You Said You Wanted Us to Break Up - Chapter 47

Sezna trembled with anxiety.

“His Grace found the ledger.”

“The ledger, the one you used to keep track of how much money you embezzled years ago, right?”

Merwen asked brightly, her voice so clear it sounded cheerful.

There was indeed a hint of amusement, but Sezna, focused on the hardship before her, didn’t notice. She simply nodded at Merwen’s words.

The knights who had brought her to the annex had been taken away on the first day.

Sezna didn’t know where they had gone or what they had experienced. She didn’t want to know. The only thing certain was that she didn’t want to experience the same thing.

Sezna said,

“I, I’ll definitely be punished if I stay like this.”

“Indeed, you will.”

Merwen nodded seriously and asked her,

“Did you beg for forgiveness?”

“Yes, yes. I pleaded for leniency, even mentioning my loyalty to the former duchess… but…”

It didn’t work.

Even now, recalling the contempt in those blue eyes that looked down on her, a chill ran down her spine.

Sezna knew the head of the family wasn’t kind. People outside the castle only saw his good side, believing the Duke of Raslet to be selfless and just. But the truth about him, the side hidden beneath the surface, was deeper and darker than his outward appearance.

If she had lived outside the castle, she wouldn’t have noticed that side of him.

But Sezna had watched him since he was a child. And she learned one thing.

Deep malice dwelled within him. It was a will that existed even before he reached adulthood.

As a boy, the head of the family would laugh and play with his friends, behaving like a child of his age, but his expression would change completely if someone mentioned his father.

Sure enough, once he came of age, he strangled his father, cut off all his medicine, and let him slowly die.

While he hadn’t done anything as extreme since, Sezna knew that the head of the family still possessed the same ruthlessness he had shown when he killed his father. Hunting and killing are difficult at first. Once someone crosses the line, they don’t hesitate the second time.

Still, Sezna wasn’t tense around the head of the family.

This was because the young man who had so readily put his hands on his father’s neck was endlessly devoted to his mother.

Dying Evelyn was, frankly, so terrible that Sezna found it hard to watch up close.

The head of the family, who had never had to care for a sick person closely before, stayed by his mother’s side until her death. Even the harsh words and slaps from his mother didn’t change his attitude.

Even after Evelyn’s death, the head of the family respected his mother. How much he cherished her is shown by the fact that he overlooked everything the Rowen bloodline did in Raslet, yet turned against them when it became known that his mother’s heirlooms had been damaged by that woman.

Sezna was the only friend of Evelyn who received such treatment.

That gave her the conviction that she could be forgiven for any crime she committed.

That conviction was completely shattered by this incident.

When Sezna hesitated, Merwen raised her eyebrows, as if understanding without needing to be told.

“Sioden didn’t help you, then?”

“Yes, yes…”

“That child has a ruthless side. Doesn’t he?”

Sezna nodded in agreement at the cheerful question and looked at the young, beautiful lady she had served since Evelyn’s death.

“You’ll help me, won’t you?”

Honestly, even if everyone else abandoned her, Merwen wouldn’t.

Sezna had acted as Merwen’s tongue. For the lady who never spoke herself, Sezna spoke up and took on all the dirty work.

There’s no head that can easily sever its own limbs.

Sezna’s expectations were shattered by Merwen’s words.

“How could I?”

Merwen furrowed her brows slightly and placed her hand on her chest.

“I can’t even move around as I please.”

“My lady?”

Sezna blinked in disbelief. Merwen lowered her eyebrows and continued.

“I’m currently confined to the North Tower. Sioden has pinned all sorts of charges on me. Even coming down here tonight was impossible without Lord Rupid’s help.”

Rupid was one of Laslet’s retainers, a member of the council of elders, and held considerable power.

He was also one of Merwen’s strongest allies after Lerox’s death.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help.”

Sezna stared blankly at Merwen, who said this with a completely unapologetic expression, and muttered,

“But, you said you would destroy the ledger?”

She wasn’t stupid; she wouldn’t have carelessly disposed of evidence of misappropriation of the castle’s funds.

While she had used the records to cleverly balance the accounts, Sezna had intended to erase the ledger from existence once everything was over.

But one day, before she could, Merwen found the ledger.

‘You shouldn’t leave evidence like this, Sezna. You never know what kind of weakness it might become later.’

Merwen took the ledger with those words.

Sezna felt uneasy about the evidence of her crime falling into someone else’s hands, but she couldn’t refuse. The embezzlement itself was only possible because Merwen had turned a blind eye.

So, Merwen bore some responsibility for the ledger falling into the head of the family’s hands, yet she widened her eyes as if she’d never heard such a thing.

“Me?”

She was so calm it didn’t even seem brazen. Sezna stammered, her face ashen.

“Y-yes, you definitely said you’d burn… it…”

When Merwen took the ledger, Sezna had cautiously asked, careful not to offend her.

‘What do you intend to do with it?’

Merwen glanced at the ledger and replied,

‘Well, maybe I’ll use it as kindling.’

So Sezna believed the ledger she had written was burned.

Until it was thrown in front of her.

“Ah, I did say something like that.”

Merwen nodded, as if remembering belatedly.

“I think I ‘handled’ it well, according to my intentions?”

“My lady?”

“It became kindling, didn’t it?”

What does that mean?

Sezna’s mouth opened and closed, unable to speak. Merwen smiled at her. With an expression that seemed rather kind, as if comforting a child who didn’t understand, Merwen said,

“It became the firewood that burned down the entire house.”

“Wh-what do you…”

“Poor Sezna. There’s no need for further conversation.”

Merwen turned away. Sezna yelled after the woman who was putting on her robe’s hood again and returning the way she came.

“I-if you go like this, my lady, you won’t be safe either!”

Merwen glanced back at her. Beneath the hood of her robe, emerald eyes shone in the deep shadows. The eyes she had thought beautiful, like jewels, just moments before, now seemed chillingly different.

Sezna shivered, a chill running down her spine.

“I’ll testify. If I stand trial, I’ll say you’re an accomplice…”

Before she could finish, Merwen nodded with a smile.

“…?”

“Please do.”

A single word flashed in her mind, as bright as a field warbler’s song: madwoman. The word appeared suddenly, like sparks from colliding stones.

Unaware that she had perceived the other woman’s true nature through intuition, Sezna trembled behind the bars. A turmoil of anger, confusion, and fear swirled within her.

Then Merwen spoke.

“Still, we’ve known each other for so long. I feel it’s too cruel to turn on you like this.”

“….”

“Since this might be the last time, I’ll teach you something important.”

Merwen took a step closer to Sezna.

One step. Neither more nor less, exactly one step. A movement clear enough to inspire hope of salvation, yet short enough to crush that hope instantly, chewing it to pieces.

Merwen spoke to the woman who, in that instant, displayed two drastically different faces.

“Sezna, we all have secrets.”

“….”

“It’s only a matter of how long you hide them.”

The dirtier and more shameful the secret, the more desperately one hides it, to prevent it from becoming a weakness.

Sezna looked at Merwen with trembling eyes. Merwen, whose black eyes always carried a pair of disdain and hatred, caught a moment of fear mixed with the sight of something repulsive.

It was a reaction that felt more valuable than any sense of awe or love. Merwen smiled with delight.

☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓

The review of past investigation records was completed around dawn.

If there were any suspicious individuals, compiling a separate list of them also concluded at that time.

Sioden tossed the list he had created onto the desk and leaned his head back. As he pressed against his sore eyes, Rhys approached him. Before the he could tell him to get some rest, Sioden commanded him.

“Arrest them all.”

Rhys quickly skimmed the list and replied,

“Most of them are already in the dungeons.”

“Ha.”

A hollow laugh escaped him. Sioden roughly rubbed his unfeeling face.

The ones currently in prison were those listed as informants passed on by Demian Rowen, along with various other crimes, and… those associated with Iella’s lottery.

Those who had existing crimes had not committed just one offense.

One couldn’t help but wonder how rotten the household had become, with nothing intact from top to bottom, yet only the conclusion remained: what hope was there in what Lerox had?

Still, the reason for his rising anger was likely the thought that not only had he rotted himself away, but that innocent Iella had also been dragged into it.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door, followed by the knight’s announcement from beyond. It was a knight who had been assigned to Merwen. Sioden, still covering his face with one hand, gestured. Reading his intent, Rhys shouted towards the door. “Come in!”

Soon, footsteps approached. At that moment, Sioden closed his eyes, trying to ease the dryness in them.

The knight began his report.

“Ethel escaped her confinement last night.”

Sioden listened quietly to what followed.

After the knight finished his report and left, Rhys approached him.

“All the knights who helped her are connected to the council of elders.”

Rhys’s expression wasn’t good. Since Merwen, who had always received positive evaluations, had fallen from grace, the knight often wore such an expression. Sioden knew he was confused but left him alone. He didn’t have the time to resolve the illusions he had built himself.

After a moment of thought regarding the knight’s report, Sioden muttered,

“The timing is too convenient, isn’t it?”

Merwen had openly committed crimes when there wasn’t enough evidence to arrest her.

And she did so with the help of the council of elders, whom he had been planning to deal with.

Even if he had tried to create an opportunity, it couldn’t have been better.

Sioden stood up.

“I need to see Ethel.”