Chapter 348
Although Rebecca was under confinement, visits from relatives were not forbidden.
Even so, there had been no visit, not even any contact, so she had realized she could no longer hide the discord between husband and wife.
“What was the reason?”
Bennie hesitated over the report, then opened her mouth.
After all, it was something Rebecca would learn once she was released from confinement anyway.
“He went to the red-light distri… Ah!”
SLAP!
Bennie, who had been struck across the cheek, staggered.
Slap— SLAAAP!
With a terrifyingly stiff expression, Rebecca struck Bennie’s cheek over and over again.
She was someone who had kept the beaten child by her side and relieved her stress even after becoming an adult.
In a situation where there was no target to vent her accumulated rage on, it was only natural that her personal maid would become an easy target of violence.
‘…That damn bastard, not only is he no help, he’s determined to ruin the family!’
At a time when it would not have been enough to weep and wag his tail before the Emperor, he skipped the banquet and went to the red-light district?
Wasn’t this a situation more serious than her own face falling to the ground?
She felt as though she understood why her grandfather had not given her any information.
When her patience was already on the verge of snapping, if she learned what had happened in the banquet hall?
There was no way she would quietly endure it.
Rebecca’s eyes burned red.
What had he done after receiving the corruption documents related to the state project?
He had told her to handle it herself and made a mess of the household.
That had caused discord between husband and wife, but he had even shifted responsibility and trampled on her pride as a woman.
“Tsk, tsk, you cannot even properly keep one husband in check. What an excellent job you’re doing.”
Would her grandfather really take the risk of making a move under such strict surveillance?
If he had a plan, instead of telling her to wait blindly, he would have hinted at what he was preparing.
How could she not know that rather than kneel to Duke Bayern, he would choose to throw away his granddaughter’s dignity?
Rebecca massaged her stinging hand and asked,
“…And what else?”
Bennie sobbed while holding her cheek, her shoulders trembling faintly.
Seeing as an answer did not come immediately, there must still be something left to report.
“C-Count Conwell recommended Young Lord Henry Reginald to His Majesty the Emperor as a court painter, and petitioned for Young Master Emil to enter the palace with him.”
He had delayed the gallery rental under ridiculous excuses, and now he had suddenly petitioned for Emil to enter the palace?
As much as he loved art, he was a man who loved talented artists.
The fact that he had decided to pull Emil out of her grasp suggested the possibility that Count Conwell had accessed information he should not know.
If he knew that the source of the dr*g eating away at this country was the Delphinium Foundation, and that behind it stood her grandfather…?
It felt as if the blood was draining from her entire body, but she forced herself to regain her composure.
If that were the case, her grandfather would have already smuggled himself into another country long ago.
Rebecca clenched her fists until her nails dug in.
A violent impulse surged within her, but for now, this was the only person serving as her hands and feet.
Rebecca whispered to Bennie in a small voice.
“…First, make secret contact with Countess Coventry. Tell her to do whatever it takes to make Nina, that wench, lose the Emperor’s trust.”
“Will Countess Coventry truly do as you say, Madam?”
Bennie asked cautiously.
It was something dangerous enough to bring not only her own neck, but also the downfall of her family.
Would she really try to take part?
At the reasonable question, Rebecca frowned.
“Even if you say that I’ve ended up like this, I haven’t fallen so low that I cannot bring down just that mere House Coventry, so if you ‘persuade’ her properly, she will take part.”
It meant that if she failed to do so, she would be held responsible.
When Bennie nodded with her face deathly pale, Rebecca continued.
“…And tell my husband as well. He must return to the territory quickly.”
If the Emperor had learned of House Nord’s corruption, he would have dispatched imperial investigators.
‘I have to silence those imperial investigators somehow.’
Otherwise, the family would suffer an irrecoverable blow.
He was a man who ignored his wife’s dignity and avoided responsibility, but she did not know how long she would be tied down in the capital.
‘Every moment is urgent, so I have no choice but to send down even a man like that.’
The only ones who could move the family’s power were herself, Duchess Nord, and the Duke himself.
If his own life was hanging by a thread, he would move busily even just to survive.
“…A tail will be attached to you, so you must move very secretly. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Madam.”
Rebecca urged Bennie once more.
Knowing that the reality she was facing was more precarious than ever, cold sweat pooled in her palms.
