Chapter 230
Charles, who had been found unconscious in the forest, was now locked in the dungeon of the ducal castle.
“My lord!”
Disheveled and worn after being imprisoned, Charles’s eyes lit up the moment he saw Izar. This could be his final lifeline, and he was desperate to cling to it.
“My lord, please, believe me!”
“……”
“Her Highness…! That wench had every intention of betraying you until the very end!”
“Charles…”
“I saw her in the forest with the traitor Van Dike. Please, believe me and send out a search party!”
No one openly voiced their thoughts, but Charles could tell by their gazes and heavy breathing.
There wasn’t a single person who believed him.
But the murmurs of silent condemnation quieted as Izar approached the prisoner. His face betrayed no emotion—no anger, no disappointment, no hint of resentment.
“I believe you, Charles. Freesia probably expected me to be fooled.”
“My lord…!”
“However.”
Even if no rage showed on his lips, the hatred burning within him, enough to incinerate anyone, was unmistakable in his eyes.
After the outburst of fury in front of the portrait, he no longer felt the need to restrain himself.
‘An unblemished ducal house…’
He abandoned all the years he had spent struggling to maintain that reputation. Now, he just wanted to let his rage explode like a beast, fueled by betrayal.
Reaching silently for the sword at his waist, Izar asked coldly,
“Did you just call her ‘that wench’, Charles?”
Charles had no chance to respond. The moment he opened his mouth, his life came to an end.
The damp stone floor was soon soaked with crimson. Moments later, the headless body collapsed, spilling the same red fluid onto the ground.
Izar gazed at Charles’s severed head for a moment, then tilted his head back and let out a dry, hollow laugh.
“Ha… haha.”
Freesia.
He had thought her cunning when they first met at the Antares mansion, but her vulnerability and sadness had often made him forget how cold and calculating she could be.
Without a doubt, what Charles had said was true.
But if Izar publicly declared Van Dike a traitor, the retainers would resent him instead. In the end, there would be no one left by his side.
“Ah… Freesia.”
She drove him insane. Dead or alive, she would always drive him mad. If she were alive, she would have to face his betrayal head-on. If she were dead…
‘…How much time does she have left?’
He had spent nearly a month and a half suppressing the rebellion. By now, Freesia’s remaining lifespan might be…
‘Perhaps only two weeks.’
Without a shred of regret, he turned away from the body of the man who had served him since boyhood. He didn’t care if Charles’s corpse became a meal for wild animals.
“Deploy more men and search every location again. No matter what, find the imperial descendant.”
“Yes, my lord!”
“And what of her maid?”
“Ah…!”
The reporting retainer hesitated, unsure whom he meant, but then realized there could only be one person Izar would ask about—the maid who had accompanied the imperial descendant since her time in the mansion.
“Thea left on an errand just before the attack, under Her Highness’s orders. Her destination was Deneb.”
***
News of the attack on the Arcturus castle had already reached Deneb. They had expected a messenger requesting aid to arrive soon.
But they hadn’t anticipated the duke himself storming onto their lands.
And they certainly hadn’t expected him to march straight into the heart of the Deneb estate and wrap his hands around someone’s neck.
“My lord! My lord, what are you doing?!”
“Albireo!”
The Deneb family members shrieked, but Izar’s grip on the second son’s throat didn’t loosen.
Albireo thrashed desperately, struggling as his airway tightened.
“Ugh… urk!”
Surely, in this situation, burning the duke’s skin a little with magic could be considered self-defense.
But even when he used enough magic to scorch the skin, nothing changed. Albireo’s eyes widened in terror as he saw what lay before him.
‘This lunatic!’
Izar’s hand was indeed burning, the skin charring from the flames. The pain must have been excruciating, but he didn’t flinch. Instead, his grip on Albireo’s neck only tightened.
“Let… go, urk!”
“Hah…”
Izar finally released him when the flames reached the bracelet on his wrist. He couldn’t care less about the pain, but he wouldn’t allow the bracelet Freesia had made to be damaged.
Albireo collapsed to the ground, coughing violently as he gasped for air.
“Cough, cough! What… what is the meaning of this?!”
“There’s a limit to how much of a fool you can take me for.”
“What—”
“Did you dare to conspire with my wife and deceive me?”
Izar grabbed Albireo by the collar again, his voice filled with rage.
“Did you think that just because of those berries, I owed you a debt you could exploit?”
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