CHAPTER 86……………………….
“Please don’t think of it as unfair. You won’t be lonely, because you won’t be alone.”
Her hands trembled as she thought of killing a person—no less than the heir who bore Obel’s Divine Beast.
But she could not back down.
To grant her lady’s wish, Ricardo had to die.
She spoke with Obel’s butler, felt a deep sense of betrayal, and revealed the truth to the Fletchers.
“So… everything was really planned by our Alicia? All just so she could marry Lord Obel?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
The Fletcher couple couldn’t speak for a while.
They were horrified by what their daughter had done, and by the nanny’s concealment and obedience to Alicia’s orders—but it was already too late.
“Husband. Let’s grant our daughter’s last wish.”
“My dear…”
“I don’t want Alicia to go alone. She truly loved Lord Obel.”
They would disguise a murder as an accident and then hold a soul-marriage.
It wasn’t the first time they had done such a thing.
So the second time wouldn’t be difficult.
In the end, Count Fletcher nodded.
Though it pained him not to have the future Duke of Obel as his son-in-law, after what had happened, such dreams were long gone.
It was better, then, to kill Ricardo and wait for Obel’s Divine Beast to choose another heir.
Once again, to disguise “murder” as an “accident,” Count Fletcher prepared poison.
Since Ricardo’s body was weak, even a tiny dose would ensure he wouldn’t survive the night.
There will be no trace left, he had been told.
Everyone would simply think his condition had worsened.
The nanny slipped her hand beneath Ricardo’s chin, tilting his head slightly.
Just as she was about to drip poison into his mouth, something felt off.
His breathing…
It was too faint.
So faint she could have mistaken him for dead.
It was the effect of the poison Alicia had ordered her to prepare.
She hadn’t expected it to work so perfectly. A shiver ran down her spine.
Come to think of it… would our young lady, who planned so thoroughly, really have taken a lethal dose herself? I couldn’t see her closely then, but perhaps… Alicia might still…
The thought struck her suddenly.
Crash—!
The door burst open, and Obel’s knights rushed in, seizing her arms.
“Make sure she doesn’t try anything foolish.”
The voice giving orders was Linaria’s.
Behind her stood Obel’s butler, Sophia.
As the nanny’s eyes met Sophia’s, now burning with betrayal, she realized—
It had been a trap.
“If the young lord had been healthy, it wouldn’t have been so dangerous. But in his current state, it could easily have killed him.”
They had immediately summoned a doctor to examine the substance.
There was no denying it was attempted murder.
“Lady Obel, please show mercy,” pleaded the Fletchers when summoned.
“She must have acted on impulse, because she loved Alicia like her own daughter.”
They quickly tried to wash their hands of it—claiming they had no part in it, and that Alicia’s nanny had acted entirely on her own.
“My lord!”
The nanny cried out, stricken with injustice.
But the count silenced her with a sharp glare.
“It was Lady Fletcher who planned the murder. How strange, to try and kill poor Ricardo.”
“Well…”
“I’m asking Alicia’s nanny,” Linaria cut them off firmly.
A discarded pawn, the nanny laughed bitterly and spoke:
“From the start, this was done with the butler’s knowledge. Lady Obel, you already knew everything, didn’t you?”
The way the knights had been waiting to pounce the moment she tried to poison Ricardo was proof enough.
Linaria didn’t deny it.
Accepting that she had walked into a snare, the nanny voiced the question that had struck her just before she administered the poison:
“Did our young lady truly pass away?”
“That depends on your answer.”
“My lady! What do you mean by that?!” cried Lady Fletcher.
“Just as I said. Alicia is in the same condition as Ricardo.”
Neither was dead.
Both had merely fallen into a coma.
In their confusion, the Fletchers hadn’t realized it.
The couple’s faces looked ashen, almost lifeless.
Linaria spoke firmly:
“If you tell the truth, Alicia will live. If not, there will be no turning back.”
Alicia’s body was being kept within Obel Castle.
And since their intent to murder was clear, her parents were also confined there until judgment was passed.
So even if they now learned Alicia wasn’t truly dead, they had no chance to spirit her away.
“If I confess, will you swear in Obel’s name that Lady Alicia will be spared?”
“I swear it, in the name of Obel.”
Linaria nodded.
“Yes. I intended to kill Lord Obel. I bore him no personal grudge.”
“Then why?”
“Only… to let my lady have a soul-marriage with him, so she wouldn’t leave this world alone.”
To save Alicia, the nanny began spilling the secrets the Fletcher family had long hidden.
“Lies!” the Fletchers cried, pale with shock.
“If you lie, I can’t guarantee Alicia’s life. Even so, do you insist it’s false?”
“No! I swear before Obel’s Divine Beast that I speak only the truth!”
The nanny shouted desperately.
The Fletchers, meanwhile, seemed ready to deny it to the bitter end.
“Too many voices muddy the truth. Let’s hear from one person only.”
Linaria gestured, and the knights restrained the Fletchers.
“A soul-marriage means binding the dead in matrimony, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, my lady,” the nanny admitted, her voice trembling.
“It might make sense between those already dead. But to kill the living, just to wed their souls… No ordinary person would imagine such a thing. How did you come to it?”
“Because my lady desperately longed to marry Lord Obel. I only wanted to grant her final wish.”
“Was that truly all?”
Linaria pressed, her tone probing for more.
At that, the nanny became almost certain.
Linaria already knew—that the Fletcher family had done something like this before.
If she lied, Alicia would die.
She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them.
“It’s because we once joined the young master to Miss Emily in the same way.”
“Emily?”
At her daughter’s name, Sophia reacted.
“When Emily died years ago, it was said to be an accident. But in truth…”
“Stop! Enough!”
Lady Fletcher shrieked, cutting her off.
“It’s all lies—every word…”
But she couldn’t finish.
Sophia lunged for her throat.
Yet before she could touch her, Kaas restrained her.
“Tell me it isn’t true! Why—why my daughter of all people?!”
Sophia screamed, thrashing desperately, bloodshot eyes wild.
Her hand stretched as if to tear Lady Fletcher apart.
Terrified, Lady Fletcher hesitated, then shut her eyes tight and muttered:
“They say souls bound by regret are devoured by Obel’s Divine Beast. So…”
“You believed that superstition? And killed my daughter for it?!”
“I only wanted my dead son not to be lonely!”
The trembling wife fell silent as Count Fletcher himself spoke, admitting his guilt yet standing firm.
But Linaria’s cold voice cut him down:
“Selfish. The child you killed was someone’s precious daughter too. How could you think only of your son?”
Lady Fletcher, flaring with indignation, cried out:
“But one child gone hardly matters! There are always others left!”
“Every finger hurts when bitten. Did you truly think only Alicia’s life was worth preserving?”
The couple had no answer.
In the heavy silence, Sophia stopped struggling and whispered:
“Then my daughter…”
All for a reason so hollow.
She crumpled to the floor.
Her wail, raw and inhuman, rang out in endless grief.
At dawn, they dug up the graves of Fletcher’s son and Ricardo’s sister, Emily.
Inside the coffin, their skeletons wore matching rings.
Proof of a soul-marriage.
Sophia fainted when she heard.
Amid the chaos, the decision came swiftly—House Fletcher was stripped of its title, by the Duke of Obel’s decree.
Hearing the report through the communication stone, Dante could not hide his sorrow.
[Linaria. You’ve done well. I can’t ignore this. I’ll come to Obel territory at once.]
“No, that won’t be necessary. I understand your concern, but please allow Ricardo himself to bring closure.”
[…]
“He too bears the Divine Beast. He is Obel’s rightful heir.”
[…Yes, that’s true.]
Dante nodded, then cautiously asked:
[There was no danger to you, was there?]
“Of course not. This had nothing to do with me. I only hope Ricardo awakens soon.”
Linaria smiled brightly.
Dante, watching her face, sighed softly.
[When the Tower Lord hears of this, there’ll be no end to the fuss.]
“I’m prepared.”
She could almost hear Magnus’s scolding in her head already.
Oddly, she found herself missing it.
After chatting more with her father, she turned off the stone.
The Fletcher couple remained imprisoned until Ricardo himself could pronounce their dismissal.
Sophia, Ricardo’s mother, never left her room.
The incident was too horrific to even whisper about; everyone kept silent, and Obel Castle grew eerily still.
And so, in the quiet days that followed, Ricardo and Alicia finally opened their eyes.
