“Good heavens.”
Lady Elisabeth exclaimed in shock. It was no wonder, as the person before them was a familiar face.
One of the old women who had set up a stall in the narrow alley on the night of the Harvest Festival parade.
The kind old woman who had offered me an apple.
She was none other than Granny Pom, who was said to have died in a carriage accident, and was also ‘Madame Victoire.’
However, the old woman had been taken in for questioning along with the other grandmothers and was released without charges.
The Crown Prince frowned. I, too, was taken aback as I had no idea that Granny Pom was this person.
“It’s not the fault of the precious Princess, nor is it the fault of your subordinates. Cough! It’s just that I’m an old woman…”
The woman spoke, mixing coughs with laughter.
Looking at her hair in the moonlight, it was clear that it wasn’t just plain dirt color.
Thin strands of hair, full of white, scattered aimlessly.
Christel stared blankly at her.
“Marquis Yeser did mention that Granny Pom seemed to be alive. But how…”
“When you get to my age, no one suspects you of anything. No one looks at you suspiciously. That’s the secret.”
Cough, cough! The old woman coughed as if she were breaking apart. A trace of blood appeared at the corner of her thin lips.
I quickly took out a handkerchief, but Granny Pom waved her hand.
“There are many times when they don’t charge me for the carriage ride out of pity… They believe me when I say I’m illiterate, and they just assume I have no strength to walk. No one finds it strange even if I’m lurking around the walls at dawn. An old woman in her seventies, cough!”
Her body convulsed briefly. We flinched and took a step closer.
However, the old woman stood her ground, placing both hands on her knees.
Her deep eyes emitted a light that did not yield to the moonlight.
“A threat… Who would think of me as a threat? That I’m a jester who can do tricks and run across rooftops…”
“You’re also good at impersonations.”
I added quietly. At that, she chuckled as if amused.
Her face, which brightened up for a moment, looked just like that of a seven-year-old child.
A face filled with innocence and joy.
“About that night… I was very grateful. I had fun thanks to you. I played two roles, used all the energy in my body, and ended up bedridden for a long time. When our little rascal told me to retire…”
‘I should have listened to that.’ With that whisper, her body collapsed.
Without hesitation, I ran and caught the old woman.
‘Your Highness!’ Sir Johan’s voice, trying to stop me, faded away.
Thud. The body in my arms was very light and small. The frame was strong, but that was all.
I instinctively knew that she was taking her last breath.
The woman looked up at me and moved her throat.
“So beautiful. How could such a precious person… look at someone like me with such eyes.”
I clenched my teeth involuntarily.
“Did the Andrezi family abandon their children? Is that how you ended up alone too, Grandmother?”
“Henriette was angry. I had forgotten why I should even be angry…”
She pursed her lips.
Christel, who had approached cautiously, sat across from me and listened to the old woman’s words.
I met the protagonist’s kind eyes.
“I don’t even remember. Was it the former Count who abandoned me… What does it matter? It was always happening, and I was just a common orphan. Henriette… is a child abandoned by the current Count Andrezi.”
It was a shocking statement. I looked at Crown Prince Cedric.
Flames were burning in his orange eyes.
The old woman’s story continued haltingly.
25 years ago.
As usual, she was wandering around with a troupe of performers, and while camping in the forest near the Andrezi lord’s castle, she witnessed someone abandoning a basket.
It was a servant of the Count’s family who had come to see the acrobatics.
It was unsettling that he was leaving it in a secluded place, avoiding the eyes of others, at such a late hour.
After he left, the old woman examined the contents of the basket.
A child, who looked to be about two years old, was asleep, dressed in silk clothes. That was Henriette.
“Why? Why do they abandon innocent babies?”
Christel, overwhelmed, asked. The old woman made a gurgling sound and spat out blood.
I quickly supported her head, worried that the blood would get into her windpipe.
Pain was etched in the deeply lined wrinkles around her eyes.
“Cough. Because they’re sick… All I know is that the abandoned bastards were all sick… My lungs were weak…”
She raised a trembling finger and pointed to her lungs.
Her palm was all dark red with dried bloodstains and newly flowing blood.
“Henriette slept a lot. Apparently, that was a terrible disease for the noble lords… Hehehe.”
She made a face that was hard to tell whether she was laughing or crying. The Little Count gritted his teeth.
“The Andrezi family is famous for its peculiar fastidiousness [extreme attention to detail and cleanliness]. Perhaps… they were trying to erase anything that could tarnish the family.”
“…”
The Crown Prince was silent, like the calm before a storm.
The reason Henriette’s hometown, abandoned by Andrezi, was listed as the Berang barony was that it was rare for a lord to take in an orphan.
However, Baron Berang at the time was not one to overlook those in need.
After wandering around the country with the troupe of performers for two years, Henriette became a child registered in the poor southern barony.
The old woman’s gaze groped beyond the starlight.
“Last spring, while watching the great monster subjugation together and returning to the inn… I confessed. Where I had found her, whose child she was. I still don’t know why I did that.”
We had no idea.
On a spring day when pink petals adorned all around, two women were watching us from the audience.
“Even someone who came alone as a hostage is so active… What does our Henriette lack that she has to live as a street performer? She must have had such arrogant thoughts. Not knowing her place.”
The old woman lamented. Dduk-ssim, who was sitting on my shoulder, shook his head.
I said quietly.
“Baron Savanie, whose territory is next to Andrezi, suffered Victoire’s first damage. In May. So that was Henriette’s doing.”
“Ah, it wasn’t the first time…”
She wriggled her hand.
She seemed to be trying to rummage through her bosom, but she didn’t even have the strength to lift her robe.
Unable to watch any longer, Christel helped the old woman open her inner pocket.
And what was caught on her rough fingertips was an old notebook and,
“Goodness.”
…a dazzlingly brilliant diamond necklace. Christel and I gaped.
Seeing our reaction, the old woman chuckled.
“To kill… Henriette went to kill the Count, cough! And only stole that. She said she couldn’t possibly commit murder… Of course. How could a person, a person! Ke-lok, ke-lok!”
She couldn’t stop coughing for a while. I bit my lip.
I knew she was too critical for me to heal, but I wanted to try.
“I will open a healing circle.”
“No, no. Not that… It would spoil the fun if the phantom thief were caught. A clown should play on stage until the end.”
Gulp, she managed to swallow something rising in her throat.
Then, looking at me, she whispered.
‘It’s not a good deal to earn unnecessary guilt, Marquis.’
“So you changed your route. Not murder, but theft.”
The Crown Prince said in a low voice. The old woman hissed with a metallic sound.
“That’s right. That’s what happened… She became hot like a fireball with revenge. She said she would definitely tarnish the family that made her grandmother suffer… I had even forgotten how to be angry. What’s so unfair about being abandoned? There are orphans everywhere.”
Then she shut her mouth tightly. A thick stream of blood flowed down her cheek.
I realized that she was suppressing tremendous sadness.
Sir Johan, who had been listening quietly, said.
“It was Henriette who was hit by the carriage.”
“Heu…”
The old woman’s face contorted. Christel pressed her handkerchief to her eyes.
The stream of tears did not dry up, but the protagonist’s touch did not stop either.
“Andrezi. Hit by a carriage in that family…”
“Gods.”
Lady Elisabeth looked up at the sky. I blinked in disbelief.
I didn’t expect it. We were too clumsy to dare imagine such a tragedy.
“I was supposed to perform at the Marquis’s palace, receive generous rewards, and only become more famous… There were so many things I couldn’t do when I was young. Food I couldn’t eat, places I couldn’t go… But the Count’s coachman wouldn’t give me gold coins.”
Whoosh! Flames finally erupted from the Crown Prince’s feet.
I immediately deployed the Holy Ground and contained him.
Even as I released aether [a magical energy or essence] to calm him down, the man did not calm down easily.
He didn’t reject me, but the flames raging with rage were fierce.
Conversely, the old woman’s voice became very small.
“I’ll pay you back handsomely, so cremate the body and… don’t go around saying unnecessary things. That was all. The noble in the carriage didn’t even come out to see me.”
I stared blankly at her crumpled forehead and pale cheekbones. How could they do that?
How could they do this?
“So I decided to take over. What that child couldn’t get, couldn’t achieve, couldn’t repay… I was going to do it for her. But there wasn’t enough time.”
‘Time…’ She said as if lamenting, as if singing. It was as we and my friends had guessed.
The reason Victoire suddenly announced that she would steal me was that she didn’t have enough time.
The woman wanted to gain the maximum impact before she died, and she wanted the name ‘Andrezi’ to be on everyone’s lips.
However, she didn’t really intend to target me.
The plan was to keep the attention on the imperial capital with the kidnapping commotion and break into my territory to steal the portrait.
Through this, what she ultimately craved was the imperial family’s attention.
Not for self-satisfaction, but for revenge.
“The Marquis smiled a lot. At that age, the circus tricks must have been boring… It was a clever move to come to the bar to draw me out. I wanted to play with you all to my heart’s content, cough!”
She inhaled roughly. Dark blood dripped from under her chin.
I clenched my trembling hands tightly. The Crown Prince, who had approached silently, stood behind me.
His sparks were warm, and it seemed to ease the tension a little.
“Kolok. I could only leave behind a will-like card… I was a mediocre clown.”
“No, it was good. We were racking our brains because we couldn’t interpret the tarot cards. This friend helped me to finally understand.”
I smiled brightly and pointed to Dduk-ssim. Fortunately, my voice came out fine.
Then Granny Pom curved her eyes.
“Thank you for saying that, even if it’s just words. I don’t have the strength anymore, I can’t even hold a canvas… I’ve become a living corpse.”
She slowly turned her head.
Christel moved gently to clear the old woman’s view.
A large, pure white moon filled the black sky and clear lake.
Two lights, as clear as the eyes of the gods, faced the thief.
“Still, I wonder if that moon belongs to that child. Not a full moon, not a crescent moon… I wonder if something that is nothing is our stolen property.”
The end was barely audible. The woman’s breathing grew fainter every moment.
Unable to part my lips, Sir Johan knelt down in front of me.
“Your Highness. You must be in pain. Only then can you help the two of them.”
There was no tremor in his voice. His mint-colored eyes shone resolutely.
I bit my lip.
[Please, God, forgive the lies this person has told me.]
And I gave the oracle.
I had to know. I had to have it confirmed here, where we all stood as witnesses, that the old woman’s statement was true.
Before she left.
“…”
The surroundings were quiet. Only the occasional cry of a goose could be heard.
My circle showed no reaction. I hurriedly explained.
[I’m sorry, Grandmother. I didn’t test you because I didn’t believe you. It’s because I wanted to know if it was real,]
“I know… I know. The Marquis wouldn’t do that.”
She smiled kindly at me.
“Who, which one in the imperial palace… would buy things from an old woman’s stall in an alleyway.”
“…”
“Will you forgive me?”
That was the old woman’s last question.
It was not difficult to know what those words meant. I felt a lump in my throat.
I tightened my jaw and leaned down so she could hear me well.
And I wrote the sentence with all my heart in her tired ear.
[I forgive you. The Gods will forgive you too.]
-Saaaaa…!
Golden aether poured out from the Holy Ground.
Victoire Andrezi found peace with a serene face.