”

“Yes, Mercedes. You’re curious about something!”

“Do you remember how many times you beat me?”

“…What?”

“Do you remember how many pieces of unchewable bread I ate?”

“What, what are you saying. I… When did I ever do that!”

The count shouted. Mercedes sighed and snickered with derision.

“Father. If it weren’t for the healer, my back would have shown bone between the wounds. Can you see bone on your back?”

“You damned wench, what nonsense…. Ah, no. Mercedes. Your Majesty. I… I was wrong. Please forgive me…!”

The count, who couldn’t tolerate Mercedes talking back at all, suddenly seemed to come to his senses and now knelt down, kowtowing.

It’s true that violence should disappear from the world. But Mercedes thought, if she was going to hell anyway…

Repaying violence with violence, wouldn’t that be allowed?

Couldn’t such things exist somewhere in the world?

That’s why she remained calm looking at her father.

His appearance is miserable?

That appearance was already her own image she had seen countless times in the mirror.

Then is he pitiful?

She didn’t pity him.

Rather, something seemed to be welling up.

What could this be? It was an unfamiliar emotion.

“I came to say my final farewell to you, Father.”

Mercedes crouched down to meet her father’s eyes as he approached. Her bright dress touched the prison floor and got dusty, but she didn’t mind at all.

“Father. You should have left me alone. It’s true that Mother and I had a hard life on the streets, but we wouldn’t have come to you to blackmail you with the existence of an illegitimate child.”

“…!”

“We were happy. At least, in my memories, Mother smiled at me well. She protected me.”

Mercedes closed her eyes for a moment, recalling the distant past.

When she opened them again, transparent green light touched the count. The count was momentarily shocked to see himself reflected in those clear eyes.

His appearance was so very wretched.

“I know what you must have done to my mother. Because you’re cruel…. But I wondered why you brought me. I was just a commodity for you, right?”

Mercedes smiled and reached out her hand.

“Your Majesty, could you step aside for a moment?”

“It seems dangerous for you.”

“He’s all tied up like that. I want to say my final farewell alone.”

“…I’ll wait outside. Scream if anything happens.”

“Yes. Of course.”

Carlos frowned slightly in disapproval before turning away. And the iron door closed.

“Father, father…. How much pain you must have felt.”

Mercedes deliberately spoke in a pitying voice as she reached out her hand. The count trembled as he grasped her hand in return.

And so, after a very long time, she used the power she possessed.

She intended to take just a little life force from her father to give to her nanny. She had to keep her promise, and she didn’t want to take life force from just anyone.

“Mercede… kuh, huk. What are you…!”

“You should have. Left me alone. Just let me live as a little girl who didn’t know you. I would have been fine dying of hunger on the streets with my mother.”

“Kuk.”

A faint white light flowed from Mercedes’ hand, circled the count’s body once, then returned to her.

This much won’t kill the count. And she will ask Carlos to make sure the count is treated. If that doesn’t work, she will come back to return this power.

“I hope you live well here until you remember every moment you swung a whip, belt, candlestick, silverware, ashtray… on my body to vent your anger.”

“Kuh, heu. Ugh…!”

Mercedes stepped back after taking an appropriate amount of life force from him.

“Let’s never see each other again.”

The final words.

This was enough. The long-standing connection with the count had ended.

She heard the rest of the family members would soon be dragged to prison for the crime of having a political criminal as a father. She was told it would be a slightly lighter place than here.

Mercedes lightly moved her steps.

‘Ah, I see.’

Only then could she define the emotion that had welled up.

It was a sense of liberation.

* * *

And that night.

Carlos suddenly had to leave the Imperial Palace.

News urgently reached the palace by fast messenger that remnants defeated in the war were causing battles in quite distant regions.

Carlos was sleeping in the couple’s bedroom.

Gregory anxiously bit his nails in the hallway, debating whether he could enter or report.

After about 5 minutes like that, Carlos suddenly opened the door and came out.

“Yo, Your Majesty!”

“What are you doing here so annoyingly? Your presence is making me lose sleep.”

If he’s sensitive enough to wake up from someone’s presence… isn’t he tired? While worrying about the emperor’s physical condition, Gregory finally brought up his report.

This rebellion was even very large in scale.

“Damn, it was quiet recently.”

Carlos was about to move right away but paused and looked into the room.