The Seventh Plan. Revenge Done Right. (8)
“Mrs. Blone had suffered a lot.”
And while Madame Blone took care of the internal affairs on my behalf, she put Count Petrika’s men within the Duchy before she had changed the merchants who provided supplies to the Duchy of DeMancier one by one to the merchants whose funds had reached Count Petrika instead. I began to wonder if that was all he ever did.
“I would have had a good relationship with my ex-fiancé, Oscar, if you hadn’t done anything to turn him into Carl’s escort.”
During the time of Countess Blone, she had added a notoriety of being manly and lascivious to my reputation, which was not so good by nature. At that time, I thought that the rumors were attached to me because of some unfair things, but in retrospect, even that slander had actually been intentional.
As Gellerhard and I shared a bed together, if a scandal broke out that I had a man other than my own husband during the time I conceived his baby, there would always be a debate about whether my baby had really been the real child of the Duke of DeMancier.
He was afraid that if I had given birth to my own baby, I would then abuse Carl, so the Count kept me in check by killing my baby instead. If he was a grandfather who really thought of Carl, he wouldn’t even do this to me.
“Countess Blone did that… huh.”
The Count sighed while pretending not to know. When I saw that brazen face of his, I clicked my tongue with a straight face. My stomach began to boil uncontrollably, so I took a sip of the tea once again to cool it down.
“A lot of strange things happened. That Countess Blone had attempted to do so many outrageous things and the fact that while she was there, men whose identities had been unknown even to herself were getting employed. Oh and not only that, but a mischievous maid tried to feed me a strange drink while I was pregnant with her. She even dared to say that Carl should never drink it. I was so disgusted that I kicked out the maid. Well, I heard that she died in an accident with her carriage or something? Anyway, my newborn baby who drank my breast milk died and Carl had gotten sick in the end. And it turns out that Charlotte had, in reality, fed me with some of her poisonous weed. However, she said that Count Petrika was the one who bought it for her?”
Hah—the Count’s lips rose reflexively in front of me just like he was snickering as if he had been told of a funny joke, but couldn’t really burst into laughter. He had a very strange expression on his face. Surprised, puzzled and even a smile… all those expressions that had mixed together were revealed in a rather awkward manner.
“Well, you wouldn’t believe that, would you? Did you just say, Charlotte? She must have been a crazy woman then.”
The Count once again pretended to be ignorant and began to make a fuss. He emptied the cup as if his throat was already scorching and I personally poured him more tea.
“It was definitely a tad bit insane. To kill a newborn baby only to become the Duchess. Really, it was something that an average mind couldn’t execute at all. And the man who ordered it—it wouldn’t be enough to kill him even by tearing his limbs apart. I didn’t want to believe it either, but I had no other choice but to do so. Could it be that the clever lady didn’t leave a single piece of evidence behind at all? If she was caught, would she be the only one to die then?”
The look on his face, which was doubting the authenticity of my words, eventually darkened. No wonder he had his men watch Charlotte as she burned the letters on her mantelpiece. I proceeded to pour some more tea into the cup and to mine. The Count instantly took a sip and gulped down the tea, he most probably felt very thirsty.
“By the way, she didn’t die because of pneumonia actually. And before her end, we shared a delicious cup of tea together.”
At the words which I said with a smile, the Count dropped the teacup as if his hand had been burned. Yikes—he instantly grabbed his neck. Crack! The teacup that fell to the floor was broken and the tea eventually spilled out. Ug, ugh—the Count, who had fallen from the chair, put his hand in his mouth as if he was trying to hurl up the tea he had just drunk and kept on inducing himself to vomit.
“What is this disgusting thing?”
Gellerhard entered the room just in time and said with a frown painted over his face. The Count proceeded to beg Gellerhard while holding out his hand as if he was crawling.
“Sah, save me! That woman is trying to kill me!”
“Oh, my. I apologize if it made you think so. But, Count. Have you actually lost your mind?”
As he saw me with my calm words, the Count opened his eyes wide when he looked at me drinking the tea proudly. His face appeared very ugly with him covered with tears, mucus and much saliva.
“Address my wife properly, Count.”
Gellerhard was very displeased before he proceeded to take a seat next to me. The Count opened his mouth as if he had something else to say before he rose and looked at Gellerhard, then he closed it once again. Gellerhard, who had already pulled up a chair and sat close to me, crossed his legs as his toe tapped my ankle softly.
“What were you talking about?”
“We just talked a little about what happened last time.”
I replied with a vague answer as I smiled along.
“Why were you so late?”
When the topic had changed, Count Petrika could be seen to be looking at Gellerhard’s eyes while getting rather impatient.
“I was taking care of Count Decca. I heard that he has two daughters and her eldest daughter is engaged to your son?”
Count Petrika’s shoulders flinched at Gellerhard’s plaintive question. I wondered why Count Decca was being so loud and it had seemingly been a marriage agreement in truth.
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