Chapter 141
The red-haired man stood with his hands clasped behind him as he faced the window. The garden reflected in his eyes was perfectly beautiful, like a painted landscape. It was thanks to the way it had been arranged according to its master’s taste.
“Your Highness the Second Prince.”
The man, who had been staring emotionlessly at the flawlessly kept garden, turned around. His green eyes glinted coldly as he looked at Lionel. Arendtert, who had been standing there with elegant poise, tipped his chin and spoke.
“Well then. How did it go?”
“It is done.”
Arendtert’s eyes gleamed at Lionel’s report. His lips stretched into a wide grin and his face twisted grotesquely. Unrestrained joy filled his expression as his eyes bulged with manic delight.
“AHAHAHAHA!”
A terrifying burst of laughter exploded from his open mouth. Lionel did not move an inch as he waited for his master’s laughter to subside. Arendtert shook with laughter, his whole body trembling. It was the laughter of release, of rapture, of overwhelming ecstasy.
“Pfft. Well done, Lionel. Well done! I am free now, hahaha!”
Arendtert even praised his attendant as he shed tears of joy. Lionel, who had been quietly watching the composed Second Prince unravel into hysterics, widened his eyes at the unexpected praise.
The Second Prince had never praised him. Even as he ordered Lionel to commit murder and carry out all manner of brutal tasks, he had not once given him so much as a compliment. It had always been, ‘I pay you, so do your job.’
Yet now Arendtert clapped him on the shoulder and acknowledged his achievement.
All because he had killed one woman.
No. Not just any woman. She had been the greatest obstacle of Arendtert’s life. The one who had thoroughly ruined it.
Grizelle Willoughby.
She had first appeared without presence or impact. Yet as her true nature emerged, she clung to Arendtert more and more. With his broken engagement to Sylaria and his entanglement with Grizelle, Arendtert’s life plummeted straight into ruin.
After he became engaged to her, his standing shrank dramatically.
If she had at least purified him well, it might have been tolerable. He could have consoled himself by claiming her worth lay in that alone, that she was brought in as a Purifier and nothing more.
But the matching rate kept dropping. It had never been high to begin with, and perhaps because of Arendtert’s loathing for her, it eventually plummeted into single digits.
A useless woman. A hindrance. A mark of disgrace.
If Arendtert were to summarize Grizelle in a few words, that was what she was. Just looking at her made rage boil up as he recalled everything he had lost because of her.
Worse, he became convinced that the misfortune she brought him would disappear only if she did.
So Arendtert used Grizelle as a pawn in a reckless scheme. He enticed her by saying that if she did well, he would share a bed with her, that he would give her a child.
Kill Sylaria.
Grizelle obediently accepted his command. She claimed they had grown up together like friends, yet she showed no affection at all. Arendtert found that repulsive.
He had never planned to actually kill Sylaria himself. But he and Grizelle stood on different ground.
In any case, he issued the order, then deliberately went to the temple. He needed a perfect alibi.
While he, following imperial command, offered prayers of repentance at the temple, Grizelle would kill Sylaria. And when Euclid came searching for his fiancée and found her dead, he would be shaken. Before Euclid could regain his senses, Arendtert would have the Maw appear.
Without a Purifier, Euclid was nothing. He would be swallowed helplessly by the Maw.
The Crown Prince and his fiancée would die on the same day. The crime would be pinned entirely on Grizelle. And Arendtert would rise as the new Crown Prince.
He felt a little sorry for Grizelle, but he planned to discard her at that point anyway.
After all, she would have committed murder. She would be stripped of her position as his fiancée. Arendtert’s past misconduct could be written off as the influence of his vicious former betrothed.
Then he could dispose of Grizelle and restore public opinion in his favor.
All according to plan.
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