CH 91

Condemnation and Decapitation

“Oh, Angelica Ilkas!”

“How did she ……! How could she be alive?”

Angelica Ilkas – the Viscountess Ilkas is a noble family that resisted the Empire without surrendering and was destroyed in the process.

Every single person in the Viscountess Ilkas family is reported to have died in battle, and the Angelica in front of them is like a ghost to those present.

“Well, well, well, Miss Angelica. I didn’t think you were still alive. …… Congratulations!”

Count Calcifer approached Angelica with a rather nervous look on his face.

Angelica was the one who was to be married to his son, Brad Calcifer. The young lady who was to become his daughter in law.

He looks at Angelica, who is alive and in front of him, with a slightly drawn and complicated look in her eyes.

“And you too, Count ……. You’re looking very well.”

“……!”

Angelica turns to the Count and looks into his face with her right eye.

The Count felt a shiver run down his spine at the ghostly, lifeless look in her eyes, as if he were being accused.

When Viscount Ilkas was invaded by the Empire, a request for reinforcements was sent to Count Calcifer.

However, the Count refused the request for reinforcements, abandoned the house that was supposed to be his ally, and turned to the Empire.

The Count could not look Angelica in the face because of his guilt, and sweat poured down his back.

“Viscount Ilkas……I’m so sorry to hear about your father!　He was a really honest and sincere man. I’m sorry……that I couldn’t help you with the war!”

“……..”

Angelica remained silent and did not respond to the Count’s apology.

Her silence was met with a murmur from the rest of the guests at the party.

As the awkward atmosphere froze the room, Brad stepped forward and tapped Angelica on the shoulder.

“Father, I would like to take this opportunity to make an important announcement. Today, Angelica and I would like to get married and become husband and wife!”

“……?”

The Count’s eyes widened as he heard the sudden bombshell from his son’s mouth. The Count’s eyes widened and his mouth gaped open.

“Wait, wait, wait! Why are you suddenly ……!”

Angelica was indeed Brad’s fiancée.

Had it not been for the war with the Empire, they would have been united and become husband and wife.

But this was a different matter. Things are different now than they were before the war.

“What are you thinking, Brad?　Don’t you understand what’s going on?”

The Count bites his back teeth and stares at his son with bloodshot eyes.

The Viscounts of Ilkas were the last to resist the Empire. And the Countess Calcifer was the last one who turned to the Empire.

If, after successfully defeating Raidorl’s army, the Empire found out that he had hidden Angelica, it might make a bad impression on them.

If he had just kept her in his house, he could explain that he was holding her as a prisoner of war, but if he had married her to Brad, he would have no excuse.

“Wait, wait, wait, Brad. I’m glad to hear that Miss Angelica is safe, but now……”

“I’m safe……?　In the eyes of the Count, do I look safe to you?”

Angelica, who has a single eye, murmured.

The count quivered his shoulders at the words of throwing ice into his spine.

“Gh….., no. It’s a figure of speech. ……”

“No, it’s fine. My father and mother. My brother and sisters. A single eyeball or a single leg is a trivial injury compared to those who did not even survive.”

“No, no. …… I didn’t mean it that way. ……”

“Enough of this! Baroness Ilkas!”

The Baron of Kyrgyzstan stepped forward in front of Angelica to defend the Count, whose voice was trembling at the loss of speech.

“We are in the middle of a victory party to defeat Raidorl Zain!　If you want to complain, We’ll listen to you later! Mind your place!”

The Baron of Kyrgyzstan is lower than the Viscount Ilkas in terms of family status, so he is not in a position to condemn Angelica out loud, even if she is his opponent.

But the Viscountess of Ilkas is already dead. There is nothing to fear from a house that no longer exists.

Kyrgyz, with a twisted expression of pleasure at being able to openly criticise a nobleman of higher rank than himself, pointed his finger at Angelica and lashed out loudly.

“Huh? Defeat His Highness Raidorl, who was dispatched by His Majesty the King…This is absurd.”

Angelica looked back at Kyrgyzstan with a cold look.

“We are vassals given homes and territories by the Zain royal family. How dare you all point your swords at the royal family.”

“Nonsense, what anachronisms are you talking about in these times!”

Kyrgyz snorts in derision.

It was more than a hundred years ago that they had received their lands from the royal family.

Why should they risk their lives to fight the empire for a debt so long ago?

“By sticking to those old-fashioned ideals that Ilkas was destroyed!　The incompetent aristocrats who died with their mouldy loyalties in their hands are not the ones who should be lecturing us!

“…………”

“Now……!”

Kyrgyzstan’s verbal blades lashed out but it wasn’t Angelica who responded to it, but Count Calcifer, who was watching the situation next to him.

For some reason, the Count turned his face pale and rushed to Kyrgyzstan.

“You went too far, Kyrgyz! Change your language!”

“What, Count?”

“Apologise to Miss Angelica now! Or else ……!”

Kyrgyz rolls his eyes at the question, which comes from an unexpected direction.

Kyrgyzstan has intervened to protect his master, Count Calcifer, and denounce Angelica. But why was he being blamed?

Kyrgyzstan had such a question in his face, but he soon realized the reason.

That he has stepped on a land mine that he should never step on.

“Mouldy loyalty……? Did you just say that to an Ilkas family?”

The single eye of Angelica, which had been lifeless until a moment ago, has a mysterious light in it.

“Wait, wait, wait! Miss Angelica……”

The Count hurriedly tried to intercede.

But Angelica moved faster than that.

“Huh…….!”

The hem of a pure white dress flutters softly.

Underneath the fluttering dress, a white leg and a metal prosthesis appeared. And tied to the leg was a thin dagger.

Angelica pulled out the dagger attached to her thigh with uncanny speed and plunged the thin tip, like an ice pick, into Kyrgyzstan’s abdomen.

“Gahh…..!”

“Traitorous, treacherous……traitors!”

“……!”

Angelica put her magic power into the dagger in her hand.

At that moment, Kyrgyzstan’s body exploded without even being allowed to let out a scream of despair. His blood, flesh, bones, organs and bodily fluids were splattered all around her, as if a bomb had been placed inside her body.

“Aaahhhh!”

“Niahhhhhhh!!”

“What the hell? What’s going on?”

In an instant, the man who had been chatting and laughing with them had vanished; only screams erupted from all parts of the party.

Count Calcifer, who had been exposed to a piece of Kyrgyz meat at close quarters, fell on his buttocks from fear and astonishment.

“A-ah, you just had to anger my fiancée!”

Looking at the screaming and shouting in the party hall, Brad muttered in a light tone, as if he were someone else.

Angelica took a sideways glance at her fiancé and covered her face with the hand that was not holding the dagger.

“…..I knew these people were scums. They call themselves magnanimous nobles that serve the Zain family and that’s why my family was killed by the Empire.”

Angelica’s white wedding dress was dyed bright red and she tapped the floor with her prosthetic leg to make a sound.

“We kill traitors. We kill those who harm the kingdom. This is the job of the Ilkas family, the guardians of the border, and the raison d’etre of our existence.”

Spitting out the words of condemnation, Angelica gently traced her lips with her bloodied fingertips.

As if to draw lipstick, she painted her make-up with blood and announced the beginning of the execution of the “Slaughter Princess” of Ilkas.