The empress in black clothes was looking at Arthe with a face immersed in sorrow.

“Your Majesty…… It’s, it’s unjust. Father is not that kind of person. Surely some false accusation……”

Tears burst from Arthe’s eyes as she urgently opened her mouth with dry lips.

“I know, Miss Arthe. Duke Frey is not that kind of person.”

The empress spoke kindly and warmly held Arthe’s two hands.

“Your, Your Majesty.”

Arthe wept with gratitude.

Though she didn’t know the life or death of her father and mother, it was clear that the family’s innocence had been revealed.

“Thank you, Your Majesty. How can I repay this kindness……”

“……Pfft.”

For a moment, Arthe doubted her ears.

However, it was clearly distinct laughter. At that laughter, Arthe looked up at the empress in a daze.

“Hahaha, ahahaha!”

The empress was laughing so hard she took out a handkerchief and even wiped her tears.

The moment Arthe’s expression hardened as she couldn’t grasp the meaning of that laughter, Empress Mariposa’s red eyes flashed with ecstasy.

“I find this time the most fun. That expression of ‘it can’t be, surely it can’t be.’ I’d like to draw it as a picture and keep it.”

The empress’s voice, speaking slowly with rhythm mixed in, was like singing a song.

Arthe looked at Mariposa’s face with a pale face.

Empress Mariposa looked down at Arthe’s expression as if it were amusing.

Only then did everything finally become clear.

The Frey ducal house, the debutante ball, the wine, father, Empress Mariposa, and the emperor’s red fresh blood.

Though her head was confused by the puzzle pieces combining in an instant, a voice flowed from her mouth automatically.

“Why on earth…… How could……”

“Thanks to that, everything that was troublesome was solved, don’t you think?”

The empress wasn’t listening to Arthe’s words.

“I was getting tired of feeding poison to that old man Antu anyway, but to dispose of all the annoying nobles at once!”

As if intoxicated with herself, Empress Mariposa grasped Arthe’s two hands with a bright face.

“I’m truly grateful. Arthe, it’s all thanks to you and your family!”

With her hands held, Arthe muttered in a daze.

“My family……”

“Is that important?”

Empress Mariposa tilted her head as if genuinely curious.

“Among the living, you’re the only one with the Frey surname now.”

A tear flowed down Arthe’s face as she looked up at the empress in a daze.

“……Why.”

“Hmm……”

The corner of Empress Mariposa’s mouth twitched as if holding back laughter.

“Actually, I had forgotten about you all this time. You were lucky, weren’t you?”

At those words, Arthe looked up at the empress in a daze, at a loss for words.

“As you know, I was quite busy after Antu died. Well, now I’m no different from an emperor.”

The empress continued talking for quite a while afterward in an affectionate tone as if addressing a close friend.

“It’s so nice talking with you, Arthe. I can drop by often, is that alright? Though I’m worried the dirty smell might stick……”

Arthe, who had lost even the strength to be angry, could only look at the empress with unfocused eyes.

And perhaps it was thanks to the empress’s words that she would drop by often.

Arthe was able to maintain her life for nearly 20 years at the very bottom of the underground prison.

Whether that was fortunate was uncertain.

***

“Really, your life is tenacious with that skinny body.”

At the very bottom of the Sable Empire’s underground prison.

Arthe, who woke up startled from sleep at Walter’s casually thrown words, rubbed her stiff eyes and answered.

“Useless talk. More importantly, what’s for today’s meal?”

“What else would there be. Today it’s also a couple pieces of dried bread.”

“That’s quite a feast. Though it might be a bit dry…… It would be fortunate if you brought plenty of water.”

Though it was a surprisingly terrible meal, Arthe was satisfied as she elegantly put the dried and twisted bread in her mouth.

It had already been 20 years since she was locked in this cesspit where sunlight didn’t reach.

During those years, Arthe’s appearance had changed remarkably.

Clothes that had become rags enough to barely cover her form and straw-like hair.

Her appearance, so emaciated she looked 10 years older, was also like that, but what had changed dramatically was something else.

“This damn bread piece got stuck in my teeth again.”

Hearing the profanity naturally melted into her utterly noble manner of speech, Walter looked at Arthe in amazement.

“No, even so, Miss, who was once a lady, what’s with that manner of speech?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

Arthe, who had quickly finished the bread, answered while elegantly tapping and wiping the corners of her mouth with rags.

“Wasn’t it you, Walter, who taught me about the new world?”

“Ah, that. Miss, you seemed like an old fogey despite your age, so I just gave you a little education about the world! But somehow the old fogey-like speech remained the same and you only learned curses, really……”

Walter clicked his tongue looking at Arthe beyond the bars.

Actually, even though he spoke gruffly, the fact that Arthe had managed to preserve her life until now was entirely Walter’s doing.

He was a guard of the underground prison, the only person who had cared for Arthe whom everyone had erased from memory.

Moreover……

Arthe briefly recalled a buried memory and caressed the deep scar remaining on her left wrist.

It was a day when Mariposa had visited as usual, thoroughly irritated her, and left.

「Oh my! What are you doing!」

Walter, who had come carrying a food tray, hurriedly unlocked the prison door and entered, grasping Arthe’s wrist.

「Even if you’re the daughter of a traitor family, still! A young miss not knowing the value of life!」

「Let go, I said let go! A descendant of a fallen family has no reason to live!」

When her only possible choice was simply prevented, Arthe shed tears and shouted.

「What’s the point of me alone preserving my life! Let me protect the minimum pride that remains!」

「What bullshit.」

「Bull……」

When Arthe, momentarily speechless, repeated ‘bull……’, Walter, who had quickly bound Arthe’s wound, turned around sharply.

「A descendant of a fallen family? That’s bullshit.」

「How…… such vulgar……. 」

「Then what, should commoners like me drown face-first in dishwater and die as soon as we’re born? Do families come first and people second, or do people come first and families second?」

But she was someone who had lived her entire life for her family. Arthe shook off Walter’s hand and opened her mouth.

「A commoner like you wouldn’t understand! Nobles have no value in living other than family honor!」

「What kind of bullheaded nonsense is that again? How old are you, Miss?」

At Walter’s question thrown as if it were absurd, Arthe was again at a loss for words.

「Just looking at you, your face is young enough to be the same age as my dead daughter…… What kind of thinking is more old-fashioned than an eighty-year-old?」

「Bull, what does bullheaded mean?」

「Your family completely collapsed and you’re here eating while covered in sh*t and piss—that’s bullheaded. And is it your fault that the family became like that, Miss? It’s all your father’s fault, isn’t it?」

「Father! How dare you, to my father…… But, but……. 」

Arthe hesitated for a moment.

After entering prison, she had spent weeks just crying, then more weeks just beating her chest.

No matter what she did, there was no way to relieve this painful heart, so she was frustrated……

「’Bullheaded’…… Yes, that’s it.」

‘Though it’s truly vulgar, it’s an appropriate word……’

「Again! Do it again! For the first time, my insides feel completely refreshed!」

「……Oh my.」

Thus she learned that spitting out accumulated anger was more comfortable for mental health than containing it.

‘This was already 20 years ago.’

Arthe smiled thinking of her first meeting with Walter.

Even after that, Walter, perhaps feeling sorry for Arthe was the same age of his dead daughter, often visited her to keep her company.

Through Walter, Arthe realized how futile the things she had thought were the world’s order—family honor, marriage to good families, etc.—had been.

As a result.

“Damn! I wish I could have a real romance before I die! I should have danced more with men at banquets……”

“Sigh…… I miss those days when I lived as a lady. If only I could shop to my heart’s content, I’d have no regrets!”

Arthe had become in a somewhat peculiar state with vulgar thoughts mixed into her old fogey-like speech.

Arthe, who finished her reminiscence while picking out bread stuck in her teeth, asked a question.

“Walter, isn’t there any interesting news today?”

“Uh…… Well, the thing is.”

Walter suddenly stammered as if flustered.

“What’s wrong?”

The smile disappeared from Arthe’s lips.

Walter, who had been hesitating, carefully put down the bundle in his hands.

“Actually…… today is the last day I’ll be coming here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m already seventy. Now I’m thinking of returning to my hometown where I buried my daughter and living while tending a vegetable garden.”

Walter, who had awkwardly joked with a playful tone, unpacked his bundle.

Arthe looked down at Walter’s wrinkled hands in a daze. Time had passed, so he had aged a lot too.

“……Are you sick somewhere?”

“……What bullshit! It’s just because I’m old.”

Walter, who had paused for a moment, tried to raise his voice cheerfully. However, he couldn’t hide his reddened eyes.

“It’s all like that. Whether you committed a mortal sin or not…… when it’s time to go, everyone goes.”

“……”

“It’s not my fault or yours, Miss…… it’s nobody’s fault. Remember that.”

To Arthe, who kept her mouth tightly shut, Walter unpacked his bundle with forced liveliness.

“I don’t know how much the new guard who’ll come will take care of you, Miss…… but with this, at least you won’t be bored.”

What was inside was a bundle of newspapers he had been reading to her all this time.

After losing her family and being locked in the underground prison, Walter had been the only person who became her family.

Before she knew it, tears were leaking from her eyes too.

“Still, since it’s the last time…… it would be nice if we could at least hold hands once through the bars……”

“That’s not difficult.”

Old Walter’s hand was warm.

“I don’t know what my dead daughter would say, but I thought of you as my own daughter, Miss. I’ve told my successor about Miss, so you won’t starve to death.”

That was her last greeting with him.

And his words that she wouldn’t starve to death soon scattered into thin air.

Now that even Old Walter had disappeared, no one remembered a fallen family’s lady.

Eventually, Arthe, who had been preserving her life by reading and even tearing up and eating the newspapers Walter had brought, starved to death just two weeks after Walter left.

Without being remembered by anyone.