CHAPTER~59
The banquet hall sank once again into a cold silence.
Grimora, who had been sobbing, furrowed her brows.
“What are you saying, Morris? Are you trying to call your brother a liar?”
Grimora spoke in a sharp, cold tone. Yet, she continued pretending to sob as if worried others might find it strange.
“H-hic, sniff… Even if I dislike my brother, behaving like this… it breaks Mother’s heart!”
Grimora subtly blamed herself, and Morris shook his head with a dejected expression.
“N-no, Mother. I’ve never hated my brother. And I know you haven’t either…”
Morris had been timid since birth. He hated the brothel, the house with crawling pits repulsed him, and his older brother, who scolded him daily, scared him.
Still, he occasionally appreciated the hands that reached out to him simply because he was “family.”
‘What bloodline makes you so different from your brother? Stupid!’
Even their mother, who usually scratched him painfully for being foolish, sometimes called him “our son,” which felt nice to hear.
Despite the hellish daily life, Morris endured.
He longed for familial love. Yes, he loved his family more than anyone else.
So he only wished that his beloved family would not be destroyed any further.
After thinking this through, Morris hesitated, clenched his fists, and bravely spoke.
“My brother and I lured Reia. We took a hair ribbon from Mela and tricked Reia into thinking Mela was with us! Then we locked her in a dark basement…!”
<p“You brat! What nonsense are you spouting now? Will you shut that mouth immediately?”
At that moment, Lazar, who had been crying like a child just moments ago, suddenly shouted.
Lazar ran forward and grabbed Morris by the collar roughly.
But Morris, resolute in his confession, continued speaking without flinching.
“And even before that, my brother and I tormented Mela…! We deliberately knocked her down and made her lose her way in the forest. Mother said we had to drive Mela away… for us to keep living here. So we…”
The brothers committed misdeeds even knowing they were wrong.
Obeying their mother was the way to survive here.
“We… hic, hic. We did terrible things to the children. *sniff*.”
“Morris, right? Are all the things you’re saying now true, without lies? Can I trust you?”
Artemene approached, sat to meet Morris’s eye level, and gently asked again in a kindly tone.
“Y-yes… It’s true. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. We did bad things.”
Her loving voice made Morris’s heart ache.
The voice that comforted his anxious and guilty heart made him shudder and cry.
“Shut up! Don’t spout nonsense! Do you know where you are?”
At that moment, Grimora shouted and charged at Morris.
Her eyes were bloodshot, and each step thudded heavily, far from the image of a gentle, kind nanny.
“…Don’t talk nonsense. When did I ever order this? You did this on your own! You!”
Morris instinctively covered his head and shrank.
For a moment, he raised his hand high as if about to strike.
“You, you…!”
Realizing the cold stares around her, Grimora finally recognized her mistake. Shock froze her, hand raised.
“Oh no… did she… usually hit her sons?”
“She was always kind… this is nothing like the person I knew.”
“Finally showing her true colors.”
The disgusted looks of people pierced Grimora all over, and the murmurs struck her ears. Grimora clenched her teeth and looked around.
She quickly knelt before Artemene and pleaded.
“…A-Artemene! It’s not true. You shouldn’t believe a child’s words. Morris dislikes my discipline and is making up lies. Please, trust me. You know how hard I’ve worked for Miss Reia…”
“Trying to shift responsibility instead of calming your son. Truly a heartless mother, Grimora.”
“A-Artemene, please… hear me!”
“Release the children.”
“Y-yes, Artemene.”
Artemene first had Lazar, Reia, and the other children released. But Mela stubbornly refused to leave.
“I knew you were secretly drugging Reia and that you came from ‘Hwan-Nakwon.’”
Grimora stiffened, and some were shocked.
Those who knew what Hwan-Nakwon was understood. A paradise that sells illusions—a brothel.
No one knew Grimora had come from there, so it was shocking.
“And I confirmed that you were secretly colluding with someone from this family. So don’t pretend to be innocent. I will hold you accountable for your sins to the end!”
“A-Artemene!”
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you dragging this evil wretch away?”
“N-no, I would never! Never do such a thing…!”
Grimora denied everything, struggling violently against the knights approaching her.
“Ansel, Anselmus! Help me! Don’t you pity our sons…!”
She tried moving toward Anselmus and the elders, but they ignored her entirely.
“Unbelievable! Who would’ve thought this uneducated woman came from Hwan-Nakwon. Drag her away and execute her immediately!”
“A-Ansel… Why! You were supposed to protect me…”
Betrayed by Anselmus, Grimora despaired. She tried to cling to his pants leg but was comically pushed away by the knights.
Even by him. Grimora finally realized she had been abandoned, sensing the contemptuous gaze that froze her lungs.
How did I come this far? I… cannot fall back to the crawling pits again.
Grimora screamed in her last desperate struggle.
“You idiots! I shouldn’t have trusted humans like you. Ugly, filthy! Will I, Grimora, die alone like this? It’s not over yet! My plan will…!”
Yet, she was eventually silenced and dragged away by the knights like luggage.
Not long after, the doors closed completely, and the banquet hall was more solemn than ever, without a single noise.
Evlyen approached Artemene and gently patted her shoulder.
“It will all be fine now, Artemene. You’ve done well.”
“…Thank you.”
Thus, Reia’s incident seemed to have come to a temporary close.
Grimora was imprisoned in the underground jail, and her trial to determine her crimes would take place after the banquet concluded. The banquet, which seemed interrupted, continued peacefully as if nothing had happened.
Julich insisted the banquet continue even after Grimora’s sins were revealed.
‘She isn’t even part of our family, after all.’
His decisiveness was chilling to any onlooker. The remaining banquet proceeded in surprisingly peaceful fashion.
‘Why does it feel so unsettling?’
Even after exposing Grimora’s sins, something felt unresolved.
Could it really end this simply? That couldn’t be…
They still hadn’t discovered the true mastermind. Though not urgent, it left an uneasy feeling.
I suppressed these feelings and went outside under the pretense of getting some fresh air.
“Have you confirmed it, Loren?”
At the end of the empty hallway, Loren was waiting.
“Yes. I checked with all the maids, and one was absent at that time.”
Due to the early morning pill incident, I asked Loren to briefly investigate the maids’ whereabouts.
“I see. Then, where is that maid now?”
“All the villa staff are assisting with the banquet. Most are probably in the kitchen.”
Hearing “kitchen,” Loren and I hurried over.
“These six were the on-duty maids from yesterday’s early morning to morning shift.”
Loren gathered the on-duty maids and those with unclear shifts. It’s always reassuring to have competent staff.
I carefully examined each of the six maids and checked inside their sleeves. But, contrary to my expectation, there were no marks inside their sleeves.
‘If the vial had been broken that much, there should be marks inside the sleeve.’
In fact, the medicine I had stored wasn’t the real treatment.
I had swapped it with another medicine the day before, just in case, which stains purple if touched by hand or clothing.
This was to easily catch anyone who touched the vial.
“Loren, is this all the children? You didn’t have them change clothes or anything, right?”
Unexpectedly, I pressed her urgently.
A sudden unease boiling in my abdomen made me anxious.
At that moment, a gentle-faced maid cautiously raised her hand.
“W-well… Madam, actually there is one more, but she’s probably receiving treatment now.”
