Mad Rosetta - Chapter 101

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Rosette Gone Mad
Chapter 101
Loyalty and Collapse (2)
* * *
Whether the chill in the air stemmed from the frigid temperature or the suffocating silence between us, I could not say.
I had imagined this moment countless times, and today, in this very place, I would transform that imagination into reality.
Slowly, yet with measured precision, I posed my question to Laurence Badam.
“Laurence Badam. You murdered my Duchess in the Study and set it ablaze. Do you remember where you struck her?”
“….”
“I asked you a question.”
“…The throat and… the chest….”
“…Why? Why did you do it?”
“Because… I had to make Lianna… the Duchess….”
The way he answered so readily, as though genuinely bewildered by his own confession, was utterly repugnant.
Yet there was no time for anger; I pressed forward with urgent intensity.
“On the day I was caught in that fire at the Benern Shop this year. It was you who fired an arrow and shattered the lantern, was it not?”
“…Yes, it… was.”
“….”
“…What?”
As he continued answering each question without hesitation, only now did he seem to notice something amiss—the muscles at his jaw tightened visibly.
I watched him, observing how he struggled to keep his lips still, as though fighting to suppress words that threatened to spill forth. My gaze drifted to the teacup, where a small amount of liquid remained.
‘The effect is remarkable….’
It was tea laced with Marmint’s truth serum.
Depending on the dosage, it could even induce delirium, or so I had been told.
Had I overdone it, his confessions might have devolved into the senseless ramblings of a madman. I was grateful I had measured it precisely.
Laurence’s eyes darted about as he attempted to assess the situation rapidly.
Observing his movements, I deliberately kept my gaze averted from where Penny and Reina stood as I spoke.
“Why are you standing there idly, Reina?”
“…Yes. Yes?”
“Did you not hear the Butler confess to the charges? Summon the Knights at once!”
“…Ah, yes. Yes!”
I understood the confusion that gripped these children as they witnessed something so utterly incomprehensible before their eyes.
Yet I could not afford to wait—I did not know when the serum’s effects would wear off.
Laurence neither pursued Reina as she fled frantically from the Garden, nor did he meet the gaze of Penny, who called out to him in a dazed murmur. Instead, he fixed upon me alone with an expression I had never witnessed before.
His eyes bore into mine with an intensity that was utterly foreign.
“…I shall ask one final time, Butler.”
“….”
“When you murdered my Duchess, was Lianna— *cough*!”
“Kyaaah! But… Butler… Lady!”
With a thunderous crash, the table overturned.
My vision spun in disarray.
Before I could even finish speaking, Lawrence bolted from his seat and lunged at me, his hands closing around my throat.
“Let go! Butler, please! Come to your senses, release the Lady—kyaaah!”
Penny, who had been screaming while dangling from Lawrence’s forearm, was suddenly hurled away with brutal force.
His grip tightened with such ferocity that the veins in his neck bulged, and he pressed down on my throat again.
The pressure bore down deep into my windpipe.
My ears rang with a dull roar, and a sharp pain lanced through my skull as if someone were driving a spike through my head.
“You, at least….”
His gaze fixed upon me as I gasped for air, and a chill ran down my spine.
No matter how desperately I thrashed to break free, no matter how viciously I clawed at the back of his hands, I couldn’t even swallow.
‘How is this happening…!’
You. All of you.
How could you be so merciless?
In the moment when I barely managed to turn my head, convinced I might truly die—
A profusion of blooming rose vines entered my vision.
– “What would you do if you injured those delicate hands, Lady? Even the gardeners wear gloves when tending them because of the thorns.”
– “I was simply curious….”
– “Beautiful things that one touches can sometimes wound oneself. Would it not be better to merely observe from a distance?”
Ah, yes. You said that to me.
As my consciousness and vision grew hazy—
I thrust out my arm and roughly tore away the tangled vines, then slashed them across Lawrence’s face.
“Ahhh…!”
Perhaps a thorn had pierced his eye.
Lawrence cried out and released me as if hurling me away, then staggered backward, clutching at his face.
“Lady, Lady!”
As I gasped for breath, my throat raw, Penny came rushing over to support me.
But the moment our eyes met—his eyes now bloodshot—my reason seemed to scatter.
Instead, I shrieked and threw myself at him, driving him into the vines, and we tumbled together.
The commotion around us, the screams of others—none of it reached me.
“You killed my mother!”
My palms had gone numb from gripping the flower stems so fiercely that they no longer hurt.
Each time I struck him, something red—whether blood or rose petals—scattered into the air.
“I wished for my own death! You tried to burn me alive!”
– “Oh my, Lady. If you startle me like this, I shan’t live out my natural years.”
“Our household! Because of that precious Lianna of yours! For Odette!”
– “Hehe, my beloved Lady. I consider it the greatest fortune of my life to serve Benatra.”
“And I believed in you!”
As I screamed, my voice cracked.
My vision blurred rapidly as tears burst forth.
As if I had regressed to thirteen years old—in place of that day when I was consumed by loss and could not weep, I now wailed with such desperation.
I flinched when Lawrence suddenly lurched upright, but I was already nestled safely in Sing’s embrace.
“Remove him at once!”
Before Sing’s excited command had even finished, the Knights slammed Lawrence’s body against the floor.
Even as they subdued him, their ashen faces betrayed their shock—as if they had witnessed something that should never have come to pass.
“Lady, blood. Oh God, there’s blood….”
As I rose to my feet with Sing’s support, the children approached with pallid faces trembling in fear.
Penny clutched the handkerchief she had drawn, hesitating to use it lest she aggravate my wounds.
And my eyes met those of Lianna, who stood frozen, observing the entire scene in silence.
Eyes consumed by terror.
Whether it was from foreseeing her own fate, or from witnessing my form—bloodied and thrashing about like a beast—I could not say.
Unable to know, I simply opened my mouth as if making a proclamation.
“…Butler Laurence Badam. You have confessed to the murder and concealment of the former Duchess of Benatra as an accident.”
“….”
“Furthermore, you have admitted to committing arson in an attempt to murder me. These are undeniable crimes that warrant severe punishment, and you shall be transported immediately to the Imperial Security Bureau.”
“….”
“…And Lianna Benatra.”
I exhaled a short breath.
“The circumstances implicating you in the murder of the former Duchess alongside Laurence Badam cannot be erased. Therefore, you shall be detained and subjected to interrogation by the Security Bureau, as would any culprit.”
“Wait, please! The Duchess has nothing to do with this!”
Lawrence, who had been lying submissively with his face pressed to the ground, suddenly blazed with fury and cried out.
A flicker of madness seemed to dance in his burning eyes, yet there he lay at my feet, utterly immobilized—so pathetic that even a bitter laugh escaped me.
“Nothing to do with it?”
“It was all me! I acted alone, of my own volition!”
“You seem to have forgotten. You already confessed that you murdered my mother to make Lianna the Duchess.”
“That, that was—”
“Not only I, but the Servants heard it clearly. How can you claim she is uninvolved?”
“….”
“What do you make of this, Mother?”
I turned my head to ask, and Lianna—whose composure had somehow returned—briefly met Lawrence’s eyes before turning her gaze to me.
“Well…. I must confess, I am somewhat taken aback. Such a thing occurring within our Household.”
“….”
“However, Rosette. I find it difficult to accept all of your claims.”
“…Hah.”
“When we arrived at the Garden. Strictly speaking, the person wielding violence did resemble you, Rosette….”
“….”
“Most importantly, the only Servants who claim to have heard that absurd confession are all your children, are they not?”
Lianna’s voice had regained its composure, smooth and measured.
Everyone concentrated on her words as she methodically dismantled my case.
“Surely you did not orchestrate this entire farce to defame me…. How truly regrettable.”
She certainly knew how to think on her feet.
With just a few words, she had dug herself an escape route with impressive effort.
It was precisely when her smile—one that seemed almost satisfied—felt so utterly repugnant to me.
Penny, standing beside me, cried out as though deeply wronged.
“Wait, please! Duchess! But we truly heard it!”
“Y-yes, that’s right! The Butler clearly—”
“Silence! How dare mere Attendants interject themselves into their betters’ conversation.”
“…Ah. We were simply….”
“Enough excuses. It seems only natural that those who cannot follow even a single directive would behave this way.”
Faced with her overbearing manner, the Children turned to me as though their spirits had been utterly crushed.
Whether influenced by Lianna’s words or not, even Lawrence was watching me with a tense expression.
I had been backed into a corner.
With no choice left, I exhaled a low sigh and unfastened the brooch pinned to my chest.
It was the Memoraph of Terkikan.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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