Chapter 58. Crazy Bastard
2023.10.28.
Sitting on the throne, Ivan watched the scene before him and thought:
Crazy bastard.
Herdin Delmark was a crazy bastard.
Unless he were a truly mad bastard, who would beat a noble heir to a pulp in broad daylight, drag him to the imperial palace in that state, and present him like this?
No matter how grave the crime committed, personally laying hands on a noble family's heir was a matter that could escalate into a dispute between families. There was no way Herdin hadn't considered that.
So to say he dragged the family's eldest son here like that meant he was prepared to make an enemy of the Baldwin family.
'Putting aside the Baldwin family's eldest son...'
Ivan narrowed his brows as he looked at Rachel, standing beside the battered Wesley with a pale, frozen face.
He never imagined that Herdin would even drag along Rachel, who was his cousin and a close relative of the imperial family.
Ivan pressed his throbbing forehead and once again confirmed what Herdin had just said.
"So, the Baldwin heir and Rachel attempted to violate Blair at this hunting tournament to create a scandal? And in the process, Blair fled and ended up stranded?"
"Yes. Everything you have heard is correct, Your Majesty."
Ivan looked at Wesley and Rachel with eyes full of annoyance.
As Wesley met Ivan's gaze, he opened his mouth.
"Y-Your Majesty, the Duke's account differs from the truth! It's true we intended to create such a scandal, but we never actually tried to violate her!"
Instead of refuting Wesley's words, Herdin presented a small bottle and parchment to Ivan. The chamberlain standing beside him took them and handed them to Ivan.
"This is the vial that was in the possession of a kidnapper who was bribed with money from the Baldwin eldest son. The purchaser was identified as Wesley Baldwin himself."
Ivan frowned as he read the purpose of the drug written on the parchment. Wesley then explained with a desperate face.
"That was only intended to frighten the Duchess! I swear, I truly had no intention of defiling the Duchess's body!"
As Wesley stepped forward to explain, Rachel, who had been cowering in fear, looked at Ivan with pitiful eyes and spoke.
"I-I only lent him money! I truly didn't know what he was going to use it for! I just thought he was going to use it for gambling as usual."
Herdin, who had been listening to her words, asked in a cold voice without turning around.
"Then how do you explain the false testimony you gave, claiming the kidnapped Duchess had disappeared with a knight, my lady?"
Just the intimidation in his voice alone made her flinch.
Rachel hesitated, her lips parting several times before she made her excuse.
"That was because I had been hurt by the Duchess before, and in my upset state, I lied to damage her reputation. I truly had nothing to do with anything else. Please believe me, Your Majesty!"
At that, Wesley sneered and interjected.
"Hah! So you're going to weasel out of this alone?"
"I'm not weaseling out, it's the truth!"
Rachel felt wronged.
When he asked to borrow money, he said he'd handle everything himself, but then he botched things and now she was in this mess too.
Wesley looked at Rachel and scoffed.
"Sure, play the victim. Coming from someone who spewed such bullshit about borrowing another woman's husband."
Rachel's face flushed crimson at Wesley's words.
"Stop making things up!"
"Hah! Who's the one lying right now?"
The two eventually began raising their voices as if they would come to blows at any moment. They seemed to have completely forgotten what kind of place this was and whose presence they were in.
Ivan swallowed his irritation as he watched the two with the most contemptuous expression.
'These fools...'
If they were going to scheme something, they should have handled it cleanly.
Were they still going to blame each other like when they were children?
If Herdin's goal was to annoy him, then he had succeeded.
Listening to Wesley and Rachel's voices growing louder, Ivan finally spoke.
"Enough!"
Only then did Wesley and Rachel fall silent as if doused with cold water.
Ivan asked Herdin with a face full of annoyance.
"So, what is it that you want, Duke?"
"I request that Your Majesty personally judge these two and deliver a punishment befitting their crimes."
Ivan glanced at the two pathetic figures behind Herdin, but he had no intention of punishing them severely.
Especially where Wesley was concerned, but Rachel was his cousin whom he had been close to since childhood.
'That girl Blair has always had a way of subtly rubbing people the wrong way while pretending to be meek since she was young, so she must have clashed with Rachel over that.'
However, if he showed leniency only to Rachel, the Baldwin Marquisate would complain about fairness, so it would be best to give them a fright and then release them. That would also make it easier for the Baldwin Marquis to save face.
"I sentence Wesley, eldest son of the Baldwin family, and Rachel, eldest daughter of the Seldon family, to one month of house arrest."
Herdin's face hardened upon hearing Ivan's judgment.
Ivan offered a compromise to placate even Herdin.
"The Baldwin and Seldon families shall pay appropriate compensation to the Delmark family for the mental distress caused by their childish prank."
But Herdin's expression did not soften.
"While it is detestable that they failed to restrain their personal feelings and ruined an imperial event, it seems the situation escalated beyond their original intent."
"Because it wasn't their intent, you judge the crime to be light?"
"That's right. In the end, Blair returned safely without any serious injuries, so wouldn't wrapping this up here be to the Delmark family's benefit as well?"
Benefit.
At the word "benefit," Herdin let out a scoff.
Knowing what kind of scandal his sister had nearly been smeared with because of this incident, knowing what danger she had narrowly escaped—and yet they were weighing such trifling benefits?
Ivan also didn't forget his concern for Blair as her brother.
"I say this because punishing my own flesh and blood would not sit well with that child Blair either."
"Are you truly certain that will suffice?"
Herdin's cold eyes as he asked carried a profound meaning.
"The Madame, before she is the lady of the Delmark household, is Your Majesty's only sister and a royal who carries the noble imperial bloodline."
"..."
"Your Majesty's judgment regarding this incident will go down as a precedent of graciously forgiving traitors who dared to harm a member of the imperial family."
Only then did Ivan grasp Herdin's intent in bringing this up.
"When someone insults and attempts to harm Your Majesty, will you be able to deliver the same judgment as today?"
Though he seemingly worried about the prestige of the imperial family and Ivan, Herdin's gaze as he looked at Ivan was closer to a threat or intimidation.
Ivan frowned at Herdin's audacity, then his eyes suddenly shifted to a peculiar look.
'That bastard is going this far for Blair?'
For an unwanted wife, the daughter of his enemy, whom he should resent and hate?
Things seemed to be taking a more interesting turn than expected.
"Thinking about it again, it seems I delivered a soft punishment swept up by personal feelings. You are right, Duke. Traitors must receive punishment befitting their crimes."
Ivan looked at Herdin with interest and readily offered the answer he wanted.
"Though Rachel is a close relation, she dared to harm my sister, and I cannot overlook that."
Over the heads of the confused traitors startled by the sudden change in atmosphere like the flipping of a palm, the Emperor's judgment fell.
"Wesley Baldwin, Rachel Seldon. I decree permanent exile for both of them."
* * *
Blair returned to her bedroom after finishing her bath, accompanied by Lina and Melly.
The two helped Blair change into her nightgown and guided her to the vanity.
Lina brushed Blair's hair while observing her complexion, then carefully asked.
"My lady, are you less tired today?"
"Yeah. I slept deeply for a few days and now I feel really fine."
Fortunately, the hypothermia had healed without leaving any major aftereffects. Lina, who had been crying and blaming herself, finally felt relieved.
However, perhaps because her body had been exhausted from the rapid change in body temperature, she had slept in a half-dazed state for days on end.
'Still, it's a relief I recovered before Lina's worries deepened again.'
Blair, who absently looked past the mirror, spotted the table behind Lina and Melly and opened her mouth as if something had occurred to her.
"Oh right, I've been eating the marshmallows you leave behind. But you don't have to do that anymore."
"Marshmallows, my lady?"
"Yeah. You left them on the table every morning, didn't you?"
A few days ago, Blair woke up late and found a bowl of marshmallows on the table. Thinking it was a snack Lina or Melly had left for her, she ate them.
The fluffy marshmallows she ate every morning even made Blair's mood sweet.
But the next day, and the day after that, a plate of marshmallows was placed there. Like a gift.
However, Lina and Melly looked at each other and tilted their heads as if hearing this for the first time, then let out a small gasp as they recalled the small empty bowl that had been left on the table in recent days.
"Ah, so that was a marshmallow plate?"
"...You didn't leave them?"
"We don't enter the room unless you call us, my lady. So we thought you had brought them yourself."
Blair's eyes widened.
If it wasn't her, the owner of the room, and it wasn't Lina or Melly, there was only one person who could have left marshmallows every day.
"Have sweet dreams, my lady."
Through the gap of the door as Lina and Melly left after finishing their bedtime duties, the faint sound of a grandfather clock striking ten could be heard.
Blair looked at the table where the bowl of marshmallows had been placed every morning and thought of the one person who must have put them there.