Chapter 225 - The Dethronement Has Been Decided

[Side Story: The Fifth Episode]

“Her Majesty is a wise and transparent Empress,” the Duchess of Efreni replied immediately, “Her Majesty is taking care of the affairs of the Inner Palace well, and not only that, she is the only one on the receiving end of the love from His Majesty the Emperor.”

“I see.” Lorraine smiled gracefully and asked the Duchess of Efreni another question, “Then how about the previous, dethroned Empress?”

“…Lady Lorraine.”

“Ah, is it a subject that would be difficult to discuss, Duchess?”

“What is your true intention in asking me something like this?”

“Would there be anything such as a true intention, Duchess Efreni? Let us just say that it is simply curiosity that stems from boredom.”

“…” The Duchess of Efreni did not answer.

Lorraine asked her once again, “May I ask you one last time?”

“…”

“You are one of the people that played a role in bringing about the execution of the dethroned Empress Petronilla, am I right?”

“Lady Lorraine!”

“…You are showing a reaction that seems quite overly sensitive.”

“I do not like that story being brought up in a conversation. And… for someone who is serving Her Majesty to bring up that topic in the first place, do you not think that it is inappropriate?”

“Of course, from that point of view, that would be so,” Lorraine replied with an expressionless face. She continued, “I know, Duchess Efreni, that back in the days when Her Majesty, the current Empress, was still the Marchioness Phelps, you helped her dethrone the then Empress Petronilla to take her place. After Her Majesty Empress Rosemond, who was not even pregnant at the time, took a medicine that would cause miscarriage, medicine was hidden in a location within the quarters of the late, dethroned Empress Petronilla. Thanks to that, the dethroned Empress was successfully framed for the false crime, and she, along with the rest of her family, were executed.”

“Right now… What are you…” the Duchess of Efreni stuttered with a face that had turned greatly pale. -That…How does she know about that? There cannot be anyone that knows about it. At that time, the people involved were all taken care of, except for myself, Rosemond, and Glara.- The Duchess of Efreni displayed anger as she feigned innocence, “How far can you go with this amount of impertinence! Saying all of this to me without any evidence…! Have you always been this kind of person, as the daughter of the Duke of Witherford? To accuse a person of a crime without providing any evidence, and finding them guilty as the culprit!”

“Duchess.” Lorraine drew a sardonic smile as she responded to the Duchess of Efreni, “Do not act like this, please. How can you think that you could possibly hide the truth that the Heavens know, along with the Earth, merely by killing a few maids that knew everything that had happened?”

“…”

“Your expression tells me that you are very curious about how I could have known.” Lorraine continued with her explanation with a dry voice, “Among those that were killed off to ensure they remained silent for all of eternity… was a maid that had originally served the Witherford household.

“…”

“She was an exceptionally resourceful child… Even when I think about it now, I feel such regret at the waste of having lost someone like that.”

“…Lady Lorraine.”

“Are you not feeling inquisitive as to why I am talking about this in front of you, Duchess?” And that was the real point.

The Duchess of Efreni glared daggers at Lorraine, but Lorraine did not show any signs of flinching or shrinking back, and calmly went on, “I heard that there is a niece in the family that the Duchess loves very much. To the point that one would think you almost see her as your own daughter…”

“Why are you mentioning that child all of a sudden?”

“It is alright if you do not react so quickly if you find it to be offensive, Duchess.” Lorraine put on a bright smile as she continued with her words, “It would seem that the date of that niece’s birthday is coming up. How about gifting her the Imperial Crown of the Empress as a birthday present? Now that she is old enough, she could be a candidate for Empress as well.”

“Lady Lorraine!”

“The daughter of a lower than low noble became the Empress. Are you thinking of sullying the Imperial Family of the Marvinus Empire with blood that is tainted like that? Are you thinking of ruining this glorious Marvinus Empire that our ancestors have built from the ground up?”

“…”

“I cannot give you that long of a time to make your decision, Lady Lorraine. I am not a person who has the capacity for that much patience.”

“What is the reason you are bringing up this story to me, Lady Lorraine?”

“There are many nobles who feel that this situation is such a shame, where a mere daughter of a Baron may become the Dowager Empress after giving birth to the heir apparent in the future. Can you be confident that you might not be in agreement with their sentiment, Duchess?”

“The Emperor’s intimate favor solely resides with the Empress. You seem to be toying with a severely mistaken idea, Lady Lorraine.”

“This nation does not belong just to His Majesty the Emperor. It is an empire that was founded by His Majesty’s ancestors with the help of other nobles. It was barely possible for the previous Empress Petronilla to be dethroned and executed, with the current Empress Rosemond taking her place because some kind of a justification existed. But what if the justification was wrong? Will His Majesty, the Emperor, be able to protect the Empress then?”

“…”

“Think wisely, Duchess Efreni. Even if you are not willing to cooperate with us, we are ready to reveal the truth, Duchess. Our side is currently protecting some of the maids who were not killed at that time. If you are consistent with your feigned ignorance to the very end, then I will not be able to keep you from harm as well, Duchess.”

“If that is so, then is it not better for you to just go ahead and expose everything, instead of telling me all of this? Why are you going to such lengths in providing me with this ‘opportunity’?”

“You really do not understand the reason, Duchess?” Lorraine replied in a low voice. “Should there be a reason for giving up something much bigger for the sake of something much smaller? I do not want to abandon the innocent and precious blood simply because I am trying to get rid of the lowly, filthy blood…”

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“Do you really think the Duchess of Efreni will cooperate with our side?” the Duke of Witherford asked his daughter in a low voice.

Lorraine nodded as she answered, “I do, Father.”

“You seem so confident about this. What if that results in things going wrong, and the whole plan goes to ruin?”

“The Duchess of Efreni is someone who values the purity of a bloodline to her very bones. She is the ultimate noblewoman at heart. I am not certain as to why someone like that is so attached to the Empress… I think that is because she has some kind of an Achilles’ heel that has been discovered by the Empress.” Lorraine smiled brightly. “If it really is a reason such as that, then that would mean the Duchess of Efreni has even less motivation to want to protect the Empress until the end.”

“After the Empress is dethroned, the dethronement of the Emperor will be next. You did not reveal every step in our plan, word for word, did you?”

“Do you take me for a fool, Father?” Lorraine complained in a crisp voice, “Put your mind at ease. In the event of a coup d’etat, I will not allow the Duke of Efreni to be left alone as is. As a person descending from the Witherford household, I cannot just watch and leave the Efreni family line intact anyway!”

“Haaaaah…” Rosemond released a long sigh as she woke up and sat upright on her bed. The sun had already been up and out for a long time. She thought about how she had been leading a rather lazy life these days, even as her first course of action was to pull on the string to call forth Glara.

“Your Majesty.” Glara rushed into Rosemond’s bedroom with an urgent expression.

As soon as Rosemond opened her eyes, she was puzzled as to why Glara seemed to appear so rushed and troubled. She asked, “Is there something happening?”

“There is a serious problem, Your Majesty!”

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Translated by Haeli

Edited by RED