KFBRV Ch 127
- Mar 16
- 8 min read
His move was faster than the sound of the chains hitting the deck with a thud.
[Karl] "Do not touch Master."
A low, threatening voice made Ferdinand's skin crawl.
[Ferdinand] "Ugh, urgh! How dare you touch a noble's body? A slave bastard no different from livestock—"
But he couldn't continue speaking. Because Karl bent his arm further, pushing it to a situation where the bone would break at any moment.
This crazy bastard. How is he so brutally strong?
[Odette] "Karl, he is my brother. Be polite."
Only after she warned him with a chilly voice did he let go of Ferdinand's arm.
[Karl] "If you lay that damned hand on Master's wrist again—"
[Odette] "Karl, I said be 'polite'."
[Karl] "—The noble Ferdinand's wrist will be bent in a very interesting direction. This humble slave will make it so."
Ferdinand was furious at being bested by a slave, but he had just realized the gap in strength. Even though he was a D-class Transcendent, to have such a difference in strength against an unawakened guy.
Furthermore, contrary to that insolent polite speech, his eyes were full of killing intent. Therefore, Ferdinand shut his mouth for now, though he huffed and puffed.
Watching this, Odette didn't want to stop Karl either.
The desire to break that guy's arm is burning in me too...
But it was a point where the relationship between Ferdinand and the Count had just started to sour. There was no need to give him an excuse to go whine to the Count.
She looked toward the land, preparing to disembark.
Thanks to the open view, she could clearly see the Count's carriage procession running in the distance. Even the wagon following at the tail end of that procession.
That wagon must be carrying the cage with Doly and Rudolf locked inside.
As she expected, the event of releasing one of them didn't happen.
When she visited their cage again at dawn today, far from reaching an agreement, the two were grabbing each other by the collar, fighting, and threatening to kill each other.
Goodbye, Doly. Goodbye, Rudolf.
The Count never tolerates insults directed at him. So the ending for the two was already determined. One of them would die, and the remaining one would live a life worse than death.
Just like Odette's past life, where she lost all honor and was reduced to mere gossip fodder, Doly would end up the same way.
The Count's carriage procession headed to his villa located on the outskirts of the capital. A villa for his private use, built in a quiet place.
There was a huge maze garden there. It was made of Gelderland trees that looked like magnificent geometric circles when viewed from the villa window.
In the center of that maze lay a cage covered with a tent.
Soon, the Count walked slowly to the maze garden and removed the tent covering the cage, revealing the haggard figures of Doly and Rudolf.
Because of Odette's words, the two had fought all night without sleeping.
[Doly] "You trash! You took on only the easiest tasks, and now you blame me?"
[Rudolf] "Aren't you the trash for failing to keep the time?"
Unable to wash or drink a sip of water, fighting day and night, her voice wouldn't even come out properly anymore.
Seeing their state, the Count twisted the corners of his mouth up.
[Count] "How amusing. To think things worse than vermin made me look like this."
Doly and Rudolf, inside the cage, trembled. Because the anger suppressed in the Count's voice seemed ready to explode at any moment.
They had never seen him like this.
[Doly] "M-Master..."
She tried to beg, but only a wheezing, metallic sound came out of her throat like leaking air.
[Count] "I never thought I would obtain these chokers, but I thought even less that I would use them on things like you. Things got incredibly twisted because of your dirty tricks."
He chuckled, kuk-kuk. It was a laugh that felt grotesque because it didn't match the situation.
[Count] "Indeed, what does it matter whom I put the Gladiator's Choker on? The human world is actually one giant Colosseum, and everyone is a gladiator. Isn't that right?"
[Doly] "......"
[Count] "Whether it's a head maid I trusted and used for quite a long time, or the president of a magazine company I sponsored. As soon as I turn my back for a moment, they bite my neck immediately. You two also deserve to wear these expensive Chokers."
Saying so, his laughter deepened into a cackle.
Doly opened her mouth anxiously.
[Doly] "O, O—"
I have something to report about Young Lady Odette.
She tried to spit out at least those words to survive.
Didn't the Count want to know about Odette? It was out of hope that he might spare her if she reported the events at the salon and other things.
[Doly] "M, Mast—"
We didn't backstab you; Young Lady Odette switched the trap.
But still, only an unpleasant metallic sound popped out of her throat.
[Count] "No, rather, you might be the ones best suited for the chokers. You used the red brooch I bestowed to frame me, didn't you? You are the first gladiators to screw me over this much."
He slowly withdrew his cackling laughter.
[Count] "It's fine. I'm thinking of using you to recover my honor a little."
She swallowed hard to wet her throat.
[Doly] "...Th-That is, act-actually—"
That is, actually, the Young Lady has a secret!
It was the moment she tried to continue speaking, even with her messy throat condition.
[Count] "Shut your mouth!"
Bang!
He kicked the bars with his foot clad in hunting boots. The kick was full of killing intent.
Startled, she pulled her body back from the bars.
The Count inserted a key into the cage's lock with a clack.
The heavy lock fell to the ground with a thud.
When the cage opened, he pulled the two chokers and inserted the keys. Then, with beep-beep sounds, he adjusted the time.
[Count] "Since I put them on you, I should use them well."
[Doly] "Pardon?"
[Rudolf] "M, Master. What does that mean..."
[Count] "I give you one hour. Kill each other within that time. The choker will automatically unlock for the one who kills, so I will let that human live."
What Odette had predicted happened exactly. Doly's face turned pale.
[Count] "Do not think of attacking me by any chance. In that case, the choker will explode too."
He grinned and threw two daggers and two pistols from the bag he was holding. Then he leisurely exited the maze garden.
When they were fighting and screaming all night, Doly wanted to kill Rudolf right then and there. But when the time came to actually kill him, her hands trembled uncontrollably.
They stared blankly at each other for a moment. The face they had loved enough to promise marriage.
However, a chill settled in his eyes in that instant. Then he quickly grabbed the two pistols.
D-Damn it.
Doly, barely gripping one of the remaining daggers, began to run toward the maze.
From the beginning, the Count had no intention of setting either of them free.
Even if one of them succeeded in murder, he intended to leave them alive but make them live a miserable life forever.
He called a footman waiting at the main gate of the mansion.
[Count] "Gather the reporters. Mainly those I sponsor."
To be revered as a man of character again after three years, managing his image alone is not enough. He was sponsoring not only Rudolf but also various newspaper reporters.
Since the street where press agencies are concentrated isn't far from this villa. They will arrive soon.
They would come before the best highlight timing.
Fortunately, proving it was worth calling the reporters, Rudolf and Doly began to fight quite uglily.
Huff, huff—.
Chased by Rudolf for 40 minutes, Doly was eventually cornered in a dead end.
[Rudolf] "I can't help it, Doly. If we weigh it, it's right for me to live, isn't it?"
He smiled despicably.
[Doly] "You said you loved me...!"
In the urgency of facing death, she barely spat out a short scream with a voice like scratching a chalkboard.
[Rudolf] "Love? Love my ass. I tried to marry you because you were a useful informant."
He spat saliva on her face, ptui, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Rudolf Caspar! How could you!
Bang!
The sound rang out, but she was alive. Because it was a blank cartridge, not a live round.
Flustered, Rudolf aimed the next pistol and pulled the trigger. But this gun also contained only blank cartridges.
It was the Count's prank, wanting to watch a gladiator fight.
His face turned pale as he had grabbed only two guns and no knives at all.
Doly, grasping the situation, gripped the knife in her right hand.
[Rudolf] "Doly...! W-Wait a minute."
Shut up. You son of a bitch. Go to hell!
The situation was reversed. She swung her hand without delay.
Thwack, his chest was stabbed.
[Rudolf] "Ack!"
He fell to his knees in pain.
Seeing him turning pale with bright red blood spreading on his chest, she burst into excited laughter.
I won, uhahahaha!
With the disappointment felt after knowing the true colors of the man who was her lover, and the regret that she loved such trash.
Finally, Rudolf breathed his last. Then, with a click, the choker on her neck unlocked.
The choker had already fallen to the floor, but Doly, furious with betrayal, stabbed him a couple more times.
How could you pull the trigger without hesitation like that? What? You never loved me?
Then, as a finish, she spat saliva on his face. Ptui.
But despite all those actions, she felt no sense of victory.
His dead face reminded her of her lover's face sleeping soundly next to her a few days ago. The face of the man she loved enough not to spare her own life.
Bad bastard... I loved you...
Belatedly rising sorrow and emptiness overwhelmed her. It felt as if she, not Rudolf, had fallen into hell.
Sitting on the floor of the maze, she burst into a hollow laugh.
Unaware that reporters in the 5th-floor reception room of the villa, where that spot was most visible, were recording all of it with horrified faces.
The reporters bribed by the Count obediently followed his order not to include the choker in the article.
They selectively photographed only the moment of murder without the choker, and deliberately removed the choker in the illustrations as well.
In fact, that was better for the reporters, too. Only when the murderer was a clear villain could they describe the murder scene before their eyes more shockingly.
Before long, Doly's murder case was headlined in all sorts of newspapers, and she became a woman blinded by money who had horribly stabbed her fiancé to death.
Some raised questions about whether the "Gladiator's Choker" was involved, but the Brentano Ducal family, known as its sole possessor, denied it, saying, "We never sold that item," and it ended blandly as a conspiracy theory.
She became very famous. Her name was sold to all sorts of gossip rags under the name "Mad Witch Doly," the protagonist of a crime of passion.
It was the moment when Doly, who had always only created rumors, became the protagonist of a rumor for the first time.
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