#2. A Foolish Deed
2023.08.02.
Becoming king required a great deal of money and people.
“It’s alright, Ellis. It’s all something you’re doing for me, isn’t it? I don’t think that way at all. You are doing something noble. You are rewriting history. I am always grateful to you.”
Chase hugged Ellis every time he took the money she had prepared.
Ellis couldn’t help but fall deeper into that warmth.
“Father’s illness is growing worse, so I’m worried.”
The king, who had lost his queen and even banished his beloved firstborn son, had lain ill and groaning, yet held onto his position for quite some time.
Chase appeared worried, but that was not his true intention.
‘Kill my father.’
Ellis bit her lower lip repeatedly. Killing someone was the one thing Ellis could not do.
In the end, while she hesitated, the king died.
“Ellis, I thought you would do it for me.”
Chase believed Ellis had intervened. She hadn’t, but Ellis smiled awkwardly. Because she liked the sweet kisses he gave her…….
Naturally, Chase ascended to the throne.
Now they could marry. Ellis was filled with dreams, but a year after becoming king, Chase grew distant from her.
“Ellis, there is much I must learn. Much I must do. Could you wait just a little longer?”
How many years had she already waited?
There was no reason she couldn’t endure merely one more year.
Instead, Chase gave Ellis a room in the royal palace and let her stay there.
But the number of times he came to see her decreased drastically.
When Chase stopped visiting Ellis, strange rumors began to circulate.
Chase and Iris enjoyed tea time, Chase and Iris spent an affectionate afternoon in the greenhouse, Chase and Iris…….
Ellis was tormented and shut herself in her room, consciously trying not to hear such talk.
She wanted to ask Chase, but he had become someone whose face she could barely see.
As her memories flowed that far, Ellis’s chest tightened. She clutched her chest and gasped.
“Are you alright?”
Regina looked her over. Ellis smiled awkwardly and straightened her posture. She could not afford to be caught on even the smallest fault.
There were many people in the palace who did not look kindly upon Ellis.
Regina made her voice as bright as possible.
“To think of proposing at Aubrey Hall—His Majesty truly is romantic.”
Aubrey Hall was a sacred place where portraits of previous kings and popes were displayed.
Only royalty, a few attendants who served them directly, high-ranking priests, and a very select number of nobles could enter; simply being invited was an honor.
Before they knew it, the two stood before Aubrey Hall.
The magnificent Aubrey Hall looked down upon Ellis.
“A proposal just a fortnight before the ceremony. It feels a bit late for a proposal, but I suppose I understand since it’s at Aubrey Hall.”
It wasn’t really a matter of whether Regina understood or not, but instead of pointing that out, Ellis quickened her steps.
In front of others, she pretended to be indifferent about marriage, but Ellis wanted to start a family as soon as possible, even a day sooner.
She had been envious every time she heard of someone else’s marriage.
She had pretended otherwise, but she had also been hurt that Chase had not proposed.
After today, she would no longer need to envy others or feel hurt by Chase.
A faint smile played at Ellis’s lips.
The knights guarding the doors of Aubrey Hall recognized Ellis and saluted silently. One of them blocked Regina.
“Regina is my attendant.”
“Only Viscountess Warton may enter.”
The knights were being very strict today. Ellis narrowed her eyes.
Ellis tended to be benevolent, but she could not tolerate her people being treated poorly.
She had lost far too many people until now.
‘Were they someone I never had from the very beginning?’
Ellis briefly recalled those who had passed through her life, but soon erased them.
“Lower your spear at once.”
As Ellis’s voice grew cold, Regina stepped forward.
“My Lady, please don’t. It’s an important day. I will wait right here. It is not my place to enter.”
As Regina stepped back, she whispered in Ellis’s ear.
“You must need some intimate time as lovers. His Majesty is quite the romantic, after all.”
Regina had looked forward to the proposal even more than Ellis herself.
“It is His Majesty’s will.”
The hesitant Ellis ultimately made her decision because of Chase, as always.
“If that is truly His Majesty’s will.”
Ellis looked back at Regina. Regina was already standing beneath a tree some distance away.
“Open the door.”
Carvings of a lion and lioness symbolizing the king and queen parted as the door opened.
Ellis clasped her hands. She had thought she wasn’t nervous, but she was.
She gripped and released the hem of her dress as she slowly entered Aubrey Hall.
“You have arrived, Viscountess Warton.”
Ellis flinched and stopped.
She had expected Chase to be alone. But inside the circular Aubrey Hall, there were more people than she had anticipated.
The sages of the Ivory Tower, the Knight Commander, and even Ellis’s sister, Iris.
The most out-of-place person there was Iris.
Ellis’s eyes widened.
“Sister…… why are you here?”
Iris held a cool smile on her lips.
She placed her hand on Chase’s forearm as if showing off.
“How have you been, Ellis?”
Ellis’s pupils shook from side to side.
“You must observe proper decorum, as Viscountess Warton.”
Before Ellis could come to her senses, she bent her knee. Thanks to etiquette ingrained in her body, she was able to hide her bewilderment.
“Ellis Warton greets Your Majesty.”
Chase accepted her greeting dismissively and averted his gaze. Instead, Iris stared at her and spoke.
“Viscountess Warton, I hereby arrest you on charges of regicide and treason against the royal family.”
“……!”
Ellis raised her head. Her eyes were dyed with shock.
“From this moment, all titles and rights granted to Viscountess Warton are revoked, and her assets are forfeited to the Ivory Tower. The criminal Warton is to be imprisoned in the underground dungeon.”
At words tantamount to a death sentence, Ellis’s face turned deathly pale.
“Y-Your Majesty……”
Through barely parted lips came a voice closer to a moan.
***
*Click.*
The underground dungeon door locked. Ellis was thrown inside like a piece of luggage.
Plop. A droplet of water fell above Ellis’s head. Ellis blinked slowly.
The sensations that had vanished finally began to return.
The sound of water dripping onto the stone floor, the cold of the stone chilling her seated bottom—such things became perceptible.
“What on earth is happening……”
Then her tightly sealed lips parted. Her lost voice returned.
Without time to think, she moved on instinct.
“Open this door immediately! I am Viscountess Ellis Warton! I am Ellis Warton, the fiancée of His Majesty!”
Ellis grabbed the iron bars and shook them. She screamed until her throat tore. But no answer came.
She was completely alone.
Not a single guard was in the royal palace’s underground dungeon, where only the most heinous criminals were imprisoned.
Ellis slowly moved away from the bars, one step, two steps.
The cell was small, so her back touched the cold wall before long.
Ellis slid down the wall as if melting, sinking to the floor.
She tried to think rationally, but it was futile.
Ellis wailed all night long. It was such a desperate cry that had anyone heard it, they would not have been able to bear leaving the door closed.
Thus Ellis, alone in the cold underground dungeon, slowly exhausted herself.
The bars opened only after a full three days had passed.
Ellis’s body had withered away, and just as she was about to draw her last breath, the door opened.
“Viscountess Ellis Warton, no. Now I suppose you must be called the criminal Ellis.”
Ellis barely raised her deeply bowed head.
Her light yellow dress was so soiled its original color was hard to discern, and her neatly pinned-up hair had come undone.
A foul stench emanated from her body, and because she had gripped and shaken the bars so violently, her palms were entirely skinned.
“Your appearance is a sight. Should I say you’ve returned to your true form?”
“Who……”
Ellis barely forced the words out.
“I am Gabriel, the interrogator assigned to the criminal Ellis.”
“Gab…… riel?”
Ellis’s heart dropped. Gabriel was one of Iris’s devoted followers.
He was a former soldier who had resigned and left when Iris departed from the royal palace; why was he here?
“I will now interrogate the criminal Ellis. Ellis Warton, do you confess to the crime of assassinating the previous king?”
The interrogation began before Ellis could even grasp the situation.
“……I never did such a thing.”
Ellis barely managed to answer.
“Confessed. Next, do you confess to conspiring with Prince Titrus?”
“Wait! I said I never did such a thing. How can you say confessed?”
Ellis’s mind snapped to attention as if doused with cold water.
She mustered her last strength and grabbed Gabriel’s collar, shaking him.
“Bring His Majesty here at once. His Majesty knows the truth. His Majesty……”
“It seems you fail to understand the situation.”
Gabriel, wearing a contemptuous sneer, grabbed Ellis’s shoulder and flung her down.
“Ack.”
Ellis hit the wall and collapsed.
“It would be best to quietly confess. You’re going to die anyway—shouldn’t your body at least remain intact?”
*Thud.* Gabriel loosened his hands. At the gesture promising violence, Ellis’s body trembled.
“You keep bringing up His Majesty. Do you think His Majesty is unaware of this situation?”
Ellis’s muscles stiffened. Gabriel cackled, pleased with her expression.
Inside Ellis, something that had been holding her up finally snapped.
“His Majesty…… knows everything?”
Ellis’s lips parted in futility.