Queen of Revenge - Chapter 23

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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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Chapter 23
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At that same moment, news reached Duke Valer’s Mansion.
“Iolet departed with Commander Winterbark?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Cigar smoke hung thick in the study.
From the doorway, all that was visible was the Duke’s silhouette perched upon his desk, a cigar burning between his fingers, a book held in his other hand.
“I see. The Crown Princess must be deeply concerned.”
“Will you be entering the Palace, Your Grace?”
“No. Later.”
The Duke, cigar still between his lips, began turning the pages of his book.
The Duke’s butler bowed and withdrew in silence.
In the study, now quiet once more, Benedix devoted himself to the worn tome—a gift from the Queen in his childhood.
[When does a person truly change?
Not when they gain insight. Not when they make a resolution, nor when they beat their chest in regret. Most transformations are merely words.
A person changes only when they can no longer live as they once did.
Change begins in desperation. What reshapes the human structure is rarely learning or awareness, but rather death, despair, or the collapse of conviction so profound it rivals them.
Once transformed, a person can never return to who they were before.
Therefore, change is not another name for growth—it is merely a technique of survival.-]
“The notion that change springs from hope is the arrogant privilege of those who have never tasted loss….”
Benedix, turning the passage over in his mind, let out a bitter laugh. Then he set down his cigar in the ashtray.
“Sophistry. And yet, perhaps it rings true for you, Iolet.”
A small note slipped from between the pages.
Benedix gazed down at it without picking it up.
[My beloved Beni.
I hope you never know regret.
-Charlotte]
Benedix recalled his former fiancée standing in the banquet hall.
The image of her undulating golden hair and the jewels glimmering at her delicate throat lingered in his mind like an afterimage.
His first love, transformed from that moment onward, had left this place without so much as a glance back at him.
‘She left me without a single word until the very end.’
Benedix had never once imagined Iolet turning her back on him.
“Damn it.”
Unable to contain the fury that surged within him, Benedix hurled the book. The chair it struck clattered loudly across the floor.
Benedix was among the precious few who had watched over her from the closest vantage.
He had been her fiancé since before Iolet was even born.
For nine years, until just before the Queen’s death, he had walked through the Queen’s Palace every single day. That was how he came to know.
Had Catherine and the Royal Council not ensnared her, it would have been Charlotte, not Catherine, who now commanded Elovis.
And Charlotte’s daughter, whom she had raised with such devotion, possessed an intellect that surpassed even her mother’s.
This was not merely a matter of her childhood. Benedix had observed the entirety of that girl’s life.
Catherine would never admit it, but without Iolet, she could never have risen to her current position.
Yet Iolet lacked the most essential ambition that drove others.
She had always chosen to hide rather than confront, opening her heart easily to a single kind word, and returning tenfold the goodwill and sincerity she received.
From birth, Iolet was a different breed of human than Benedix.
The moment he accepted that she held no promise as the next sovereign, Benedix released her without hesitation.
But that did not mean he had abandoned Iolet as a person. For Benedix, that distinction was crystal clear.
“How could I ever abandon you, Lea?”
Her pet name, spoken aloud after so long, melted softly on his tongue.
That he became the Crown Princess’s consort and Iolet became another man’s wife—these were mere surfaces.
They remained singular to each other, irreplaceable.
They knew everything about one another. Because of this, Benedix had never once doubted that he belonged to Iolet, and she to him.
Yet Iolet had rejected him.
“That was the last chance you’ll ever have to kiss me, Benedix.”
She who had known only resignation when her unwanted marriage was decided had suddenly transformed into someone else entirely.
There was only one explanation that could bridge such an incomprehensible chasm.
[What transforms the structure of a human being is rarely learning or awareness, but rather death and despair—or the collapse of conviction comparable to them.
Once changed in such a way, a human can never return to who they were before.]
The final line burned itself into his mind.
Now he saw it for what it truly was: a warning and a prophecy.
In the depths of Benedix’s consciousness, nameless fury began to roil.
“Even if you have long since rotted away and returned to dust, it seems you have managed to resurrect your daughter after all, Charlotte.”

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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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