Chapter 156: A Settled Matter
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Sensing sothing off about the person beside , I glanced over and saw Victoria's face, drawn tight with tension.
She was biting hard on her lower lip, her proud nose slightly scrunched, long silky hair spilling freely over her shoulders and covering half her face.
She was still as beautiful as ever. Breathtakingly, incomparably beautiful, the kind of beauty that made you feel like you were caught inside a fleeting dream.
Only now, that normally soft and delicate skin had turned a sickly pale, and her lashes, usually curved like a crescent moon, trembled lightly as her eyes blinked hard several tis.
The entire mansion fell suddenly, completely silent. After a long mont, Victoria pulled the corner of her mouth up and let out a quiet laugh.
"Haha."
It was a complicated laugh.
This was the first smile I had ever seen on her face, or really, the first expression at all. Before this, she always carried that air of not caring about anything, burying her emotions deep inside while keeping a calm, unbothered surface. Cool to the point of being unsettling, utterly unreadable.
But in this mont, Victoria finally laughed. That laugh carried contempt, mockery, sadness... and perhaps even a hint of grievance, I could feel it.
I had finally caught a real, clear glimpse of her emotions. I knew she was genuinely wounded.
Clack. Clack.
Victoria climbed the stairs to the second floor with slow, asured steps. She leaned against the railing, her back turned to her mother who was glaring up at her from below, and tilted her head high.
In her pain, she looked just like a proud swan.
"Mother. What exactly do you think you're doing."
She spoke the question softly, with the sa detached calm as always, not a ripple in her voice.
The Queen Dowager downstairs was caught off guard by that question: "What do I think I'm doing? Victoria, what kind of nonsense are you spouting?"
Victoria was silent for a mont, then spoke again.
"I can understand everyone else, everyone except you." She murmured, almost as though talking to herself, "Back in the early years, when Father was still alive, Uncle always wanted to fight him for power. Unfortunately, he fell far too short. Then Father died, and it was you who took control, not him. Later, Uncle had my brother... poisoned, and tried to take my life so many tis, every thod imaginable. But he never once succeeded. Even on the day of the coronation, all he could do was stand to the side and watch, and offer his applause and blessings."
"So he hates us. He hates the royal family. The Clive family helped him launder money and promised him all sorts of benefits. He helped outsiders co after , I can understand that."
"...What are you even trying to say?! Stop slandering your uncle!"
Victoria paid no attention to her mother's shouting from below and simply continued speaking.
"And then there are the others. Uncle Sally, Aunt Anderson, Cousin Lavelle... I know them well. Without exception, every single one of them is useless and cowardly. As long as soone holds a blade to their throat and tosses them a piece of candy, they'll do anything. These people are spineless, terrified of death, licking up the cake crumbs the Clive family throws at them like dogs, then banding together to help outsiders co after ."
"Laughable, isn't it? They wouldn't even dare raise their voice in front of outsiders, yet they can co here and strut around in front of . Only because they know, others would kill them, but I wouldn't. A very simple logic. You see, I can understand even that."
"The only one I cannot understand is you, Mother. Those people... they killed your husband, they killed your son. And now they're racking their brains to co after your daughter. Only sadly for them, they can't do much against , so they sent you to do their talking for them... and you ca. How wonderful. I'm so glad."
Victoria spoke all of this without joy or sorrow, as though recounting things that had nothing to do with her.
Yet listening to it, I felt a deep ache in my chest.
Victoria hadn't had a single drop to drink, and yet she was saying all of this, simply because she cared. Her mother's words had hurt her.
Compared to Victoria, I was the lucky one. Back at Shanter Castle, my father and mother doted on . They couldn't stand to see suffer even the slightest grievance, and whenever there was sothing good, they'd give it to first. But Victoria? Every single person close to her was working against her, even her own mother was like this.
Did she have anyone left she could trust?
She was so terribly alone. How could she bear all of this?
"You're talking nonsense! Your father's death was an accident! Your brother got sick from eating bad food! Stop making things up—!"
The Queen Dowager's shrieking set my nerves on edge, and I snapped right back at her: "Would you stop yelling, you're driving crazy! Just be quiet, please!"
Victoria had a younger brother who had already died... who was also the Queen Dowager's son. Was she in denial, or did she just refuse to face reality?
Sothing any fool could plainly see, why wouldn't she admit it?
At that thought, I looked over at Victoria with so worry... and I saw her drawing in several long, deep breaths.
She seed to be struggling with all her might to hold herself together, and only after she had steadied herself did she speak, her voice once again calm: "Mother. You were originally a northern noble. You married Father only to put an end to the Rose War at the ti... you never actually liked him, did you. You already had soone else in your heart long before."
The Queen Dowager's eyes went wide at those words.
She raised a trembling finger and pointed at Victoria, her voice shaking with fury: "Victoria, how dare you! Do you even know what you're saying?! I am your mother—!"
"...Haah—"
Victoria breathed out a long sigh.
She turned around. Her golden eyes carried a cold, distant gleam as she looked down at her mother from above, expression utterly blank.
A long silence.
"Father's death, did you have anything to do with it?"
She asked it just like that.
In that instant, I knew Victoria's composure had cracked. Because she had told before that a question like this was pointless.
And it truly was pointless.
I watched the Queen Dowager imdiately put on an expression of complete disbelief, as though she had suffered so trendous injustice: "What did you say... what did you say... you've lost your mind, you've lost your mind again—!"
Victoria said nothing more.
She stared down at her mother for a long mont, then shook her head, a gesture that looked almost like self-mockery.
"I really have lost my mind, wasting ti here like this."
She then shifted her gaze to the man who had remained silent in the room this whole ti.
"Lecter."
"Sir!"
Lecter answered at full volu, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile. I figured that must have been because he'd been holding back his feelings this whole ti.
"Kill everyone outside. All the Iron Guards."
"Yes, sir!" Lecter received the order.
"You dare—!" The Queen Dowager cried out furiously.
She moved to stop Lecter, but Lecter was the captain of the Sword of Kanri, now that he had received Her Majesty the Queen's command, a single word from her was never going to be enough to hold him back. With one quick sidestep he slipped past her and strode out the door.
All she could do was turn and shout at Victoria: "Victoria... Elizabeth! What do you think you're doing! Take back your order right now, do you actually want everyone to die together—!"
Victoria looked at her with cold indifference and said quietly: "They sent you here today because they wanted a clear answer."
"So I'm giving them one."
Very quickly, piercing screams rang out from outside.
From what I recalled, those Iron Guards only numbered a few dozen at most — they were no match whatsoever for the Sword of Kanri. Just from the sounds alone I could tell the fight was completely one-sided.
"Stop! Victoria, stop—!"
By the ti the Queen Dowager scread that, it was already too late.
The matter was settled.
"Mother, you may leave now." Victoria said.
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