“Now I understand why you didn’t want to call her a friend. By the way, if she was the former queen, could she be Valder’s mother?”

“That’s right. She was the first wife of the king.”

Ruela furrowed her brow.

“You accepted a woman with suspicions about her mother’s death as your stepmother?”

“There was no choice but to accept her as a stepmother. After that incident, she left the palace. Since then, she has been living outside and has focused more on managing the guild.”

“How did the queen die then? She said she brought tea to the king.”

“Apparently, she died by poisoning. It seems she couldn’t endure the guilt and took her own life after bringing the poisoned tea to the king.”
“Instead, he drank it. In fact, that’s why everyone was puzzled at the time. The tea the king enjoyed was something the queen disliked. People found it strange that she drank it and died.”

“How did Valder react when his mother died?”

He went on a rampage, saying he would kill everyone. There was a massive purge, but she created someone else to sacrifice, escaping from there.

Lady Line frowned, shaking her head.

“I just can’t understand Vincenti. Even if you love someone, how could you try to assassinate the king and then twist the crime? How is that possible?”

If she were the same as before, Ruela would have shared Lady Line’s thoughts. Ruela gave an awkward laugh and changed the subject.

“I mentioned that the queen’s death is a mystery. Is it just because she drank the tea she disliked? Well, at that time, the relationship between Duke Kuran and the former queen was very strained. According to Claire, the two had a major fight due to the issues between Valder Master and Maria.”

“Valder’s mother had a big fight with the duke?”

“Yes. Claire kept investigating the situation to find an opportunity for the king’s assassination. Eventually, she overheard something.”

“Could you tell me what she heard?”

“Yes. She heard that the queen, in order to expose something, went wild and caused a commotion, putting a curse on the duke.”
“After that, it was said that instead of the king, the queen drank poisoned tea and died. No matter how you think about it, the queen, who had learned the secret of Duke Kuran, was murdered, and there was no other explanation.

Ruela, who felt the need to find out why this happened, asked, ‘What was she going to expose?’

Lady Line, after requesting hot tea from the waiting Schuna, shrugged her shoulders.

‘I don’t know. Claire still regrets it. She says if only she had gone a little earlier, she could have eavesdropped.’

‘Did anything change in the capital at that time? Like if there were major disturbances or problems?’

Lady Line pondered for a moment and then shook her head.

‘Well, nothing really changed, except that the capital was turned upside down because of the fact that the queen died, and the king was almost assassinated. If you call it a disturbance, the only thing that happened was that Vincenti, who was accused as the culprit in this case, committed suicide in prison.’

‘Suicide? Not executed?’

Lady Line sipped the tea that Schuna had just brought.

‘Yes. I know the truth, but there were many rumors at the time. Why would someone who was about to be executed commit suicide? People were saying things like, “Who killed him?”‘ Lady Line frowned as if she didn’t like it. After remaining silent for a while and drinking tea, she suddenly looked up as if something had come to her mind.”
“Come to think of it, that was around that time. The duke sent his daughter, Maria, to the Kamun Territory. As people continued to die one after another, I thought even the country wouldn’t want to keep the capital.”

Ruela asked, as if unable to understand, “But only the queen and Vincenti died consecutively. Sending his daughter away for an incident of that magnitude?”

“Just before the queen died, there was also an incident where the wife of Duke Kuran and her friend died. It was shortly after the establishment of the kingdom, and with continuous tragic events happening, it must have been unsettling.”

“The wife of Duke Kuran and her friend also died?”

“Yes, it was really unfortunate.”

“Did they die in an accident?”

“Yes, it was a time of chaos with the kingdom just forming. The duke secluded himself to manage the creatures, and it was before the current king ascended, so everything was handled by Duke Kuran’s wife. They were killed by bandits. At that time, the capital was not in the current form, so security was lax. It was unfortunate for the friend who came to assist the duke’s wife and ended up facing such an incident.”

Lady Line, who had been speaking up to that point, smirked.

“Come to think of it, there were children at that time…”

“Children?”