Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 212

After having lost his wrist, Charles openly blamed Sir Dike.

〈Was it not Sir Dike’s turn to be watching over Her Highness that day?〉

How could a knight—a man—have properly guarded a woman trapped in a bathtub, he asserted.

The dutiful knight, restrained by his nature, couldn’t bring himself to respond with, ‘And what about you, Sir Károli? Wasn’t it you who lost his hand because you poisoned the Madam’s tea with a deadly substance?’ Instead, he kept his mouth shut, as someone diligent and aware of shame ought to.

“Well said, Head Maid Merope. I’ve looked after them this long out of sentiment, however…”

Despite knowing everything, Freesia didn’t stop those who deserved punishment from overstepping their bounds.

“Let’s replenish the staff with capable replacements, as you see fit.”

The impudence of those who overstepped would be paid back later. Thus, after that day, Freesia’s close circle began to change.

If the situation outside the castle had been peaceful, Izar might have put a stop to it.

‘He would’ve seen more clearly what I was doing.’

But Izar, as ‘Duke Arcturus’, was facing a situation he couldn’t ignore.

It was the final month of the year.

The promised day of the deal with Canopus was fast approaching.

***

By the time the imperial messenger, who had departed the duke’s castle, arrived in the capital, the city—once immersed in a festive atmosphere over the miraculous return of the imperial descendant—had changed drastically.

Perhaps the gloomy weather played a role, but fear of an unknown threat was evident on the faces of those passing by.

‘It’s no wonder. How many places were attacked just on the way back?’

Small, distant territories might have occasional uprisings. When the weather grew cold and food supplies dwindled, such events were not uncommon.

However, the problem lay in what had occurred right before the messenger reached the capital.

An uprising had broken out in Kreiter, a noble household of historical lineage with a sizable and well-regarded knight order.

What made it impossible to dismiss as just another rebellion was the fact that their knight order had been utterly destroyed without putting up a proper defense.

The aftermath of a large-scale monster attack was gruesomely evident.

“The Arcturus family is truly fortunate.”

Upon receiving the report of the grim situation, the Emperor muttered bitterly.

“It seems that every threat to the empire becomes their opportunity…”

He had been longing to scold his granddaughter’s husband, a man he detested from head to toe, for the lack of news from his granddaughter.

The Emperor knew he had no right to pressure his granddaughter. He also hated to admit it, but deep down, he wondered if his granddaughter didn’t love him at all.

‘No, it’s that Duke bastard’s fault. He’s probably intimidating her as a husband!’

Anxious and growing restless, the Emperor had considered summoning her back to the palace, but he couldn’t risk having her travel such a long distance in the harsh winter.

Thus, there was only one option left to quickly put an end to the crisis.

“I issue an imperial command to the Duke of Arcturus: he is to join forces with the imperial knight order and eradicate all those traitorous fiends alongside the monsters!”

Even if his granddaughter was pregnant, the larger threat to the empire had to be contained.

After the Emperor’s decree was issued, Riegel, his face clouded with concern, received the missive of the ducal messenger, addressed for the imperial prince.

As Riegel read the report, he murmured under his breath.

“She tried to harm herself.”

“Yes, Your Highness. I believe that’s correct, though it pains me to say it.”

“……”

“Her Highness denies it… but it seems there was a dangerous incident in her bedchamber that day.”

Even if the people around her kept their mouths shut, the messenger, with his eyes and ears, could tell that the atmosphere in the castle was as tense as walking on thin ice.

With a troubled expression, Riegel broke the seal on the letter Freesia had sent.

‘Was it a mistake to send them outside the palace just because they were expecting a child?’

As he read through his cousin’s letter, shadows of conflict darkened his green eyes. Her ‘request’, the first one she had ever made to him, completely excluded any consideration of her own happiness.

‘You have no expectations for yourself at all…’

The letter revealed only a sense of duty to finish her remaining tasks, not a trace of hope for a miracle at the end of her life.

‘Is there truly no other way?’

Trading Izar’s abilities for his cousin’s fate…

It seemed like the most plausible theory, but the time to find a way to execute it was running out.

Even though he scoured countless books and religious texts in the capital, he couldn’t find an appropriate solution.

“O, Venerable Adamant, what a truly cruel choice.”

Why had Freesia been given no hope?

Why had he been instructed to save himself when he harbored resentment toward the temple’s exploitation of divine power for excessive gains?

〈Why has our almighty God commanded such a spell? May I ask, though I fear the temple will not be pleased by this knowledge…〉

Just as Albireo Deneb had once hesitantly asked him, questioning the mysteries of God felt like a form of blasphemy.

“……”

But as he recalled the conversations they’d had long ago at the academy, a glimmer of realization filled his green eyes, hidden behind the hand resting on his forehead.