‘Ugh, son of a b*tch of a son of a b*tch……’

It was obvious he had been waiting for Erica. He had kept staring at Erica in the office too. Like someone who had something to say. But judging by his poor expression and complexion, it didn’t seem like he was going to say something good.

‘I can roughly guess what he wants.’

Knowing everything, Erica pretended to be surprised and spread her skirt to bow properly. The king approached and asked in an anxious voice.

“The dream you claim to have had, is it real?”

Of course. The rumor has spread everywhere.

Erica hid her joyful smile and pretended to be flustered.

“Ah…… that’s……”

“I asked if it’s real.”

“The, the prophetic dreams I have are never wrong, Your Majesty.”

So the dream about the marquis deposing you and putting someone else on the throne.

Since Erica had talked about that story in a corridor full of guards, mages, servants, and maids, she thought the rumor would spread even if the marquis tried to hide it. Erica had been waiting for that rumor to reach the king’s ears. Her fake brother from her past life was stupid and hot-tempered, so if he knew he was being discarded, he definitely wouldn’t stay still.

‘But he can’t quite confront his own father? Seeing that he came to me.’

It would have been easier if he had gone there. Since he came to her, she was racking her brain on how to guide this situation in the direction she wanted without arousing anyone’s suspicion, when the impatient king pressed Erica.

“What about me?”

“Pardon?”

“Was I alive?”

“……”

Erica deliberately didn’t answer. Then the king’s already bad complexion became even worse.

“I, I cannot say. Only with the marquis’s permission……”

“Then just tell me if I was alive.”

Just being alive is enough. The king’s hand trembling slightly as he muttered and added. Erica deliberately shrank her shoulders and avoided his eyes. It would have been a very good fuse.

“Why won’t you answer? Why are you avoiding my eyes!”

“I cannot say anything……”

“Tell me right now!”

When the king lunged at Erica, the guards blocked him. The king’s guards didn’t get angry at the guards even though their master was being restrained. Instead, they only tried to stop the king. They must have been ordered to protect ‘Hilda’ as the top priority no matter what happened.

“Tell me right now!”

Eventually, the king caused a disturbance and was dragged away by his own guards.

‘Serves you right.’

Behind her two hands covering below her eyes as if surprised, Erica’s lips curved in a sharp smile.

‘With this much, even if I didn’t say anything, that bastard will only believe he’s going to die at his father’s hands. So now whatever he does, please do something foolish.’

Using barbarians to control barbarians. Kill enemies with enemies. Driving a wedge between the two. This was the second purpose of Erica’s fortune teller act.

As soon as she returned to her room, Erica pretended to attend to Grandma and briefly conveyed what she had heard from the marquis.

“I’m worried about Eric. Could you possibly try?”

“I’ll give it a try. It won’t be a big deal if I fail.”

“Thank you.”

Grandma closed her eyes right where she sat. As if meditating. Only then did Erica, who suddenly remembered something, make a request.

“Oh, please don’t tell Roderick that I’m pregnant.”

She didn’t want to give him more worries when he was already unable to sleep from worry. Grandma nodded with her eyes closed. She tried to sit beside her and wait, but her eyelids kept getting heavy and closing.

“Ugh, I’m tired……”

She was already tired from being pregnant, and going out briefly had completely drained her. Erica eventually couldn’t wait for Grandma’s attempt to end and quietly went to bed and lay down.

When she slept deeply and opened her eyes again, dinner had already been brought into the prison. Soon the marquis, who had seen through the crystal orbs that she had woken up, would ask through the guards if she had any dreams. Erica reviewed the ‘dream’ she had fabricated before falling asleep once more and got up.

“Are you awake?”

Grandma offered her a meal, but Erica didn’t eat and only took a sip of water while asking with her eyes.

‘How did it go?’

She was asking whether the magic she had attempted before Erica fell asleep had worked.

“It’s undercooked.”

Grandma took a bite of potato and muttered as if complaining about the food, using that as her answer instead. It meant she had failed because she hadn’t remembered the entire spell yet.

“Whew……”

Erica let out a long sigh and glanced at the crystal orb hanging in the corner of the room. Perhaps that signal was enough, as a guard knocked on the door from outside.

‘Good.’

Erica went to the marquis with her hair disheveled without even combing it, pretending to have urgent news.

“Well, did you have a dream?”

The marquis welcomed Erica with an expectant face.

“I did have a dream, but unfortunately it’s not the dream you were hoping for.”

“Then what kind of dream was it?”

Erica made a troubled face and looked around before speaking.

“I’m worried you won’t believe me……”

“What are you talking about? I trust you completely.”

She didn’t know if those words were genuine, but from today on, he would trust her completely.

“……It was a dream about His Majesty.”

Erica reluctantly revealed her fake prophetic dream.

“Maybe because I took a short nap, I couldn’t see the detailed circumstances and only saw one scene. His Majesty……”

The marquis’s gaze sharpened.

“Had passed away.”

Seeing the marquis’s gaze soften, he must have been tense thinking his son was trying to assassinate him. As expected, this father and son had no trust in each other. How easy it was to exploit distrust.

“In my eyes……”

“In your eyes?”

“You, Marquis, were……. His Majesty……”

Even just this much would have been enough for him to understand.

“You looked very angry, Marquis. I saw you shouting about some ungrateful bastard.”

“Ungrateful bastard.”

“Ah, yes! I think that was it!”

And by this point, he would also understand why he had killed his son with his own hands. Of course, it was all lies fabricated by Erica.

“Hmm……”

The marquis muttered with a serious face, pondering.

“You’re saying that bastard will betray me……”

Please do betray him. Whatever it is.

Erica hoped that the king, who had mistakenly thought from today’s daytime conversation that he was destined to die at his father’s hands, would do something foolish. And his actions would be seen as betrayal by the marquis.

The desired incident finally occurred at dawn a few days later.

“This ungrateful bastard! I made you king and now you’re trying to sell out your father?”

The cowardly and small-minded king had merely tried to steal money and valuables to preserve his own life and run away. However, in the eyes of the marquis who was already imagining rebellion, whatever the king did could only look like rebellion.

The marquis, who misunderstood that the king was opening a secret door leading outside the castle to let enemy troops infiltrate the palace and then surrender to the enemy, couldn’t control his anger and killed the king on the spot.

‘Farewell, fake brother bastard. And may someone like you never be born again anywhere.’

Thus Erica made her enemy kill his own son with his own hands.

Now there was only one target left for her revenge. Only the marquis.

* * *

“If anything happens while I’m away, shake me awake.”

Grandma made this request to Erica today as well while attempting magic. She was worried because she couldn’t protect Erica while casting magic.

“Yes, I understand.”

Erica covered Grandma, who was lying on the bed with her eyes closed, with a blanket and prayed earnestly.

‘Please let it succeed this time.’

These days, Grandma was attempting magic to contact the outside. Since magic stones were embedded everywhere in the prison creating a magic field, even if magic was used inside the room, not a speck of magic power could leak outside the room. So contacting the outside was impossible, but an experienced Grand Mage like Grandma Greta, who had been through all sorts of trials, seemed to know magic for times like this.

“The problem is that I’ve forgotten the spell because I haven’t used it in so long.”

It took over a month to remember the spell again, piece together fragments of memory while attempting, and complete the spell. Finally today, Grandma had remembered the entire spell for ‘astral projection magic.’

Astral projection magic. Instead of sending magic power outside, it separates body and soul and sends only the soul outside. The prison’s magic field blocks magic power, not souls, so it won’t be blocked or caught. The surveillance soldiers currently watching the room through crystal orbs would think Grandma was just sleeping.

Erica extinguished the candle to darken the room and lay down on the bed next to her. Since she had lied about having prophetic dreams, the marquis’s orders must have come down, because the guards didn’t wake Erica when she was sleeping. Erica pretended to sleep while intently watching Grandma’s tightly closed eyelids.

‘Seeing that Grandma isn’t opening her eyes right away, will she succeed today?’

Pregnancy makes you sleepy. She had planned to wait until Grandma opened her eyes again, but she dozed off in the meantime.

“Gasp!”

She opened her eyes again when someone gently shook her shoulder. Fortunately, it was Grandma, not a guard.

“How did it go?”

Erica whispered so her voice wouldn’t reach the crystal orb. The moment she saw Grandma’s lips curve upward in the darkness, Erica exhaled the breath she had been holding.

‘She succeeded!’

Finally, Grandma Greta had succeeded in contacting the outside.