A Harmonious Family
A Harmonious Family
Jjaeng-geurang—!
A piece of top-quality porcelain, worth dozens of gold coins, struck the wall and shattered into pieces.
That wasn't all.
Silk curtains were torn to shreds.
Jewelry boxes rolled haphazardly across the floor.
Even teacups and tables lay broken and smashed.
The bedroom of the mistress of Edelheid, Duchess Florencia, was a shambles, as if it had been raided.
But it wasn't a raid. After all, this devastation was entirely Florencia's own doing.
"That lowly bitch, how dare she...!"
Florencia, having destroyed everything in the room, panted heavily.
Her blue eyes were so bloodshot they almost looked purple.
She, the noble mistress of Edelheid, had been forced to kneel at the feet of a bastard she had treated as less than a bug her entire life.
That arrogant gaze looking down at her as she knelt. Even the threat whispered into her ear.
It was an outrage that could not be overlooked.
"I cannot forgive her. I will never let her live. I'll cut off her head and hang it up, then tear her limb from limb and feed her to the pigs!"
Florencia huffed and puffed as if she might spit blood at any moment.
She realized that simply throwing a tantrum and breaking things wouldn't wash away this miserable humiliation.
Biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, she irritably yanked at the hem of her disheveled dress.
"This is all because of him."
Florencia's anger even extended to the Duke.
If only he hadn't brought in that mysterious concubine. Then a half-breed like that wouldn't even exist.
There is a limit to patience. She would make him take responsibility for what he had done.
Abandoning all decorum, Florencia strode forward. Soon, she arrived at the Patriarch's laboratory.
In the past, she used to go in and out of the laboratory freely, watching his research.
But at some point, the Duke strictly forbade anyone else from entering.
At most, only Cassius was allowed inside.
The irony was that this period also coincided with when the Duke took his concubine.
"This, that, and everything else. It's all because of that woman!"
Today, she would have it out with him.
Florencia pounded on the laboratory door.
Kung-kung-kung!
"You! Talk to me for a moment!"
"......."
"I know you're in there, so come out!"
She pounded on the door violently and screamed, but there was no response.
Normally, Florencia would have eventually grown tired and left, but today she had no intention of letting it go.
"If you won't come out, I'll force my way in!"
A barrier was cast around the Duke's laboratory to prevent unauthorized entry.
Since Florencia was not a mage, she couldn't dispel the barrier.
However, it was a wife's duty to know her husband's every move.
She had prepared the means to dispel the barrier long ago.
"I need to know exactly what you're doing in there."
Florencia pulled a magic tool from her bosom.
It was a barrier-dispelling tool she had obtained by secretly pressuring the family's mages.
As she brought the magic tool to the door, bluish sparks flew and a wave of mana erupted.
The transparent veil filling the air crumbled like scorched paper.
Kkigigigik.
The laboratory door, which hadn't budged, moved. Florencia stepped inside without hesitation.
"Come out this instant, Pascal! Look me in the eye and explain yourself!"
Florencia, who had been shouting in a venomous voice as she walked, suddenly came to a dead stop.
Her eyes, which looked ready to grab her husband by the collar, shook violently.
The state of the laboratory she saw was far removed from the memories in her head.
The Duke's laboratory she had freely visited in the past was a cozy and intellectual space.
A typical noble scholar's room, with items neatly organized and the faint scent of ink lingering.
But the scene unfolding before her now was the epitome of bizarre.
A dark, secret room where not a single ray of light could penetrate.
Dolls sewn together so haphazardly their original forms were unrecognizable.
Magic circles were densely engraved from the floor to the ceiling, and in glass tubes standing here and there, mysterious liquids bubbled and boiled.
The sour smell of chemicals and the nauseating stench of blood made it difficult to even breathe.
"What on earth is this...?"
As Florencia blankly scanned the laboratory, she spotted Duke Pascal in one corner.
"Should I just cut out the hardened part of the Mana Core and attach a new one? Ah, but if it goes wrong, everything will be ruined... Should I just make a new one now? Wait another 20 years? No, I can't last that long. Above all, there's no vessel as good as this one!"
The Duke was so absorbed in something that he didn't even realize Florencia had entered.
There was even a chilling madness felt in the way he poured out those monologues.
"Dear...?"
"This is all because of that bitch Bibi. I saved her when she was dying, and how dare she betray me without knowing gratitude!"
"Pascal!"
"Hmm?"
At Florencia's shout, the Duke finally noticed her.
"Fl-Florencia? How did you get in here...?"
"I'm the one who wants to ask the questions, not you! What exactly are you doing here? What are all these things! Are you perhaps researching dark magic?"
"That... I'm a bit distracted right now, so let's talk later. No, let's talk later."
"No, I need to talk to you right now."
Florencia strode closer.
"Do you know what happened today? That lowly... The daughter born of the woman you brought in on a whim laid a hand on Sylvia and made me kneel. Does this make any sense?"
"Don't raise your voice like that. I'm really distracted right now. It doesn't seem like a very important matter, so let's do it later, later. Okay?"
"Not very important? Are you finished talking? Your wife! The mistress of Edelheid knelt before a mere bastard! What could possibly be more important than this in the whole world!"
Whether Florencia screamed beside him or not, the Duke was busy doing his work without a care.
Florencia, whose anger was already at its peak, could not control her emotions in that moment.
She grabbed the Duke's arm firmly.
"When someone is talking to you, shouldn't you stop what you're doing and focus!"
"I said I'm busy, damn it!"
It happened in that instant.
A flash of light erupted from the Duke's fingertips. It was an unconscious, reflexive action, like shooing away a fly.
Pu-uk!
A rupturing sound, like a knife piercing meat, sliced through the air.
"......Uh?"
Florencia's eyes dilated to a grotesque degree.
She stumbled, grasping at the air, not even understanding what had happened to her.
Tuk, tuduk.
Her chest area grew warm, and something began to drip onto the floor.
Slowly lowering her head, Florencia saw a hole in her chest.
Her extravagant dress was becoming soaked and muddy with the blood pouring from her heart.
"Ke-heok...!"
She tried to move her lips, but what came up her throat was not a voice, but crimson blood.
Her vision fluctuated uncontrollably. Florencia's staggering body collapsed helplessly to the floor.
'Wh...y?'
Why did the Duke do this to her?
Why did she, who had reigned as the mistress of Edelheid, have to die with her heart pierced by her husband's hand?
There was no one to answer that question.
"I told you I was busy, so why did you keep bothering me?"
As her vision blurred, she heard the Duke's voice.
A terribly dry, hollow voice without a shred of guilt even in the face of his wife's death.
With that, Florencia's blue pupils sank into darkness.
It was a futile end for someone who was the mistress of a Ducal family.
Looking down at Florencia collapsed on the floor, Duke Pascal—Sercia—scratched their head irritably.
"I'm already busy, how am I supposed to deal with this now?"
Florencia was just a mother playing the role of a harmonious family, nothing more. She had no other use.
She wasn't even a mage, so she couldn't be used as an experimental subject.
They could just throw her away, but things had been going poorly lately.
If the news of the Duchess's death got out, it would become even more chaotic.
For now, she still had to play her role.
Ttak.
Sercia snapped their fingers. Then, thin silver needles sprang out from the darkness.
Like sewing a torn doll, they began to stitch Florencia's ruptured heart and torn flesh.
By the time the sewing was finished, only a hideous scar remained.
"Get up."
Sercia's command fell.
Florencia's body, which had been collapsed on the floor, rose smoothly as if pulled by something invisible.
The eyes that had sunk into darkness blinked a few times and soon regained their original color.
"Now, from today on, you are Duchess Florencia. Who are you?"
"Duchess... Florencia."
"Mhm, yes, yes. It works well."
Sercia nodded with satisfaction.
"Now go back to your place. I'm asking you, please don't cause any trouble."
A mealtime where only the sound of clashing cutlery could be heard, without a single word of conversation.
It was the usual scene at the Edelheid family's dinner table.
Among them, many wanted to eat quietly in their own rooms instead of gathering.
However, they only gathered because of the Duke's firm insistence that a harmonious family must eat together.
'Though the person himself isn't even here.'
Looking at the empty seat of honor, the eldest daughter Idella chewed on her empty fork.
She didn't remember well because she was young, but she thought it used to be more harmonious than this in the past.
Currently, not only Pascal but even Cassius's personality had changed drastically.
At the very least, she was grateful that the youngest, Sylvia, worked hard to brighten the atmosphere.
'Even that has lessened since that viper-like bitch joined the table.'
Idella's displeased gaze was directed at Renoa.
Despite having ruined the household, she was happily feeding her guardian knight.
Even yesterday, she supposedly hit Sylvia and made Florencia kneel?
She wasn't just any crazy bitch.
It must be because she inherited her mother's lowly blood.
'I wonder what will become of this family.'
The future looked bleak.
While Idella worried about the family's future, Sylvia was glaring fiercely at Renoa in front of her.
Yesterday, she had let it slide because she was flustered by the sudden violence.
But not today.
She would have her revenge for yesterday.
Sylvia aimed for the top of Renoa's foot and stomped down with all her might with her shoe.
Kwa-ak!
"Ugh...!"
"Agassi? Are you feeling unwell?"
Renoa furrowed her brows in pain. Looking around, her eyes met Sylvia's diagonally across from her.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Don't play innocent. You stepped on my foot."
"When did I? Don't accuse an innocent person when you have no proof. Do you have some kind of persecution complex?"
"......."
Renoa glared, and Sylvia continued to feign ignorance.
An eye-fight between the two continued over the dishes.
"Sylvia. You shouldn't say such things to your unni."
The moment Idella, unable to watch any longer, was about to say something, a mature woman's gentle voice intervened.
The owner of that voice was none other than Duchess Florencia.
"Hurry and apologize to your unni."