But it was doubtful whether there would be a man who would want her as his wife in the future. A beautiful but illegitimate child with a fatal flaw in her reputation. It was a mistress in anyone’s eyes.

“No… I can’t let Isabella live like me!”

She might become a mistress if she went to a man of low status. But she hated it more than death. To be a companion of a royal family amidst all this…! She had to do this.

Lucrezia had made several more outings to gather the money she had left with her traders and find her hidden savings. Among them was the Razione clothing store.

Ariadne had heard everything through the mouths of the old coachman who had accompanied most of Lucrezia’s outings, and young coachman Giuseppe who had followed one or two outings.

The old coachman’s report came through gold, and young coachman Giuseppe’s report came through beauty.

“You, you’re talented?”

Ariadne teased Sancha with a sly smile.

“Miss, what are you talking about!”

Sancha’s freckled face turned red with anger. Sancha’s skin was usually very pale. Now Sancha’s skin and hair were the same color.

“It’s not like that!”

“Well, I can see you really like it.”

In his late teens, Giuseppe was a quiet and taciturn apprentice coachman. He was a young man diligently learning his work in the stable.

Ariadne intended to ask him a question while giving him a bit of money.

But as soon as she lowered Sancha and flattered Giuseppe, Giuseppe immediately turned red to his ears. And he told Sancha everything Ariadne wanted to hear.

“When I asked if Giuseppe was usually a chatterbox, you said he wasn’t!”

Sancha had asserted that Giuseppe was a young man with a reputation for being taciturn, tightlipped, and trustworthy.

“A man doesn’t do that much unless he’s fallen for someone!”

“I don’t know! No, miss, I hate it!”

“Don’t you have feelings for him? ‘Taciturn and reliable,’ you said!”

“I said he’s taciturn and trustworthy!”

“That’s the same thing.”

“I don’t know! No!”

Ariadne decided to stop teasing Sancha. According to the testimony she obtained through Sancha, Lucrezia was mainly gathering money by going around shops.

She said that she had also taken 30 ducats (about 30 million won) in advance from Razione’s clothing store as a rebate.

‘Where would Lucrezia spend money now?’

There was money to be sent to Taranto. But the amount was too large for that.

Moreover, the money to be sent to Taranto was an amount that Lucrezia could afford from within the house. There was no need to collect the hidden money like this.

‘It seems there is a place to spend the principal.’

The answer to Ariadne’s question came back quickly.

“LUCREZIA!!!”

A roar that shook the mansion of Cardinal de Mare echoed. The butler Nicolo hurriedly rushed to Ariadne, who was spending time with Arabella in the girl’s waiting room, and whispered to her.

“Second Miss, His Excellency the Cardinal commands you to come to your room immediately. Right now!”

“Really? Sancho, prepare.”

“That… Miss, he requested that you alone come… without anyone accompanying you.”

Ariadne’s left eyebrow rose.

“To my room?”

Why is he calling me to my room and not the Cardinal de Mare’s study? Why does he say that even Sancho shouldn’t accompany me? Seeing Ariadne’s face filled with doubt, the butler Nicolo nodded affirmatively.

“Yes, it’s your room, Second Miss.”

There was a reason Cardinal de Mare called only Ariadne. A sweet and sticky smell filled the corridor as Ariadne followed the butler Nicolo upstairs to the second floor.

On the dark brown teakwood floor, dark liquid was spotted all over. The tail of that liquid led all the way into Ariadne’s quarters.

The sight of the dark liquid was only seen after entering Ariadne’s quarters. That liquid was blood. There was a dark pentagram on the lilac carpet laid in Ariadne’s quarters.

A pentagram drawn with unidentified blood that was darkly smeared and gave off a terrible smell. Incense and myrrh were burning on the burners at the points of the star. It was unmistakably the mark of black magic.

And in the middle of that pentagram was Ariadne’s safe. The very safe that held ‘the Heart of the Blue Sea’. Next to that safe, Lucrezia, who had been badly slapped by Cardinal de Mare, was sprawled out.

“What on earth are you…!”