Blake left Lucy’s room as he was.

As much as anger was rising, it was time to check if the sword-wielding fool was quietly guarding his elder sister’s side.

No matter how sharp the sword, what his brother-in-law was currently holding was no different from a double-edged sword.

If wielded incorrectly, it was clear that his brother-in-law’s neck would fly off.

Blake walked down the dim corridor and stood in front of the bedroom.

No matter how quietly he came, if Damian had been inside, he would surely have noticed his presence.

However, even thinking about that, the inside was too quiet.

There was hardly any sign of life.

Blake opened the door with a bang and frowned.

His elder sister was lying in the bedroom, and next to her was not his brother-in-law, but a maid dozing off.

“No way…”

Blake frowned as he came out.

*

Clank- squeak. Clank- squeak.

The sound of metal echoed on the tiled floor. With each drag of the blade, blood dripped underneath.

In the darkness of the basement, only one person’s footsteps echoed. It seemed as if only one had survived.

The door to the basement, where complete darkness reigned as all the candles on the walls had gone out, opened with a thud.

Unable to make a single breath, the subordinates knelt in place, waiting for the man coming up from the basement.

“…Let’s go.”

A low voice echoed through the church’s grand hall. Moonlight shone through the glass above the man’s head.

As he slowly opened the blood-soaked hood, the man’s blonde hair immediately absorbed the moonlight and shone. Empty blue eyes shifted to the moonlight.

“Your Grace. What should we do with their families?”

Blonde hair and blue eyes.

The one who came up from the basement of the Terios Church was none other than Damian.

Despite Charles’s voice ringing beside him, Damian’s gaze moved to the church wall.

“Ah.”

A short sigh escaped Damian’s lips.

One corner of his mouth lifted and then lowered at the pattern drawn on the church wall.

If you wanted to hide it, you shouldn’t have drawn it.

“…Clean up.”

Damian shook off the blood flowing from the blade once in the air and sheathed the sword.

“Yes, understood.”

Charles gestured with his finger to a few kneeling knights. Three knights nodded and stood up.

The rest still had their heads bowed. As Damian passed by his subordinates, they all rose at once.

From the prayer room to the main entrance, corpses and blood heavily decorated the floor in disarray.

However, Damian’s gaze was just empty.

Even while looking at the corpses, even while looking at the red blood, he seemed to be thinking nothing.

But the subordinates following him knew that Damian’s mind was not empty, but rather full.

It was just that it was so full of only one thought that there was no room to look back at the many things strewn on the floor.

“It’s… stifling.”

Damian frowned as he loosened his collar while mounted on his horse.

Even after being stained with so much blood, even after cutting the throat of the one who put an arrow in Eriel’s back, even after planning to soon behead the one who ordered it with his own sword…

It was stifling.

No matter how deeply he inhaled, his lungs lacked air.

Eriel won’t wake up.

When did it start going wrong?

Should he have just killed everyone then and let all of this be submerged under red blood?

Then, would Eriel wake up?

Damian slowly recalled the events of the day Eriel collapsed.

*

“Count Shannon is not related to the said letter.”

The nobles murmured at the investigator’s announcement.

“The handwriting of the letter looks similar at a glance, but it is clearly different and is judged to be fabricated evidence. Moreover, Scala Count’s maid…”

There was no news of Eriel, who was immediately carried away on a stretcher from the hunting festival, and Damian had to come all the way to the imperial palace to hear about some letter he had never heard of before.

Count Shannon? Why was Count Shannon’s name coming up?

Count Shannon, who had told him that there was no heir, clearly knew something about the assassination attempt on Damian.

He hadn’t come to the forefront, but like a hyena, he was just waiting for Damian to die. Only then could he have Eriel.

But what letter…?

From his familiar seat, Damian slowly raised his gaze that had been lowered.

The investigator was still making his announcement, and the expression of Scala Count, who had been pointed out as a suspect, was dark.

The nobles’ murmuring continued along with the investigator’s words, making it feel like a bug had entered his ear.

Buzz- It’s noisy.

Damian raised his hand and scratched his ear violently.

Count Shannon’s letter arrived for Eriel, but Count Shannon didn’t write it.

That letter was none other than Scala Count’s doing… so.

“The body of Scala Count’s aide has also been found in the forest. According to the investigation…”

Ah, even the aide was all planned.

They were thinking of cutting it off right away if anything went wrong.

It was when Damian’s gaze slowly rose to the hall. His vision blurred, and his shoulders jerked.

“Hup-! Hup!”

Damian’s breath suddenly began to shorten.

Frowning at the breath he was taking in deeply, he clenched his fist, and soon his entire arm began to convulse.

As symptoms like a seizure occurred, Charles, who had been standing behind, immediately came forward.

“Your Grace?”

“Hup! Ugh!”

Despite Charles’s call, Damian’s gaze was fixed somewhere in the air as he exhaled with hyperventilation.

Charles immediately put an empty water bottle from his pocket to Damian’s lips.

“Your Grace, stop breathing!”

Charles, grabbing his shoulders, shouted.

The murmuring grew louder. Everyone threw in a word or two about the duke’s condition.

However, Damian exhaled sharply into the empty water bottle Charles had put to his mouth, then inhaled it in one breath and stood up.

His brow furrowed as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Seeming familiar with the current situation, he instantly controlled his breathing.

He didn’t look like a man who had just had a short seizure.

Even his steps, walking with anger, were graceful movements.

The sound of his blade rang sharply through the hall.

Damian’s sword touched Scala Count’s neck, who was sitting opposite.

“Did you know you would be abandoned?”

“Someone’s sword can always be discarded by its master. Because there are always new swords.”

That became Scala Count’s last words.

In front of everyone, Scala Count was summarily executed by Damian, and the hall, which had been murmuring until just now, suddenly fell silent.

“Finally, it’s quiet.”

Damian turned towards the emperor, sheathing his sword.

His waist and head slowly bowing were still those of Duke Jenova, but even the emperor kept his mouth shut about Damian’s actions.

When the investigator became flustered, the emperor gave him a look. It was a look telling him to continue reading.

“Sc-Scala Count is sentenced to ha-hanging for the crime of defaming and attempting to kill the Duchess of the Empire.”

The investigator’s trembling voice echoed, and the smell of blood enveloped the imperial palace.

Damian listened to the investigator’s story and straightened his bent waist.

Between Damian’s blood-splattered face, his savage blue eyes shone coldly.

The nobles couldn’t gauge at all whether it was anger at the sword pointed at his wife, or if it was all calculated behavior.

Even though there was no word from the emperor to withdraw, Damian walked out of the hall with steady steps.

“Your Grace.”

Charles, who hurriedly followed Damian as he left the hall, called him.

“Your Grace.”

Charles called Damian once more.

“…Your Grace.”

Damian, who had been recalling the events at the imperial palace while on horseback for a moment, slowly turned his head.

Charles, calling him from beside him, was calling him in the same voice as then.

“We couldn’t find anything inside the Terios Church. We found a pile of ashes in the incinerator located at the back. It seems they burned everything in advance.”

“Is that so? I see.”

“There was also a letter from Count Shannon’s side.”

Damian narrowed his brow.

“He says he was completely unrelated to the incident and didn’t know the arrow would be drawn against the Duchess.”

“…Didn’t know? His excuses are not just shabby but disgusting.”

“It seems he did help with the handwriting. There was also an apology for that written. Should we keep it as possible evidence?”

“…Yes. It would be better to keep anything we have.”

Damian nodded.

“Just get rid of the fool who writes me an apology letter without even knowing he’s being used.”

“Um… Your Grace.”

Charles hesitated before opening his lips.

“The young lady has woken up. Actually, I had already received the news, but the young lady said not to tell you. You haven’t shown your face at the mansion even once since returning from the imperial palace today.”

“Ah.”

Damian’s eyes blinked.

The young lady, Lucy.

“Fortunately, the physician said there’s nothing seriously wrong with the young lady’s body. Still, she was unconscious for a whole week, wasn’t she? I think it would be good for you to go in and see her today.”