“……What did you say!? Not only did they conduct the inauguration ceremony without us, but they dare to use the name of Arquis as it is?”

Count Jared distorted his face with unbearable anger, accompanied by a sense of humiliation.

And Otum, who had been drinking together without attending the inauguration invitation, was no different.

“This is disgraceful…! Brother! This is not conquest! It’s plunder! It means capturing our brother, who was ranked first in the kingdom, as if proudly seizing him!”

It wasn’t.

Of course, they couldn’t know, but Lucia didn’t want to become a family with them to restrain them or because she wanted to be like them.

It was just a desire to give her daughter the surname she originally should have had.

“How dare they tarnish the Arquis noble family like this!!”

“Brother, this is reason enough for rebellion. Hurry, lead the troops…!”

In this way, the Arquis brothers, consumed by anger, continued to express their rage, staring at the divine messenger who brought the news.

Something kept muttering from his mouth.

“Master, they will die. If this continues, they will die…!”

Fear permeated his gaze, and the man trembled as if his whole body was soaked in blood.

As if he had seen an altar of blood, he had been out of his mind since returning from the inauguration ceremony.

“What on earth are you saying, from earlier! Can’t you speak properly!? What did the bandits do!? What did the bandits do!?”

“…Y-Yes! They arrived… But, Count…!”

“?”

“…The nobles they spoke of are all hung on the wall.”

“What?”

What he said was absurd.

Consulting with the bandits, Lucia, who had come to confirm the accounts reported by the Crown Prince, found out that the nobles had redeemed their sins with their lives in front of the nobles.

And they proudly decorated the ceremony with the sight of those corpses hanging on the wall.

“…”

“…”

The shocked brothers’ mouths remained agape.

And suddenly, as if something had come to mind, their pupils dilated.

“Wait, we have no choice but to wait until public opinion turns against us as tyrants. Yes, that, that’s the only way…”

“B-Brother. What if the bandits say that we incited them…? What if they say that we were the ones who opened the door!?”

“Noisy! It can’t be! It can’t be true! Because that woman’s husband is still captured…!”

“…Brother…!”

Those who gave gifts to Lucia, from the pretty wrapping paper to the beastly cruelty she revealed, began to see their gloomy future.

At the same time, in the empty Great Hall after the end of the inauguration ceremony.

A few remaining bandits and their leader, Angela, said.

“Undoubtedly, it was the work of Jared, the Count’s divine messenger, Fiore Viscount.”

“…Ah, Lady Angela! W-What if we say that? Isn’t your husband still captured there?”

One of her companions or perhaps her brother jumped in surprise.

But their leader remained silent.
“……I waited for ten years, watching him live with another woman right next to me. That filthy woman persistently pleaded with our child, and in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘no.'”

A woman with short-cut impressive blonde hair, Angela.

She, a former mercenary, settled in a village after meeting the man she loved.

However, she turned into a ruthless woman who fled with her son after having her husband taken away by the widowed aristocrat of the territory the village belonged to and being subjected to temptation.

“Count Jared… Well, it’s not unexpected. Rather, are you at peace now that I’ve killed him as you wished?”

Lucia said, looking at the corpses hanging in the background behind her.

“Yes, Your Excellency. It feels refreshing. I’ll sleep soundly tonight.”

She was undeniably a bold woman.

But the reactions of her comrades, watching the cruel mural, were different.

“Cursed. We’ll be cursed… Oh, goddess…!”

Some began to pray, calling upon the goddess.

Jared, by opening the doors of the aristocratic mansion, further incited them by spreading the rumor that the goddess had descended as a tyrant on this kingdom’s land, excluding the temple.

As living conditions became increasingly difficult, it was inevitable that more people believed in such rumors.

In situations originally difficult, only bad things were heard and believed.

So Lucia didn’t mind the resentment.

“Angela, was it? Are you giving up being a bandit now?”

“No. Revenge was the initial goal, but now it’s not the only thing. As you know, there are still many who wear the noble’s facade and commit atrocities.”

“I see.”

Even in the face of her sarcastic remark, Lucia nodded as if it were someone else’s business.

Then, after hesitating for a moment, Angela looked at her seriously.

“However, if I’m alone, I’ll be on Your Excellency’s side at any time.”

“Angela!! What… No, that…”

“Think straight. Who do you think is the reason we’re still alive?”

“…W-Well…”

Her words made her comrades exchange glances.