144. Interpretation of the Prophecy
“And there’s something wrong with calling him a tyrant. Why is His Highness a tyrant?”
“You call that a question? Obviously—”
“Did he neglect state affairs, indulging in luxury and pleasure?”
Katya began pointing out people’s misunderstandings about Nikolai one by one.
“Did he oppress and purge under the pretext of checking political opponents? Did he forcibly dissolve the noble council and advisory bodies because he didn’t want to hear honest opinions, listening only to sycophants and giving them special treatment? Did he overlook the nobles’ corruption and ignore people’s pleas to maintain power?”
The nobles present couldn’t hide their bewilderment as they listened to her words.
None of it matched reality.
Contrary to expectations that he would bring a bloody wind of revenge against Oksana, Mikhail, and their forces upon becoming ruler, the Grand Duke did not.
Though rumors were abound about him sending poisoned tea to kill his teacher, no actual evidence ever emerged.
Rather than concentrating important positions only among new nobles and officers loyal to the Grand Duke, he appointed both neutral nobles and Oksana’s faction members evenly.
Even the noble council met regularly except during his incognito trip to the South, and the head of the Senate was Duke Oblonsky, who could be called the Grand Duke’s strongest political opponent.
He had never wasted the budget, and what about issues with women?
Until Nikolai brought Katya to the capital as his bride from the south, rumors that he had that kind of relationship with Luka were prevalent.
Looking at each point, there was no reason to call him a tyrant, yet why had they believed so until now?
“What tyrant risks assassination threats by going incognito to the south to directly understand the people’s lives?”
“That was just for show. Do you know how many people Nikolai has killed directly and indirectly?”
“How many?”
“What?”
“Please tell us here and now how many people His Highness killed and who they were.”
Unable to immediately refute Katya’s words, Oksana bit her lower lip in frustration.
She had something that overwhelmed the audience.
It was incomprehensible how such power emanated from that tiny frame.
“No matter how hard you try to defend him, the fact that Nikolai practiced tyranny remains unchanged. Have you ever seen a murderer leave evidence?”
“Or did Your Highness make people believe so without evidence?”
“You pair of husband and wife are both ridiculous. Fine, alright. I’ll give you an example as you asked. Ruslan. There was already an unfortunate Prince who died trying to save his brother, wasn’t there?”
“……”
“Looking back now, no one knows exactly what happened in there. Why do you think His late Highness the Grand Duke hated Nikolai so much? Could it be that he orchestrated his brother’s death while aiming for the next Grand Duke? His Highness must have seen through that.”
Oksana had crossed a line.
She mentioned Ruslan despite knowing he was an untouchable subject in the Grand Ducal family.
Katya couldn’t look at Nikolai, knowing what expression he must be wearing now.
He had tormented himself believing he caused his brother’s death despite it not being his fault.
He lived with guilt, having nightmares every night.
“There’s one more person who knows what happened that day.”
“The two who were there are already dead. Surely you don’t think Nikolai himself can give an objective account?”
“I’m talking about someone other than His Highness.”
As soon as those words ended, someone sitting near Oksana quietly rose from their seat.
Until then, she hadn’t realized she had been betrayed by someone she had believed without doubt to be on her side.
Looking around the chapel triumphantly, she slowly turned her head when she noticed everyone’s gaze focused behind her.
The witness who stood for the Grand Duchess’s side was none other than Ruslan’s wife, Lyudmila.
“Y-you dare…!”
Before Oksana’s forces could reach her, Pavel escorted Lyudmila to Katya’s side.
At the Grand Duchess’s signal, the witness raised her eyes to face the audience and opened her mouth.
The secret of the incident she had kept hidden until now.
“You all probably only know that His Highness the Grand Duke’s father couldn’t contain his anger and beat my husband to death as he tried to protect his brother. But there’s more that happened before that.”
Lyudmila couldn’t look at her brother-in-law out of guilt.
Nikolai knew everything that would happen today.
Because the Grand Ducal couple had planned it together.
He knew his sister-in-law would appear as a witness, but he thought it was only to testify about other matters, not the attempted poisoning of the Grand Duchess.
So it was news to Nikolai that Lyudmila had decided to confess the truth about that day.
“That day, Father was already angry with me. He was furious, criticizing my attire. Later I learned that it was similar to what Her Highness Tatiana used to wear.”
In his paranoid state, Yuri became consumed by the delusion that his daughter-in-law was mocking him by appearing in the former Grand Duchess’s clothes.
“When I tried to leave saying I would change clothes, he roughly pushed me and tried to hit me after I fell to the floor. That’s when His Highness blocked his way to protect me.”
Yuri’s anger naturally transferred from his daughter-in-law to Nikolai.
He was the former Grand Duchess Tatiana’s son.
The child knew how much his father hated him.
So he always avoided him, but this time he couldn’t let it pass.
His brother and sister-in-law had remained consistently kind to him even after his mother was driven out and died in a monastery.
He jumped in front of his father to protect his sister-in-law.
Even knowing he would become the target.
“At such a young age, he told me to quickly leave while protecting me. I fled outside on trembling legs.”
When she encountered Ruslan in the corridor, her legs gave out completely.
If her husband hadn’t caught her, she surely would have collapsed right there.
That’s when Lyudmila started bleeding.
“I was pregnant at the time.”
Ruslan was one of the few people who knew about his wife’s pregnancy.
Though they had kept it secret until reaching a stable period, they ended up losing the child so futilely.
Seeing the blood on his hands after carrying his nearly unconscious wife, he could barely contain his resentment and anger toward his father.
Then when he heard from his wife that Nikolai had prevented the ass*ult, he couldn’t think of anything else.
Only that he had to go save his brother.
“Even as I was losing consciousness, I tried to stop my husband. After leaving me with a doctor, he said he would return soon and ran there. I didn’t know that would be the last time. When I woke up after fainting, I learned I had lost both my husband and child.”
The nobles were shocked by this story.
They hadn’t even known Lyudmila had been pregnant except for those closest to her, and now learned she had miscarried from the shock that day.
That day, Yuri had ended up k*lling both his eldest son and first grandchild.
“My husband and child died because of me, and I wanted to die from the guilt of surviving alone. That’s when Her Highness Oksana came to me and said since everyone already blamed Nikolai, we shouldn’t tell anyone about this.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! When did I ever say such things! This is all slander!”
As Oksana ranted, Nikolai became confused.
He hadn’t known his sister-in-law was pregnant with his niece or nephew, or that she had met Ruslan in between.
And he had never thought she too had lived with guilt like himself.
He choked up realizing his brother hadn’t discovered the scene by chance but had come specifically to save him.
Had he known he might die that day?
Katya had Lyudmila tell the story of that day to show an example of Oksana’s long-standing plan to eliminate her stepsons.
And there was one more important reason.
“Have you heard of the prophecy given to the Grand Ducal family? More precisely, the prophecy given to the late Grand Duke?”
Katya recited it for those who hadn’t heard.
“Remember that the gods’ revenge awaits. You will become a madman who brings chaos to the country. And you will surely kill your child. Your son who inherited the tyrant’s blood will also stain his hands with his child’s blood. The smell of blood will not leave Hersen Palace for a while.”
Murmurs began in the chapel.
Only then did Katya meet Nikolai’s eyes for the first time since appearing here.
What she was about to say was what she most wanted to tell him.
“Your Highness thought you weren’t worthy of having a family because of this prophecy. Because you might kill your own child with your hands for inheriting the tyrant’s blood. Even after deciding to marry me, you hesitated to have children.”
“……”
“The prophecy didn’t directly mention that the tyrant’s son would kill his child. This contrasts with how it explicitly stated that the late Grand Duke would surely kill his child.”
So everything stemmed from a misinterpretation of the prophecy.
“His late Highness Ruslan lost his child before his eyes. If we interpret the phrase ‘child’s blood’ symbolically, we could say the prophecy was already fulfilled 13 years ago.”
The gods gave Yuri the prophecy because they were angry that he had driven out Tatiana and made his mistress Oksana the Grand Duchess.
The gods made him pay for his sins by losing his most beloved son and grandson.
This meant the prophecy’s effects didn’t extend to Nikolai, the victimized Tatiana’s son.
“Shall we reveal Your Highness Oksana’s numerous crimes one by one?”
Katya’s revelations continued without pause.
“First, we can cite the crime of attempting to assassinate Her Highness Klavdia.”
