The Unemployed Prince Covets My Nephew - Chapter 37
“This old mother has misspoken. Please calm your anger…”
“Mother, you say. Do you really think so?”
“Y-Your Highness?”
“How can the murderer of my parents be my mother?”
“……!”
The Baroness was so shocked that she lifted her head.
‘How on earth does she know?’
Seeing her pupils shaking uncontrollably, Hailey was certain.
Although it was said to be a carriage accident, the coachman who supposedly drove the carriage that day didn’t exist, and the bridge where the accident occurred had been washed away by a major flood and was impassable for years.
There was no way an accident could have happened on a non-existent bridge.
The Baroness lowered her head again but, seeing Hailey’s clenched fist filled with rage, she flattened herself even more.
“I-I don’t know anything about it!”
“Why did you kill them? Were you so greedy for the barony?”
“I really don’t know anything! Your Highness, please believe me! It was all that man…!”
“If you say you don’t know one more time, I’ll order you to be torn apart right here.”
The Baroness trembled all over like a shaking aspen.
“The Langston barony is already extinct. Thanks to you. You and your old family sold their title and disappeared long ago. Count Roman will soon be beheaded, and his head will hang in the square for a month. Naturally, the head of the man who was my father will be hung next to his.”
“Ugh… ugh…”
“…There’s only one head left. Aren’t you curious what will happen to it?”
The Baroness, lying flat and sobbing as if she were about to die, finally confessed while trembling violently.
“Because the house was so warm…”
“……”
“I needed money. I didn’t even have clothes to put on my child… So I went with him to see the Baron, but it was so warm. They gave us food, warm water, soft bread… How could I stand those carefree faces, those eyes…”
“So you killed them? Because my parents welcomed you?”
“It was originally the house my husband was supposed to have, and the place I was supposed to be! If it weren’t for your parents…!”
Recalling the past, the Baroness finally lifted her head.
She looked at Hailey with eyes full of hatred and contempt, and screamed.
The Langston barony was originally a humble noble family in the countryside. But Hailey’s real father had accumulated wealth with his unique business acumen and was able to come to the capital.
So it could never have been originally theirs. If that demon, not Hailey’s father, had inherited the barony from the start, it would have been a place that ceased to exist long ago.
Hailey’s biological mother warmly welcomed her husband’s younger brother and his wife. Hailey was just one year old at the time.
She welcomed them with the heart of a mother, prepared a place for them in the mansion, and said they could stay until they settled down.
She could never have imagined that such kindness would be repaid with murder.
“Your father wouldn’t have died like that if he had accepted my proposal.”
The woman thought there was no one more handsome than her husband, but she was utterly shocked when she saw Hailey’s father, the Baron and her husband’s elder brother.
He was tall and elegant, resembling her husband but more masculine and flamboyant, with a noble air in every gesture.
She was confident in her ability to seduce men. So, she entered his study late at night, dressed only in her underwear.
However, he became furious and ordered her to leave the house by morning.
She secretly stabbed him in the back with a knife she had hidden as he turned away. To ensure he wouldn’t survive, she climbed on top of his lifeless body and stabbed him several more times.
Eventually, she woke her husband and confessed that the Baron had assaulted her, leading her to accidentally kill him. Her husband then killed the sleeping Baroness.
Hailey bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.
Recalling that time, the Baroness laughed like a madwoman.
She stared at Hailey with bloodshot eyes and spat near Hailey’s feet.
“You’ve done well for someone with that wooden body. Do you have the same talent as your mother?”
After spewing a long string of contemptuous words at Hailey like a deranged person, she suddenly seemed to regain her senses and, trembling with fear, flattened herself on the ground again.
“I-I’m sorry! I was wrong! I was wrong! Please spare me… I don’t want to die. Please spare me…”
Suddenly, she lifted her head and clutched the bars, screaming.
Inside the prison, she was already out of her mind. Hailey watched her silently.
Kieran, who had been waiting at a distance, rushed over. Hailey raised her hand to stop him.
“Do you remember? Whenever a new maid came to the house, you would always stand her in front of me and say, ‘If you don’t marry into a prestigious noble family, you’ll end up like that vermin.’”
“……”
“You told me that if I didn’t want to become a parasite, I should clean windows diligently like her.”
Hailey stepped on the back of the Baroness’s dry, scarred hand, just as she had done to Hailey on the day Hailey first stood up to her.
Unlike that day, the high heel of Hailey’s shoe tore into the woman’s hand, causing her to scream in pain and contort her face.
“It’s unfortunate that you’re now worse than a parasite. In people’s memories, you’ll just be a filthy murderer who was beheaded in disgrace. In a few years, you won’t even exist as that; you’ll disappear forever.”
“Ugh… Ugh…!”
The Baroness tried to grab Hailey’s ankle with her uninjured hand, but Kieran ruthlessly kicked her hand away.
“If you had let me go when I asked, you would have remained the Baroness.”
“……”
“Thanks to you, I now know my true origins. I was worried I might be the daughter of vermin like you.”
Hailey returned the Baroness’s words to her and turned away without hesitation.
At Kieran’s signal, the bars transformed back into a solid wall, silencing the Baroness’s maddened screams.
* * *
Due to the remaining issues after the trial, Axel’s departure from the palace was delayed.
Though he couldn’t handle all the matters before leaving, he intended to witness the beheadings of key figures, especially those of Baron Langston and Count Roman, before heading to Winchester.
‘Was today the day Hailey was going to prison?’
‘If Your Highness meant to say that today is the day she is visiting some prisoners, then yes, it is today.’
Khalid carefully interpreted Axel’s potentially misleading statement.
Khalid found observing Axel these days incredibly intriguing. Having spent almost his entire life as Axel’s friend and retainer, he knew Axel wasn’t the type to be considerate of others.
Yet, Axel personally ordered the Eligos Knights to guard the princess consort and asked Khalid about her schedule several times a day. Khalid, already busy, was now overwhelmed with keeping track of the princess consort’s schedule as well.
‘How did she seem?’
‘…I’m not sure?’
‘You’ve been lax lately. How can you not know that?’
Khalid felt wronged.
Busy following the prince around all day, how was he supposed to know the princess consort’s mood, and why did he have to know it?
Having rushed back and forth between the princess consort’s palace and the prince’s, Khalid reported.
‘…Huff, huff. Your Highness, the princess consort has just moved.’
‘Really?! Then you can go to the little one now.’
‘Pardon?’
‘If the little one is left alone, Hailey will undoubtedly worry. It’s late, so go and stay with the child.’
Prince Theodore was not alone. The maids of the princess consort’s palace were with him.
But Khalid, fearing he’d get hit if he protested further, reluctantly headed back to the princess consort’s palace, failing once again to finish his day.
* * *
“He should be here by now.”
Having sent Khalid away, Axel ended up walking alone with a lamp to the princess consort’s palace.
Naturally, it was unusually quiet. Only a few guards on duty passed by, asking if he needed anything, only to be rebuffed with a stern, ‘Nothing!’
“…Axel?”
After pacing back and forth with one hand behind his back and the other holding a lamp, Axel finally heard the voice he had been waiting for.
He almost turned around immediately but managed to maintain his composure and slowly turned.
It was Hailey, accompanied by Kieran.
Kieran, standing rigidly, bowed to Axel, but Axel did not acknowledge him.
Though he waited, this was not the face he had been waiting for.