Chapter 70

Carlos was determined to use any means necessary to extract a confession from Erez.

Erez tried to resist swallowing the liquid flooding his mouth, but Carlos had no intention of letting him succeed. With a signal to a nearby knight, the knight approached and pinched Erez’s nose shut.

Forced to lift his head to breathe, Erez had no choice but to swallow the contents in his mouth. He struggled to hold his breath but soon reached his limit.

“Cough, cough! ”

Choking on the forced-down poison, Erez coughed repeatedly.

Once Carlos confirmed that Erez had swallowed every drop, he finally released his grip on his jaw and stepped back, grimacing as if he found even that brief contact unpleasant.

“Now, do you still refuse to confess?”

Carlos gestured towards the antidote Tereza held. It didn’t matter to Carlos whether Erez despaired or wept—his threat was clear.

Tereza simply watched without any intention of intervening. The softened side of Carlos was reserved for when Aneta was around; his current demeanor was his true nature. To Tereza, this was the more familiar version of Carlos.

“Argh!”

Erez screamed and convulsed shortly after ingesting the poison. The poison was taking effect.

Carlos struggled to maintain his composure as he witnessed Erez’s immediate reaction to the poison. The thought of Aneta having consumed such poison made his blood boil.

Perhaps because the remaining poison was more potent, the Minoshi poison spread through Erez’s body faster than expected. Consumed by a searing thirst and pain akin to being burned alive, Erez gasped desperately for air.

Never expecting to drink the poison intended for Aneta, Erez glared at Carlos with bloodshot eyes filled with resentment. Carlos met his gaze with sheer contempt and murderous intent.

There was no trace of affection in Carlos’s eyes. To Erez, Carlos’s actions were a betrayal, an unacceptable reality.

“How long do you expect me to wait? ”

Carlos’s question was met with Erez’s lips parting. However, what emerged from his cracked, bloodied lips were not words.

Cough.

With an uncontrollable cough, something hot and viscous rose from deep within Erez and spilled out of his throat.

Thud.

The dark red clot that dripped from his mouth and splattered on the floor was blood.

Erez panted heavily. Seeing what he had expelled jolted him into awareness, despite his increasingly rigid body. He realized that continuing like this would lead to his inevitable death.

“You should realize by now that there’s no escape.”

Despite witnessing Erez cough up blood, Carlos showed no sympathy. Impatient to waste no more time, he turned to Tereza.

“Lady Lopelac, do you have anything suitable for a brazier? ”

“I do, but are you planning to torture him?”

“If necessary.”

Carlos glared at Erez with a menacing look, confirming his intent. The mere thought of increased torture sent a shiver down Erez’s spine. He had never experienced such pain in his life.

The poison alone was agonizing enough to make him feel on the brink of death, and now torture was being threatened. His blood-soaked lips and chin trembled with fear. He couldn’t hold out any longer.

Terrified, Erez finally opened his mouth after Carlos threatened him with yet another extreme measure.

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk, damn it! It was all me! ”

Erez managed to squeeze out a barely audible voice. His raspy, metallic-sounding voice confessed his past crimes. But Carlos wasn’t satisfied with that.

“You have more than one thing to confess, and that’s all you’re going to say? You’re going to say it all when you get the chance. Otherwise, I don’t know what to do with that useless mouth of yours.”

Carlos’s chilling warning was followed by his questions.

“Did you know that the former Marquis Bauter suffered from asthma? ”“I didn’t know… No, I did. I knew.”

The first question of the interrogation concerned the death of the former Marquis Bauter.

Erez tried to deny the fact, but only momentarily. Carlos, noticing Erez’s intention to lie, placed his hand on the sword at his waist.

“How did you administer Bastia? ”

“I brewed it with his daily medicine.”

Carlos’s questions continued relentlessly. From the deception regarding the power of glory to the strange occurrences during the attack, and the recent kidnapping, each topic was thoroughly investigated. Every question aligned perfectly with the suspicions held until now.

But that wasn’t all. Through Erez’s confession, Carlos confirmed that Jin, the butler of the Bauter family, had participated in many of Erez’s criminal activities.

“I’ve told you everything. Now, give me the antidote…!”

Having confessed all his crimes, Erez spoke in between gasps. His throat felt constricted, making it increasingly difficult to breathe, and he could barely hold his head up due to dizziness.

“Is the confession sufficient? ”

“Yes, it seems enough.”

“Then we should wrap this up. Bring the antidote.”

At those words, hope ignited in Erez’s eyes. When Carlos, after receiving the antidote from Tereza, opened the bottle, Erez mustered the last of his strength to hold his head up straight.

He felt relieved, thinking he would survive now. Sweat poured from him like rain as he found comfort in this thought.

As Carlos extended his hand with the bottle, he abruptly tipped it over into the air. The contents naturally spilled onto the dry dirt floor due to gravity.

“What is this…! ”

Erez watched in despair as the antidote meant to save him spilled out.

Carlos, observing Erez’s reaction, released his grip on the bottle.

Crash!

The sharp sound pierced the air, snapping Erez’s dazed mind back to reality. The shattered pieces of the bottle lay scattered on the ground, darkened by the absorbed antidote.

Without the antidote, the agony would persist, ultimately leading to death. Erez, seeing the lost antidote, screamed and wailed like a madman.

“You told me to confess! Didn’t you say you’d let me live if I confessed? ”

“When did I ever say I’d let you live? ”

As Erez spewed blood again, he screamed out in agony, but Carlos didn’t even blink as he responded.

“Committing such crimes and expecting to live—how absurd.”

Carlos had indeed induced a confession through false hope. However, from the beginning, he had no intention of alleviating Erez’s pain, regardless of his confession.

Providing an antidote to someone who deserved to be slaughtered and thrown into the sea? That was out of the question.

Ultimately, Erez, writhing in ever-increasing pain, toppled over with the chair he was bound to. His thrashing only intensified upon hitting the floor, but Carlos felt no sympathy watching him.

“Save me. Please, save me. I admit it, I was wrong. Please, I’ll do anything you ask.”

“If you know you’ve done wrong, then your penance should be with your life. I never trust the words of scum like you. Especially when they’re spoken out of desperation to survive.”

Erez’s tearful pleas fell on deaf ears. The cold response turned his begging into a desperate rage.

“Why? Why are you doing this to me? You, of all people, should be the one to save me! You were supposed to be mine; that was the only certainty I had! Why are you trying to kill me? I’m the protagonist here! ”

Erez’s outburst, mixed with blood, made him appear completely deranged.

Seemingly exhausted from using up all his strength, Erez panted as though he were about to die at any moment.

“They say delusions can lead to madness, and yours seems quite severe.”

As Tereza shook her head in disgust at Erez’s incoherent ranting, the surrounding knights nodded in agreement.

Erez Bauter’s thoughts were utterly incomprehensible to ordinary people.

“Lady Lopelac, proceed with the execution.”

In stark contrast, Carlos dismissed Erez’s words as utter nonsense. Tereza, nodding in agreement, stepped forward toward Erez, who lay on the ground.

Erez was in such a deteriorated state that he couldn’t properly react to the mention of execution.

Tereza spoke to Erez, who was trembling with his eyes rolled back.

“Erez Bauter, you are stripped of your title and sentenced to immediate execution for the crimes of kin-slaying, title usurpation, attempted murder, kidnapping, confinement, and intimidation.”

Finishing the sentence, Tereza hoped Erez wouldn’t blame anyone but himself. He was merely reaping the consequences of his actions.

“Take him away.”

At Carlos’s command, Tereza gestured to the knights. Erez Bauter’s body would not remain intact even in death, given that his fate was now in Tereza’s hands.

“Now, only you remain.”

As Tereza and the knights dragged Erez away for execution, the mercenaries were the only ones left. Carlos turned his gaze to Randolph, who was the only one among them still composed.

Randolph had been staring at Carlos from behind for a while. When their eyes met, Randolph spoke with a calm expression.

“It’s too early for you to decide our fates.”

“Do you think criminals like you have the right to decide anything?”

“Not entirely, but we did strike a deal with the Marquis.”

“A deal? What kind of deal? ”

Carlos was already aware of the deal Randolph was referring to, having learned about it from Aneta when he faced her doppelganger. Still, he feigned ignorance and pressed for more information.

Randolph began to explain the deal he had made with Aneta. He couldn’t afford to die at Carlos’s hands before receiving the ‘opportunity’ promised to him.

Carlos, wary that Randolph might twist the truth, noticed that his words aligned perfectly with what Aneta had said, which slightly eased his tension.

His demeanor softened slightly but soon turned stern again as he warned.

“If you think to beg for forgiveness for your sins, you’d better wake up from that dream. I will never grant such a request.”

Carlos wasn’t particularly worried, knowing Aneta would handle it. He didn’t mention whether Aneta would keep her promise to them, as it was irrelevant.

“Don’t worry. That won’t be necessary. What I seek is something else.”

“And what’s that? ”

“There are people I wish to help. I want you to grant them the opportunity I received.”

Randolph began to explain his request to Carlos. It was clear he intended to relay the message to Aneta.

Carlos didn’t want to hear their pleas but listened quietly, furrowing his brow, determined to avoid any further encounters between them and Aneta.

However, as the conversation progressed, Carlos’s expression turned peculiar.

“Is that truly all you desire? ”

“Yes, it is.”

Even when Carlos asked again, Randolph’s answer remained unchanged.

Seeing this, Carlos instinctively understood.

Aneta would undoubtedly grant the request of the person standing before him.