Tiberio was in the dungeon of Le Chantier Palace, shortly after one of his Elizabeth Pink dye factories had been seized.
“You there, you haven’t said anything, have you?” Tiberio asked the two guards in the cell. They were being detained as important witnesses.
“O-Of course not, sir!” one guard said.
“We’ve said nothing!” said the other.
Seeing Tiberio’s high-handed smile through the iron bars, the two guards turned pale. They’d been employed by Duke Reyn for a long time and were well aware of the fates of those who defied him, so they were afraid that they, too, would be subjected to the purge.
How did this happen? Tiberio wondered. The things happening lately have put me on edge. Everything started when that girl came to Archaites... He thought about Westalia, the other candidate for empress. She hadn’t been satisfied with merely disrupting order in the Kingdom of Lhumzia and had to come to this country to participate in the empress selection. She’d abandoned her mother country, and at first she’d seemed like a small, insignificant whirlpool, but gradually she’d grown stronger and become a huge swell, involving everyone around her. It made for an extremely unpleasant situation for Tiberio.
The duke clenched his fists but didn’t lose his smile.
“Get out of here quickly,” Tiberio ordered.
“But, sir, we’re being detained here in relation to forced child labor...”
“That’s not a problem. I already have the guards here under my control. I can get you out of the country.” Tiberio had bribed the guards. The one sitting in the chair in the corner of the corridor had his eyes closed, showing his willingness to turn a blind eye to anything Tiberio did. Although he said to their faces that he would get the two guards out, he had no intention of letting them go free. He was going to have them taken care of. He let out a sly laugh and unlocked the cell.
“Where are the girls who worked in the factory?” Tiberio asked.
“I don’t know. Two tall characters in cloaks stuck us with needles, and when we came to, we were here.”
“Were they both men?”
“No...one sounded like a woman. I couldn’t really tell though because of the cloaks.”
It had been a pair of people who’d snuck into his mansion earlier as well. After having his men investigate, he was now certain that one of them was Paige, who was currently recuperating from injuries to her eye, an arm, and her legs. The other remained unidentified. Tiberio knew that Westalia claimed Paige was her only knight and that she hadn’t appointed any others to her guard. However, since it was Leonardo who had instructed the Imperial Army to seize the dye factory, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that the other thief might have been his subordinate.
Leonardo Orencia... What an abominable man, Tiberio thought. Leonardo had been Tiberio’s most vigilant opponent so far. He was clever and levelheaded, working in secret to maintain the country’s security and protect the Orencia family’s position, sneaking around to find out what the underworld was up to.
Leonardo was also the only one who knew that Tiberio had procured the answers to the first round of the selection for his daughter. At the time, Elizabeth hadn’t been disqualified because Leonardo hadn’t had proof, but he had stopped her from appointing someone with the Reyns’ support to the selection committee in the second round.
Additionally, the Devorah Trading Company, which Tiberio had previously used to purchase poisons and weapons, as well as to make investments, had been put out of business after someone brought out its history with the former queen of the Kingdom of Lhumzia. The company’s transaction history had been one of the pieces of evidence used to clear Westalia’s name, and Tiberio had always wondered how it had made its way into her hands. He hadn’t been surprised to learn Leonardo was behind it. He was almost positive it had been Leonardo who’d broken into his office with Paige.
Leonardo was always able to acquire an uncanny amount of evidence in relation to crimes, and Tiberio could only assume that the man either employed the best thieves in the country or was one himself.
Westalia Lejainne is even more of a problem with the crown prince on her side, Tiberio thought. He could sense that the two of them had teamed up and were about to turn their blades against the Reyn family. Tiberio snapped back to reality.
“Regardless, you two have gotten me in a lot of trouble. If it gets out that I knew about the toxicity of the Elizabeth Pink dye and still sold it and, on top of that, that I kidnapped children and put them to work like chattel even I won’t be able to get away with it,” Tiberio said to the two guards in the cell. The toxins in the pink dye could cause serious issues when they accumulated in the body. However, those suffering from the poisoning had thus far been unable to connect the dye to the cause of the ailments. The use of the poisonous flower of the agisakuragi plant remained a secret.
As long as that secret isn’t revealed, then Elizabeth Pink will continue to rake in a huge profit, Tiberio thought. So far, the only person who’d realized the truth about the dye and confronted Tiberio on it had been Gasparo Lanchester, but if it happened again he’d just have the next person to bring it up silenced as well.
As for the children he was forcing into work, they were orphans with no other relatives, so their deaths from poisoning would never be noticed. In fact, several had already died due to Elizabeth Pink’s toxins, but they’d never become a problem. To Tiberio, they were nothing more than disposable goods. In order to gather more workers, he needed to win control of the Kingdom of Slidd so he could bring slaves into Archaites. And to fulfill all his goals, he had to get Elizabeth to become empress, no matter what it took.
“Now come on, get up,” Tiberio ordered.
“Yes, sir!” they said, standing up.
“I don’t think so,” a woman’s voice echoed through the dungeon, accompanied by the sound of heels clicking against the stone.
Tiberio turned around and saw a tall woman wearing a cloak. She pulled back her hood with an elegant, slender hand, and her silver hair shimmered in the dim light.
“That voice! That’s the woman who broke into the dye factory and knocked us out!” one of the guards said.
“Did you hear what I said just now?” Tiberio asked.
“I already knew all of that,” Westalia said, walking over to Tiberio and looking him dead in the eye.
“You shouldn’t try to take a detainee out of prison without permission, Duke Burglar,” Westalia said.
“You’re the one who’s a burglar. What are you doing snooping around? Do you think you’ll get away with it, foreigner?”
“Oh, how frightening! Are you threatening me?” She spoke with feigned terror and without any of the politeness his position should demand.
Tiberio involuntarily reached out and took her chin in his hand. “If you speak like that to me again, I’ll crush your jaw.” He dug his fingernails into her soft, pale skin, but she was completely unmoved and made no attempt to move away. If it had been his daughter, Elizabeth, she would have immediately cried and pleaded with him to stop. But then again, Westalia had a lot of experience in matters like this. She had guts, he would give her that.
“You’re the one who won’t get away with it,” Westalia said. “Enjoy the sensation of being slowly and gradually eaten away, just like what the poison in the agisakuragi petals does.”
“I’ve lived a long time and I’ve never met a woman as impertinent as you,” Tiberio said.
Westalia snorted. “The look on your face says you want to kill me.”
“Poison doesn’t work on you, does it? By all means then, tell me what does,” Tiberio said sarcastically, knowing she’d escaped death by poisoning. Westalia still didn’t flinch. “Or maybe I will just crush your jaw.”
“I’ll bite your hand off before you can do that,” Westalia replied.
“You’re quite the talker. But you’re just a woman.” Tiberio gripped her chin harder and pushed her backward as hard as he could.
Without putting up any resistance, Westalia allowed herself to be pushed, her temple hitting the iron bars behind her. She fell to the floor. But her expression as she looked up from Tiberio, blood streaming down her face, took his breath away.
Like a wild beast that had found its prey, she glared at him, holding him in her sights.
What’s with that expression? Is she really just a young girl? A shiver ran down Tiberio’s spine. What a creepy woman. Even when threatened or assaulted, she didn’t show any fear or signs of distress. For the first time ever, Tiberio felt afraid, like he was being hunted. He was so overwhelmed by her that he could scarcely move. He felt like a venomous snake was coiling around his body.
Tiberio finally took a step back as Westalia rose and slowly walked toward him.
“Are you not afraid of anything?” Tiberio asked.
“Well, I’m certainly not afraid of weak, ugly, pathetic men,” Westalia replied.
“What did I ever do to you?” Tiberio asked with a sharp laugh. He’d only just met her; she had no reason to hold a grudge against him.
“You killed the parents of my most precious knight,” Westalia answered, her voice clear.
“Your most precious knight?”
“Paige Lanchester. Surely you remember her, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. But you misunderstand. I didn’t kill her parents. They died on their own; I had nothing to do with it.”
“How despicable.” Westalia’s face contorted. “If you leave now, I’ll keep quiet about your bribe to the guards and your attempt to release the detainees. So you should get lost.”
Tiberio was silent.
“I said get lost!” Westalia’s glare was as full of rage as if he’d killed her own parents. Her murderous intent reminded him of Paige’s when she’d snuck into his mansion. Westalia was clearly worried about her subordinate and burned with vengeance as if it were her own.
Westalia Lejainne, strong and noble, was the other candidate for empress. She had courage, passion, and intelligence, and she would stand up for others—all the necessary qualities for an empress. If she took the position, she would create an upward current that would take everyone around her up with it. This swell would surely spread throughout the country.
Yes, she’s frightening. I’m more afraid of her than I am of agisakuragi poison, Tiberio thought.
“You should’ve died in Lhumzia,” he spat at her, a smile still on his face despite being filled with an unfathomable fear.