TSMMT Ch 169

Confinement

No, surely not. That can't be.

This was not confinement. Though the maids had grown quiet, they remained polite, unlike in her past life, and Lady Kragel was on her side. The knights genuinely worried for her.

Yet why did no news of palace events reach her?

Before she realized it, more than a month had slipped by. Her mind turned cold as her heart pounded against her ribs.

Trying to deny reality, she opened the chamber door to step outside.

Mable blocked her path.

[Mable] "The weather is cold, Your Majesty."

[Dianna] "I feel suffocated. I wish to get some fresh air."

[Mable] "Please don't step outside the Queen's palace. It is dangerous out there."

Dianna stared at her in disbelief.

[Dianna] "Mable, since when do you restrict my movements?"

Panic flickered across Mable's face, as if she had been caught concealing something.

Though born from a fleeting suspicion, it was enough to shatter Dianna's trust. She had trusted them. She had believed in everything. Consumed by thoughts of how to eliminate Fafnir, she had failed to see what was happening right in front of her.

Dianna studied the knights standing before her. Their anxiety was obvious.

[Dianna] "Where is Guiscard?"

[Knight] "His Majesty is currently on campaign..."

[Dianna] "Tell me precisely what is happening."

[Knight] "He ordered this to be kept confidential from everyone, Your Majesty. Even we..."

[Dianna] "Then I shall ask Revius directly."

When she tried to step past them, the knights stepped forward to block her. In that moment, she realized they had confined her. There was no room for compromise.

[Knights] "Y-Your Majesty!"

She would no longer be deceived by their tone.

Ignoring them, Dianna opened a window and leaped outside. She pushed open the grand doors leading into the main palace, met only by a desolate silence.

What is this?

She knitted her brows. Where should she go? The audience chamber? The office?

Where is Revius?

As she walked through the strangely quiet hall, Revius came sprinting toward her from a distance.

[Dianna] "Revius!"

Though far from glad to see him, he was the only one who could explain what was going on.

She waited for him to catch his breath. Like the knights, Revius looked at her with a troubled expression.

[Revius] "It has been a while, Your Majesty. Leaping out a window like that..."

[Dianna] "Keep it brief."

She spoke coldly, making him look sheepish.

[Revius] "We were trying to ensure Your Majesty's comfort..."

[Dianna] "Have you imprisoned me?"

He let out a low sigh.

[Revius] "A unanimous decision was reached at the Round Table Conference."

[Dianna] "..."

[Revius] "Your Majesty's status as Queen has been suspended."

What does that mean?

He spoke with clear reluctance.

[Revius] "In short, Your Majesty has been deposed."

She stared at him in shock.

Deposed? Suddenly?

[Dianna] "Wait a moment, what did I..."

[Revius] "Regarding the murder of Lady Levian."

Her face hardened at the revelation.

[Revius] "The nobles are not fools. Your Majesty was abducted to her estate, and Lady Levian's corpse was buried unnaturally. Or more precisely, buried alive."

[Dianna] "Wait, that woman..."

[Revius] "Are you so ignorant of Lodbrog's laws? For a woman to murder a pregnant mother violates our core morality."

[Dianna] "What nonsense! She was not pregnant..."

Frustration mounted within her.

Why is this becoming an issue now? She was not pregnant!

[Revius] "Pardon me, but... do you feel no guilt whatsoever?"

[Dianna] "Pardon?"

For a brief instant, unmistakable disgust flickered across his face.

[Revius] "Even in cases of attempted royal assassination, murdering a pregnant woman is forbidden. The law dictates that a pregnant woman must give birth before facing execution."

[Dianna] "..."

[Revius] "Furthermore, a foreign Queen secretly murdered a ducal lady without due legal process. Did you do it because you were abducted, or did you seek out a woman carrying royal blood, your husband's child, to assassinate her? The backlash was inevitable."

His gaze sharpened. Dianna stared at him, stunned.

Why is this happening?

[Revius] "From the start, the nobility refused to accept the sudden teleportation magic you supposedly suffered."

[Dianna] "..."

[Revius] "Instead, they feared your ability to summon the four elemental spirits, having witnessed it firsthand."

What absolute nonsense is this?

She trembled violently.

[Dianna] "Wait a moment... I mean... I..."

She could find no words. Revius spoke as if reluctant to utter the truth.

[Revius] "At the very least... you should have spared Lady Levian. You handed them a justification on a silver platter."

[Dianna] "..."

[Revius] "You seem oblivious to how hideous a sin it is to murder a pregnant woman, Miss Dianna Brienne."

She had heard of such a law before.

Dianna stared into space.

In truth, she had failed to take it seriously, prioritizing her own rage above all else. She was far from guiltless. Remorse had touched her conscience, but it had gone no further.

Had Saruvia not driven Dianna to death in her past life as well?

Had Saruvia ever been punished?

No, not in the slightest. Even so, Revius' words were undeniable. Still, it felt profoundly unfair.

[Dianna] "So no matter how much grain I secure, no matter how many lives I save or how many noble ladies I rescue, this is my reward."

He clicked his tongue at her cold tone.

[Revius] "Miss Brienne, your phrasing is flawed. Gratitude is gratitude, and a sin is a sin."

So that is why Lady Kragel looked at me so awkwardly and stopped visiting. She despises a woman who murdered a pregnant mother.

Dianna was being treated like a criminal.

Yes, that is right. A sin is a sin. There is no denying it.

[Dianna] "She was not pregnant! Guiscard brought five physicians!"

[Revius] "The nobility easily saw that as a cover-up. Furthermore, a maid from the Levian estate testified that the lady was indeed pregnant."

[Dianna] "..."

[Revius] "Do you have any idea how severely Guiscard provoked the nobility while trying to protect you?"

Dianna stood with a hollow expression.

So that is why I was confined.

A bitter sense of betrayal took hold. She had striven to save lives, to help Guiscard. Yet this was her reward.

Betrayal left a sour taste in her mouth, but she had also committed a crime. A headache throbbed against her temples.

Should I have spared her? Was I supposed to spare a monster who remembered the past and sought to repeat it, to murder me again?

[Revius] "So please wait a little longer. His Majesty must settle these matters."

[Dianna] "Settle matters? What matters?"

He let out a sigh, looking toward the hallway before complaining.

[Revius] "If you have arrived, please speak up, Your Majesty. Miss Brienne is causing a scene."

Dianna turned at the irritation in his tone. Guiscard stood behind her.

[Dianna] "I was told you were on campaign..."

Guiscard, who was supposedly away, had been inside the palace all along. He studied Dianna with a pale face, the gentle warmth gone from his violet eyes.

The man standing before her after a month looked like a grim reaper, his eyes sharp as razors, his lips set in a hard line.

Looking at his face, she felt as though she had returned to her past life.

[Guiscard] "Dianna Brienne."

Hearing her name from his lips felt strange. He spoke not as a lover, but with the cold distance of a judge addressing a criminal.

[Guiscard] "I went on campaign only once, for a single week. I remained inside the palace the entire time."

He produced a sheet of parchment.

[Guiscard] "The documents were settled today, so this works out for the best."

[Dianna] "What documents?"

It felt like a dream. She looked blankly back and forth between Revius and Guiscard.

He spoke with cold detachment.

[Guiscard] "Congratulations, Dianna Brienne. As of today, we are strangers."

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "You are no longer Queen of Lodbrog, nor are you my wife."

Why? Why is he suddenly saying these things?

Dianna struggled to draw a breath. This had never happened before. Never.

He looked down at her.

[Guiscard] "This is likely what you desired regardless. Though you might offer love today, you could plunge a dagger into my heart tomorrow."

His low voice held cold mockery rather than bitterness. Her face turned deathly pale.

[Dianna] "That is..."

[Guiscard] "We might have shared affection, yet we were destined never to grow close. I owe you a debt, and I am sorry."

He looked into her eyes, his face entirely expressionless.

[Guiscard] "Yet no matter how I consider it, I don't love you enough to resolve this crisis."

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "I require a new Queen. A native Queen is best suited to manage this situation. To lead Lodbrog, I need a woman who will stand by my side for a lifetime."

She stared at him blankly.

Why am I here right now? Who is this man?

Even the Guiscard of her past life had never spoken of taking a new wife.

[Guiscard] "Why? Does it sound strange coming from my mouth? Say what you will, I was a slave begging for your love. I have decided to stop."

The words from Guiscard—no, from this stranger bearing his name—cut through her heart.

[Guiscard] "So leave."

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "This time, you will never return. Ever."

[Dianna] "..."

Why? He was a man whose face contorted in deeper agony than my own whenever I suffered. Yet suddenly, he is abandoning me? So miserably?

Her lips trembled violently. Consumed by betrayal, she wanted to scream at him. Swelling anger and resentment erupted from deep within, and her lips parted.

[Dianna] "Guiscard... why...? Do you hate me now?"

Yet the emotion surfacing was neither rage nor hatred. Dianna broke completely, her face twisting as raw grief spilled forth in a sob.

For a split second, his violet eyes wavered, but her tear-blurred vision couldn't see it.

[Guiscard] "Depart within the day."

He turned his back and walked away. He didn't look back.

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