Both of them were silent, just looking down at the floor. Alfonso was a child with no secrets from his mother, and the daughter of Cardinal de Mare next to him would blabber even when drowning. Feeling a sense of unease at their collective silence, Queen Marguerite pressed again.
“Did he escape? Did you let him go?”
“… He’s dead.”
Alfonso said in a heavy tone.
“… I killed him.”
Queen Marguerite was so shocked that she covered her mouth with both hands. Lady Carla also stared at Alfonso in surprise.
“Our prince…!”
Lady Carla screamed.
“What is to be done!”
It was the first murder committed by Alfonso de Carlo. Alfonso, feeling the belated weight of what he had done, silently looked down at the floor.
“You…! Because of you, our prince…! If it wasn’t for you…!”
“Enough.”
The one who stopped Lady Carla was Queen Marguerite.
“Don’t make a fuss, Carla. Alfonso is the sovereign of the Etruscan Kingdom, a dignified knight. It is only a matter of time before a ruler, who must protect his country, gets blood on his hands. It’s inevitable.”
“But Your Majesty…!”
“That’s enough.”
Queen Marguerite, speaking firmly, looked at her bowed son.
“Alfonso. If you hadn’t killed him then, by your judgement, would you have been able to save that child?”
“… Yes, mother.”
The Queen approached her son and tenderly embraced him.
“Then you did the right thing. There’s no need to feel guilty.”
She consoled her son, still warmly embracing him. Alfonso, who had been frozen by the shock and excitement, and the sense of responsibility to protect his woman, belatedly felt tears welling up in his eyes.
He held back his tears, not wanting to show a weepy appearance in front of Ariadne. It was disgraceful for a man to be sobbing in his mother’s arms in front of his girlfriend.
“What did you do with the body of the deceased?”
But at Queen Marguerite’s question, both of them were once again at a loss for words.
“You said that child was dragged away and assaulted?”
Queen Marguerite scrutinized Ariadne with sharp eyes. Her clothes were torn, on top of being beaten.
“If word of this gets out, that child won’t hear anything good in high society.”
She accurately understood the behavior of the San Carlo aristocrats.
“They will gossip regardless of the truth.”
Ariadne could only bow her head even lower to the ground.
“And I don’t want it to be publicly known that my son killed someone. I’m sorry for the dead, but let’s wrap this up and move on as if nothing happened.”
The Queen looked at the two young people who were silent, looking at the floor, and asked.
“Why, is there a problem?”
At that moment, there was a knock from outside the Queen’s parlour.
The servants had surely been told to withdraw, so everyone turned their heads in surprise towards the door. The voice of the person knocking from outside could be heard.
“Prince Alfonso, it’s Elco.”
Since Alfonso had ordered him to report directly after safely hiding the corpse of the Duke of Mireille, the honest Elco seemed to have returned straight to the Queen’s palace.
Prince Alfonso heaved a sigh of relief and said,
“Come in.”
The knight with ashcolored hair entered, knelt on one knee, and reported to Prince Alfonso,
“According to your highness’s orders, I’ve hidden the corpse of the Duke of Mireille safely.”
Queen Marguerite’s eyes widened. Lady Carla also swiveled her head as if she’d misheard something.
“Now, what did you say….”
Prince Alfonso answered on behalf of Sir Elco,
“Mother. The man I killed was the Duke of Mireille from the Kingdom of Gallico.”
Queen Marguerite staggered and collapsed with a thud.
[This is the time separator]“Is this some kind of joke!”
Having regained her composure, Queen Marguerite reproached Prince Alfonso.
“The Duke of Mireille!”
Alfonso remained silent.
“……There was nothing I could do in that situation, Mother.”
He explained calmly.
“The culprit was strangling Ariadne’s neck. She was on the verge of suffocation. I first slashed him from behind with a sword and checked his face afterwards.”
Ariadne, who had entered the room to help Alfonso, made her first statement since coming in,
“……I’m sure the prince didn’t know who he was. Who could have imagined that a person of the Duke of Mireille’s standing would commit such a crime in a foreign country.”
But Lady Carla did not let this pass.
“If the prince didn’t know, you should have known!”
Lady Carla, who had previously treated Ariadne with reverence when she was a guest of Queen Marguerite, now showed no inclination to respect her in this situation.
In fact, Lady Carla, a foreigner, was closer to a palace administrator than a member of the social world. If one disregards religious courtesies to the cardinal and social relationships, Ariadne was no different from a commoner, and Lady Carla had no need to treat Ariadne respectfully.
“……”
This was clearly an unfair rebuke. Ariadne had never even met the Duke of Mireille, not in this life or the previous one.
However, unlike Prince Alfonso, she was unable to defend herself.
“How are you going to clean up this mess that you caused!”
Lady Carla severely reprimanded Ariadne.
“Your Highness, we can’t bury this as if it never happened since the Duke of Mireille is involved. Even if we dump the body into the Tiber River without being noticed by anyone, the king and the Kingdom of Gallico will not sit idle!”
“Hmm.”
Queen Marguerite was silent.
“When the Duke of Mireille’s disappearance becomes known, hounds will be all over the castle.”
The Queen asked,
“Sir Elco. Where did you hide the Duke of Mireille’s corpse?”
“……I locked it in the toolshed attached to the Prince’s garden.”
Apparently, the Prince’s palace was the only place completely under the control of Alfonso’s people, so that was the measure they had taken.
However, that turned out to be a misstep. Queen Marguerite laughed bitterly. If the hunting dogs picked up the scent and gave chase, they would go straight into Alfonso’s palace.
“Your Highness, did you hear that?”
Lady Carla raised her voice.
“There’s only one solution.”
She glanced at Ariadne.
“We need to create a scapegoat, Your Highness. Find a loyal retainer, make him claim that he assassinated the Duke of Mireille, and if asked why he killed him, say it was to save the young lady from the lewd intentions of the Duke of Mireille.”
The prince would get off completely scotfree, and even though the scapegoat would save his life, it was a plan to push Ariadne into the line of fire.
Queen Marguerite slowly looked at Ariadne. Her dormant bluegray eyes met Ariadne’s weary green ones in the void. Ariadne’s heart pounded.
If the queen approved, Ariadne would be spun around in the social circles, and also in the de Mare family. A woman who caused an international conflict between the Etruscan and Gallic kingdoms by failing to maintain proper deportment, a woman unsuitable for marriage after suffering misfortune, a daughter without commodity value.
“You must be pleased after tailing the prince and Count Cesare at the same time, your only destination is the convent!”
Imaginary critical voices echoed in her head. Ariadne closed her eyes.
Eventually, Queen Marguerite spoke.
“……It’s one room……”
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
