Lucia

(4)

Three days had passed by. The outrageous events committed by the Mad Dog Krotin had quickly spread throughout the high society. The nobles flocked towards news of the completely unexpected and rare incident. When people were alone, they all talked about the same topic. While calling it a terrible incident with a concerned look on their face, they all enjoyed watching someone else’s house on fire.

Roy was arrested for the crime of murder. The dispatched royal knights were worried about what to do if Roy refused to be arrested and ran away, but unexpectedly, he was obedient and let himself get tied up with a rope.

Princess Katherine’s private break room became a crime scene and access to the room was thoroughly prevented, except for the parties concerned, and the investigation team, who went through the room numerous times.

Lucia had quickly returned home, without knowing the truth of the incident that day. The guards that were waiting for her outside the palace had gone into the party hall to request for her to return home first, and she couldn’t refuse them. And after she returned home, she was once again examined by the doctor to check her physical condition, then she was stuck inside the ducal residence for the three whole days.

The ducal residence was under heavy emergency security measures that not even water could slip through. Before the Duke left the capital, the guard captain was entrusted with full authority during a state of emergency. The ducal residence was now in a state of thorough protection as if a war had taken place.

The palace had tried to call the Duchess in as a witness on multiple occasions, but the messenger didn’t even get to see the Duchess’ face before returning.

“The Duchess cannot go alone to the palace over such an unsavory incident while the Duke is absent.”

After receiving the firm refusal from the guard captain, the King was somewhat displeased. But he had no other choice. To bring in the Duchess, they would have to fight the knights protecting the ducal residence, and that would mean a war with the Duke of Taran. Kwiz had no intention of ever becoming enemies with the Taran family.

Once Fabian found out that an incident had occurred, he immediately sent an urgent message to the Duke. And afterwards, every time he got new information, he would sent additional messages. He made sure that by the time the Duke arrived at the capital, he would be fully up to date with what Fabian had found out.

Currently, the Taran family Information Division was fiercely gathering information. They didn’t hold back on spending money and made use of all the connections that they could mobilize.

And on the fourth day since the incident, Fabian came to the ducal residence. He came to give a report to the Madam on the situation that had developed in the meantime.

Fabian couldn’t ignore the messages that Jerome kept sending about how the Madam couldn’t eat properly or even sleep, and at this rate, it would become a huge problem. When he thought of it, it was huge blow to Roy, but when the lord returned, the Madam’s health was more important than Roy’s life.

Last night, Fabian got special consideration from the King and was able to meet Roy secretly, without anyone knowing.

In the dungeon, Roy looked relaxed as if the solitary prison cell was his vacation site. He lay stretched out on the floor, supporting his head with his arm, and as soon as he saw Fabian, he waved his hand.[1]

“Yo. You came?” (Roy)

Fabian’s blood pressure suddenly shot up and he grit his teeth.

“You crazy fucker! ‘You came?’ Yes! I came! What makes you so peaceful when you’re making other people run around day and night, huh?” (Fabian)

“Should I cry then?” (Roy)

“Ugh…I shouldn’t even have asked. I knew you would cause this kind of trouble one day. But, if you were going to do it anyways, at least do something that can be handled, damn you.” (Fabian)

Fabian cursed Roy out to his heart’s content, but Roy merely cleaned his ears out with a bored expression from behind the bars. Seeing this sight, Fabian got even more upset and had to pat down his chest.

From the day he was arrested till now, Roy had not said a single word about the incident. The reason why the King had sent in Fabian, was because he wanted Fabian to persuade Roy to release information about the facts of the incident, even if it was just a little bit.

Formally, Roy was imprisoned in the dungeons as a vicious criminal, but apart from that, he didn’t receive any other rough treatment. There was no full-scale investigation yet, he was in one piece, eating the food served in the dungeon on schedule, and basically doing well.

“Speak. I have confirmed that there isn’t anyone around listening.” (Fabian)

Roy relayed the situation at the time to Fabian, just as he had seen it. It was Fabian’s job to listen to the information, infer, and piece things together.

“Why did you kill David? If you had let him live at least, this situation wouldn’t be so dark, you know.” (Fabian)

“If I had spared his life, there would be trouble later. Since if I spare him, trouble, if I kill him, also trouble, then killing him is better.” (Roy)

“Cruel bastard. Beast. It’s terrible that a guy like you has walked freely under the sun till now. Bloody fucker.” (Fabian)

Fabian was overwhelmed with anger again and after fuming, he continued to speak.

“Why did you kill the Countess in a place with so many witnesses? You could have easily escaped by yourself. Because of that, you put yourself between a rock and a hard place, and you’ve become a criminal caught in the act.”

“That’s why I am saying…”

“What?”

“Show me evidence I killed her then I’ll believe I did. It has to look like I acted crazy by myself so that there’s no connection to the Madam and the lord, no?”[2]

The guy is a lunatic, but he’s a bright lunatic, Fabian thought.

“There’s no one with an intact sanity serving under my lord.”

Fabian spat out, lamentingly.

“I thought I had to kill the woman before she opened her mouth. But wow. It’s really amazing. That woman’s face changed as soon as she died. How did that happen?”

Fabian groaned loudly then replied.

“A magical tool. A property of the Duke of Ramis House. Although now they claim that it was stolen from their ducal residence.”

There were a lot of suspicious points about the late Countess of Falcon, so the royal family left Roy alone and concentrated on the Countess first.

She used a magical tool claimed to have been lost from the Duke of Ramis House, pretended to be a handmaid, used Katherine’s breakroom unauthorized, and poisonous substances were discovered in the ring on her hand.

They couldn’t get a confession since she was already dead, but they were unhesitatingly tearing through the Countess of Falcon’s mansion and businesses.

“Do you know what your biggest sin is right now?” (Fabian)

“I killed someone.”

“Right. I don’t know about the others, but the problem of killing the Duke’s heir is huge. Well, that’s that. But why did you use your weapon when you killed the Countess? You secretly brought your weapon into the palace without getting permission. They can charge you with attempted assassination of the king.”

Roy scratched his chin and said.

“…Just habitually…”[3]

“…Just die.”

END OF BOOK 6.

Translator’s Corner:

[1] Because this is a flash back, the author doesn’t use “ ”, instead uses ‘ ’. But I didn’t want confusion with thoughts, so I used “”. If you would prefer for me to italicize the conversation to show some difference, tell me.

[2] This might be confusing but the raw is exactly this. ‘Show me evidence I killed her and i’ll believe’. I think he’s being snarky because I mean, technically he didn’t kill her. He killed a handmaid.

[3] I would have translated this as ‘I just habitually…’ but the author used 그냥 to start both sentences. I think it shows Fabian’s annoyance in picking the same word, so I wanted to keep that.

Note: Fabian curses…A TON in this chapter.