The northern basement, though called a basement, was essentially an underground dungeon. The basement was fully equipped with iron bars, not to mention a plethora of torture tools designed to torment people. This was also the place where Janobi’s tendons were severed.

Lucrezia shivered in the seeping chill.

The situation outside was undoubtedly taking a turn for the worse. Lucrezia had distinctly felt uneasy when her husband did not ask her a word about the chaos outside.

But she had been silent out of fear of stirring the quiet furnace, when she should have rushed over and said something.

“It’ll be okay, everything will be okay.”

Lucrezia had a proud son and a shrewd daughter. Her grown children would take care of their mother.

Lucrezia quietly prayed in her heart, fingering the cross on her rosary that she had lived her whole life without paying any mind to. All she could do was pray.

“May God give strength to my children, and quickly get me out of this terrible dungeon.”

Contrary to Lucrezia’s hopes, none of her grown children took her side. The only one who made even a slight effort to save her life was her husband, who seemed to have completely abandoned her in his words.

Cardinal de Mare stammered and cautiously asked the other party.

“Mr. Scampa. Why can’t it be exile? She is also the mother of the children… And it hasn’t been long since the mother lost her youngest….”

But Cardinal de Mare’s efforts were coldly rejected.

“If she hadn’t lost her youngest in a short time, she would have known the preciousness of someone else’s daughter!”

Mr. Scampa’s veins bulged in his neck as he shouted.

He never thought he would have a dispute with someone as highranking as the Cardinal, but when he was angry, he could even raise his voice.

“My daughter! My poor daughter who couldn’t even become a mother and withered away! My poor child whose body wasn’t even left intact… I won’t leave this place until I see that woman’s punishment with my own eyes!”

Cardinal de Mare had to withdraw without even regaining what he had lost.

The demands of the bereaved family who had lost a child were somewhat reasonable and somewhat overly emotional.

Among the claims made by Mr. Scampa and the two regional cooperatives were obvious requests such as ‘Make a sincere apology’, but also unacceptable demands like ‘Hang Lucrezia immediately and cut off her head and make a round trip around San Carlo City’, which Cardinal de Mare simply could not accept.

Among these, there was also the shrewd insertion of the Commune Nuova regional representative’s hint, ‘I’ll calm down the bereaved family who is boiled with rage, so donate 1,000 ducats to the regional cooperative.’

Eventually, they reached an agreement a little after midnight.

“I’ll see the guests out.”

Exhausted, the Cardinal gestured to his servant Nicolo. The opposing party, intoxicated with sweat, the scent of victory, and a bit of rage, left the Cardinal’s library and headed towards the entrance.

After sending Nicolo to see the guests off, he called to his deputy, Sancha.

“You prepare the poison.”

He spoke in a drained voice.

“The kind that kills instantly upon drinking. It will be sent to Lucrezia when the first cock crows in the morning.”

Sancha bowed her head deeply and responded respectfully to the Cardinal.

“I will handle it as such, Your Excellency.”

And as soon as Cardinal de Mare disappeared from her sight, she rushed to inform Miss Ariadne.

Sancha flung open the door to Ariadne’s room and leaned in close to the already inbed lady and cried out, quite loudly for a whisper. It was a voice that couldn’t hide the excitement.

“Miss! His Excellency the Cardinal has ordered to prepare the poison! It’s going to be sent to Madam Lucrezia early tomorrow morning!”

“!”

Despite the late night, a spark flashed in Ariadne’s green eyes. She kicked off her silk blanket and sat up straight on the bed.

The memory of her own mother, now barely remembered, being beaten by Lucrezia with a whip.

The memory of Lucrezia kicking her mother, who had hidden young Ariadne behind her, and grabbing Ariadne’s hair.

Lucrezia, who had tortured Ariadne in various ways since she brought her up to San Carlo, claiming that she had no daughter to throw at Cesare.

“If only you weren’t here, my life would’ve been better than this! Better than this!”

And the last memory of Arabella, shown by the golden rule.

The time for revenge had come.

“There’s no need to prepare poison, isn’t there? It should be all over the palace.”

“There are several bottles in the kitchen storage. They were all used by Madame Lucrezia.”

It was common for one or two servants to die under Lucrezia’s rule.

This time it just became a problem because they messed with a good house’s child, but no one looked for a few poor people who disappeared. The retrospective had never existed. Lucrezia had chosen to buy and store poison in advance and use it bottle by bottle.

“Get it out right now. I will take it down myself.”

“Excuse me? You, miss?”