CHAPTER 137
The Grand Duchess of Le Sain was quickly surrounded by the guards.
“What is the meaning of this? Pointing swords at me, who holds the regency? The traitor here is not I, but you!”
The Grand Duchess’s sharp voice echoed throughout the office. She glared at Sir Peter, her eyes wide, and pointed at him with her finger.
“What are you waiting for? Protect the throne and arrest this man! Those who disobey my orders will be severely punished!”
Her fierce threats dissolved into thin air, with no effect. The guards occupying the office neither moved to arrest Sir Peter nor lowered their swords pointed at the Grand Duchess.
“Do you think His Majesty will simply let you go when he returns? It won’t be a prison cell but the guillotine where your heads will be displayed on the tower pillars!”
The lips that had earlier twisted into a cunning smile, dreaming of rebellion, now invoked the Emperor’s name.
The corners of Sir Peter’s impressive mustache curled upward. His eyes, sharp as a hawk’s, fixed on the Grand Duchess, while his mouth maintained a soft smile.
With a slight nod of his head, the soldiers standing in the front row advanced toward the Grand Duchess. She hesitated, taking a step back, but her retreat was soon blocked by the wall, trapping her between the soldiers and the wall.
“We can preserve your dignity if you come quietly.”
The Grand Duchess glared at Sir Peter with murderous intent, furious that he did not address her with the respect usually accorded to royalty.
“Sir Peter, you think you can act with impunity because of His Majesty’s favor. I will report everything when His Majesty returns!”
Her final desperate outburst went unanswered. Sir Peter, resigned, raised one hand. A soldier with a rope swiftly seized the Grand Duchess’s wrist, binding both hands in an instant.
“What are you doing? How dare you lay hands on me!”
She screamed at the top of her lungs, stamping her feet like a child, resisting with all her might to avoid being dragged out of the office and into the outer hall. But soon, her bound hands were yanked forward, and she fell face-first to the ground. Trembling, she found herself locking eyes with the crowd gathered in the outer hall.
There was no one who pitied her. Instead, shock and schadenfreude mingled in the eyes of those watching.
This was the woman once hailed as one of the empire’s most powerful figures, now with an angry, distorted face, her hair disheveled and adorned with fallen jewels, her dress torn and wrinkled from the struggle.
The Grand Duchess struggled to rise, but her ankle seemed twisted, and she stumbled. As she limped away, dragged by the guards, no one offered a word of sympathy.
Caroline, the Grand Duchess of Le Sain, had relied on her father, the late Emperor, and her second brother, who had held the regency on behalf of the young Maxwell, to commit all manner of evil deeds. Many families had been ruined by her wickedness and cunning, as deadly as a snake. Although her power had waned after Maxwell ascended the throne, she still abused her influence from behind him.
She had attempted to assassinate Maxwell twice during his youth and had tried to hand him over as a hostage to enemy forces during wartime. The Emperor, intelligent as he was, was not ignorant of these facts. And yet, until now, he had left her untouched. People thought it was because he could not bring himself to act against his own blood.
No matter how powerful Maxwell was, he could not easily deal with his grandfather’s beloved only daughter without clear justification. If he punished her and the Le Sain family without undeniable cause, it would appear as though he was persecuting his relatives to secure the throne.
Caroline was well aware of this and had exploited it to her advantage. As the Grand Duchess was dragged, bound, to the interrogation chamber, the murmurs of the onlookers intensified, their voices rising deliberately for her to hear.
“They say she tried to start a coup while His Majesty was away. What madness!”
“I heard she planned to set fire to five large armories in the palace. Imagine the devastation if the armories had exploded, the loss of life would have been immense. How could she even think of such a horrifying thing?”
“The armories are right next to the soldiers’ quarters. She was planning to kill hundreds of our soldiers by setting off the armories.”
“That’s not all. The Grand Duchess was also behind the theft of the secret designs for the new weapon and the internal maps of the fortresses on the southwestern coast, which were handed over to the Kingdom of Kubu.”
The blood drained from the Grand Duchess’s face. The people knew every detail of her plans.
Setting fire to the five armories, rendering the weapons useless, and at the same time, killing hundreds of soldiers sleeping in the adjacent barracks—these people knew everything.
As the realization hit, cold sweat ran down the Grand Duchess’s face. In the midst of her daze, Sir Peter’s voice reached her ears.
“Do you understand now? It was His Majesty who ordered your arrest. His Majesty knew everything.”
At that moment, her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground once more. She raised her head, only to see soldiers approaching from the opposite side.
Among them, she recognized the bound figures of Count Hawthorn and his son being dragged along.
Count Hawthorn looked like a stable hand, possibly having been captured while trying to flee. The two men, who bore a strong resemblance to each other, wept as they protested their innocence.
“We are innocent! We only obeyed the Grand Duchess’s orders out of fear of her reprisals. We had no idea what the documents handed to the Kingdom of Kubu contained!”
“What nonsense are you spouting? You, who conspired with me to commit treason, now seek to pin the blame on me to save yourselves?”
The Grand Duchess screamed, glaring at the two men with murderous intent. The Count and his son, turning to the crowd, raised their voices.
“Listen to us! This woman threatened to ruin our family if we didn’t do as she said.”
“You all know how evil the Grand Duchess is! We had no choice but to follow her orders.”
The two greedy rich men shifted the blame to the Grand Duchess with pitiful expressions.
“Argh, you scoundrels!”
The Grand Duchess, unable to contain her rage, lunged at the two men. With her bound hands, she grabbed what little hair the Count had left and bit his ear. The Count’s son tried to pull the Grand Duchess off by her hair, but soon all three were entangled in a chaotic brawl.
Yesterday's allies had become today’s enemies.
***
Creak.
The door to the interrogation room opened, and the Grand Duchess was brought in.
The image of her seated on the throne that morning, imagining herself ruling the empire, was nowhere to be found. Now, her expression began to reflect a dawning awareness of reality.
Fear and confusion widened her eyes as she scanned the dimly lit room. When she spotted a figure seated in the corner, her eyes lit up.
Relief, beyond just joy, surged through her. For the first time, she felt a kind of emotion she had never experienced toward the man in front of her.
“My love...!”
The words came out in a hoarse voice, worn from her earlier screams.
“My love...?”
Caroline called out to her husband again, raising her voice slightly.
There was no response. This was the same man who would wag his tail like a dog at a single word from her.
Even now, she found him infuriating and glared at him with daggered eyes.
“My love!”
Her joy vanished, replaced by irritation, and she shouted at him.
“Don’t just sit there like an idiot! You should be coming up with a plan! You’re not expecting me to handle this too, are you?”
The Duke of Le Sain slowly lifted his head, which had been hanging low.
She expected him to look at her with the same meek, cowed eyes, his neck and shoulders hunched.
But when their eyes met, the Grand Duchess unconsciously took a step back. His eyes, colder and fiercer than she had ever seen, were fixed on her.
The Duke stood up and slowly approached his wife.
This was the same man she had always mocked for being small and weak. But at this moment, with him standing so close, she felt nothing but fear.
It was the murderous intent clear in his eyes.
“Ugh...!”
The Grand Duchess let out a groan, clawing at the hands gripping her throat.
The Duke released his hold after she punched him in the face.
“Have you lost your mind? Have you forgotten who I am? How dare you, you insignificant...!”
She glared at her husband, gasping for breath, but her whole body trembled from the shock.
The Duke twisted his lips into a sneer.
“It’s you who doesn’t know your place, you insolent wretch.”
“What... what did you just say...?”
She was so stunned that she could hardly speak, her eyes narrowing in disbelief.
In a cold voice, the Duke began to lay out the reality for his wife.
“Now that you’ve been arrested for treason, you’re no longer the daughter of the late Emperor or the aunt of the current one. You’re just a criminal. And as your husband, I’m facing severe punishment alongside you.”
“So, what you should be doing is using the Le Sain family’s connections and resources to get us released. There’s no time to waste. What are you doing right now?”
The Duke chuckled as if he found her suggestion amusing. He grasped his wife’s chin with his fingers, forcing her to meet his gaze.
“Of course, I’m planning to use everything at my disposal to reduce my sentence. His Majesty knows how much I’ve suffered living with you, so he might even pity me. But as for you...”
A shiver ran down the Grand Duchess’s spine. She had a terrible feeling about what her husband was going to say.
“Not a single coin from our family will be spent on you. You’ll be a convict, working the fields by day and scrubbing dishes by night. You’ll rot in prison until you die, doing harder labor than the maids you tormented.”
“...”
Hot breaths escaped between her teeth, and her tear-filled eyes grew wet.
At that moment, the door opened, and the interrogation room supervisor poked his head in.
“The Duke of Le Sain is free to go. Bail has been paid, so you can return home while the investigation and trial proceed.”
“And... what about me...?”
“The Grand Duchess could not make bail, so you will be transferred to prison shortly.”
Caroline’s face turned ghostly pale at the supervisor’s indifferent response.
“M-my love...”
It was the most tender and affectionate voice she had ever used to call him.
“You won’t leave me here, will you? You’ll pay the bail to get me out, won’t you? Please, my love...?”
When the Duke turned away without a word, the Grand Duchess threw herself onto the floor and clung to his feet.
“My love, don’t abandon me. I’m your wife. Please, help me. Think of our dead son. Please...”
As she sobbed, a cold voice came from above her head.
“How ridiculous. After all the years you treated me worse than a dog, what makes you think I have the power to help you now? I hope your clever little mind finds a way out of this.”
The Duke shook her arms off his legs and walked to the door. As he opened it to leave, he added one last comment.
“They say you can receive divorce papers in prison. They’ll be delivered to you this evening.”
The door clicked shut, and a bloodcurdling, desperate scream echoed through the corridor.
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