Mad Rosetta - Chapter 107

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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 107
Loyalty and Collapse (8)
* * *
Heavy footsteps echoed through the Hall as the Knights moved in unison, with me at their center leading the charge.
Their expressions were grave—as solemn as those marching to war.
I swept past the Attendants who had begun murmuring since early morning, wondering what was happening, and made a direct line for the Second Floor of Lili Hall.
My destination was Odette’s Room.
“What—what is the meaning of this…!”
“Search thoroughly. Leave nothing unchecked.”
“What—what are you doing…! I’m asking what this is about!”
As I burst through the door with violent force, Odette jolted from the sofa as though caught in a sudden inspection, her voice sharp with bewilderment.
It was a tone saturated with confusion and indignation.
I cast a contemptuous glance at her, then gestured to Knight Amish beside me.
At my signal, he and several others immediately seized her by both arms, their bodies rigid with purpose.
Unable to comprehend the situation, she clenched her teeth, her eyes wild with confusion.
“With your encouragement, Cessia, I have resolved…”
“…!”
“…I humbly beg your pardon for making such a request. Here it is, written plain as day.”
“What—what—”
“I have received your intentions to harm me quite clearly, my dear sister.”
I withdrew the letter from my sleeve and waved it before her eyes, and in an instant, Odette’s face turned to stone.
It was a predictable, pathetic reaction.
“…What—what is this? Where did you…?”
As though asking the question answered it for her, Odette began scanning her surroundings frantically.
Her gaze landed on Kayla, who had followed me in.
Uncomfortable, Kayla turned away from Odette’s stare.
“Kayla…! You—how dare you!”
“To commit a crime and then blame the one who exposed it? I cannot fathom what sort of character you possess.”
“This—! No. No! It was all fabricated to frame me! I never wrote such a letter!”
“How amusing, Bonita. I know you so well—did you truly think I wouldn’t recognize your handwriting?”
“That—something like that can be easily forged…! Truly, truly, I did not do this. Please, sister, you must believe me. You must believe me…!”
The aggressive Odette, who moments before seemed ready to lunge, suddenly shifted her demeanor entirely, her voice breaking into pathetic sobs.
The way she transformed, as though flipping her hand over, was so grotesque that goosebumps rose on my arms.
At this level, it must be a talent. Even now, such useless thoughts crossed my mind.
“…Enough, Bonita. I can extend no further mercy to you, nor can I forgive what has long since exceeded all bounds.”
How long I had anticipated this moment.
Just as I was about to open my mouth again to pronounce her final judgment—
“We found it, Lady!”
A Knight rushed forward with an urgent cry, his hands laden with numerous items.
The items included ink and a quill pen presumed to have been used by Odette, along with a sealed document envelope and a letter envelope bearing traces of having already been opened.
‘The special ink alone would have been sufficient. Was there something more left behind?’
I received the letter first, somewhat bewildered.
Given how thorough they had always been, I hadn’t even expected to find anything suspicious.
“My daughter, Bonita, look at this…. Your mother, wrongfully imprisoned, will soon be able to be released… What is this?”
Upon reading it, the letter appeared to be one that the imprisoned Lianna had sent to her daughter.
The sentences were excessively monotonous.
However, unlike a typical letter, the line spacing between sentences was unusually wide, which struck me as distinctly odd.
“…Someone bring me a candle.”
This was far too suspicious.
When the Knight hastily brought a candlestick, I held it near the letter with a sense of foreboding.
Sure enough, just like the letter Kayla had delivered, previously invisible text gradually appeared.
‘…Stable master, find Brown. He has many servants… On the day the Duke departs for the Imperial Capital, tamper with the carriage he will board….’
…What is this.
As I lifted my head abruptly, Odette was already watching me with hollow, sunken eyes.
It seemed both like mockery directed at me and like the gaze of someone who had despaired of their circumstances and abandoned everything.
“…What is this?”
“….”
“I’m asking you, what is it!”
A stable master, bribery, the Duke’s carriage.
A substantial sum marked with a clear timeframe of ‘before the divorce approval is granted’ and numerical figures.
That alone was more than enough to infer what had passed between them.
⌜If things proceed this way, I could inherit the estate and flee to another country.⌟
It was Lianna’s instruction to Odette—to bribe the stable master and have him murder Father.
‘…No, no.’
I snatched away the document envelope the Knight had been holding.
Tearing through the paper, I hastily extracted its contents, and beyond the grip of unease, I rapidly descended into despair.
A contract bearing the signatures of Odette and Brown, the stable master, emerged.
Fifty million shillings.
The price of Father’s life.
“…Ah, Lady.”
Whether the nameless Knight had confirmed the documents over my shoulder, he too addressed me in a grave voice.
Everything spun. The surroundings seemed to be sucked entirely into darkness.
Not even a verbal agreement. I didn’t even have time to consider the fact that this was not someone who would leave behind such crucial evidence.
“…You, wretched creature!”
In my agitation, I seized Odette by the collar.
Her body shook roughly once, and she laughed softly in a mocking manner as she spoke.
“…You should experience it too.”
“….”
“You too, you should feel my pain exactly the same way….”
Only then did I comprehend what her hollow, vacant eyes had been trying to tell me all along.
“There were testimonies from staff members at the time stating that Lianna’s daughter followed Lawrence more closely than Epsilon Baron, her own father.”
Perhaps that was why Sergio’s words surfaced in my mind at this precise moment.
I felt the blood drain from my entire body.
I released my grip on Odette’s collar with pathetic ease.
Father had already departed for the Imperial Capital at dawn.
‘What am I supposed to do, what am I supposed to do…’
It couldn’t happen.
Not like this, not so futilely—I couldn’t bear to hear news of Father’s death again, just as I had in the past.
My breath came in suffocating gasps. The phantom of Lawrence that had suddenly materialized seemed to strangle my throat.
As I collapsed to my knees, everyone rushed to support me, yet all I felt was the sensation of crumbling apart.
Odette’s expression as she looked down at me was utterly devoid of emotion.
Her gaze seemed to transport me back to those helpless days of old, when I could only suffer in silence.
It was humiliating.
“…Send an urgent dispatch at once! To the Imperial Palace—no, wait. Contact Jedo and the Domain Administrative Office immediately to confirm whether there was a carriage accident!”
“Yes, yes!”
“Have the others apprehend Brown Megus at once, and…”
“…”
“…Lock this madwoman in the Dungeon.”
With a final vicious glare at Odette, the servants dispersed in haste.
Only I remained, rooted to the spot, staring endlessly down at that worthless contract.
* * *
“Lady… The Duke will be safe. Won’t he?”
“Right, that’s right. So please, Lady, do try to calm yourself.”
Even after returning to my room, I paced restlessly, unable to settle.
Beyond mere disorder, the Children were equally anxious about the Household’s crisis, and could only attempt to soothe me.
Then came a knock at the door.
I spun around immediately, and before the Children could even open it, I rushed out to greet the visitor.
“…Knight Demish.”
The moment I saw his darkly shadowed face, my heart plummeted.
“…Why. Why do you have that expression? Hmm?”
“…Brown Megus cannot be found, Lady.”
“…What?”
“According to the Head Maid, he left this morning before work began, saying he had supplies to purchase, and has not returned. When we checked his quarters, only a leave request form was left behind…”
“…That doesn’t make any sense.”
What was I supposed to do in a situation like this?
I could feel the color draining from my face.
Brown Megus, the coachman, had been with Benatra since before Father inherited the Dukedom.
For such a man to abandon his post without authorization was unprecedented.
I could only conclude that something was terribly, gravely wrong.
“That’s why we’re investigating the other coachmen, and I’ve already sent someone to his hometown.”
“…Ah, Father? There’s been no word from the Domain Administrative Office?”
“…Even with an urgent dispatch, it takes at least a day to make the round trip to Jedo.”
“…”
“Just a little longer, just a little longer, and good news will arrive. Lady.”
I felt as though I’d heard those words of reassurance a hundred times over.
My blood had run cold. This couldn’t be happening. It simply couldn’t.
– “The garden? Odette is looking for the Main House Garden?”
– “Yes, she visits the Stables to see the horses. Sometimes she goes alone.”
…I had been so focused on setting my trap that I carelessly dismissed what Kayla had told me.
I thought it would be enough to simply keep watch so that Odette couldn’t escape.
I believed that once she was completely cornered, there would be no one left to betray our Household.
If I had launched an investigation immediately back then, this would never have happened.
When a schedule is set in advance, the master’s carriage is inspected for safety the day before.
Should an accident occur or a difficult situation arise, it was an indispensable process to hold the coachman accountable for negligence.
‘If he had requested leave today, then yesterday he would have already…’
Brown Megus must have examined the carriage.
The moment that thought struck me, dizziness washed over me and my vision narrowed.
Everything before my eyes went black.

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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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