Viscount Marezon’s household, the viscount’s study.
Rebecca scowled, unable to hide her frustration.
“Heh…”
“…”
“Heh. Heh-heh.”
Viscount Marezon was seated on the floor in front of Rebecca. His mouth hung open as he laughed like a madman. His eyes were unfocused and drool spilled from his mouth like he was a newborn baby. Rebecca tugged on her creased forehead with her thumb and index finger.
“God dammit.”
Recently, Rebecca had pretended to be a victim by fabricating circumstances and evidence that Incan had independently practiced black magic in secret. She played the part of a pitiful victim who had suffered unspeakable abuse from her younger brother for years.
The reason she did so was simple. She thought that Duke Mayhard would take pity on the poor victim and leave her family alone.
But she was wrong.
‘I can’t believe he’s blocking our funds and buying out our liabilities.’
Duke Mayhard was steadily proceeding with bringing Viscount Marezon’s family financial ruin, as if he didn’t care about what had happened to Rebecca.
‘We’ve already handed over our merchants.’
Several customers had turned their backs on Viscount Marezon’s family. They could easily take their herb business elsewhere. When money and power were involved, no one wanted to see losses by remaining loyal to the Marezon family.
On top of that, the timing wasn’t great. In his greed to expand his business, Viscount Marezon had recently withdrawn more external funds than he could manage, resulting in a fiasco. With their business dealings blocked off and the pressure of their incalculable debt, the Marezons could very much go under.
‘Since Count Hayner is supporting Duke Mayhard, as if he had been waiting for this moment.’
Count Hayner was Viscount Marezon’s rival in the herb distribution industry. With the way things were going, Viscount Marezon was about to go mad. He could not keep his composure and would throw a fit at the slightest agitation, just as he had done so earlier.
The viscount had called Rebecca to his study and hurled things at her from his desk acrimoniously, asking her how she was going to fix this mess. And Rebecca had used her ‘power’ as usual to shut the viscount up, but…
There were side effects.
Perhaps the problem was that she used too much power in a short span of time. Or perhaps out of irritation, she failed to control her power without realizing.
“He’s turned into a moron.”
The crimson light that shone in front of the viscount was sucked into the stone charm of Rebecca’s necklace.
Rebecca glared down at the viscount who was out of his wits with a look of annoyance. She had planned to get rid of him after inheriting his title as viscount. But this wasn’t how she planned to do it at all. The timing and method were different from what she had planned. Chewing on her lip, Rebecca turned around and left the room.
“Don’t let anyone inside this room until I say so.”
“Understood, Young Miss,” the soldier guarding the room replied obediently.
Rebecca went to an isolated area. Then, she called her subordinate.
“Michael.”
“Yes.”
A man appeared from the darkness.
“You said that Duchess Mayhard is currently at the capital.”
“…”
“Report her every move to me. I trust that you won’t disappoint me this time.”
“As you have ordered.”
After the man went away, Rebecca walked to the end of the quiet corridor and entered the room to the left. There was a heavy lock on the door that needed to be opened with a key, but the room itself looked unexpectedly ordinary.
Rebecca shifted the arrangement of a painting on the wall and the wall to the right of it slowly receded like a door. What appeared next was a staircase that led to the basement. Rebecca was able to go down the steps even in the dark, familiar with the passageway.
Soon, she reached the bottom of the staircase and stopped at another locked door. Clack. She unlocked the padlock and entered a small and dark space that was like a storage room.
Rebecca turned on a lamp, illuminating the room. She cleared away a carpet that was spread out on the floor, revealing a circle filled with elaborate text and shapes.
Rebecca kneeled in front of the circle. She had been 17 when she first discovered it.
“There’s a secret hideout that no one knows about?”
“That’s what I just said. I stumbled across it while I was cleaning. I’m the only one who knows about it. I bet the viscount doesn’t even know.”
She had accidentally overheard a servant and a maid whispering covertly about it.
A secret hideout.
At the time, Rebecca happened to be thinking about murdering someone. That person was none other than the messenger who was sent by the count’s family to propose a marriage with Rebecca.
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