Chapter 403. Sovieshu’s Despair (2)

Translator: Aura / Editor: HB168

Sovieshu looked at Duke Elgy and ordered,

“Speak at once.”

“It’s due to Lady Aleisia.”

Sovieshu’s face stiffened as if it had been covered by a thin layer of ice.

He thought that Duke Elgy was Aleisia’s child. He blinked slowly a few times.

“By chance…”

“No.”

Duke Elgy smiled as if he had read his mind.

“My mother is not a cockroach who meddles in other families.”

“!”

“Unfortunately, my father was the worst kind of insect.”

Duke Elgy’s smile spread across his face.

Sovieshu was more confused.

Aside from the rumor that Aleisia had committed suicide, there was another, more disturbing rumor.

It was rumored that her parents, fearful of what others might think, threw their daughter into the sea and disguised her death as a suicide.

Unlike other concubines, Aleisia didn’t meet the same end…

— That woman…

Sovieshu swallowed hard.

— That woman gave my mother cookies laced with abortive drugs.

The voice in Sovieshu’s mind was his own back from when he was a child.

— I ate them by mistake, Father.

Sovieshu’s eyes trembled.

— His Majesty’s embraces are warm.

Sovieshu’s mother cried as another voice whispered.

— Children often die young

The voice continued, speaking affectionately, and his mother still cried.

— You’ll have a little brother.

His mother unhappy.

His father angry.

He walked fast as he carried some cookies.

Navier eating the cookies. A happy memory, because they laughed with each other.

— There is evidence that abortive drugs entered the Empress’s palace!

His father’s angry voice…

That woman dragged out in tears.

The fragmented scenes flashed quickly through Sovieshu’s mind.

He examined Duke Elgy’s face carefully.

Only his mother, Aleisia, and Sovieshu himself knew the truth about that incident.

However, this man…

“It’s not really what you think, you seem to be misunderstanding.”

Duke Elgy’s smile turned into an expression of enormous displeasure. As if he hated to be misunderstood.

However, Sovieshu didn’t understand.

If Aleisia had not died as he had believed, and if she married a man and gave birth to Duke Elgy, his behavior was somewhat understandable.

But if Elgy was not Aleisia’s child, his behavior was incomprehensible.

Rather than explain further, Duke Elgy took out two small boxes and placed them carefully on the floor.

“This is a parting gift I prepared for Your Majesty.”

Duke Elgy bowed politely and withdrew.

Sovieshu looked at the boxes on the floor. One was blue and the other red, and both were so small that only a small jewel would fit inside.

Sovieshu clenched his fist.

For reasons as yet unknown, Duke Elgy seemed to hold a grudge against him.

His hostility had also been directed at Rashta in the past.

Now, he has given Sovieshu a gift. But it was definitely not given with good intentions.

It definitely was not poison. If Sovieshu was poisoned by opening the boxes, Duke Elgy would have to bear the terrible consequences, as well as his family and his country.

So it could not be poison…

‘Even if it was poison, I don’t really care. Glorym has gone far away and it’s uncertain whether Navier will survive. What does it matter if I am poisoned and die?’

Sovieshu got up from the couch and went over to the boxes. Slowly, he picked them up.

After a moment’s hesitation, he opened the blue box. Inside was a key with a blue jewel embedded in it.

When he opened the red box, he found a key with a red jewel.

Sovieshu examined the keys for a moment, then called out to Marquis Karl.

“Where did Duke Elgy stay when he was a guest?”

“In the third largest room in the Southern Palace.”

“I need to know if he left anything behind. Check every corner of the room.”

Marquis Karl replied in bewilderment.

“As far as I know, that room was cleaned as soon as Duke Elgy left.”

“Was anything strange found at the time?”

Marquis Karl called the man who was in charge of the servants who cleaned the palace and asked him about it. The man answered that Duke Elgy had left a locked safe, so it was sent to him at the inn where he was staying.

Sovieshu sent knights to fetch the safe. As he waited, he paced impatiently around the room.

After a while, the knights returned with the safe.

“Was there really only one?”

He had two keys, but there was only one lock.

“Yes, there was only one. The innkeeper kept it because he thought the guest would come back for the safe.”

Did Duke Elgy only leave one safe by mistake? Or was the other one stolen?

The safe was not heavy enough to prevent someone from stealing it.

In any case, one of the keys given by Duke Elgy should do for this one.

Sovieshu ordered everyone out of the drawing room. He then hesitantly took out the key with the blue jewel embedded in it and inserted it into the lock of the safe.

The key went in smoothly and he heard a click when he turned the key.

His heartbeat raced uncontrollably.

‘What could be inside? Perhaps something dangerous…’

However, another safe was inside.

Surprised, Sovieshu put the key with the blue jewel aside and took the key with the red jewel. What the hell would he find? Why put a safe inside a safe…?

But when he lifted the smaller safe, a piece of paper fell to the floor. It had been inside of the bigger safe, the one opened by the key with the blue jewel.

He didn’t pick up the paper, but read what was written on it.

— Drugs.

“Drugs?”

‘Does he mean drugs used to treat the sick or drugs used by people who are mentally weak?’

Sovieshu pondered for a moment, then took the key with the red jewel, slowly inserted it into the lock and turned it.

The second safe opened with a click. Inside, there was another piece of paper.

This time it was not a single word, so Sovieshu took the paper and read the message.

— Princess Glorym is His Majesty’s true daughter.

The shock caused all of Sovieshu’s thoughts to vanish in an instant.

‘What does this mean? What does this mean?’

As if someone had removed his brain, Sovieshu was in a state of panic and couldn’t think.

He dropped the paper. If he had been on his feet, he would have collapsed.

Sovieshu shook his head.

‘What the hell is this…? It’s absurd. It’s absurd, absolutely absurd.’

The paternity test had been performed in front of Sovieshu’s watchful eyes. The priest pricked the princess’s finger with a strange tool in front of everyone.

‘It wasn’t just once. It was done twice. Wait, did the priest also draw blood from the Princess’s finger the second time?’

Sovieshu frantically tried to recall the memories of that day.

‘No, the second time he didn’t draw blood from the princess’s finger. He used the blood that had already been drawn.’

When Rashta insisted that Glorym’s blood be drawn again to repeat the test, the priest objected.

Sovieshu put his hands on his head. He also remembered wondering why Duke Elgy had appeared at the temple back then.

‘… No, no, it can’t be. Although Duke Elgy is a member of the royal family of another country, there is no way he could have manipulated the paternity test so easily. Besides, a priest never lies. Priests never lie…’

“Karl! Karl!”

Sovieshu desperately called out to Marquis Karl. When Marquis Karl, who was waiting in front of the door, entered, Sovieshu ordered him with trembling hands.

“Viscountess Verdi, bring Viscountess Verdi. Bring Glorym!”

“What?!”

“I need to check something, so bring them back! Right now! Hurry!”

Marquis Karl was confused, but he immediately went out to find Viscountess Verdi.

He knew how to find them because a knight was following them on Sovieshu’s orders.

Sovieshu clenched the paper Duke Elgy had left for him.

“It can’t be. It can’t be. The test result was manipulated. The priest lied on purpose.”

‘Yes, it was a lie.’

This was clearly the reason why Duke Elgy helped Viscountess Verdi escape.

Duke Elgy wanted to keep Sovieshu from conducting a new paternity test, so he had taken the princess away.

Now, he revealed this so that Sovieshu would spend the rest of his life tormented.

The reason he gave Sovieshu the keys and not the safe was probably to buy time to escape Sovieshu’s wrath. It had already been several hours since Duke Elgy had left.

‘But… but what if Duke Elgy helped the princess escape because he feels guilty?’

Sovieshu looked at the painting of the princess in his bedroom with empty eyes.

“It can’t be. It can’t be.”