Queen of Revenge - Chapter 3

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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 3
“Cough…!”
The Count collapsed face-first onto the floor with a violent thud.
I looked down at the Count writhing at my feet with cold indifference.
In the past, Catherine had set my wedding date to coincide with the Kingdom’s Founding Day.
The Founding Day was a national celebration rivaling the King’s birthday ceremony. It was also the occasion that drew the most diplomatic envoys from neighboring kingdoms.
Catherine had orchestrated every aspect of the wedding ceremony.
I had to hold a lavish yet humiliating wedding under the watchful eyes of neighboring nations. It was Catherine’s scheme to make me an international laughingstock.
‘I should have suspected Catherine back then. How foolish of me to believe her words about protecting my dignity.’
There was no way for me to defy Catherine, who was the Crown Princess. My power alone could not stop the wedding.
But what if my intended husband were to disappear?
“Y-Your Highness, you can’t possibly think you’ll escape unscathed for this…”
The Count barely opened his eyes to look up at me. Blood streamed from his head where I had brought the candlestick down with all my strength.
I bent forward carefully, making sure not to get blood on my dress.
“You whip boys every night, don’t you?”
The Count had even wielded that blood-stained whip against me.
“I cannot even count how many children have died by your hand.”
Every dawn, I had ventured into the Forest to bury the dead children. Even Lisi and the other guards had not stopped me in this.
“Among those children you kidnapped and killed, wasn’t there the second son of Count Telsia’s House?”
“H-how…?!”
I had learned this fact while secretly caring for injured children in the Count’s Manor basement shortly after my marriage.
“There is a law that those who marry into the Royal Family must commit no crimes up to three generations of their ancestors. What you have done is undeniably murder.”
“Y-you have no evidence!”
“The boys imprisoned in your Manor Basement are witnesses. Shall I send the Capital Security to verify this right now?”
The Count’s face drained of all color.
I suppressed my nausea and spoke coldly.
“If you don’t wish to be executed for insulting the Royal Family, do exactly as I command. Then I will keep silent.”
The Count’s shoulders shrank involuntarily.
In the eyes of this princess forty years his junior burned a chilling omen.
An oppressive force far greater than that of Catherine, the Crown Princess lauded as the next leader of the Kingdom, bore down upon the aging man.
Could this girl with a tiger’s gaze truly be Princess Iolet?
The timid princess who had wept before him just a week ago?
Gripped by fear, the Count nodded frantically to my next words.
“Y-yes, I understand…”
“Good, then.”
I swung the silver candlestick once more.
The Count’s eyes rolled back completely.
I hurled the candlestick and the dinnerware from the table onto his body.
I immediately left the Dining Room and hid myself behind the curtains. My hands trembled uncontrollably.
I was as familiar with violence as I was terrified of it. I clenched my pale hands into tight fists.
‘It’s fine, Iolet. It’s fine. This is nothing.’
A human heart gains nothing from revenge.
Both Catherine and Benedix had achieved victory through acts that defied Iolet’s comprehension.
Morality, benevolence, compassion, empathy and understanding.
If abandoning all of these was the price to crush them, Iolet could cast them aside a thousand times over.
Besides, a mere blow to the head was nothing compared to what Count Castlane had done to her in the past.
Her pupils, which had been trembling violently, soon settled into an icy calm.
Rather than step into the corridor, Iolet waited behind the curtain for a moment.
It was almost time.
Not long after, Lisi’s scream pierced through the Dining Room.
* * *
“Someone was injured?”
Catherine, the crown princess of Elovis, raised her eyebrows sharply.
Having just finished her midday meal, Catherine had been enjoying a leisurely tea time.
Across from her, dressed in a beige gown as radiant as afternoon sunlight, sat The Duke Valer.
Benedix Valer.
A man she had drawn to her side out of necessity—though his refined appearance made for pleasant decoration.
Catherine had been using Benedix as eye candy while awaiting news of her half-sister and the aging Count’s arrival for lunch.
Yet an hour had passed in silence, and now someone was injured?
The Royal Palace’s Butler reported urgently.
“It appears that Count Castlane suffered a severe head injury while dining with Princess Iolet. The Count has lost consciousness and is currently receiving treatment.”
“How on earth does one’s head get injured during a meal?”
Catherine’s sharp retort made the Butler break into a cold sweat.
“It seems the Princess’s Maidservant accidentally dropped a tray… onto the Count’s head.”
“The Princess’s Maidservant? You mean Lisi Keis?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Does that even make sense?”
Lisi Keis was a skilled Maidservant whom Catherine herself had personally selected. She was not one to make such absurd mistakes.
In Catherine’s bewilderment, The Duke pressed the Butler further.
“Princess Iolet was present at the scene as well? Was she injured?”
“N-no, Your Grace. The Princess is unharmed.”
“Speak clearly. If the Count lost consciousness, this must have been a serious accident. Where is Iolet?”
The Duke’s eyebrows twisted menacingly as he inquired after the Princess’s safety—a detail Catherine noticed with a sharp glare.
“Calm yourself, Duke. Butler, are you certain it was Lisi’s mistake? Could it be that Iolet shifted the blame…?”
“Princess Iolet is not capable of such a thing, Your Highness.”
The Duke stated it flatly and without hesitation.
Irritating as it was, he was right. Her sister was foolishly virtuous.
Confined to the Tower since childhood and trained to be docile, she had become naive and timid to the point of absurdity.
She had lost everything piece by piece while still calling Catherine “Elder Sister” and depending on her—so stupid that she would never even conceive of blaming someone else for her own mistakes.
Yet an inexplicable sense of discord settled over Catherine.
Everything about Iolet was within Catherine’s grasp. Not once had an unintended disturbance ever occurred under her watch. Not a single time.
Catherine set down her teacup and rose from her seat.
“I need to see Iolet. Where is she now? Is she with Count Castlane?”
“No, Your Highness. That is….”
The Butler, faltering, lowered his head.
“The Princess is currently in an audience with His Majesty the King.”
* * *
In his youth, the King of Elovis had earned renown as a brilliant strategist.
He had greatly expanded Elovis’s territories, elevating the kingdom to the ranks of the great powers.
Though the Royal Family had its share of discord, his governance for the people was beyond reproach, earning him praise as a wise ruler.
Yet as the years passed, the brilliance of his youth had dimmed.
After losing two queens in succession, the King had indulged himself by changing mistresses month after month.
With a brilliant crown princess and loyal ministers at hand, there was no need to concern himself with state affairs.
For a king who had achieved such dazzling accomplishments in his prime, only a comfortable and leisurely twilight remained.
Just one thing—if only his second daughter’s marriage could be concluded in grand fashion.
When Catherine rushed into the Audience Hall, the King wore an expression of profound distress as he regarded his second daughter.
“Please forgive Lisi, Father.”
Behind Iolet, Lisi Keis knelt with her head bowed low, her wrists bound behind her back. The sleeves and hem of the Maidservant’s dress were drenched in blood.
“Lisi didn’t do this intentionally. It was merely an accident—couldn’t you find it in your heart to forgive her?”
“No, Your Majesty. When I entered, the Count was already collapsed!”
Lisi cried out, her face drained of color.
“I only went to the Bedroom to retrieve the item the Princess asked me to find. The Princess entered the Dining Room first!”
The King pressed his fingers to his throbbing temples.

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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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