Chapter 68
“The sea?! What’s that? When are you going? I want to go too!”
Hearing an unfamiliar word for the first time, Ban jumped excitedly into our conversation.
“You’re out. This is a promise between Sisi and me. We’re going, just the two of us.”
“Whyyy–! I want to go too! Sienna, you’re not leaving me behind, right?”
“Just the two of you… going where exactly?”
Ban whined in my arms, while Noah rolled his eyes wide, glaring at Herace.
“Noah, let’s go together too!”
“Of course. If we go, we’re all going.”
Noah’s sharp look made it clear he would never allow just the two of us to go.
At the nonsensical back-and-forth, Oel chuckled and rose from his seat.
“Well then, since the young lady’s illness is fully cured, I’ll return to my real work.”
“Already?”
But Oel’s face instantly darkened.
“It’s nice that the young lady is loved, but… I can’t watch this anymore….”
“Sorry….”
“Ah, no need to apologize. I was paid well enough.”
With a sly grin, Oel curled his fingers and jingled them mockingly.
“Oh, and about the bidder of the demon’s bracelet you asked about before.”
The day Frank was driven out, I had separately asked Oel for information on bidder number 118, who won the demon’s bracelet.
“That person was Count Tais. You may not know him, but he’s a collector with some unusual tastes. He has a secret hobby of gathering cursed items, eyeballs, and other rare oddities.”
“That’s it? Nothing else unusual?”
“That bizarre taste is the unusual part.”
Shrugging as though nothing else was worth mentioning, Oel asked me,
“Do you want the auction item he won? If so, I could arrange something.”
“No, that’s enough. That alone is plenty.”
It seemed Frank hadn’t appeared that day, so someone else won it.
Which, for me, was fortunate.
“Well then, I’ll take my leave. Please use my services again, customer.”
As soon as Oel left, Noah stood up as well.
“I must tell Father about this at once.”
Rising urgently, Noah hurried off to send a messenger bird.
Daphne’s hand crushed the paper with a sharp crack.
“…This can’t be true.”
She hurled the crumpled paper to the floor like trash, screaming furiously.
The kind, gentle Daphne Roxy—beloved by all—was nowhere to be seen here.
“Are you sure you checked this over and over? That this is really true?”
“…Yes. I confirmed it multiple times.”
Her confidant bowed his head.
The information came from people she had planted inside the ducal house, and not just one, but several—all reporting the same thing.
“They say she’s been completely cured.”
“How could they possibly have cured it?!”
Sienna’s illness had been deemed incurable.
A disease without even a name, one every physician had given up on.
And surely one that would never be understood for the rest of her life.
There wasn’t supposed to be any treatment for it at all!
How on earth had they found a cure?
Click, click. Daphne started biting her nails, a clear sign of her anxiety.
“The young lady was supposed to die, so why, why…?”
The situation was veering entirely away from what she had envisioned, and it was driving her mad.
“This way, the story can’t be completed….”
No. This wouldn’t do. She had to find the root cause.
“What about him?”
“They say he just arrived and has been locked in the basement.”
Daphne strode forward harshly.
With a heavy thud, the basement door opened.
She glared down irritably at the man sprawled like a bug on the floor.
Frank Kurz.
Once a piece she had brought into play herself, now discarded.
“Ugh…”
Frank groaned.
He flinched at the sudden burst of light, then, spotting Daphne, his eyes widened.
Daphne Roxy…?
Why was she here…?
His head spun.
Hadn’t he been captured by Charles, the loan shark?
I thought they dragged me off to harvest my organs or something….
But this situation was no better.
The so-called angelic Daphne Roxy was glaring down at him with a terrifying face.
“What are you staring at?”
Her sharp tone stunned his already foggy mind.
“Frank Kurz. Why didn’t you show up at the auction?”
Auction? What…
Frank recalled the man who’d given him the ticket to the auction along with the news of Sienna’s limited time.
No way…
He blinked in dumb silence, and Daphne, realizing his state, leaned closer.
“Oh, right. You can’t speak, can you?”
As she reached to remove his gag, Frank gasped sharply.
Two small dots, pressed onto her right index finger.
They matched the hand that had handed him the ticket and gold bars.
It was Daphne who told me Sienna was terminally ill…!
Once the gag was off, Frank sputtered out, gasping for air.
“Pwah! Cough—You were the one who gave me information about Sienna, weren’t you?”
“…I didn’t think you had any sense at all, but yes. It was me.”
Daphne smirked, not even bothering to deny it.
“Now, tell me. Why didn’t you show up at the auction?”
“T-the truth is, I was too sick to move that day. Every night I’ve been plagued by nightmares…”
Smack!
“What kind of pathetic excuse is that?”
Daphne slapped him, her voice cold.
“You ruined my plan over something so trivial?”
Smack!
Another blow landed.
“You were supposed to take that item and deliver it to the young lady! Because you didn’t show, everything got tangled up!”
Frank swayed helplessly under her strikes, unable even to think of resisting.
Unbelievable. That Lady of Flowers, Daphne Roxy, had such a nature.
Disguising herself, manipulating people, plotting in secret.
Everyone was deceived…
By the time she was finished venting her fury, Daphne threw another question.
“They say the young lady’s illness has been cured. Is that true?”
“Y-yes.”
“How was it treated?”
“I-I don’t know exactly, but it seems a cure was completed just as Sienna was on the verge of death.”
“And how was that cure made, I asked!”
Her sudden scream made Frank flinch.
Her voice was so sharp it stung his ears, and his swollen cheeks ached.
“It was Herace! They said it was all thanks to him! He figured out Sienna’s illness, revealed the treatment, even told them which apothecary to use!”
Frank spilled everything he had overheard from Noah.
“Herace… He knew about the young lady’s illness?”
“Yes, that bastard. If I ever get out of here, I’ll make him pay back every bit of it. I won’t let him off!”
“Get out of here? And how do you plan to do that?”
“What?”
“You didn’t think I’d let you go, did you? Sorry, but I have no intention of helping a fool who ruins everything even when spoon-fed.”
At her biting words, Frank’s face twisted with spite.
“Y-you! I’ll tell Sienna everything! That the vixen who stole her fiancé has been scheming in the shadows all along!”
That was the last straw.
“They say the young lady borrowed over 200 million in your name, didn’t she? 200 million… Quite the sum. Even if you sold everything, it wouldn’t be enough.”
“What…?”
“It won’t be enough, but at least it’s better than being completely incapable of repayment. Your master will probably see it that way too.”
Calling the loan shark his “master,” Daphne crushed Frank’s pride completely. She turned coldly away, ordering her confidant:
“Take care of him. Make sure nothing leaks outside.”
“Yes.”
“W-wait! No, you can’t! Take care of me, what do you mean! Hey!”
“Idiot.”
Daphne sneered at the screams echoing behind her.
Frank Kurz must not be kept alive.
He had been in contact with her, and now knew far too much.
Even if silenced, someday he would flap his mouth recklessly.
Better to eliminate him now.
He was a ruined heir of the Winter family, already abandoned—no one would care if he vanished.
They’ll think he died over his debts.
But that wasn’t the important part.
It was the name Frank had let slip.
“Herace. So it was him, after all….”
That man, clinging to Sienna’s side, kept interfering with her.
Grinding her teeth, she seethed.
The favor she once held toward Herace had vanished completely after the incident at the auction.
In its place, anger and hostility grew.
To Daphne, Herace’s presence was nothing but a variable.
“Find out more about Herace.”
“Yes.”
“And the one who took that thing, did you learn who it was?”
“They say it was Count Tais.”
“Then open a path with the count. Make sure he’ll be useful when the time comes.”
“Yes.”
If things fell apart at the very last moment, she would have to use it herself.
Even if events diverged from destiny itself.
