~Chapter 89~
Camilla had already realized it when the Empress Dowager acted as a VIP at the arena—but she was truly horrific.
‘Even a twisted dopamine addict wouldn’t go this far.’
“If you had not been the so-called Grand Duchess, I might have considered using you a little longer. But I think I prefer that position to remain vacant.”
The Empress Dowager laughed lightly as she spoke.
“Honestly, I thought it absurd when I heard you had taken the position of Grand Duchess. But it turned out to be true.”
She lifted up a necklace she was holding.
‘My necklace!’
It was the necklace Renelia had given Camilla.
“The Grand Duchess’s seal ring, passed down through generations… It seems the servants were too ignorant to recognize something so plain and neglected to search properly.”
At the words seal ring, Camilla’s eyes widened.
Renelia had given her something so precious—back when she was not even married yet?
“Hm… After you die, if the child Hayden gives birth to this time is a princess, I shall attach her to Dane once he becomes Grand Duke.”
The Empress Dowager spoke of such a dreadful future as if dreaming.
“Yes, a boy would be nice, but a girl would not be bad either. Ho, ho!”
Meisa sobbed desperately.
“Your Majesty… please! I am Your Majesty’s person! I have served you so faithfully—!”
“You?”
The Empress Dowager sneered.
“Yes, you were useful. But how can I trust a woman who has betrayed her teacher and even her own blood daughter more than once?”
Meisa’s face turned pale. Her whole body trembled as she lowered her head and began banging it against the ground.
“Please, please! I will never betray you again! Please spare me!”
“Stop it!”
Camilla burst out angrily. For some reason, she could not endure it.
“Hm. Even if the mercy I grant you is to live imprisoned underground for the rest of your life?”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Meisa cried out without even listening to Camilla.
“Very well then, Meisa. Entertain me.”
“H-how shall I do that…?”
“In this water arena, I shall spare only one of you—either you or your wretched daughter.”
“……What?”
“Mother and child! Which one will survive, and which one will try to kill the other? Hohoho! I have always been curious.”
Meisa’s face stiffened.
Both Camilla and Meisa were chained with shackles, but they were close enough to reach each other.
At the horrifying proposal, Camilla instead felt her mind grow cold and clear.
‘Kill or be killed? Like an arena?’
“……Ha. You truly are shameless.”
Camilla spoke sharply.
The Empress Dowager’s eyebrow twitched.
At this point, Camilla had no desire to show her courtesy anymore.
Was she trying to recreate the bloody tragedies of Glamis’s arena in this villa? As if she would indulge her.
“……What did you say?”
“I said it is petty. You wonder which of us—mother or daughter—would survive? You do not even need to ask us. You already know, do you not?”
“……Ha. And what is that supposed to mean?”
Camilla recalled the fragments of information Howin had gathered about the imperial palace.
The Empress Dowager had borne only one daughter to the former Emperor. That princess had left behind a son and then gone mad and died.
‘……There were suspicions that the former Emperor and Empress abused their daughter.’
In other words, the leading theory was that she died because of parental abuse. Why were there so many terrible parents in this world?
The abuse had never been officially confirmed—only circumstantial evidence.
But now, facing death, Camilla decided to mock the Empress Dowager as much as she wished.
“Are you not a mother who survived after killing your own daughter? Do you really need to test others to find the answer?”
It was a merciless insult.
The Empress Dowager’s eyes flipped with rage.
“……How dare you!!!”
The King’s consort, Countess Hayden, was confined inside the Violet Palace, trembling.
‘……What am I to do?’
She had believed it was a chance to save His Majesty from madness, but all hope had shattered.
The Empress Dowager’s watcher assigned to her had noticed her movements and captured both Kabul and herself.
And even the new Grand Duchess who had created the antidote had been seized.
Countess Hayden shut her eyes tightly.
She knew exactly who had instigated all of this.
“……Amelia.”
It was her daughter—Amelia—whom she had once cherished more than life itself.
“Why, Mother?”
Sip.
Amelia elegantly brought a teacup to her lips, savoring the aroma with a smile.
Behind her, as always, stood her attendant, Lux.
“Amelia…! You imprisoned me!”
Because she was pregnant, the Empress Dowager had not laid hands on her.
Instead, she had confined her so she could not leave her palace at all.
“You… you still hate me!”
“What are you saying, Mother?”
Amelia rose and stood before the distressed Countess.
“You are the one who hates me.”
She smiled brightly with mocking eyes and whispered into her mother’s ear.
“Because you think I caused you to miscarry the child who would have carried the Emperor’s blood!”
Countess Hayden—Anita—felt her eyes shake violently.
“N-no. No…!”
“No, Mother. You did think that. Otherwise, neither you nor His Majesty could have treated me so cruelly.”
Amelia’s eyes gleamed with madness.
She remembered that day clearly.
The day her mother took her into the imperial palace, young Amelia had been overjoyed.
The Emperor had told her to think of him as her father. Her mother had kissed her as always, calling her her precious angel.
Then one day—
In the palace garden, she met the Empress Dowager, her white hair neatly coiled.
‘Tsk, tsk. Poor thing. Once Countess Hayden becomes pregnant, you will be cast aside.’
‘What? What do you mean?’
Though young, Amelia had felt deeply offended.
‘Ho, ho! An imperial heir is more precious than anything. There will be no room left in their hearts for someone like you.’
The Empress Dowager whispered that if she were abandoned by the Emperor and her mother, she should come to her.
But Amelia ignored her.
‘Mother loves me.’
‘Amelia, this is your attendant. A child I personally sponsored.’
Her mother, loving her, had given her a masked attendant dressed in black cloth.
‘My little daughter. Soon, you will have a sibling.’
The Emperor had called her daughter though they were not bound by blood, and told her she would have a sibling.
Amelia had sincerely hoped her younger sibling—born of the Emperor and her mother—would be born safely. So she personally brewed healthy herbal tea and served it to her mother.
‘Cough!’
‘M-Mother!’
That day, Countess Hayden vomited blood and miscarried.
All evidence pointed to Amelia. Anita, in shock, stared at her daughter.
‘Amelia, how could you….’
‘No! I did not! Father, Father! Please believe me!’
The Emperor turned away with dark eyes.
Not branding her the culprit of an assassination attempt was, he said, the last mercy he could offer.
‘I didn’t! It wasn’t me!!!!’
Like a kite cut loose, Amelia had no choice but to go to the Empress Dowager.
“I truly did not poison it that day.”
“A-ah…”
“Well, what use is speaking of the past?”
She laughed softly, mocking her mother.
“Congratulations on having another child.”
Anita flinched and instinctively held her stomach. Amelia burst into laughter.
“Though after the child is born, His Majesty’s madness will likely worsen—and he may soon die!”
Anita collapsed to the floor.
“Let’s go, Lux.”
With those words, Amelia left.
Anita covered her mouth and wept.
A shadow fell over her.
“……Lux?”
The orphan she had attached to her daughter.
The boy she had clothed, cherished, and entrusted with the promise to protect her daughter.
“……Have you come to mock me as well?”
But instead of mocking her, Lux silently left behind a bundle and turned away.
Anita, left alone, slowly opened it—
Her eyes widened.
‘……This.’
It was identical to the syringe that had been crushed beneath the Empress Dowager’s heel.
Anita’s eyes trembled in confusion.
