The Price of Saving A Wicked Beast
Translator: Rae
Adelaide hesitated, unable to take the hand Katarina offered. Fabian, watching her hesitation, smiled faintly.
“I understand. With Dame Romeo no longer at your side, you may feel uneasy. But there is no need to worry. As a sign that no harm is intended, I will have Katarina’s nurse accompany you.”
At Fabian’s words, the nanny hurried over from the corner. With her plain, gentle appearance, she threw herself down before Adelaide and bowed deeply.
“I-I greet Your Highness… the Crown Princess.”
The nanny’s trembling lips made her look utterly guileless. Katarina frowned in irritation. Why was that woman shaking so disgracefully over nothing at all?
Next to the displeased Katarina, Fabian continued in a gentle voice.
“This nurse has been by Katarina’s side since the day she was born. To her, she is no different from a mother. If anything were to happen to Your Highness, she would be the first to fall under suspicion. That is precisely why such a thing will not happen.”
His words sounded almost mocking, aimed at the two who refused to lower their guard even at a peaceful ball. With all eyes upon her, Adelaide had only one answer she could give.
“Very well. Then let us go. Since the Marquis’ daughter has much she wishes to say to me, I should hear it.”
"Adelaide.”
“It’s fine. This is a place where everyone can see.”
Adelaide reassured Killian, who was trying to stop her. There were easily over a hundred nobles gathered here. With so many people in such an open space, it would be difficult to attempt anything reckless.
And if the nanny had been brought all the way from the North, then as Fabian said, she must be someone Katarina trusted deeply. It seemed unlikely Katarina would sacrifice such a person just to harm her.
The two of them—no, the two and the nanny together—climbed the stairs. Once they were far enough that their voices could no longer be heard below, Katarina spoke without restraint.
“If you hadn’t done something so impertinent in the first place, things could have stayed pleasant between us.”
Adelaide climbed the steps without saying a word. Seeing her ignore her as if she could not hear, Katarina sneered and continued.
“Remember this. The one who destroyed Rose Romeo was none other than you.”
“My Lady.”
The nanny fidgeted, looking anxiously back and forth between Katarina and Adelaide. From below the stairs, everyone could see the old nanny standing helplessly between them.
“Nanny, stay out of it. Fabian went to the trouble of arranging this. Don’t you think I deserve at least this much to ease my anger? It’s just words, anyway.”
While they were climbing the stairs, Katarina took full advantage of the fact that no one could hear her. It was as though she were venting her anger, pouring onto Adelaide all the humiliation she had suffered at Fabian’s hands.
“Because of you, even my marriage has been ruined. And you think I’ll just let you live happily? Never. I’ll torment you until you beg to be killed.”
Katarina glanced down toward Fabian on the first floor as she spoke.
“Well, even if I don’t, that walking bundle of inferiority won’t leave you alone.”
Even as they reached the upper floor, the nanny kept glancing around anxiously, trying in vain to restrain Katarina.
Just as the three arrived on the upper floor, the bright light of the hall was blocked by a large pillar near the entrance, casting shadows over where they stood. As Adelaide blinked a few times to adjust to the sudden darkness, the nurse’s tone behind Katarina abruptly changed.
“My Lady. How dare you speak of His Grace the Grand Duke in such a manner?”
The two, who were ahead, stopped at the sudden change of the situation. Katarina frowned and turned back toward the nanny.
"Nanny. What did you just say?”
“I raised you with all my devotion, yet somehow you grew into someone who deserves to die. I cannot help but feel profound regret.”
"What?”
Katarina was still struggling to comprehend the words when the nurse suddenly seized the back of her dress with all her strength.
Katarina’s body tilted backward. Letting out a startled cry, she reached into the air, trying to grasp anything. The only thing before her was Adelaide, walking one step ahead by social status.
“S-Save me…?”
Startled, Adelaide reached out to grab Katarina’s flailing hand, but her struggling body tipped backward in an instant.
For a moment, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Then the sound of Katarina tumbling down the stairs, mixed with people’s screams, crashed against her ears.
What… what is happening? Adelaide stood frozen, her mouth hanging open.
“Aaah! My Lady!”
As if changing faces, the nurse, who had been staring down at Katarina with a cold expression, suddenly screamed and collapsed to the floor. With a trembling hand, she pointed at Adelaide and cried out.
“H-Her Highness the The Crown Princess pushed my lady!”
Following the nurse’s pointing finger, all eyes gathered there turned toward Adelaide.
“That can’t be.”
The Countess murmured to herself. Her bad premonition had been right. Seeing Adelaide stand there helplessly, the Countess’s legs gave way, and she sank down where she stood.
***
A white shroud was laid over Katarina’s body. Having fallen without even a chance to protect herself, her corpse was left in a dreadful state. Blood flowing from the torn back of her head soaked into the white cloth, staining it red.
Clutching his daughter’s body, Marquis Brundel broke into a grief-stricken wail. His only child in the world had died just days before her marriage. His sobbing sounded as though his very entrails were being torn apart. As the northern nobles watched his misery, murderous intent began to flicker one by one in their eyes.
It was a tragedy that befell a bride-to-be. And it happened as she climbed the stairs alongside her political rival, only to fall. In a situation where anyone would naturally suspect the other party, the nanny’s testimony was added, leaving Adelaide with no way out.
“How could such a thing happen… I—I only wished for the two of them to clear up their misunderstanding.”
Fabian lowered his head beside Marquis Brundell, his eyes hollow. A father who had lost his daughter, and a man who had lost his fiancée. The sight of the two was tragedy upon tragedy.
The resentful gaze Fabian cast up at her sent a chill through Adelaide. His eyes told her far more than she had expected. Enough to reveal that this entire situation had unfolded exactly according to his calculations.
“…I, I didn’t do this.”
Adelaide’s lips trembled. Still, some of the moderate nobles voiced agreement, revealing their doubts. In the open banquet hall, the moment when Katarina and Adelaide were obscured from view had been only an instant. If she had truly intended to harm the marquis’s daughter, there would have been no need to act in such a crowded place.
“Lies—this is a lie!”
Amid the murmur of the crowd, the nanny’s voice sliced through the air. Startled, everyone turned their gaze toward her.
“This old servant saw it clearly. I clearly saw Her Highness the Crown Princess push my Lady.”
Tears streamed down the nanny's eyes.
“Of course, it is true that my lady spoke impertinently. I was beside myself trying to mediate between the two all the way up the stairs. Huhu… Your Highness did not do it intentionally, did you? I, I know that well.”
Before Adelaide could respond, she broke into exaggerated sobs, wiping her tears with a handkerchief.
“No matter how angry you were, pushing her in the heat of the moment led to this dreadful outcome—how shocked you must be. But to say you did nothing at all… then what was it that this old woman saw? This is too much. No matter that you are the Crown Princess, you cannot deny a crime that truly occurred!”
Crying that there was no point in living in a world without her lady, the nurse slammed her head against the floor. The impact split her forehead, blood smearing the ground. Shocked northern nobles hurried to restrain her.
If Adelaide’s account were true, then the only one who could have harmed the marquis’s daughter was the nanny. Yet what reason could such a fiercely loyal nanny possibly have to harm her mistress?
As for Adelaide, there was no one who did not know of her direct clash with Katarina in the Glass Garden. Even those who had initially sided with Adelaide now seemed to be losing confidence in their judgment.
The nanny even fainted briefly in the arms of those supporting her. Faced with the exaggerated display, Adelaide could only part her lips, unable to speak.
At that moment, someone stepped in to support the unsteady Adelaide. It was Killian. Wrapping an arm firmly around her shoulders, he looked down at Katarina’s wailing nanny.
“If no one harmed the marquis’s daughter, then there is only one answer. This was an accident, and I offer my sincere condolences for what befell Lady Brundell.”
Accident, condolences. At Killian’s cold words, which so plainly reduced the situation to such terms, the eyes of the northern nobles hardened.
“To spout such sophistry at a time like this…!”
“Didn’t the marquis’ daughter’s nanny said she had seen it clearly?!”
The outraged voices of the northern nobles erupted from all sides. Yet Killian did not even blink as he spoke to them again.
“You believe the words of the marquis’ daughter’s nanny, yet refuse to believe the words of the Crown Princess. If you wish to accuse my wife of a crime, then bring proper evidence. Do not presume to brand someone a murderer based on nothing more than a servant’s testimony.”
At those words, Marquis Brundell, who had been sobbing over his daughter’s body, staggered as he rose to his feet.
In that brief span, he looked as though he had aged ten years. The shock of his daughter’s d*ath had burst blood vessels in his eyes, the whites turned red, making him appear as though he were shedding tears of blood.
***
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