Chapter 156
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 156
"Roxana Valbenus has been gravely injured and transported to the Fellon Estate."
"…Gravely injured? Did you say gravely injured?"
At her incredulous tone, the man delivering the news scratched the back of his neck, avoiding her gaze as if he had nothing left to say.
"Did I not tell you to make sure that bitch died?"
"But her escorts..."
"I told you there would be escorts! You couldn't even prepare for that?"
Lauren, the one who had commissioned the assassination, glared with bulging eyes and screamed at the hitman, Butcher Harry. He offered an excuse, sounding wronged.
"You never mentioned they would be that skilled."
"You idiot! Is that your excuse? Do I have to measure the skill of every guard and hand-feed you the information too?!"
Faced with her fury—looking as if she might hurl something at his head at any moment—Harry tried to soothe her.
"The carriage overturned completely into the wheat field. Judging by the commotion the escorts made just trying to get the door open, her condition must be critical. She’ll be dead soon enough. You could call the commission a success."
"All talk and no results."
"Go ahead and check for yourself. In any case, the Acting Family Head is currently clinging to life. This time, your son will surely be able to take her place, won't he?"
Lauren clicked her tongue in annoyance. "That wench truly has nine lives."
If the girl had just been taken away as collateral for her father’s debts in the first place, none of this bothersome trouble would have happened. Lauren tossed a coin pouch to Harry.
"Since she’s still breathing, you only get half the fee."
"But your son becoming the head of the Fellon family is practically a certainty now—!"
"She has to die! What I want is her death, you vermin!"
Not a shred of a dignified noblewoman remained as she sprang to her feet and stormed out of the drawing room. Her fists trembled, her rage unquenched. The memory of the disgrace she suffered at the Kailas Ducal House tormented her every night.
‘If only that bitch didn’t exist...!’
Harriet had been the one to expose the truth, and Lauren would never forgive her either, but in Lauren’s mind, this entire catastrophe was ultimately Roxana’s fault. It was because Roxana existed—carrying even a single drop of Fellon blood—that everything had gone wrong.
‘As long as that girl is alive, I can never claim the Fellon family.’
Rumors that Lauren did not carry the Fellon bloodline had already spread like wildfire through high society. However, since she was still listed in the family registry through formal adoption, if Roxana died, the only person left to claim the position was Lauren’s son, Jaden.
‘The informant’s report was true. That means only Roxana is at the Fellon Estate right now...’
Lauren’s eyes narrowed venomously.
‘This is my only chance to kill her.’
She sent a servant to fetch Joseph. He had been staying in Shearton but was currently hiding at the Marshall Mansion because of the incident. His mission was to quickly draft Roxana’s death certificate before Trisha could hatch any other schemes.
Joseph, practically dragged in by the servant and forced to sit before Lauren, looked bewildered. Lauren was in no mood for pleasantries. She grabbed him by the collar.
"That medicine from before—you still have it, don't you?"
"‘That medicine’... You mean the one used on Lady Fellon?"
"What else would I mean?"
"I-I have it, but... why do you ask?"
Lauren tightened her grip on his collar for a moment before loosening it slightly, whispering into his ear.
"Don't fail me this time, Mr. Alden. You need to earn your keep."
Joseph found Lauren’s gaze so chilling that he could only nod, though he didn't fully understand the situation.
"We are going to the Fellon Estate right now. We are going to 'treat' the Acting Family Head, Roxana Fellon, who was just brought in with grave injuries."
"To... to actually treat her?"
"Do you really think so? Your mission is to sign that wench’s death certificate! Now, hurry up and disguise yourself."
Following Lauren’s command, Joseph dressed as a doctor and boarded the carriage, clutching a medical bag. Thanks to the thick-rimmed glasses and the bushy fake beard he wore, it would be difficult for anyone without an exceptionally keen eye to recognize him as Joseph Alden.
Lauren, already seated in the carriage with Jaden, tapped the wall as soon as Joseph entered, ordering the driver to depart in a sharp voice. Jaden merely followed his mother’s lead, showing no will of his own.
‘That woman... the atmosphere around her is truly strange...’
Joseph, feeling a mounting sense of dread as the situation veered away from the original plan, asked in an uncertain voice, "W-what if they don't open the door?"
"Right now, the only people at the Fellon Estate are Roxana, who is on her last legs, and the servants. Who would dare block the next Family Head? Especially when we’ve brought a skilled doctor."
Lauren smiled faintly, her red lips twisted with malice.
When they arrived at the estate, the butler, Andre, blocked their path just as expected.
"To come barging in like this! Absolutely not. Please leave at once."
At his firm tone, Lauren stared at him, took a step forward, and slapped him across the face.
A sharp crack echoed through the lobby. The servants who had gathered behind Andre gasped, their faces turning pale with fright.
"A man who should be toiling as a laborer at the Carver Hill Tea Plantation managed to snag a butler position thanks to a senile old woman, and now he thinks he can show such disrespect?"
"Lady Marshall...!"
When Andre addressed her again, his voice still strong, Lauren slapped him a second time.
"Just because I am not my father’s biological daughter, you think you can look down on me too?"
"...That is not the issue."
Even with his lip split and blood trickling down his chin, Andre maintained his decorum to the end. To Lauren, his very existence was an insult.
"If you don't like it, go beg my sister-in-law to adopt you as well. Otherwise, stop being insolent and move aside."
"Miss Roxana is in a state where absolute rest is required!"
"That is why I brought a doctor! As if I could trust you lot to properly care for the Acting Family Head."
"That’s absurd...!"
Andre tried to block them until the very end, but the guards Lauren had brought stepped forward and roughly shoved the elderly man aside. As Andre fell backward, Lauren looked down at him as if she were about to spit on him.
"Insignificant worm, acting above your station. Tsk."
With Andre incapacitated, no one else dared to stop her. Lauren strode toward the room where Roxana was being treated, her footsteps heavy and devoid of any consideration for the patient.
Roxana lay on the bed, her face pale and wrapped in bandages. Perhaps because the sickroom had been prepared in haste, a screen had been set up beside the bed, with minor furniture and belongings pushed behind it.
"Wh-who are you...?"
The doctor, presumably summoned by Andre, stood up awkwardly. Before he could finish his sentence, Lauren threw her shawl aside and commanded, "Everyone out."
The doctor and the maids exchanged flustered glances before fleeing the room as she shrieked at them once more. Finally, with her sacrifice laid out before her, a satisfied smile bloomed on Lauren’s lips.
"Mr. Joseph. Get the medicine."
"Y-yes..."
Joseph fumbled with his bag and pulled out a brown glass bottle. The pills rattled against the sides.
"You said if someone takes several of these at once, it can kill them, right?"
"They will suffer a heart attack or go into shock. B-but it will definitely leave a trail."
Lauren snorted at his trembling voice.
"What if they suspect us? Once this wench dies, this house will be mine."
Her sneer grew louder, eventually transforming into a grotesque cackle. Joseph, whose face was now paler than Roxana’s, reluctantly pulled out a mortar and pestle and emptied the bottle. There were about six or seven pills left over from what had been used on Trisha.
"Is that enough?"
"For someone who hasn't built a tolerance, three or four pills would be fatal. I’ve prepared this many because we’ll be mixing it with water to pour down her throat. It won't matter if some of it spills."
Eager to finish and flee, he hastily began crushing the pills.
As the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of the pestle echoed in the quiet room, Lauren slowly surveyed the interior.
"A luxurious room like this for a wench who should be grateful for an attic? Does that make any sense? Every time I saw that old hag squandering my inheritance as she pleased while she sat on her deathbed, I felt like my chest would burst."
Jaden mumbled something, wondering if she was speaking to him, but Lauren didn't even look his way. She approached the bed and looked down at Roxana.
"Tsk, tsk. You should have been smarter, Roxana. This is what happens when you covet things you aren't even worthy of looking at."
Sneering, Lauren used the tip of her folding fan to tilt Roxana’s chin from side to side, inspecting her. Blood was seeping through the head bandages, and her complexion was ghostly.
"It would have been much cleaner if you had just died in the carriage accident. Come to think of it, you really are just like Trisha Fellon. No matter how much of that 'slow-death' medicine we gave her, she just kept clinging to life."
Lauren bared her teeth and laughed.
"This time, I’ll make sure you stay dead. But don't be too sad. I’ll send that old hag you love so much to join you very soon. Ahahaha!"