Chapter 64 Part 4 – Why do people turn hostile over small conflicts? Countess Rosenthal recounts the night my mother became ill at heart. There was a hidden, sad reason for it.
「All of you!! What are you doing!!」
The Crimson Duke Wendell rushed into the room with a furious look on his face when more pig’s blood was about to be poured on Cornelia. The atmosphere emitted by the Crimson Duke who had lived through a real battlefield was dreadful. The 「red nobles」 that were intoxicated with the pleasure of one-sided abuse are nothing more than a bunch of small animals in front of him.
Wendell shoved the petrified 「red nobles」 aside and looked for his wife Cornelia. The music stopped and the only sound resounding in the hall were his rushed footsteps and breathing.
「Cornelia!!」
The Crimson Duke finally found the gasping Cornelia in the center of the circle of 「red nobles」 and held her blood-covered body and screamed.
「How dare you defile my treasure ……!! …… How dare you ……!!」
He became speechless from excessive fury and the hilt of his sword clattered in his place.
His killing intent seemed to roar from the depths of the earth.
The 「red nobles」that were glared at by him immediately retreated to the wall.
The countess had no room to laugh at the ridiculousness of their scrambling.
Because the Crimson Duke’s murderous gaze was also directed at her.
「…… Wendell-sama …… No!! This is ……!!」
Realizing how she looked in his eyes with the bow in her hand, the countess desperately tried to scream.
But the words could not come out.
Seeing that his beloved wife had been injured, the Crimson Duke became like a wounded beast.
It was too late for any excuse.
In that case, she would rather be slain on the spot by Wendell, whom she had loved for so long.
The countess wished so.
A pitiful wish in the midst of despair.
But even that wish did not come true.
The reason was because Cornelia tried her best to stop the Crimson Duke as he was about to slaughter everyone in the room.
Even after the Crimson Duke picked Cornelia up in his arms and left, the 「red nobles」 remained frozen by the wall. The Crimson Duke’s anger smoldered in the room like the aftermath of a lightning strike.
The bow fell from Countess Rosenthal’s hand.
The resounding sound was cold and merciless.
Like the echo of rejection from the person she loves.
「…… Why did it …… become like this ……」
At that moment, Wendell was willing to protect Cornelia even if it meant turning the whole world against himself.
She envies Cornelia.
Cornelia is a winner in life, even if she was mocked and miserably ridiculed by all the nobles in this hall.
If she could switch places with Cornelia and have Wendell love her that much, she would have gladly endured a hundred years of torture. She would have no regrets even if she died the moment she was embraced by him.
She has always loved Wendell.
She has always wanted to help him.
But now, he would never smile at her again.
If she had wanted to, she could have used her power to save Cornelia.
But she did not do so because of her ugly jealousy.
And this is the result.
It was too late to regret it.
The countess heard auditory hallucinations of ridicules ringing close to her ears.
It was the voices of the women she had once kicked down in order to get ahead.
「Ahh, I feel so satisfied. We have lost everything and now you are the same as us.」
「You stupid bitch!! You destroyed your most precious memory with your own hands.」
「Live in anguish, despised by the man you love. It’s a way of life that suits you.」
The women pointed their fingers at her and exclaimed in delight.
Countess Rosenthal stood still there, unable to shed a single tear.
…… Ever since that night, Cornelia had been emotionally ill and did not show up at any events held by the nobles.
The Crimson Duke deeply lamented that his beloved Cornelia had been hurt and he never forgot the faces of the nobles that had oppressed her. Since the countess held a bow in her hand and was the owner of the mansion, she was considered to be one of the main culprits of the bullying. Ever since then, whenever she was at a close distance from him, he would coldly glance at her then turn away and walk away as if he did not even want to breathe the same air as her. She could not even approach him. There was nothing she could do to clear up the misunderstanding. The countess cried in her heart.
Still, the countess’s love for the Crimson Duke did not change.
As Solomon had discovered, there was an earnest maiden at the bottom of her heart.
She always wished that the Crimson Duke would be happy.
That’s why she strongly wished that his wife, Cornelia, would recover.
Because she realized that night that what the Crimson Duke wanted most of all was for Cornelia to be happy.
But even after 10 years had passed, Cornelia still remained withdrawn from aristocratic society.
Other people’s misfortune tastes like honey.
Cornelia was ridiculed in aristocratic society as a 「fallen genius」.
She doesn’t even have a child.
In addition, rumors began to circulate that Marquis Vygod and his wife were planning to let the daughter of the Shylock company become their son’s lover as payment for their debts.
Countess Rosenthal gnashed her teeth.
「…… What the hell are you doing ……!! I can’t believe that you would let yourself be pushed around by those worthless people ……!! You are the woman that Wendell-sama chose ……!!」
In her empty room, the Countess lost her temper and smashed the expensive vase.
「If you don’t become happy, Wendell-sama will never be happy. Please, you need to get a hold of yourself ……!! At least let me think that he had no choice but to hate me in order to protect you ……!!」
She pressed her forehead against the wall and cried.
When Cornelia’s name shone again after the defeat of the demon dog Gallam, the person who was the most delighted, other than her family and friends, might have been Countess Rosenthal.
Cornelia was said to have courageously fought without stepping back against the huge monster in order to protect her beloved newborn child. The knights of the Imperial Guards unanimously praised the way she fought. At first, the nobles scoffed and thought that it was an exaggeration, but as the dreadfulness of the demon dog Gallam that attacked the duke’s mansion became apparent, they were forced to refrain from speaking ill of her. Gallam had eaten and killed some of the most famous knights and warriors on the continent.
Furthermore, Cornelia’s reputation changed drastically when the baby she had protected at that time became famous in the imperial court as an extraordinary child prodigy.
The 「boy」 named Rufus possessed the ruby of the True Emperor which no king or hero had ever been able to touch and proficiently handled the locust infestation that was going to become the greatest catastrophe in the history of Hydrangea so that the damage was able to be suppressed to the minimum. The nobles who did not heed Rufus’s advice fell into decline and the royal family, who listened to his advice most intently, regained its former power.
(※Note: Rufus is Scarlet’s 「male name」 when she is disguised as a boy.)
Rufus can recite the faces and names of the nobility without a directory.
He can talk about their family structure, family history, and even the details of their fiefdoms.
He can read the weather and hit the mark on the next trend in aristocratic society.
He can move the rapidly-growing Orange Privateers like his own limbs, and his eyes and ears can even reach other kingdoms.
He taught manners and knowledge free of charge, claiming to be selling a more upper-class aristocratic culture to the rising middle class. Society is structured with the aristocracy at the top. For those with old-fashioned values, it was an act of teaching human culture to monkeys. The merchants, who at first scoffed at the idea and thought of him as an ignorant, simple kid, soon turned pale.
They realized that Rufus’s true aim was to fuse the utilitarian middle class with the aristocratic culture of traditional authority.
In other words, to create a frontier of a new culture.
That was the blueprint Rufus had drawn.
Then as he had hoped, he became the core of the new culture.
Since he was the one to initiate the boom, he could also prepare the right products in advance.
Rufus was quick to recognize the change of era.
The era of strong aristocratic absolutes was crumbling and the next breath of life was about to bloom.
The new culture was attracting even the most curious and forward-thinking nobles.
In order to not be left behind by the times, a group that could be referred to as the Rufus faction was born.
A great deal of wealth began to revolve around Rufus.
It was also said that he has won over the legendary 「Lawless Crew」.
Furthermore, his father was the hero, the Crimson Duke.
The royal family bestowed the rank of a viscount to Rufus, who was only three years old, but no one laughed.
A monster with the face of a girl and bottomless influence.
A genius who impressed even the genius Princess Margaret.
That is why people call Rufus by the nickname 「Demon King Princess」.
RELEASE RATE
Villainess Who Has Been Killed 108 Times
Speed up schedule by 10 hours
Current schedule: Every 90 hours
Dude, this Countess’s brain is useless.
“How come the person that I let those vultures pour pig blood and guts over has become sick in the head for over a decade?! This is impossible! Get happy already!”
You just said, like 4 paragraphs before, that you let your jealousy get the best of you! It was all in your hands too, you could’ve saved her with your strength, but decided to lose time thinking shit fuck in the place of helping. Have you already forgotten it, dumb hoe?