Chapter 64

The three idiots stood frozen like statues, their lips moving soundlessly.

Meanwhile, Ninabel whirled through the air like something feral and unleashed a barrage of water bombs at them.

“You’re the ones who skimmed off the food meant for Master and swallowed it whole, aren’t you? Catch the flu for all I care! You bastards!!”

Splashhh!

“Ack! It’s cold!”

“Hrk—what the hell?!”

“Hiiik…!”

Soaked to the bone, they trembled like drowned rats. Frankly, it was a sight worth seeing.

I dismounted and proudly ruffled Ninabel’s head as she flew back to my side.

“Good job, Nini.”

“Hehe.”

A moment later, Camilla and Lycian took their places at either side of me.

“Master, should I kill those bastards? Just say the word.”

“You can tell at a glance they’re rotten to the core…. I really don’t like them….”

With my arms folded and the confidence of someone backed by an army of a thousand, I glared at the three servants.

The shortest and fattest of the lot jabbed a finger at me, his face twisted in fury.

“Muriel Tierney…! You vile bitch! Throwing cold water on us in this weather! Are you trying to kill us?!”

One corner of my mouth curled up on its own.

Tilting my head slightly, I sneered.

“And what about you?”

“W-What did we—!”

“You siphoned off all the water and food from the very first day I was exiled to the contaminated zone. If that wasn’t meant to starve me to death, then what was it?”

“Th-That’s…!”

He blinked rapidly, unable to retort at once. Then his face hardened again, and he shouted shamelessly.

“That was only right! We did what was justified! Who do you think you are? You’re the wicked woman of the Tierney family, someone who deserves to die! A demon’s spawn!”

“…….”

Ha…

I let out a long sigh and slowly shook my head.

‘How do they only ever say exactly what you’d expect?’

People driven by obvious malice tend to follow obvious patterns.

The defining trait is that they have no awareness of how vile they are.

In a tone of pure disdain, I said,

“You probably convinced yourselves it was for your lord, Raul. But it wasn’t.”

“What nonsense—!”

“You’d do well to think carefully. Do you really not know what kind of man your lord is?”

“…!”

He started to protest, then hesitated and shut his mouth.

From the way he faltered, something had clearly struck home.

‘At least he’s not completely brainless.’

A dry chuckle slipped from me.

‘As for Raul Winterberg….’

Moral fastidiousness. A victim complex. Exclusivity.

That was the substance of him—along with a mess of contradictions.

He despised the Tierneys with a vengeance, and all the while struggled desperately not to become like them.

But no matter how obsessed you are with purity, no one in this world remains spotless.

I had always wondered—

The scandals I bore in Juliet’s place, the incidents the people of Winterberg Castle pinned on me—

Had he ever, even once, doubted that they might not have been my doing?

The words I had tried to say to him.

‘Please… won’t you hear me out?’

‘I’m busy. If you have something to say, tell the butler.’

The truth I had barely managed to gather the courage to confess.

Had he ever considered that I wasn’t trying to deceive him—that it might have been a desperate, sincere plea…?

…When was it?

‘Did he know the truth all along—and simply choose to look away?’

I remember thinking that.

And the more I reflect on it, the more certain I am that it was true.

Raul only recognized his own contradictions after I fell terminally ill.

‘Even while suspecting that perhaps it wasn’t your doing… I chose to avert my eyes. I rationalized it. Because I… as the Duke of Winterberg, as my parents’ son… had to.’

I was nothing more than a scapegoat.

Someone had to be condemned in the sinners’ stead, had to be pelted with stones.

Unfortunately, that someone was me.

The world has always worked that way.

“I don’t think Raul wants me dead from your malicious harassment.”

The voice that left my lips was so cold it startled even me.

And suddenly, I realized—

Rather than drowning in rage and resentment, I was someone who could rise above them.

Perhaps I had grown that much on my way here.

Or perhaps there had always been a strength inside me I’d never known.

“If I die paying a just price for my sins in exile, that’s one thing. But if you tried to harm me unjustly, against Raul’s will, he would never let it slide.”

The three of them only opened and closed their mouths, unable to find a rebuttal.

Their faces slowly drained of color. Partly from the cold, no doubt—but also because the gravity of the situation had finally sunk in.

I asked Camilla and Lycian to drive them far from the farm.

With a kick from Lycian, they were sent sprawling, rolling across the dirt.

Looking down at their miserable figures, I spoke in a tone of command.

“Tell Raul this. I’ll be coming to see him soon.”

---

“M-My lord! Sniff… my lord…!”

Raul faintly frowned at the sight of the three servants who appeared as if they’d been beaten and rolled through mud.

They were still damp, as though they had fallen into a river. They must have half-dried on the way here.

“What is it?”

At his question, they sniffled in grievance. Their faces were bluish from the cold, their bodies trembling pitifully.

“W-We went to the cabin in the contaminated zone, under Princess Sienna’s orders….”

At the mention of the contaminated zone, Raul straightened from his reclined position, one brow arching.

“A-And there, we saw something strange.”

“Something strange?”

“A talking, moving water droplet! I think… it was a spirit!”

“…A spirit?”

“Sniff—yes, that spirit doused us with water, and… Muriel Tierney, that wicked woman, didn’t even try to stop it…!”

“Wait. Muriel is in the contaminated zone right now?”

“Y-Yes, my lord. Wasn’t she exiled? But she showed up with two thug-like types…! Threw us to the ground and beat us…!”

Raul’s eyes darkened as he pressed them for more.

“Explain in detail.”

The servants recounted everything they had seen at the farm.

The land around the cabin turned into an ordinary vegetable plot. The fine single-story house with a raspberry-colored roof. And—

The shameless, vicious Muriel Tierney and the atrocities she had committed against them!

“That woman…! She’s even more vicious than before! She’s a devil! Who knows what she’ll do next…! You can’t just leave her be, my lord! Sniff…!”

“…….”

Pressing a hand to his throbbing temple, Raul dismissed them.

“I understand. You may go.”

“Yes… sniff….”

The bedroom fell silent once they had left.

Raul stared into the air, his expression openly bewildered.

‘The land around the cabin had become an ordinary vegetable plot?’

How was that possible?

Farming in the contaminated zone was impossible. That was common sense.

‘Without purifying the contamination, it can’t be done.’

…Don’t tell me Muriel had become the Purifier who appears once in a thousand years?

‘Absurd.’

Raul let out a low, incredulous laugh at his own thought.

Muriel, a Purifier? Even a passing dog would laugh at that.

Then what in the world had happened?

Had the servants suffered hallucinations?

‘That’s possible. If it’s the Tierneys, they could easily hire a mage skilled in illusion magic.’

In that case, the water spirit they claimed to see must have been an illusion as well.

“…I’ll have to see it for myself.”

Raul rose and changed into his outdoor clothes.

His body had yet to fully recover, but sitting still and waiting did not suit his temperament.

This time, neither his physician nor anyone else could stop him.

How long had they been riding?

Raul’s eyes widened at the sight of green plants and a red roof in the distance.

Michelle, the captain of the knights riding beside him, looked just as astonished.

“My lord, what on earth is that…?”

“…….”

Raul had no answer.

He, too, had no idea what kind of miracle—or trick—this was.

As they drew closer, the scene came into sharper focus.

Neatly arranged vegetable beds. Fresh crops growing in tidy clusters. A small but cozy-looking house with a red roof.

And before its door stood a woman with emerald-tinted silver hair, arms folded, glaring straight at him.

Muriel.

Raul mouthed the name silently.

She looked far healthier than the last time he had seen her.

And her gaze was steady. Clear.

There was not a trace of timidity or fear.

For reasons he couldn’t quite explain, that fact grated on Raul unbearably.