Chapter 123: The War of Exposure (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 123: The War of Exposure (2)
The nanny was dead. Didn’t that mean the witness had vanished?
In the end, it meant there was no evidence left to prove Meisel’s guilt.
“You don’t look particularly sad, do you?”
The Grand Duchess spoke, arching an eyebrow.
“Being honest is one of your virtues, Lady Meisel, but in a setting like this, you ought to know how to hide your emotions.”
“Y-your Highness, you go too far.”
With a chilling smile, the Grand Duchess called for the butler in a low voice.
Soon, maids entered, placing a cup of clear tea and a small, folded paper pouch—resembling a packet—in front of each person.
Amidst the murderous atmosphere, the Grand Duchess spoke softly.
“I’ve prepared a medicinal tea that’s good for the body today. It might be a bit bitter, so feel free to add sugar.”
The young noblewomen stared, their mouths agape.
She wants us to drink tea in a mood like this?
Though her words were soft, the Grand Duchess’s tone was clearly a command, not a suggestion.
“Lady Meisel, please, make yourself comfortable.”
At the casual gesture of invitation, Meisel bit her lip.
You think I won’t drink it just because you told me to?
As if accepting a challenge, Meisel took a large gulp of the tea before hastily setting the cup down.
It was dreadfully bitter.
Meisel frantically looked for the sugar. Her eyes landed on the paper pouch the maid had set down.
Is this the sugar?
She unfolded the paper to pour the white powder into her tea, but then, words written on the inside of the paper caught her eye.
Why is this paper here…!
Meisel’s face froze instantly.
“Lady Meisel.”
The Grand Duchess called her name in a tone that was unpleasantly intimate.
“What is written on that paper?”
“I-it’s nothing.”
Meisel’s voice trembled at the end.
Cecilia, who had been silent the whole time, snatched the paper from Meisel’s hand.
“Nothing? Why don’t I read it aloud?”
Cecilia read the contents in a voice thick with suppressed rage.
「 If you take this medicine, symptoms will appear, and they’ll move you to the infirmary. I’ll find a way to get you out from there. To avoid suspicion, take the medicine in two days. Make sure to eat the letter to destroy it. Remember. You must never mention my name. 」
Meisel stammered despite herself.
“I—I never wrote such a—!”
“You wrote it yourself, yet you don’t remember?”
The Grand Duchess drove the point home as she looked around at the other ladies.
“This is the note Lady Meisel secretly sent to the head maid.”
Horror dawned on the faces of the quicker-witted ladies.
“And the head maid was found dead in her cell yesterday.”
The Grand Duchess’s voice turned ice-cold as she delivered the final blow.
“Likely because she took the medicine, believing the words of ‘someone.’”
Every single lady present gasped, covering their mouths.
Karina, who was sitting next to Meisel, let out a strange groan and pulled her chair away to the opposite side.
Meisel, suddenly branded a murderer, shook with fury.
She had done nothing wrong.
It’s not like I lied!
The shaman had clearly said the medicine wouldn’t kill her.
She only withheld the part about the ‘excruciating pain’ to ease Marzella’s fears.
It was by no means Meisel’s fault that the nanny had unintentionally died.
And besides… wasn’t it fine now that the nanny was dead?
Someone had been punished, hadn’t they?
The Grand Duchess should consider that revenge enough.
Did she really have to drag an innocent person like her into this to be satisfied?
Meisel gritted her teeth and spoke.
“I know nothing of this.”
“But anyone can see this is your handwriting, Lady Meisel.”
Cecilia held up a reply to an invitation Meisel had previously sent the Grand Duchess, though no one knew when she had retrieved it.
The situation was unfavorable for her in every way.
At a loss for words, Meisel turned away from Cecilia and shouted at the Grand Duchess.
“Your Highness! Are you really going to tarnish my honor like this over the death of a mere commoner?”
The smile vanished from the Grand Duchess’s face.
“A mere commoner?”
Her clenched fist atop the table trembled slightly.
It was the first time they had seen the Grand Duchess look so frigid.
The other ladies instinctively folded their hands politely.
“Did you say there was no evidence earlier?”
The Grand Duchess took a deep breath and spoke in a low, steady voice.
“…Fine. Regarding the previous two charges, I shall personally declare you innocent.”
The paper Cecilia held was then handed over to the Grand Duchess.
“However, you must be punished for this new crime, mustn’t you? Since, as you said, there is clear evidence.”
Having finished, the Grand Duchess signaled to her lady-in-waiting.
Cecilia quickly rose and opened the tea room door, and the knights waiting outside marched in.
“Sir Johas. Escort Lady Meisel to a room in the annex and confine her there.”
“As you command.”
The knights approached Meisel and seized her by both arms.
“Wait! Why must I endure such humiliation!”
“Did you say it was a fuss over a mere commoner?”
The Grand Duchess spoke with a blank expression.
“If that displeases you, fine. I shall change the charge to the crime of deceiving the Grand Duke and myself by daring to commit murder within the Grand Duke’s Castle.”
Upon hearing those words, Johas looked at Meisel with a gaze full of contempt.
Under that stare, Meisel’s eyes burned with rage.
The magic stone in the necklace she wore grew hot enough to sear.
Finally, unable to contain herself, Meisel shrieked.
“Don’t make me laugh! I did nothing wrong! This is all because of you!”
“‘You’? Mind your tongue!”
Ignoring Johas’s warning, Meisel poured out her vitriol.
“That was supposed to be my place! I should have been the Grand Duchess of Blenheim!”
“How can she say such treasonous things…!”
The ladies watched her, unable to even close their mouths in shock.
It was unfair.
“If a creature like you hadn’t seduced the Grand Duke… Mmph!”
Finally, a knight gagged Meisel with a handkerchief.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
Meisel struggled with all her might.
She couldn’t be dragged out like a criminal.
The ladies gathered in this tea room were the few centers of high society.
If each of them uttered just one word at their respective gatherings, Meisel’s reputation would be beyond repair.
When Meisel resisted leaving the tea room, the knights eventually lifted her by the arms.
“Mmph! I-it hurts! I said it hurts!”
As she was dragged away with her feet dangling off the ground, Meisel’s eyes met the Grand Duchess’s.
Goodbye.
She could clearly read the shape of the Grand Duchess’s lips.
And so, Meisel was dragged from the tea room in the most miserable state imaginable.
* * *
“Arbor Meisel is to be exiled to the Gallid Monastery for three years.”
“You cannot do that.”
Count Arbor spoke in a suppressed voice.
It had been a few hours since Meisel’s maid had returned to the estate, weeping that the young lady had been seized.
He had rushed to the Grand Duke’s Castle, but the Grand Duke had left him neglected in the reception room for over an hour.
For the prideful Count Arbor, it was enough to make his blood boil, but with his daughter held hostage, he didn’t dare object.
And when the Grand Duke finally summoned him after sunset, his first words were about exiling his daughter.
Gallid Monastery was located on a desolate plain at the westernmost edge of the Grand Duchy.
Furthermore, calling it a monastery was a mere formality; it was a place of exile no different from a prison.
“My daughter is not yet married. Do you intend to ruin her marriage prospects for life?”
The Count raised his voice, arguing that the Grand Duke could not treat the Arbor family, who had been loyal to the Blenheim line for generations, in such a manner.
The Grand Duke spoke with eyes that had settled into a chilling gaze.
“Is that so? Then, out of respect for Count Arbor’s dignity, I suppose I should hold a proper trial for the Lady.”
“Let us publicly discuss what the Lady of Arbor has done, what charges she faces, and what her punishment should be.”
The Count bit his lip hard.
If a trial were actually held, all the honor his family had built over generations would crumble.
His daughter would never be able to show her face anywhere again.
“There is no clear evidence, is there?”
“Perel, have you not shown it to Count Arbor yet?”
“I have, Your Grace.”
If they were talking about that damned note, he had already confirmed it through Perel while waiting in the reception room.
He had seen just how sloppily his daughter had acted.
“That cannot be considered evidence.”
He could insist it wasn’t a letter Meisel had written in the first place. Even if it was clearly his foolish daughter’s handwriting.
Besides, he didn’t know where she had obtained such medicine, but there was no guarantee the head maid had died from taking it.
“Let’s be honest here.”
The Grand Duke spoke, leaning his chin on his hand with a languid expression.
“Do I look like someone who couldn’t manufacture a plausible piece of evidence?”
“But she was just a head maid.”
The Count changed his strategy, appealing to emotion.
“She wasn’t a noble, just a commoner who died. This treatment is far too excessive.”
“And that head maid died in the Grand Duke’s Castle.”
The Grand Duke spat the words out through gritted teeth.
“Do you expect to commit such an act in the place where I reside and walk away unscathed?”
“At least… let me send her to the Arbor estate.”
His tone had now shifted almost entirely to pleading.
“I will ensure she reflects on her actions without leaving the estate for the three years you mentioned.”
“Must I blockade your gates before you come to your senses?”
“Do not test my patience.”
A thick vein throbbed on the Grand Duke’s forehead.
The Grand Duke was certainly exercising patience right now.
Between the previous formal letter of protest and this, the Count felt he vaguely understood why the Grand Duke was so agitated.
I heard he dotes on the Grand Duchess excessively.
He didn’t want to stoop to saying such things, but…
Count Arbor spoke as if grasping at straws.
“That child… she loved you, Your Highness.”