Rewriting the Trash Ending - Chapter 32

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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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32.

The Banquet Hall fell silent in an instant.
Magda’s words had tumbled out in a breathless torrent.
It was a taboo that no one should ever speak aloud.
In that perfect stillness, only the ragged sound of Magda’s breathing echoed through the room.
“…….”
Lumiere’s violet eyes turned cold.
The smile that had lingered at the corner of her mouth vanished as if washed away.
“A woman bought and brought here…….”
When she heard those words, the feeling that surged through her wasn’t insult or contempt.
It was only the thought that Axid must have been terribly, terribly lonely.
She’d always known Magda was the worst, but until now she’d at least dressed her own selfishness in the guise of Axid’s interests.
In her past life, she’d never seen such raw, naked truth.
A relative by marriage.
Was there some inferiority complex lurking behind that word?
Lumiere broke the weighted silence with a low voice.
“You shouldn’t say such things, should you?”
“I… what?”
Even when Magda had coveted the internal affairs of the Grand Duchy Palace, even when she’d tried to desecrate her grave in her past life—she had never seemed this loathsome.
Watching her cling so faithfully to her own desires, Lumiere had once even thought her admirable in her dedication.
But no matter how she turned it over in her mind, this was unforgivable.
“I am the sole wife of the nephew you claim to love so dearly.”
“As if anyone doesn’t know that—!”
“And the previous Grand Duchess was none other than your own sister.”
There was a catch.
Magda’s pupils dilated sharply.
“You’ve just mocked my husband, not to mention my mother-in-law, with groundless superstition—all to shake only me.”
“Superstition? That’s a genuine—!”
“It is superstition.”
Lumiere cut through Magda’s protest with a clean stroke.
“The deaths of women in the imperial family rival those in the Grand Ducal House. Perhaps they even exceed them.”
Puerperal fever, assassination, plague, accident—the list went on.
It was a world where women, men too, lost their lives without ever knowing why, victims of inadequate medicine and poor conditions.
“Then if we were to attribute all those deaths to the responsibility of the Grand Ducal House, wouldn’t it be more accurate to say the Wizer Imperial Family itself was cursed?”
“…….”
Lumiere regarded Magda, frozen and speechless, with pity.
Whether she liked it or not, she shouldn’t have touched her husband’s exposed nerve for the sake of her own grudge.
She was technically House Mober’s daughter, but if she considered herself part of the Grand Ducal House at all, she should have known better than this.
“I… I was…….”
It was only then that Magda seemed to grasp what she’d done, her lips quivering as she stood frozen.
Lumiere watched her in silence for a moment, then turned away.
But then.
There was a catch.
How long had he been standing there?
Axid was at the entrance of the Banquet Hall, watching her.
“…….”
His face was expressionless.
To the eyes of others, it was impossible to tell whether he was angry at the commotion or simply indifferent—his face betrayed nothing.
But to her, he seemed like a man who had suddenly been caught in a downpour, lost and bewildered.
He looked like someone whose carefully hidden secrets had just been laid bare.
Lumiere approached both of them through the awkward silence.
“I apologize for bringing discredit upon the Celebration of Longevity for the Grand Mother.”
The Minister of Finance waved his hand with a flustered expression.
“No, no. How could this possibly be your fault, Your Highness?”
“Still, it’s true that I’ve cast a shadow on the Grand Mother’s celebration. Please accept my apology.”
“Your Highness, please say no more. The Grand Mother was overjoyed simply to have you here.”
“Your words lighten my heart somewhat.”
Lumiere thanked the Minister of Finance for standing by her and gently pulled at Axid’s arm.
“Your Grace, shall we take our leave?”
The tug was gentle, but he moved without a word at her touch.
“Your Highness, permit me to escort you to the entrance,” the Minister offered.
“No, thank you. I should like to walk slowly with His Grace. Please, don’t trouble yourself over the atmosphere I’ve disrupted.”
She declined the Minister’s courtesy with composure and slipped from the Banquet Hall with Axid.
‘What on earth was that…….’
Magda could not collect herself even after the two had vanished.
The Minister of Finance exhaled softly with a slight shake of his head, while those who had been fawning before him clicked their tongues in contempt.
The ground beneath her feet had given way; she was stranded on a desolate island.
‘What exactly did I say……?’
She recalled her own words from moments before.

“Is the Princess not merely a woman sold off to carry on some distinguished line? Surely you haven’t forgotten what befell the Princesses of old?”

He’d heard it all. Every word.
Her face drained to the color of blank parchment.
There was no time for shame now.
“Your Grace……!”
Magda rushed from the Banquet Hall.
Mocking the Princess was not the real problem.
The true catastrophe was having spoken of his mother as a bride bartered away, having declared before her nephew’s ears that she had died because of the Grand Ducal House.
If she did not repair this somehow, she would lose everything she had enjoyed under the name of the Grand Ducal House.
“Your Grace, there has been a misunderstanding!”
Magda abandoned all dignity and rushed toward the carriage where Axid was ascending, her hair coming loose and her dress wrinkling.
She had no time to preserve her composure.
At the carriage door, Magda gasped for breath and spoke urgently in her own defense.
“I meant nothing of the sort! The Princess embarrassed me so that I spoke carelessly, without thought!”
Axid, who had helped Lumiere into the carriage, straightened to his full height.
“…You know nothing of propriety.”
At that cool, merciless tone, Magda’s lips trembled.
Propriety……?
Even when indifferent to her, he had always maintained courtesy. That was the nature of her nephew.
But this was a voice stripped of even minimal courtesy—cruelly, utterly cold.
Axid held the carriage door, drew a shallow breath, and turned his head slightly away.
He did not even bother to turn his body fully, as though the smallest gesture were too much trouble.
As her fingertips went numb with a terrible premonition, his chilling voice reached her.
“That you still stand on your two feet is only because the Princess chose not to speak.”
“Your Grace…….”
“If you wish to live, you would do better to beg for her mercy.”
With that, Axid boarded the carriage.
“Beg…….”
Her fate rested in that woman’s hands?
“That cannot be. It cannot.”
No matter how coldly her nephew treated her, blood remained blood.
As it had been until now, given time, this too would blur and fade away.
Yet perhaps it was the bitter wind of the Northern Region.
Or perhaps no amount of denial could dispel the ominous future that loomed before her so vividly.
Magda, left alone, trembled like an aspen leaf.

***

After the Grand Duke and his wife had departed, and the Countess of House Mober had withdrawn as well.
The grand Celebration of Longevity of House Oswald wound to a close in an air of unease.
“…I should have kept my distance earlier. The way she carried on, representing the Grand Ducal House, yet how could she speak so brazenly?”
“How could she not? She’s always been the type to act with stern propriety one moment, then mortify someone entirely the next if things go awry.”
Those who knew Magda’s nature well exchanged cynical smiles, unsurprised by the turn of events.
As a brief silence settled over the room, one woman ventured to speak with care.
“…But what did everyone make of what the Princess said?”
The eyes of those remaining in the Banquet Hall flickered with unease.
“It’s not entirely wrong when you put it that way…….”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“But…….”
Henrietta listened quietly to the murmur of conversation, her gaze growing wistful.
How many times over the long years had she watched Her Highness after Her Highness pass from this world?
From puerperal fever, from consumption, from drowning in the Lake or falling from their horses.
The causes differed each time, yet without exception, each one had left this world not long after bearing an heir.
Through the testimonies of those who had lived far longer than her mother—or rather, her grandmother—word of a curse upon the Grand Ducal House had been passed down by whisper and memory.
Though she denied it as mere superstition, what she had witnessed and heard over so many decades made her wonder in secret whether the curse might truly exist.
But if what Her Highness said were true…….
‘If only it really were so.’
Then neither the Grand Ducal House nor Her Highness would need to live in fear of the duty to produce an heir; they could simply receive their blessings with ease of heart.
Leaning on her cane, Henrietta moved slowly forward.
“Mother, won’t you take my arm?”
“I’m well enough. See to the guests, won’t you.”
“Even so…….”
“I only wish to rest early. There’s no need for such fuss.”
Count Oswald gazed quietly at her exhausted face, then reluctantly gestured to a lady’s maid.
“See Mother to her chamber.”
“Yes, my lord. I shall see her in at once.”
Supported by the maid’s arm, Henrietta made her way to a quiet adjacent room.
She reclined on the sofa to catch her breath for a moment, when a sudden thought prompted her to call for someone.
“Is anyone there?”
“You called, Countess?”
“Her Highness said she had something to give me. Would you fetch it?”
“Yes, I shall bring it at once.”
Henrietta smiled softly.
Afflicted with a cold and with a body grown too frail for traveling by carriage, she had been unable to attend the state wedding—a discourtesy for which she was deeply sorry. The ladies of the court had postponed their official visits at will, so she could hardly blame the Northern Region for their hurt feelings.
Yet His Grace the Grand Duke himself had come to celebrate this old woman’s longevity, bearing Her Highness with him…….
She had nothing but gratitude for such an honor, and then that reckless Countess Mober had dared to assail Her Highness so boldly.
No matter how much the Countess might harbor displeasure, Her Highness was the one who stood at the Grand Duke’s side.
‘Had I been there, I would have shut that fool’s mouth for her.’
She was grateful for all the well-wishes, yet smiling through the day had proven more taxing on her aged frame than she’d anticipated.
She could never have foreseen such a scene unfolding while she took her rest.
How much time had passed since then?
“Countess, it is here.”
The steward entered carefully bearing a pure white shawl and something wrapped in silk cloth.
“Well done. Thank you.”
Henrietta laid the shawl and the Silk Cloth across her lap, then slowly unwrapped the silk with her weathered hands.
As she undid the knot, a small Portrait Album and a Framed Portrait came into view.
“This is…….”
As Henrietta gazed intently at the frame, her eyes gradually widened.
Within the faded paper, a young couple sat hand in hand, beaming with luminous joy.
Her own youthful face—unmarred by a single wrinkle, dreamlike and distant.
And beside her, her husband with his solemn, gentle eyes.
With trembling fingertips, she slowly traced the outline of his face.
The man she had sent ahead to the grave so long ago smiled before her as he had in the bloom of youth.
“How could she……how did she obtain this?”
Slowly, moisture gathered at the corners of her lined eyes.
It had been not long after their wedding.
While touring their domain with her husband, they had encountered a poor young painter on the street.
Moved by the pallid young man’s hardship, her husband had commissioned a portrait of the couple. But before the work could be completed, urgent matters had called them away.
It had been decades ago; she had long since forgotten it entirely…….
Yet how could Her Highness, a stranger with no ties to these lands and no prior acquaintance with her, have learned of this painting’s existence and delivered it to her?
Henrietta sat in silence for a long while, her eyes reddened, gazing upon the portrait.

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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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