KFBRV Ch 8

As she turned and prepared to actually leave, the Countess shrieked in a panicked voice.

[Countess] "What are you doing?! Stop her this instant! Force her to her knees before me!"

However, it seemed Rolf wasn't the only one suppressed by the sudden weight of her presence. Despite her screams, not a single servant dared to step forward.

What on earth is happening?

Had Odette always carried herself this way?

The aristocratic dignity she radiated was more perfect, more refined than even her own. It was enough to make them instinctively feel that laying a hand on her would be a grave mistake.

[Countess] "Hah! You dare to ignore my orders? Do you all wish to be thrown out of this house? Have you forgotten how your colleagues were silenced three years ago?! Seize her! Rolf, you too!"

Her shrill, piercing voice shattered the atmosphere Odette had dominated. Only then did Rolf scramble to block Odette's path.

I almost escorted her out like a guest without thinking! How dare she humiliate me like this?

Filled with spite, Rolf grabbed Odette's arm tightly and appealed to the Countess.

[Rolf] "My Lady, the Young Lady requires a far more severe punishment. Please, lock her in the dungeon. Correcting such insolent behavior requires your brilliant and decisive judgment!"

The Countess, however, looked hesitant.

Ferdinand had given strict instructions not to put Odette in the dungeon until after the Founding Festival. Whenever she was locked away there, she inevitably suffered from a long bout of lung disease. He needed his "doll" in peak condition to flaunt his status during the festival, didn't he?

But it's fine. The Young Master would never stay angry at the Madam.

Rolf grinned inwardly, certain of his success. It was then that those icy teal eyes fixed upon him.

What... what is that look?

Her gaze was terrifying, as if she were peering directly into his soul. But in the blink of an eye, her expression returned to one of flat indifference.

[Countess] "Perhaps another way is better, Rolf. Ferdinand won't be pleased."

[Rolf] "My Lady—"

[Countess] "I'd rather inject her with a few bottles of Mengele. And I shall confiscate that new dress of hers."

Click, clack.

She walked up to them and grabbed a handful of Odette's brilliant platinum-blonde hair with a rough tug.

[Countess] "Odette, aren't you ashamed to face Ferdinand? With a brother destined to marry into the Imperial Family, you should be careful. How dare you behave so vulgarly?"

Rolf remained silent, intimidated by the heat in the Countess' eyes—a fire meant to crush any spark of rebellion.

[Odette] "The Imperial Family? You've truly lost your mind. No one in the world would accept a murderer who kills people while high on drugs as a son-in-law."

Odette remained unshaken, as if she didn't feel the slightest bit of pressure.

On the contrary, it was the Countess who froze, her momentum snapping under Odette's sheer intensity.

---

This mustn't end half-heartedly.

She had played along with this farce, and it would be a problem if it didn't end with her in the dungeon.

Mother must be the one to lock me away with her own hands.

Only then could she plant the seeds of conflict between the Countess and Ferdinand.

[Countess] "You dare... you dare insult my son?!"

[Odette] "I simply stated the truth. How is that an insult?"

In contrast to her mother's rising, jagged voice, her tone became as light as a song.

[Countess] "This is why one should never take in a human brat."

[Odette] "Since you gave birth to a beast, it's only natural that you shouldn't have taken in a human child."

Watching her mother grit her teeth until her jaw bulged, she laughed mockingly.

[Odette] "Oh dear, I've made a mistake. 'Beast' is far too grand a title for Ferdinand; 'vermin' seems much more appropriate."

[Countess] "...Lock this girl in the dungeon this instant!"

Unable to endure any longer, the Countess finally summoned the footmen. It was at that moment—

[Ferdinand] "Mother, what are you doing?"

The voice of a young man, thick with the scent of alcohol, echoed through the lobby. Ferdinand looked down with snake-like brown eyes as he slowly descended the stairs.

Odette's face turned as pale as a wax doll. It was the physical manifestation of her loathing and hatred. Her arm, held by the footman, trembled violently.

The bastard who bribed the guards to open the cell door... the one who dared to try and defile me.

As her arm shook, the Countess flashed a triumphant smile. She mistook the trembling for fear of the dungeon.

[Countess] "Now you finally know your place! Do you see? Do you see how wrong you were?!"

Elated by her perceived victory, she raised her voice with gusto.

[Countess] "Take her to the dungeon immediately!"

[Ferdinand] "You there, let go of her at once. How dare you touch my toy without my—"

[Countess] "Do not delay! Throw her into the depths at once!"

His protest was useless. The footmen moved quickly, dragging Odette toward the dungeon. As she was pulled away, Odette clenched her fists so hard her nails drew blood from her palms.

I must endure. Attacking that dog now would be foolish.

As she left the lobby, she could hear his voice roaring in the distance.

[Ferdinand] "Mother! Did you seriously just lock Odette in the dungeon on your own whim?"

[Countess] "Ferdinand, listen to your mother's side. That girl—"

[Ferdinand] "Mother, why are you being so overbearing? Why are you messing with my toy!"

His voice, rougher and higher than usual, gradually faded.

It was the sound of the truth serum she had Lize swap into his honey water—the sound of the seeds of discord taking root between mother and son.

---

The Albrecht family had an unusually long history of rebellions by branch members and vassals. The dungeon stood as a testament to that history, filled with various torture devices and bleached skeletons. It smelled of stale blood clinging to the executioner's block and the damp stench of mold. Dust swirled in the air with even the slightest movement.

When I was young, I cried so much because I was scared of a place like this.

She thought to herself while sitting behind the iron bars. Being trapped in the dark, cold depths with skeletons made it feel like her own grave. That was why, once released, she became twice as obedient to her "family."

How ridiculous. That word, "family," was the real grave.

After mocking her past self, she stood up. Dawn was approaching; she had to move quickly.

By now, the Crown Prince should have returned to the palace with his injuries.

The <Crown Prince's Berserk Incident> was today.

It was the event where the Crown Prince, whose signs of instability had been mounting, finally suffered a violent mana collapse due to combat exhaustion.

In her past life, that incident earned her the irreversible hatred of the male leads. To think she returned to the day before the incident—her luck was undeniably good.

She felt along the iron bars and the rows of metal spikes lining the floor. After being pricked several times, she finally found the one spike made of a different material.

This is it.

She pulled the cone-shaped spike with all her strength, and a key covered in ancient dust popped out. It was the key to the secret passage.

A previous head of the family, fearing rebellion, had hidden it in case his own subjects ever imprisoned him. She knew this because she had once accidentally stumbled into this passage while fleeing from Transcendents in her past life.

I'll be putting this to good use from now on.

Clack.

Opening the cell bars with the key, she walked toward the executioner's block. When she pulled on the blood-stained wood, a hidden passage just large enough for one person to crawl through was revealed.

She stepped into the pitch-black, labyrinthine tunnel without hesitation. It was a spiral staircase designed to disorient anyone, but for her, having used it dozens of times in her previous life, it posed no problem. Soon, she reached her destination.

The Albrecht family's apothecary warehouse. The place where the highest-grade Berserk Suppressants were kept.

---

The height of spring. The sweet, soft scent of roses drifted through the air. After securing the suppressants, Odette exited through the tunnel closest to the Imperial Palace and headed straight there.

Thanks to the Royal Guard, who recognized her and opened the palace gates immediately, she quickly arrived at her destination: the Imperial Rose Garden.

The <Crown Prince's Berserk Incident>. She had heard the details of this battle in the courtroom so many times she could recite them by heart.

[Prosecutor] "Odette Lina von Albrecht. You rejected the Crown Prince's repeated requests for purification. You claimed you would do it if given enough diamond mines, yet even after the Imperial Family gave you twenty, you never showed up."

[Prosecutor] "Furthermore, you threatened your father, preventing him from releasing even a single pill of the temporary suppressants he monopolized! The Crown Prince was forced to sacrifice one of his own eyes to stop himself! Even though a body part lost during a mana explosion can never be regenerated!"

The mana explosion of an S-Class Transcendent is nothing short of a catastrophe. It wasn't until the trial that Odette learned the military and imperial representatives had literally kneeled before her father to beg for her help. By some miracle, there were no fatalities, but the Crown Prince had to sacrifice an eye to stabilize his own power.

And in that courtroom, she discovered that she had become a notorious villainess for things she had never even done.

I was so stupid. So recklessly indifferent.

At that trial, Count Albrecht delivered a masterful performance.

[Count] "She was a late-born daughter with a weak constitution, and I spoiled her too much. It is my failure in discipline, so please, punish me instead!"

Wearing a lavish dress to mock the dead at a memorial service, dressing more extravagantly than the Emperor at his own birthday banquet, and shamelessly billing the palace for those luxuries.

Illegally transferring the titles of diamond mines and fertile lands granted by the Empire to sell them off to other kingdoms. Used that money for human trafficking and drug distribution. Demanded the enslavement of the Fenrir Clan. He had pinned every single crime on Odette.

And on top of that, claiming that her status as an "S-Class Purifier" was a lie. It was only natural that she was sentenced to hang.

The cold faces of the Emperor and the noble jurors... and herself, unable to speak, knowing only how to cower in fear.

Shaking off the memories, Odette walked forward, toward the center of the rose garden, where a beautiful fountain engraved with the World Tree stood.

[Johan] "Ugh, ughhhh! Lady Albrecht... what are you doing here?"

And right in the expected spot was the first male lead, Johan. His muscles were torn from shoulder to hip—deep enough to see the bone—and he was gasping for air, drenched in blood.

[Johan] "Ha... did His Majesty drag you here? My father must have made quite a scene again."

Despite his bravado, he was in a critical state, desperately in need of purification.

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