“Oh dear.”

With a look of sympathy in my eyes, Alec stood beside me and stared at Marcel.

“Marquis Marcel says he has something to say to you.”

“… I see. I’d like to hear what it is.”

At my words, Marcel’s eyes flickered.

They were entirely different from the eyes filled with malice at the ball.

His demeanor was one of resignation and fear, having no choice but to swallow his pride.

‘It seems he was beaten to a pulp right before facing Alec.’

No wonder he looked so deflated.

“How long are you going to make us wait?” Alec said, causing Marcel to flinch and rise from the sofa.

He approached us but seemed unable to meet our eyes, turning his head away.

Marcel struggled to speak.

“… M-must I?”

“What did you say?”

I replied in my usual tone.

Marcel moved his lips as if to speak again but seemed to have lost his voice.

Alec spoke a bit more coldly than before.

“Do you still wish you could just die instead?”

“N-no,” Marcel replied in shock.

“…!”

I was genuinely surprised.

I had never seen him like this. I never imagined I would see him like this before his death.

Wasn’t he the most arrogant and proud person?

Seeing him so cowed made me almost believe he was a different person.

“What happened, Alec? Marcel is bowing his head in front of us.”

“It seems he wouldn’t easily lower his pride. He said he’d rather die than apologize here, so it took a while to convince him.”

“It seems you really scared him.”

“Seems like he thought you wanted to see him submit, Louise.”

“Really?”

He nodded at my question.

Of course, I had wanted to see Marcel kneel before us at least once, but I hadn’t expected it.

But for him to be brought here in such a state for my sake and not for his own revenge…

Had he really been thinking about it all along when he simply said that?

I felt a slight touch of emotion and gazed at him for a moment.

I hadn’t expected him to do something like this for me.

“Thank you, Alec.”

“Anyway, if we leave him alone, he will throw bombs at us again.”

“Those vile scoundrels.”

Marcel spat through clenched teeth, his eyes moist.

Right.

How humiliating, right?

Seeing Marcel in anguish tightened my own expression.

“Is this situation humiliating for you, Marcel?”

“…”

“My husband had to endure this for a long time because of you.”

“… Damn it.”

Marcel clutched his head.

Despair flowed from him as if he wanted to die.

Shouldn’t he be a little tougher than this?

I felt just as bruised inside as he was.

“What’s all this commotion?”

Suddenly, my mother-in-law and Eloise descended into the reception room.

Before long, Andrew had also arrived at the mansion.

I didn’t respond to them but took a few steps closer to Marcel.

“I don’t expect you to truly feel sorry.”

“…”

“So just kneel down.”

I said this coldly as I kicked the back of his knee with my sharp stiletto.

Thud!

Unprepared, Marcel’s knee buckled and hit the floor with a loud thud.

My startled mother-in-law and Eloise covered their mouths in shock.

I stomped on Marcel’s knee with my sharp heel.

“Now you can’t kill us for the rest of your life.”

The anger I felt over the past three years flowed into my thin heel.

This didn’t resolve my grudge, nor did it bring me peace of mind.

However, I wanted to make it clear that if he ever touched us again, he wouldn’t be safe.

The next day, Marcel was found dead from poisoning in his mansion.

The will he made at the ball, stating that he would transfer the textile factory and the territory to us, had legal effect.

***

“Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable…”

With unsteady steps, Marcel headed toward the mansion.

Just a moment ago, he had been at Louise and Alec’s house, but in the blink of an eye, he found himself walking down the path connected to his own mansion.

He couldn’t even begin to fathom how this was possible.

It was because he had experienced an incredible number of unbelievable events in such a short time.

“Unbelievable. Unbelievable…”

Like a person out of their mind, Marcel kept muttering the same words.

He was no longer the Marcel who had aimed a gun at Louise and Alec.

“Sir!”

At that moment, the butler from Marquis Howard’s household spotted Marcel and approached him.

He had been waiting for him to return from the ball, but here he was, trudging along without a carriage.

“Are you coming alone? Where is the coachman?”

The butler quickly scanned Marcel’s appearance.

His face was pale and neat, and his clothes were still tidy, just like when he left the mansion.

“Surely you didn’t walk here?”

“Unbelievable. Unbelievable…”

Even in response to the butler’s worried questions, Marcel walked on with unfocused eyes.

The butler’s voice didn’t reach his ears.

“Sir! Sir!”

No matter how loud the calls were, Marcel didn’t respond.

The being he had deemed the most insignificant in the Rilt Empire suddenly possessed unimaginable power.

Alec could have killed him in an instant or healed him as if nothing had happened.

With shock after shock, Marcel’s mind had broken.

What made it utterly unbearable was the fact that he had knelt before them.

He wished he could just die instead, but in the end, he had no choice but to heed Alec’s words.

Who else could endure such a cycle of pain and healing in this world?

“Ugh…”

It would be a hundred times better to die than to suffer such humiliation.

When he stood before Louise and Alec, he had thought about biting his tongue.

However, the knees that had never bowed to anyone but the Emperor crumbled pathetically at Louise’s feet.

“I don’t expect you to truly feel sorry.”

“…”

“So just kneel down.”

Thud!

Bang!

“Now you can’t kill us for the rest of your life.”

“Ugh…”

Marcel felt his breath quickening as he flung open the drawers in his study.

He thought that if he didn’t take his medicine right away, he wouldn’t be able to forget this humiliation.

The sharp heel that had trampled him, Louise’s indifferent gaze, the astonished looks from the people of the Duke Brent family, and Andrew’s scornful eyes.

There was no way he could keep his head held high after experiencing such humiliation.

It wouldn’t take long for the gossip to spread through high society.

“Sir! Why are you acting like this all of a sudden? Sir! Please calm down!”

“Ugh!”

Marcel swatted away the hands reaching for him.

All he could think about was the need to find his medicine.

He grabbed the nearest vial of pills and, in a frenzy, poured them into his mouth.

Even though he knew it was poison, he swallowed them down as if they were genuine medicine.

“Sir!”

“Let go! Just let go!”

The terrified butler and servants tried to stop him, but he desperately shoved more pills into his mouth.

His mind was filled with nothing but shame, humiliation, and the self-destructive urge that he couldn’t bear any longer without destroying himself.

He thought it would be better to disappear than to continue living in disgrace under those he had once trampled.

TL NOTE: More advanced chapter of this story is already up to the site. Visit dusk blossoms for more advanced chapters and stories