Chapter 86

Meia gently asked Rebecca.

“What do you want, Rebecca?”

“My lady, please erase the surname Lakia.”

“Then, is there another name you’d like to have, Rebecca?”

“Heden. I want to change it to Heden.”

Rebecca spoke with difficulty, her tears showing no sign of stopping.  

The endless tears flowing down her face revealed just how long she had endured in her nightmare.  

Meia embraced Rebecca warmly.  

“Try to get some sleep, Rebecca.”

“I don’t want to sleep. My lady, even if I see Baron Lakia being sent to prison, I’m afraid it might just be a dream… I’m too scared to sleep.”  

Her trembling eyes were filled with sorrow and anger.  

“The scars won’t disappear, but a future where those scars can be hidden will come.”

Rebecca burrowed deeper into Meia’s arms and closed her eyes.  

“This isn’t a dream, right?”

“It’s not a dream.”

“Hic…”

Meia handed the unconscious Rebecca, who had fallen asleep in her arms, to Agnita and asked her to lay her on the bed.  

Her cheeks and the corners of her eyes were still covered in bruises that hadn’t faded.  

Meia personally soaked a handkerchief in warm water and wiped Rebecca’s hands and face.  

“Lady Meia, let me do it.”

“No, Agnita. I want to do it myself.”

Meia gazed at Rebecca’s arms and hands as she carefully wiped them.  

“Agnita, it must have hurt a lot when Meryl hit you for no reason, right?”

“Yes, it hurt, but I endured it thinking about seeing you, Lady Meia.”

“How did Rebecca endure it?”

An overwhelming feeling surged up to the top of her head.  

“Ugh… mm.”

“Rebecca?”

“My lady.”

Rebecca stirred, slowly opening her eyes, and spoke to Meia, who was wiping her hands.  

“When I closed my eyes, my mother appeared. She used to say ‘I love you’ and hug me, but today, she told me, ‘Now you can close your eyes in comfort.’”

Meia said nothing and gently stroked Rebecca’s head.  

“The servants I lived with, my father, my younger brother, even my nanny—I met them all.”

Rebecca smiled as tears streamed down her face.  

“This isn’t a dream, right?”

“No, it’s not.”

“Actually, I wish this was a dream. I think it would be better if the dream where I met my family and nanny was the reality.”

“But Rebecca, this is reality.”

“This reality isn’t so bad either. I’m glad that only one of the two situations I like is a dream. I hope that when I close my eyes again, I can see them in my dreams once more.”

“Lie down again and close your eyes. Think of the happy times, Rebecca.”

Rebecca closed her eyes again. Meia, stroking her head, unconsciously wiped her own tears as they fell.  

Then, she spoke to Juan.  

“Juan, bring me all the evidence from the place Rebecca mentioned.”

Juan bowed and disappeared into the shadows.  

Using teleportation, Juan immediately began digging the ground near Rebecca’s mother’s grave.  

He found a box buried in the soil, retrieved it, and checked its contents before storing it in a magical subspace.  

After tidying up the area, Juan pulled out the weeds that had grown there and placed chrysanthemums on each of Rebecca’s family graves.  

“May you rest in peace.”

Suddenly, a fierce wind blew over Juan’s head. The sound of the wind resembled a sorrowful wail.  

Rebecca repeatedly fell asleep and woke up several times. At Meia’s request, Physician Worst decided to give her a strong sedative to help her sleep deeply.  

After confirming that Rebecca was sound asleep, Meia left the room with a complicated expression. She had always thought her life was the most miserable in the world, but she realized that was arrogance.  

“Has she calmed down?”

“Not at all.”

What should she call this overwhelming emotion? It would have been easier if it were anger.  

“This is not something a human being should do. Baron Lakia deliberately ruined the families of beautiful young ladies to make them indebted, forced them into marriage, abused them, and then handed them over to other men…”

What was even crueler was that he gagged them to prevent them from biting their tongues to commit suicide and tied them up so they couldn’t move, worried they might harm themselves and reduce their ‘value.’ The only part of their body left free was their eyes.  

In a dark corner of the room, death must have been their only hope. The fact that Rebecca wasn’t the only woman who suffered this fate made Meia’s brow furrow deeply.  

“Theo, I have a favor to ask.”

“Tell me anything, Mei.”

“Don’t let the Baron die easily.”

“Understood.”

“Don’t let him escape through death.”

“I’ll do as you wish.”

Theodore pulled the sorrowful Meia into his arms and silently patted her back.  

“I’ll make things right. I’ll make sure this never happens again.”

***

Theodore ordered Versha to capture Baron Lakia.  

“If he resists even slightly, sever his Achilles tendons and drag him here.”

“Understood.”

“Versha.”

“Yes.”

“I can’t stand to see him brought here comfortably.”

Versha understood exactly what Theodore wanted.  

“Understood.”

Baron Lakia was captured by the knights of the Grand Duke Florence family, who stormed into his room.  

He screamed and shouted.  

“Ahhh! What are you doing?!”

“Baron Lakia! This is an order from the Grand Duke.”

“An order from His Grace or not, get out of my way immediately!”

Versha severed the tendons in Baron Lakia’s ankles as he screamed.  

“Ahhh! What! Aghhh!”

Baron Lakia writhed in pain, unable to comprehend what was happening to him, his face twisted in agony.  

Severing the Achilles tendons was a punishment used to prevent criminals from escaping.  

It was a punishment reserved for the most heinous criminals.  

Versha spoke to the knights.  

“His Grace has ordered us not to bring him here comfortably.”

“Ahhh! It hurts! It hurts!”

Blood poured from both his ankles, leaving the floor covered in blood.  

Before Baron Lakia could even process what was happening, he was thrown into a black carriage used to transport criminals.  

“What crime have I… cough.”

“Human trafficking.”

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Lady Nordic confessed everything.”

Baron Lakia thought and thought again. What could Lady Nordic have confessed? There were too many incriminating things to count, and the pain in his ankles made it impossible to focus.  

“Lady Nordic is a liar who can’t open her mouth without lying… Believing her words and treating me like this is a huge mistake!”

“The evidence is solid.”

“Grr…”

Baron Lakia, dragged into the underground prison, was roughly shoved onto a chair by the knights.  

Across from him sat Theodore, who stared at him before speaking.  

“Versha, you brought him in too intact.”

“My apologies.”

Theodore clasped his hands together and rested them on his crossed legs, wearing a relaxed expression.  

“Baron Lakia.”

“…Yes.”

“Rebecca is alive.”

“…!”

He had hidden her in a secret space within his mansion. A place no one could find. Only those who paid a large sum of money could enter.  

“How did you…”

Baron Lakia’s face turned pale. It felt as though his deepest secret had been exposed.  

“Are you curious how Rebecca survived and made it to the Grand Ducal household? She handed over some very interesting ledgers to me. Besides that, you and Lady Nordic seem to have enjoyed embezzling funds. You must have had a lot of fun kidnapping and trafficking people…”

“Embezzlement? I’ve never done such a thing.”

Bang!  

Theodore slammed the desk hard, making Baron Lakia tremble in fear.  

“Who’s the person backing you?”

“Backing me…?”

“Human trafficking isn’t something someone like you could mastermind or take full responsibility for, Baron Lakia.”

If he spoke about that person, he would die. But either way, Baron Lakia was already a dead man.  

“Even if I disappear, human trafficking won’t stop.”

“How loyal of you.”

“As for the people behind this… Let’s just say I’m grateful to them for bringing some fun into my life.”

If he couldn’t play with people as he pleased, life wouldn’t be worth living.  

“What’s the point of living if it’s not fun?”

Baron Lakia didn’t care about the honor of his family.  

“Just kill me. My only regret is not being able to take Lady Meia as my fourth wife, hahaha.”

Wham.  

Theodore grabbed Baron Lakia by the collar and punched him in the face with all his might after hearing him mention Meia. Blood gushed from the baron’s nose, but he laughed loudly, enjoying the situation.  

“Cough… haha.”

With an icy expression, Theodore spoke calmly.  

“Torture him to the brink of death, and use holy water only to keep him alive.”

***

Theodore and Meia decided to hold a public trial for everyone to witness.  

When a public trial is held, people bring stones to throw. Some also bring trash. The reason they bring these items is to throw them at the criminals during recess in the trial proceedings.  

The date of the trial was approaching quickly.  

The trial would take place in a dome-shaped courtroom.  

The judge would sit at the highest point, the observers and victims would sit in the middle, and the criminals would be bound and seated at the lowest point. The criminals were only allowed to raise their heads to confess their crimes.  

Baron Lakia, Lady Nordic, her husband, and Diana were all bound and kneeling.  

The judge first addressed Lady Nordic, who had been brought in by the knights.  

“Amanda of the Nordic family, you are here as a criminal accused of embezzling funds from the Florence family and participating in human trafficking with Baron Lakia. Do you admit to all these charges?”

“I admit them. I knew Baron Lakia was profiting from human trafficking and I overlooked it. I repent for the crime of embezzlement and present all the evidence.”

Baron Lakia was outraged by Lady Nordic’s confession.  

“This is unfair! I never embezzled anything.”

However, the ledgers in the judge’s hands were evidence Rebecca had kept while enduring abuse in Baron Lakia’s house, hoping for a day when she could take revenge.  

“We have confirmed that the handwriting in the evidence provided by Lady Nordic matches that of Baron Lakia.”

Bang, bang, bang.

“This… this is impossible.”

“Hand the ledger to Baron Lakia.”

An aide stood and handed one of the ledgers to Baron Lakia.  

As he looked through it, his face turned pale.  

“This can’t be! Why is this here?!