Chapter 168: Lizzy Poliana Claudia

༺ Lizzy Poliana Claudia༻

As countless ice vines suddenly enveloped the mansion, Lizzy, seated on her bed, flinched and her lips trembled.

The fact that she couldn’t decipher the magic formula activating indicated that a wizard with a higher rank than her was responsible for it.

Boom-!!

“Hieee...!”

Without time to process the questions swirling in her mind about the current situation, Lizzy flinched once more as a few knights burst into her room.

From beyond the open door, the smell of blood, fishy and metallic, wafted in.

Moreover, when she saw the symbol engraved on the knights’ armor, Lizzy instinctively recoiled, her body trembling violently.

“W-why... Ahh!”

She was a pitiful woman, unable even to move her limbs to distance herself properly from the knights.

Unfortunately for her, the scales of Brutein were a symbol that balanced those who resisted the Empire.

The knights who approached Lizzy roughly seized her by her delicate arms and yanked her off the bed.

One of them grabbed the back of her neck, which appeared fragile, and pushed her to the floor. Before long, they forcibly removed the altar that made her a warlock.

“Ah! Ah... Ahh!”

Each one of those knights was a capable Auror Knight.

Though they restrained their strength to a minimum, their grip remained strong.

Bruises appeared on Lizzy’s slender arms and legs. Meanwhile, pitiful tears flowed from her violet eyes.

“Keheuk...!”

Yet, the knights seemed deaf to her cries. After fully apprehending her, they quickly forced Lizzy to stand.

With her left leg injured making it impossible to walk properly, they tugged her with force and coerced her to move... She could only stagger unsteadily, like a newborn calf.

“A-ah......”

As soon as Lizzy left the confines of her room, she could see her family as well as the maids who worked at their mansion.

However, their state was not like when she last saw them. They were bleeding to their deaths with little to no traces of resistance.

After witnessing such a scene of murder, which could only be said as cruel since they were all so neatly cut into pieces, Lizzy collapsed on the floor before gagging several times.

The warm blood of the maids, which had not cooled down, seeped into the hem of her skirt at that moment.

Soon after, liquid which was thicker than water but more watery than blood, mixed with the maids’ blood and began to give off a light earthy smell.

“......”

A pang of pity hit the knights for a moment when they saw that scene. However, it wasn’t long before their indifferent hand reached out to grasp Lizziy’s forearm and make her walk down the red-stained hallway.

The sinner kept crying. However, her tears, could never prove her innocence.

* * * * *

Cesar, the second son of the previous head of the Claudia family and the current head of the Claudia family, sat quietly in the mansion’s office and smiled as he looked at Ferzen before him.

“How are you feeling?”

“...”

“Do you find pleasure in breaking things? Just like that day?”

“I don’t make a habit of plucking flowers for no reason.”

However, Ferzen’s reasons were far from sufficient to convince the Claudia family.

“Haha... You’ve already plucked our family with your own hands a long time ago.”

“Are you blaming me for your own downfall as well?”

“Ferzen von Schweig Brutein...”

Calling his name in a low, resigned voice, Cesar picked up a vase from his desk.

Inside, there was a single rose, but it was limp, lifeless, and shedding its withered and dead crimson petals.

“When you put a flower you’ve plucked into a vase... It’s impossible for it to live out its natural lifespan.”

“......”

“That’s right. You’re the one who plucked it and put it in the vase. How dare you call it self-destruction when all the flower did was leave the vase?”

Ferzen said nothing in response; he simply listened to Cesar’s tirade.

“Usually, when people pick flowers, they do so with a desire, a longing for beauty in their hearts.”

“......”

“But you didn’t even have that basic motivation.”

“......”

“You just plucked us and stuffed us into a vase because we were there.”

“......”

“Even the villains in novels have their reasons.”

“......”

“You’re just a good-for-nothing who isn’t even worthy of being a villain in a novel. Calling you a villain would be a waste.”Updated from novelb(i)n.c(o)m

If there was one thing that set him apart from Ferzen, it was his family, his lineage, and his talent. That’s why Cesar despised a world that favored people like Ferzen.

He hated a reality where there was no hero to defeat such a vile evil.

“I... truly despise you.”

But as Ferzen was about to leave, Lizzy, who had been lying there like a corpse, crawled towards him and clung to the iron bars of the cage with both hands.

Her once-lustrous red hair had lost its sheen.

Her fair face had been dirtied and stained with traces of tears.

On top of that, a faint fishy odor reached Ferzen’s nose.

Gone was the elegant appearance of a noble she had always maintained. It had been replaced by a disheveled and pitiful look befitting a sinner.

“Ah, uh...”

Like an animal unable to articulate properly, Lizzy stammered several times, her words accompanied by fresh tears that fell over dried tracks.

Although she wanted to say something to Ferzen,

She was at a loss for words.

With her hoarse voice, Lizzy struggled to complete each sentence as she babbled several times.

“P-ple... se s-s-spare... u-us...”

“......”

The Brutein family was known for its ability to sweep even the gravest crime of treason under the rug.

However, Lizzy knew very well that there was no way Ferzen would grant her request.

Thus, clinging to the bars and managing to raise herself up with her right foot, though barely, she spoke to Ferzen as her body trembled.

“I... c-c-can... still walk...”

“......”

“M-my two hands... a-a-are still fine...”

There were still things he could play with and break.

So, please don’t let such entertaining toys disappear.

......And so, Lizzy made a pitiful plea to Ferzen.

Of course, it did not end there.

Lizzy pulled down her blouse to reveal her breasts, giving off a slightly mature look.

After that, she pulled the hem of her skirt, showing off her plump, smooth womanhood hidden beneath her underwear.

“You...... Have something that you can’t reveal to anyone. Aren’t you hiding an ugly side of yourself that takes pleasure in destroying others?”

Lizzy was certain that there was no better receptacle for that ugly side of his than herself.

She displayed a broken, twisted, tearful smile that seemed out of place.

“What a boring performance.”

However, Ferzen merely cast a cold glance at Lizzy’s depraved behavior and then turned his head away.

In truth, even if he was truly concealing such desires,

He had no inclination to direct them at something as repugnant as her. Something that couldn’t even be called a flower.

“Lizzy Poliana Claudia.”

“...?”

“Immunity is not something to be granted to traitors.”

For those who committed treason,

The fitting penalty was death.

To be executed by beheading.

“Didn’t I tell you before, if you intended to bite me, you should prepare the graves of your family along with my grave in advance?”

If, she had genuinely prepared for that eventuality, “You wouldn’t be engaging in such futile acts.”

Now, if she died, she would have no place to be buried in this world. Her body would be left out for the crows to feast upon. For that was the fate reserved for traitors who met their end.

There were no exceptions unless those traitors possessed overwhelming value, like Isabel Ron-Pierre Genova.

“Ah, huh...”

Lizzy collapsed as if her strength had left her completely and released a helpless cry.

Meanwhile, Ferzen, leaving Lizzy behind, calmly stepped out of the carriage.

Before he knew it, he found himself seated in front of a bonfire arranged by his knights, gazing at the flickering flames and muttered to himself.

Roer Poliana Claudia.

Cesar Poliana Claudia.

Lizzy Poliana Claudia.

...None of them would rest in the graves they had readied for themselves.

If only they had prepared their graves as well as his.

When he could no longer avoid death,

“I would gladly allow you to rest in peace by being interred in the grave you readied for me.”

Thud-!!

The firewood Ferzen tossed onto the bonfire crackled, and he closed his eyes as the flames burned even more fiercely.

TL note: Well, for me this is both my fav arc and the one I hate the most

I don’t like Lizzy’s character at all, so this is just not my thing.

But at the same time, the political plot of this arc is just.....Muah.....Cheff kiss.