“You remember the child you sent to me. He’s smarter and cuter than I expected, so I’m enjoying raising him.”

Of course, he remembers.

He was meant to be a disposable tool to provoke Belinda and ruin her reputation, but somehow, she had become Belinda’s weakness.

Belinda tapped Sybel’s distorted cheek with her fan as if she couldn’t understand his reaction, then concluded.

“It’s the only thing I like among what my brother gave me, so shouldn’t I cherish it? That’s why I’m going to pass everything I have to that child.”

At that moment, Sybel felt a rage like his brain was melting.

He thrashed about trying to lunge at Belinda, as if he didn’t care if the shackles severed his wrists.

“You, you crazy woman! Do you know what kind of family this is! After everything I did to get my hands on it, you’d give it to that lowborn commoner!”

The chains rattled loudly as they pulled taut, but he couldn’t lay a finger on Belinda.

Belinda, who had maintained an expressionless face throughout, narrowed her brow and warned him.

“Watch your words, Sybel. That child is far more qualified to stand above someone like you or me.”

But Belinda’s warning fell on deaf ears.

He glared at her with bloodshot eyes as if he would tear her to pieces, howling like a rabid dog with foam at his mouth.

“You think I don’t know you fabricated evidence to frame me? When I get out of here, I’ll tear that brat you cherish so much to pieces first!”

It was meant to provoke Belinda, but instead, she burst into laughter.

After laughing for quite some time, Belinda finally stopped and shook her head with a seemingly pitiful expression.

“I thought your final words in court claiming innocence were pathetic enough, but now I see you’re just too stupid to understand the situation.”

Having regained her cold smile, she left the prison.

“I don’t know what delusional dream you’re having, but yes. Struggling in such delusion until death suits you well. You won’t even have time to ask God for forgiveness.”

Sybel never anticipated that he would recall her words, muttered while looking down at him, crouched like a beast behind the bars, in his final moments.

***

The deepest dungeon of the royal palace, where death row inmates were gathered, was noisy day after day with sobbing and prayers begging God for mercy.

Sybel alone remained composed there.

The guards clicked their tongues, seeing him so calm even on the day of his execution.

“Is he so detached because he lived as a noble?”

“Hey, does death discriminate by status? It’s not that—he’s lost his mind. Didn’t he even refuse the last opportunity for confession with the priest?”

Hearing the guards’ whispers, Sybel ground his teeth inwardly.

‘Fools. Talk all you want. If we meet again, you’ll regret today’s events for a long time.’

Soon, his aide would come to rescue him.

Sybel believed this without a doubt.

The hound that Eleanor had left him was extremely capable and had never disappointed him.

He had silently erased Belinda’s personal maid from the world, taken away the sight of once the capital’s most famous jeweler, and even disposed of Belinda’s Doberman that dared to bark at Sybel until the end.

And that wasn’t all.

His aide had also cut the lifelines of several collateral family members who had aimed for the position of head of the Blanche family and tried to kill Jonas.

‘He couldn’t retrieve my mother’s letter, but well, I can generously forgive that much.’

His faith in him was so strong that Sybel couldn’t imagine his own death, even facing imminent execution.

“I’ll give you time to collect yourself. Shortly, you will be executed before the crowd.”

When he was transferred to a solitary cell with almost no people around, led by the guards’ hands, he rather cheered.

Now. Right now.

When the guards let their guard down and moved away from everyone’s sight.

Thinking this, as he turned his head toward the prison door, he saw the face of the person he had been waiting for.

“Aide! I knew you would come!”

Through the small barred window in the door, he could see his aide’s face.

“We need to leave the capital immediately. I lost everything because of that damned woman, but as long as I’m alive, someday I’ll get revenge…”

“There’s one thing I’d like to ask.”

It was probably the first time. The first time, his aide had interrupted Sybel.

“When you wanted to poison Jonas, why did you proceed with it yourself instead of ordering me to do it?”

Sybel, who had been clinging to the bars on the door, hesitated.

“Poisoning Father? That’s a false accusation Belinda pinned on me. I made one joke to annoy her, and she used that joke in the divine trial!”

Sybel desperately repeated the excuse he had made several times during the trial.

“Besides, evidence that I poisoned Father? There couldn’t possibly be such a thing.”

“Why not?”

“Well…”

Because he thoroughly erased all traces to leave no evidence.

The only reason he didn’t use his aide’s hand in poisoning Jonas was because of some premonition.

A premonition that he wouldn’t follow his orders in this matter.

With an anxious heart, Sybel trailed off and then barked at his aide.

“I’ll explain everything later. More importantly, we need to get out of here. Open this door now.”

“I saw the records of the royal court scribe who handled your trial.”

“Hey, aide! This is no time for idle chat!”

“When you refuted claims about your origins, you said that Jonas had dishonored Eleanor before their engagement. That’s why Count Barbet had no choice but to arrange the marriage between Eleanor and Jonas.”

“If I hadn’t made such a defense, it would have been over much sooner!”

Even that became futile due to Count Barbet’s testimony, but he had to try something.

He was getting irritated with his aide for bringing up the court proceedings, which remained a memory of shame for him.

Just as Sybel was about to burst into anger.

“How could you dishonor Eleanor like that?”

He finally realized that the familiar face beyond the door was different from usual.

Anger slowly spread across Hound’s face, which had never shown emotion before.

“How could you so shamefully trample on your mother’s… and the honor of the person Eleanor cherished so much?”

Hound only now understood the meaning of Terry’s words.

That nothing is as futile as repaying a debt to the dead.

He realized this only now.

“Hound, please take good care of Sybel. Accept his childish whims in my place.”

Hound recalled Eleanor’s last words, which had saved his life.

He had bloodied his hands with many lives to fulfill her last request, but not once had he felt a sense of fulfillment.

So now it was time to end this repayment of debt.

“My final repayment of debt was not for you, Sybel, but for Jonas. I wish you good health, Sybel.”

At Hound’s calmly delivered words, Sybel staggered back in dismay.

“Ha, you… you bastard, you were the one who fabricated the evidence! How dare you betray me!”

He belatedly rushed to the door to look outside, but Hound had already vanished like smoke.

Only Sybel’s shouts echoed through the empty corridor.

And soon, the sound of guards’ footsteps began to be heard from afar.

Then, as if having a seizure, his limbs trembled and his knees weakened.

“What is this…”

Sybel blankly stared at the opening door.

“It’s time for your execution. Come along quietly.”

Execution? Me?

At that moment, everything went dark before his eyes.

“That can’t be. Why… why am I being executed? I’m supposed to live… no, let go! Let go of me!”

Finally realizing the reality of his situation, Sybel struggled, but he couldn’t shake off the guards’ hands.

“No, no. This must be some mistake! Why am I… save me!”

“My, he’s slower to react than others. Causing such a commotion before execution.”

“Or at least call a priest! Gi-give me time to make confession to God!”

“Yes, yes. You’re already too late, you know. If you wanted to pray to God, you should have done it earlier.”

Clicking his tongue, the guard pushed Sybel onto the execution platform.

That day, just as Belinda had said, Sybel was hanged without even having the chance to ask God for forgiveness.

***

Sybel Blanche met his death as Sybel.

He was publicly executed for patricide and the crime of a commoner killing a noble. In front of the crowd, he not only shed tears and snot, but even wet himself while begging for his life—such a disgraceful display.

‘It seems the trial records I sent to Hound served their purpose.’

That was Belinda’s only thought upon reading about Sybel’s death in the newspaper.

And that day, Belinda had people er*ect a small nameless tombstone next to her uncle’s grave.

Perhaps people who didn’t know the story might arbitrarily think she had made a grave for Sybel, but nevertheless, Belinda couldn’t engrave a name on that stone.

The owner of that grave, which couldn’t even hold a coffin, was Belinda Blanche herself.

She removed the choker she wore around her neck and carefully placed it in front of the nameless grave.

She had processed the ruby that Jonas had prepared for his niece into a locket, completing it by placing portraits of Belinda’s birth parents and Jonas inside.

“I hope you find peace there.”

After whispering this, Belinda placed belated flowers before the father and daughter’s tombstones, standing side by side.

Belinda’s shadow, turning away from the graves, writhed as several shadow crows soon took flight.

Three Cerberuses, now quite grown, came running to greet their master.

Belinda never looked back as she returned to the mansion with her subordinates.

It was now time to bear the weight of the crown.