She Became My Friend’s Mother-In-Law - Chapter 137

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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 137. The Final Days of Osburn (1)
“What? Ex, execution?”
Count Osburn’s eyes widened in shock.
Despair flickered across his wide-open gaze.
Execution.
The word he’d buried deep within himself crept back, coiling around his throat.
By then, the Knight Commander and the soldiers had all departed from the prison.
Again came the metallic clang of the bars closing shut.
Only then did Count Osburn’s senses snap into focus.
“Wait, wait! Don’t go!”
He clung to the bars, his voice desperate and raw.
He couldn’t die like this.
Not after the life he’d lived.
Not after the noble status he’d so carefully preserved!
“Let me see the Emperor! I’ll tell him myself that a nobleman cannot be executed in this manner!”
“Silence, you criminal!”
But Osburn’s cries were short-lived.
Clang!
A guard approached and kicked the window frame.
“Ahhhhh!”
Count Osburn tumbled to the floor in terror.
A bowl caught on his flailing arm, scattering food across the stone.
The guards merely frowned at the sight.
“No point wasting food when he’ll be dead soon anyway.”
“Just wipe your mouth and wait quietly.”
The guards laughed mockingly as they left.
Silence descended.
The other prisoners held their breath, watching Cloud’s expression.
That silence made reality all the more vivid.
In four days.
He would be loaded onto a cart like cargo and dragged to the Town Square.
People would spit at him and curse his name.
No matter how desperately he struggled.
The executioners would place a hood over his head.
Force his chest against the cold wooden block and bend him forward.
And above his neck, a massive blade would whoosh down….
“No, no, noooo!”
His anguished scream echoed through the prison.
“Is anyone there? Someone help me! Please!”
Count Osburn shoved his face between the bars.
Was there anyone in the Corridor who could help me?
I rolled my eyes frantically.
My face contorted as it pressed against the bars.
But no answer came.
“No, this can’t be….”
I collapsed helplessly to the floor.
Lying face-down, I clutched my head and began to sob.
For a time, the Underground Prison echoed only with my anguished cries of terror and despair.
* * *
Four days later.
People had flocked to Brisen Square since early morning.
“Is it today?”
“They’re finally executing him?”
“It’s been forever.”
A guillotine had been erected in the center of the Square.
The cold blade gleamed above the wooden frame.
The crowd murmured, exchanging tales of Count Osburn’s countless atrocities.
Then someone shouted.
“There he comes!”
The murmuring crowd lifted their heads in unison.
Count Osburn was being transported on a cart.
“….”
His face was already vacant, devoid of all spirit.
His cheeks were hollow, his eyes sunken and lifeless.
Yet no one pitied him.
“There! There! You shameless murderer!”
“Go to hell! Spit!”
The crowd surged forward.
Spittle flew and curses rained down upon him.
The Count’s face twisted with humiliation.
“You, you wretches! Do you know who I am―”
“Who? You’re a murderer!”
But the more he spoke, the more he became a mere object of ridicule.
The Guards made only perfunctory attempts to restrain the crowd.
Thus, amid jeers and insults, the Count was positioned before the guillotine.
“…Hah.”
The moment I saw the blade suspended above my head.
Terror surged through me once more.
My legs trembled and my knees buckled.
“Wait, wait! Please wait! Just wait!”
He stumbled backward, his voice rising to a desperate cry.
“Please, please call my wife! Rosena too! I must see my family’s faces before I die!”
On the surface, it was a reasonable request.
Granting a condemned man’s final wish was customary, after all.
“This is my right! My right! Even His Majesty the Emperor didn’t forbid this!”
Count Osburn’s voice turned sharp and bitter.
But his true intention was transparent.
He was desperately grasping at straws, trying to buy time by any means.
Then.
“What rights does a criminal possess?”
A clear voice rang out from below.
Count Osburn froze.
Standing directly before the platform where the guillotine awaited.
Cecilia stood there.
Draped in a black cloak, her expression was composed as she gazed up at him.
The Count’s eyes widened in shock.
“…You!”
Soon after, he gnashed his teeth.
“What are you doing here!”
“I came to witness it myself.”
Cecilia’s eyes gleamed with cold intensity.
“The end of the murderer who killed my parents.”
“Wha―!”
“And don’t you dare think of seeing your family.”
“What? By what right do you say such things!”
“Because of you, I couldn’t even see my parents’ final moments.”
Cecilia took another step forward.
“So shouldn’t you experience the same? Only then would it be fair, wouldn’t it?”
“I, I―!”
The Count’s face flushed crimson with rage.
But there was nothing he could do.
His opponent was the Duchess.
And he was nothing but a condemned man fallen to the depths.
“Then, farewell.”
Cecilia cast him one final contemptuous glance before turning to address the guard.
“Thank you for accommodating such a difficult request.”
That he had allowed her even this brief conversation with the condemned man was his kindness.
Though her status as Duchess had played a part.
It was possible because everyone knew her tragic circumstances.
Cecilia nodded lightly in acknowledgment.
“That’s enough. Proceed with the execution.”
“Yes, Duchess.”
She pulled the hood of her cloak over her head and turned toward where Rainer waited.
The execution, which had paused for a moment, was about to resume.
“Wait, hold on! Cecilia! Cecilia!”
As soldiers approached and seized his arms again, Count Osburn cried out desperately.
He shouted with urgency.
“Come back here for a moment! I have something to tell you! It’s about your father! There’s something you don’t know!”
It was a transparent ploy.
A final, desperate attempt to buy time by any means.
To the very end, he shamelessly invoked the father he himself had murdered.
Cecilia’s fists clenched tightly.
Meanwhile, the soldiers roughly hauled the Count upward.
They forced him face-down onto the wooden platform.
“W-wait! I’ll give you money! As much as you want! Just wait a little longer!”
With his neck exposed, Count Osburn shrieked in terror.
His entire body trembled like an aspen leaf.
Unable to contain his fear, he began weeping like a child.
“Save me! Save me!”
Count Osburn’s final cries echoed across the square.
Whoosh.
Thud!
With the sound of the massive blade falling.
All sound ceased abruptly.
A brief silence descended.
“Waaaaah!”
Then the entire Town Square erupted with the roar of the crowd.
“He’s finally dead!”
“I feel so relieved!”
Cheers and jeers mingled together.
“….”
Cecilia watched the scene in silence.
Surrounded by applauding and cheering people.
Yet she herself felt oddly calm.
It was over.
That was all she could think.
Her mind felt hollow and quiet.
“Are you all right?”
Rainer, who had drawn near without her noticing, gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
Then slowly pulled her into his embrace.
“…It would be strange to smile brightly and rejoice when someone has died, wouldn’t it?”
Cecilia spoke matter-of-factly.
“Still, my mood isn’t terribly bad.”
“Then that’s enough.”
Rainer replied with equal composure.
In this moment, even Cecilia herself couldn’t quite name the emotion that stirred within her.
Rainer must have already understood it all.
‘Yes, that’s enough.’
Cecilia let out a soft laugh.
Simply having Rainer acknowledge her feelings seemed to untangle the knot in her mind.
The steady hand supporting her became a source of comfort.
“Let’s go.”
Leaving the clamorous crowd behind.
The two departed from the square.
“Rainer.”
Once the commotion around them had subsided, Cecilia spoke again.
“Would you go on ahead? I have something I need to do.”
“What is it?”
“I need to inform Trisha Osburn of what’s happened.”
Cecilia gave a slight shrug.
Today’s matter with Count Osburn was merely the beginning of her vengeance.
There were still others who needed to fall.
“Shouldn’t she know that her husband is dead?”

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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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