Chapter 119
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 119
He had ordered his men to investigate the woman Marquis Reinhardt brought with him, but with the Marquis gone, it was likely a fool's errand.
"How am I supposed to meet her…?" Peter muttered, reaching into his coat, only to freeze.
"…?"
His leisurely search turned frantic. As he rummaged desperately through his breast pocket, his face twisted in anger.
Of all the things to lose, the Insignia of the Luxen King's Representative was gone.
It was impossible to lose unless it had been forcibly torn off. Racking his brain for when it could have happened, he recalled the moment his subordinate had clung to him.
"That stupid bastard!"
Since he had killed the man nearby, it had to be somewhere on the ground. The problem was that the insignia wasn't imbued with mana. Finding a tiny, non-magical object in the pitch-black darkness was a daunting task, even for someone like Peter.
"Damn it, where is it?" he muttered, groping around on the ground before suddenly going still.
With a deep sigh, Peter straightened his back and clicked his tongue in annoyance.
It seemed the Pelfe army had finally restored the Magic Dome; he could feel the Earthworms stirring.
Staying here any longer would cost him his life. In the end, Peter abandoned the search for the insignia and bolted toward the cave's exit.
He had gained only one thing from this operation.
Han Seo-ah.
Once he returned, he would summon the subordinates who brought back Hong-heon's remains and find out exactly what had transpired.
* * *
Around that same time, at the entrance of the Luxen Royal Palace, a young man and woman had been lingering near the gates all day. They had paced the vicinity for hours, unable to bring themselves to leave even as the night grew deep.
"Oppa, are you sure Sister said she was coming out today? We didn't get the date wrong, did we?"
"…Wait a second."
At his sister's anxious question, the brother rummaged through his bag and pulled out a letter. Holding it up to the glow of a streetlamp, he read it carefully before nodding.
"It's today. She said her vacation starts today."
"Then why…?" The girl looked at the darkening surroundings and let out a long sigh, her breath puffing white in the cold air. "Why isn't she here yet?"
The siblings' gaze drifted toward the main gates of the Luxen Royal Palace.
The statue of the late Marquis Reinhardt in the circular plaza was jaw-droppingly majestic, but it paled in comparison to the palace itself. Their sister had always talked about how magnificent the changing of the guard ceremony was, and she had been right. When the massive palace gates swung open and the Royal Guards emerged in neat files on their warhorses, the siblings had stared, mouths agape.
But as the hours ticked by, the initial excitement of seeing the legendary Luxen Royal Palace and its guards gradually morphed into anxiety.
"This won't do. I'm going to ask."
"C-Can we really do that?"
Back in their hometown, they were considered relatively well-off for commoners, but the capital was an entirely different world. Though they had worn their absolute best, they felt intimidated by the attire of the ordinary passersby. They were all commoners, yet the gap felt immense.
Naturally, they lacked the courage to approach the Royal Guards. But they couldn't just wait any longer.
"Excuse me…"
He approached cautiously, but the guards standing rigidly on either side of the main gate didn't spare him a glance. They were like stone statues. Still, the young man swallowed hard, held out the letter his sister had sent, and spoke.
"My sister works as a maid in the palace. She said today was her day off, and we were supposed to meet here, but she hasn't come out."
The guard remained silent.
"Please. We don't know what else to do…"
As his earnest pleas continued, the guard, who had been staring straight ahead, finally spoke in a blunt, clipped tone.
"I do not know."
"If you could just tell us what to do…"
"Countless people work in the palace. How do you expect me to help when I don't even know who you're looking for?"
The guard curtly cut him off. But with nowhere else to turn, the young man grasped at straws, describing his sister's appearance.
"My sister has a rather unique feature. She has pink eyes."
He clearly saw the guard's eyes flicker.
"You know her."
"You know our sister?" the girl, who had been hovering behind her brother, chimed in.
Though their plight was pitiful, the guard was bound by duty to remain silent on the palace's internal affairs. Staring straight ahead, he muttered in a low voice, "I do not know."
Since the guard refused to engage further, the siblings finally turned away, their shoulders slumped in defeat.
The guard, who had stubbornly kept his eyes forward, finally let his gaze drift toward the departing siblings. In the distance, the young girl collapsed to her knees and began to sob.
From across the gate, his colleague clicked his tongue softly.
"If she's the one with pink eyes, it must be that girl, right?"
"…I heard she was summoned last night."
"Then she won't be coming out today."
No matter how secret, an affair was bound to come to light if it happened often enough.
Historically, many maids had been summoned to the King's bedchamber. The only difference was that in the past, when the class system was rigid, the King never bothered to hide it. Now, with the social hierarchy beginning to crumble, such things were kept quiet.
"Do you think those maids are still alive?" his colleague muttered, watching the siblings' backs fade into the night.
"If they were, their families wouldn't be showing up at the palace looking for them. Why can't he just let them live after he's had his fun? If he just gave them a hefty sum to keep their mouths shut, most of them would."
"…Shh."
"There's a rumor going around. They say on nights when a maid who slept with the King disappears, smoke rises from the incinerator at the Capital Morgue."
The guard quietly scanned their surroundings as a chilly breeze brushed past his collar.
"Keep it down. You'll get us both in trouble."
"Let's watch tonight and see. See if smoke rises from that incinerator."
The guard's low voice was swallowed by the wind.
The wind carried their whispers through the capital, sweeping over the Rotten River. It merged with the drafts rising from the water, racing along the riverbank before seeping into a gloomy building on the city's outermost edge.
A common-looking carriage stood parked in front of the building.
Sabine peered through the carriage curtains at the spine-chilling structure and shuddered.
"I apologize for the trouble every time, my lady. But this is the only way to cremate a body outside of the scheduled days."
"Then think of another way! Can't you just take them outside the capital?"
"There are too many checkpoints to leave the city. High nobles like yourself can pass without inspection, but for people like us, the checks are rigorous. Besides, has there ever been any trouble handling it here?"
"…Fine. Just get it over with."
Sabine immediately turned her face away as the man opened the carriage door.
Her delicate lips, hidden beneath her hood, were bitten raw. Her fists, concealed under her clothes, were clenched so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
How much longer do I have to keep doing this?
King Leopold had taken another woman.
He took maids to his bed on a regular basis, sometimes keeping one by his side all night. Worse, the King never used contraception. If a child were born, they would simply be recognized as his offspring. The King might not care, but Sabine, who was destined to become his Queen, certainly did.
No blemish can be allowed to taint my life.
The label of "bastard" was more than enough for one lifetime.
If some worthless girl ended up pregnant with the King's child, it would be a constant thorn in her side.
Initially, she had only intended to force the maids to take contraceptive pills. But her mind had changed after a conversation with the Chief Lady-in-Waiting.
"My lady, humans are cunning. Once you become Queen, what will you do if they bring up the past? What if rumors spread that Her Majesty the Queen killed the child in their womb?"
The first time had been difficult. The second was easy.
Just then, the man who had gone into the building returned, carrying a thick ledger.
Sabine passed a heavy pouch of money through the window and scribbled a random local noble's name in the ledger he presented. Cremating a body on an unscheduled day required a formal record. She had written a fake name, but what did the lowlifes working in a place like this know? To them, anyone with a "von" in their name was a noble.
"Hurry up and finish. The smell makes me sick."
"Yes, my lady."
The man took the ledger and the money and went back inside. After exchanging a secretive look with the morgue manager, he handed over the pouch and the book, whispering, "Make sure a proper report is written up for her return."
"Understood."
"I heard the workers were recently replaced. No suspicious characters got in, right?"
"They went through multiple screenings."
The man added that she would visit to inspect the place herself sometime, then returned to the carriage.
A moment after the carriage departed, the manager walked to the back of the building where the incinerator was located. When the two workers bowed deeply, he handed each a handful of coins and gestured for them to leave.
He pulled back the white sheet covering a corpse, revealing the body of a woman with her eyes still open. Glancing at her lifeless pink eyes, he callously covered her face again. Then he pushed the body into the incinerator and slammed the door shut.
A short while later, white smoke billowed into the night sky from the secluded incinerator overlooking the Rotten River.
It was a pitch-black night.
Even the insects seemed to have fallen asleep. The only sounds were the occasional cry of a nocturnal bird and the rustling of wild animals in the brush.
From the distance, the thud of horse hooves on dry earth grew rapidly closer. The physician, who had just settled into bed, peeked out his window and nearly shrieked.
Two menacing, dust-covered men stood right outside his house.