Revenge Completed
Translated by: ME
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*****
(Why me? Why is this happening to me...?)
Sabarin, the former Count Ernest, was being half-carried down a dim corridor by two prison guards, his legs wobbling beneath him. Along with the stripping of his title, he had just been handed his sentence—death. He had screamed, demanding to know if there would be no trial, but the decision had been made with a swiftness that suggested no one had ever intended to listen to his side of the story.
(But why...?)
Sabarin was born the second son of the Ernest family. He had spent his youth wandering about in rebellion against his nagging father and his stiff-necked older brother. The turning point for Sabarin came shortly after his father died and his brother inherited the title. His brother died during an inspection trip, and the right of succession fell right into his lap.
All his relatives had opposed it. That had irritated him to no end. He had the right of succession, so it was only natural that he inherit; there was no way he was inferior to that stingy father or brother of his.
So, he made a proposal to his brother’s widow. She was his brother’s "hand-me-down," but she was a woman who commanded sympathy from the relatives. He told her that if she backed him, he would give the right of succession to the child she had borne, yet she had made him wait pointlessly for an answer.
When he finally settled into the Count’s chair, Sabarin was satisfied. But that satisfaction did not last long. Even though his sister-in-law belonged to him now, she wouldn't let him touch her. Far from it—she had the gall to claim she was already pregnant. He felt cheated, as if he’d been made a fool of.
In a fit of frustration, he had snatched a commoner woman with an alluring figure off the street, forced her into his carriage, and raped her at his villa. That was Isabella. At first she had wailed and screamed, but she soon became submissive, so he let her live in the mansion and doted on her.
He pushed the duties of the lord onto his sister-in-law. No matter how beautiful she was, Sabarin had no interest in a woman who wouldn't let him lay a finger on her. Even if he had wanted to take her by force, the relatives would have made a fuss—not to mention that Goldray and that old hag of a wet nurse were always by her side, getting in the way.
Isabella had gotten pregnant quickly, which cut his fun short, but the child was his own. After his sister-in-law kicked the bucket, he welcomed his darling Isabella and his own child, Wellmy, into the house. At that, all the relatives announced they were cutting ties, and almost all the servants quit. Only Goldray and the old wet nurse remained.
Once the old woman finally quit, Sabarin at last began making moves to make Wellmy his successor. Lola should have just dropped dead, but she seemed to be tougher than his late sister-in-law.
(Isabella was the one who suggested that plan...)
But while he was obsessed with trying to kill the girl, his irritation led him to blow too much money on gambling. Even the attempt to use the magical tool he’d bought to kill Lola failed. When he ran into financial trouble, House Schnieger stepped in with an offer of a loan, on the condition that their second son, Irvine, be engaged to Lola.
(How convenient.)
Lola was going to die soon anyway, and an engagement has to be broken if the partner isn't around. For now, he needed the cash in front of him. He left all the work of the lord to that useless yet stubborn Lola and Goldray. As for the financing, he had another lead in mind.
(Goldray was the one who taught me that...)
『If you keep a second set of books and falsify the taxes, you will have funds left over,』 he’d said. It was his fault for inciting it.
If only his sister-in-law hadn't deceived him and had quietly become his. If only Isabella hadn't cheated on him. If only Goldray hadn't egged him on.
(It’s all their fault...)
And yet, why was Sabarin the only one who had to be executed?
(Why did it come to this?)
At the end of the long corridor, a gallows appeared amidst the blinding sunlight. Those who had come to watch Sabarin’s execution broke into cheers. He tried to protest that it was all a mistake, but he was gagged and could only make muffled sounds. He writhed in resistance, but the sturdy soldiers who took him from the guards blindfolded him and dragged him up the steps to the gallows.
(I... did... nothing wrong...)
Sabarin Ernest never looked back on his own actions. To the very end, he spat out resentment toward those around him. He felt the floor vanish beneath his feet and the merciless hardness of the rope jerking at his neck, and then his consciousness closed forever.
***
---Sabarin had been executed.
When Isabella was told this, she allowed a smile to cross her face alone in her cell. It was finally over.
Everything had gone exactly according to Isabella’s plan.
Originally, Isabella was from an orphanage. She had expected to live her whole life as a commoner.
---Until she met Crates.
He was a gentleman. A gentle person who never looked down on her for being a commoner and treated her as an equal. Isabella, being older and working diligently in nursing, began to talk with him often, and it didn't take long for her to fall for him.
However, when Crates confessed his feelings, Isabella hesitated and kept refusing. Being a Duchess was something she could never manage. She would only be a burden to him. But he... said he would leave the Ducal house. When he told her he still wanted to be with her regardless, she was moved to tears.
She was happy. She was so happy, and yet.
On the day she was walking through the city after they had pledged themselves to each other and signed the contract for the house they would share—while he had gone back to his family home to have the final discussion with the Ducal house—Isabella, caught up in her joy, didn't notice the carriage approaching.
---Sabarin, who was inside, set his eyes on her and raped her.
She hated him. She wanted to kill him. And she was terrified. Terrified that the "soiled" version of herself would cause Crates to lose all affection for her. While she was supposed to be preparing the rented house, she lived in constant fear. Could she really go on like this without saying a word?
And then.
---Her "messenger from the moon" did not arrive.
Why? She didn't know. Was the life growing inside her Crates’s child, or that of the loathsome Sabarin? If she continued to live with Crates and the child she bore turned out to be Sabarin’s...
So, she left. On the day Crates was going to sign the final papers to leave the Ducal house, she gathered all the money she had and made it look as if she had simply run away. She went straight to Sabarin and was kept as his mistress.
The child who was born... had vermilion eyes. She felt relief and despair all at once. That fool Sabarin never doubted her word when she claimed her relatives had noble blood mixed in.
She couldn't allow Wellmy to be unhappy. When Sabarin’s wife luckily died and he asked to take her as his second wife, she made her decision.
---She would put an end to Sabarin’s hideous bloodline once and for all.
If Lola was gone and Wellmy inherited, the bloodline of the Earldom would end. Once she saw Wellmy reach adulthood, become the successor, and find happiness... she would kill Sabarin, and if she hadn't died yet, she would kill Lola too. She had lived for that resolution alone.
(Though, I did do something a bit cruel to Lola.)
That story she’d heard that day—that Lola was the child of the previous Count. If that were true, the girl wasn't Sabarin’s child after all. If she had known that, she wouldn't have needed to abuse the girl Wellmy was so fond of to that extent.
She felt sorry, but for Isabella, the only thing that mattered was her own child who carried Crates’s blood: Wellmy. That girl had caught the eye of the Magus Lord. She hadn't been fond of Irvine—whom she’d snatched from Lola—for some reason, so in the end, it worked out for the best.
Isabella was the one who told Wellmy of the Magus Lord’s past deeds and his noble bearing, preparing her to be the wife of a Marquess. She had realized the girl was plotting something, but she never imagined Wellmy was planning a finale even more thrilling than her own revenge.
The look on Sabarin’s face that day, when he had lost everything and was utterly dazed... it had been hard to suppress the urge to laugh and spill the whole truth.
Wellmy was a brilliant child. She took after Crates. If there was one regret, it was that she never wanted to see Crates again. She had caused him pain by making him look at her with such sadness. She had let him know that she hadn't simply run away.
(But...)
If he thought Isabella was a hopeless woman, that was fine. She had run away specifically so he would think that, and there was no need for him to break his heart over a woman like her. So, she kept all her feelings locked away in her chest.
There was no need to tell anyone what had happened that day. From now on, as long as Lola and Wellmy lived happily... as long as those two who were so close found happiness.
---A foolish mother wasn't necessary.
When she heard she was being sent to a northern convent, Isabella nodded. Execution would have been fine, too, but for some reason, she wasn't sent to the gallows under joint responsibility. As Isabella left the prison to board the transport carriage for the north, Goldray was there. It seemed he was the only one there to see her off.
He was an eyesore for constantly helping Lola, but at the same time, he had collaborated with Wellmy to bring Sabarin down. In the end, she didn't know what Goldray’s true intentions were.
Isabella gave a small smile and spoke.
「Thank you for coming to see me off.」
「Not at all, Madam. I have one message from Marquis Ormirage.」
「What might it be?」
She stopped and asked, and her eyes went wide at the reply.
「『I’ll keep quiet about it to Crates and Wellmy』—that is what he said.」
Once the shock passed, Isabella suppressed the urge to cry and stepped forward again.
「Could you tell him 'thank you' for me?」
「As you wish.」
It likely meant he would stay silent about Isabella’s circumstances so the two of them wouldn't have any regrets. Just what kind of eyes did that Magus Lord have? How did he even figure out Isabella’s side of things? Goldray seemed to know as well.
(I leave Wellmy in your hands, both of you.)
Wishing that in her heart, she climbed into the carriage.
***
「...Is it finished?」
Eides asked the old butler of the Ernest house as he visited the office.
「Yes. I am grateful for your clemency.」
Eides set down his pen and smiled at Goldray, who was bowing his head.
「If the day comes when Wellmy and Crates realize the truth for themselves, you may tell them.」
「...I hope that such a day never comes. Madam would not wish for it either.」
Eides nodded at those words and continued.
「Now then, Goldray. There is one thing I wish to ask.」
「Anything.」
「What is your surname?」
「...Long ago, it was Schnieger. I have none now.」
At Goldray’s answer, Eides thought, *I knew it.* He had wondered why House Schnieger was connected to House Ernest when they were in financial trouble. It had caused unnecessary suspicion. He had questioned how the Schnieger family, which had been an obscure Viscount house until just over a decade ago, had suddenly grown and been promoted to Earl.
「Has the house of Schnieger been connected to Ernest since long ago?」
「Originally, we were in a position to support that house. For generations, the wet nurses and butlers of the Ernest family have been chosen from the most exceptional members of the Schnieger family. At that time, they would cast aside their surname, and the next most capable member was decided as the heir to Schnieger.」
「So the reason you approved of Irvine was because he abandoned the main house?」
「...If anything, it was because Lady Lola, the only legitimate heir, was *too* exceptional.」
Eides let out a small chuckle.
「Not the type of vessel to be contained as a mere Countess or Count’s wife, I suppose. True enough.」
「Had Lord Sabarin been capable... or if the heir had been anyone other than Lady Lola... I would never have joined in Lady Wellmy’s scheme.」
The Schnieger family likely swore their loyalty not to the title of Count Ernest, but to the bloodline itself. That is why they destroyed it—out of consideration for Lola’s further advancement. That is why they decided to stop producing capable butlers and instead grow House Schnieger as an Earldom—so that if anything happened, they could reach out to Lola from the outside.
And the one who decided that... the one who could tell the head of House Schnieger the truth and make him decide...
「You are the true loyalist, Goldray.」
「I am unworthy of such high praise.」
Beneath the soft smile and unassuming behavior lay an incredible level of competence.
「Goldray. May I suggest that the management of the territory be left to Schnieger?」
「That is not within my domain to say. Please, do as you wish.」
「Then what will you do? Do you need a word with the Royal Family to support Lola?」
「Well... before that, I believe I would like to take a short leave. It seems my most capable 'grand-nephew' has learned the extent of his own folly...」
(So he wants to handle the instruction personally.)
Eides nodded.
「I’ll write a letter to the Margrave. I don't know what his position will be, but... how about something like a tutor? Aside from training in the Knight Order, he seems to have a desire to learn. I don't mind providing the funds from my end.」
「That is a more-than-generous offer.」
Eides grinned at Goldray, who remained as polite as ever as he bowed deeply.
「You could have just retired, and yet here you are.」
「At last, my penance is over, and it seems I can finally do something interesting.」
---It shall be the joy of my old age.
As Goldray spoke with a smile, Eides, for once, laughed out loud.
*****
Yeah, F Sabarin, What a human scum.
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