TPOTLPIM Chapter 39

Creeeeak—

Count Otmin Serin, trapped in the dark and damp underground prison, lifted his head at the sound of the heavy door opening. He had been simply waiting for the day he would die with a heart that had given up on everything. Unable to have proper meals for such a long time, his cheeks had sunken deeply long ago, and his entire body was so drained of strength that even the clothes he wore felt cumbersome. Had the demon finally come to kill him? During this time, the demon had tormented Count Otmin Serin with all manner of strange behavior, delighting in things like throwing him raw, uncooked wild animals to eat.

As he raised his head while sitting collapsed on the floor, the silhouette of a man gazing at him from beyond the bars came into view. The shadow created by a man with a much more imposing physique than the demon stretched into the prison cell where he was confined. To make out the man's face in the darkness, Otmin had to crane his head upward for quite some time. Before long, a low, deep voice that sounded like a murmur flowed from the man's lips.

"My apologies for the late greeting, father-in-law."

"Where did Uncle Maksian go?"

"Oh, that's right. Where did that cunning Maksian go? Is he tucked away in some corner reading books again?"

A robust worker frantically made excuses to Cecilia, who was searching for Maksian in the workshop. The worker was drenched in nervous sweat. Indeed, lately Maksian often wore a dazed expression as if he had lost his mind somewhere, and vanishing during work was not the first occurrence today. All of this had been going on since the day that outsider child called Midanel came to work for a day and then vanished.

Whether she failed to see the worker's flustered appearance, Cecilia spoke with composure.

"Is that so? I'm going out for a bit, but if you see Uncle Maksian, please tell him to come to the mansion in the evening."

When Cecilia left the workshop, the worker stroked his chest and muttered.

"Where the hell has that Maksian been going lately."

Having completed her preparations for going out, Cecilia visited Lady Catherine's estate to attend a reading club after a long absence. When she was escorted into the drawing room, the young ladies of the reading club who had already assembled and were about to begin their discussion welcomed Cecilia.

Cecilia hastily went in and took her seat, removing the shawl she had draped around herself.

"I'm really sorry for being late. I've been taking over my father's work lately, so I often can't make it on time."

"It's fine, it's because of work. The Serin family business seems to be doing well these days."

"Haha, rather than that, preparation is necessary for prosperity."

Cecilia smiled meaningfully in response to the understanding smiles of the young ladies. No, it was an ordinary smile, but at least to Rosein who was present, it appeared to carry some significance. Rosein bit her lips from unease.

As far as Rosein knew, there was nowhere currently entrusting weapon production to the Serin family. Yet what could be making Cecilia so busy? According to what she had heard from Count DeNeuve, the Serin family was still producing weapons in small amounts but consistently—could it be that the Serin family was waiting for the impending downfall of the DeNeuve family?

["The DeNeuve family can't defeat the Serin family anyway. Rather than confronting them and failing to win, wouldn't it be better to aim for a cooperative relationship?"]

As Dmitri's words from a few days ago echoed in her ears, the distressed Rosein sighed deeply while clutching her dress hem tightly. Should she really form a cooperative relationship with the Serin family?

["Don't try to oppose Miss Cecilia."]

Dmitri's warning not to oppose Cecilia wouldn't leave her mind. The relationship was already strained—where was there room to turn it back?

When there was a brief break in the middle of the reading club, Rosein approached Cecilia after much deliberation.

Standing beside Cecilia, Rosein carefully began to speak.

"Cecilia, could we talk outside for a moment?"

"What about? It's cold outside, can't we do it here?"

"It won't take long."

Rosein led the somewhat annoyed-looking Cecilia out of the reception room to the end of an empty corridor.

"What did you want to talk about so secretively, Rose?"

"Well, you see, Cecilia."

Unlike Cecilia who smiled refreshingly, Rosein gradually lowered her head. She nervously fidgeted with her hands clasped in front of her dress, then soon clenched her fists tightly enough for her nails to dig in, as if making a decision.

"I'm sorry. Cecilia."

With her apology, Rosein bowed her head deeply. At the same time, a teardrop fell plop onto the carpet on the floor.

"Why are you suddenly like this, Rosein?"

Cecilia calmly tried to help Rosein stand up.

"I'm sorry, truly sorry. You know what I'm apologizing for, Cecilia!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Cecilia feigned ignorance about the matter between them, just as Rosein had once done at Odik Castle. Rosein forced her unwilling lips to move and began confessing her wrongs one by one.

"Hic... Even knowing that you liked Dmitri, I met with him. And I pretended not to know when you spoke about Dmitri to me, without revealing our relationship to you."

"Rose, your meeting with Lord Dmitri was beyond your control. They say love and sneezing cannot be concealed—what could have prevented the feelings that blossomed between two people? Moreover, you already explained to me why you couldn't speak of it. You said it was because you felt sorry."

Cecilia smiled kindly, but Rosein could tell. That the smile of her long-time friend before her wasn't genuine. Cecilia had no intention of accepting her apology.

But Rosein needed Cecilia's true heart. Her father, who had become noticeably more irritable lately as business was not going as desired, and her fiancé, who pressed her to forge good relations with the Serin family. The two men closest to her had begun to constrict her suffocatingly.

After discovering another face of her once-gentle fiancé, Rosein had been perpetually uneasy as if standing on the edge of a precipice. Doubts had crept into her belief that her fiancé would bestow upon her such ideal and self-sacrificing love as to unconditionally grant her the empire's supreme power and wealth. To Rosein now, reclaiming Cecilia's true heart appeared to be an escape route that could resolve all this unease.

Apologies that failed to strike at the heart of the matter could not win Cecilia's sincerity. Rosein finally realized that to obtain even a small piece of Cecilia's heart, she had no choice but to first lay bare her own true feelings.

In the end, she crumpled down as if collapsing and unraveled the dark thoughts she had kept tightly concealed within her heart.

"I'll acknowledge it, Cecilia. Hic... I wanted to feel superior to you, so I met Dmitri. That's how it began, but it's true that I gradually came to care for him. Sob... Yet even while meeting him, I took pleasure in watching your expression when you spoke of him. Yes, I'll acknowledge it all. I was in the wrong."

Cecilia knelt down before the collapsed Rosein and drew out a pristine white handkerchief.

"Stop crying, Rose. You'll have to face the reading club ladies later."

At the kind touch wiping away her tears, Rosein just blinked her pretty eyes. Facing that warm face, it felt as if they had returned to the past.

"Get up, Rose. Everyone must be waiting."

Rosein grabbed the arm of Cecilia who was helping her up and asked desperately.

"Are you forgiving me, Cecilia?"

At those words, Cecilia's blue eyes grew cold in an instant. Rosein watched her longtime friend's expression gradually solidify moment by moment, her heart pounding with dread. Then, unlike the gentle demeanor she had shown while wiping away tears, sharp words flowed from Cecilia's lips like a declaration brimming with firm resolve.

"No, I cannot forgive you. Not because of the wrongs you confessed, but because you chose to apologize for them now."

In the carriage returning after the reading club ended, Cecilia looked out the window at the passing scenery with complicated feelings.

Rosein's crying face was vivid before her eyes.

Why didn't you feel sorry toward me earlier? If you had confessed the truth on the day you received the engagement invitation and rushed to the DeNeuve estate in shock, I would have blessed your engagement. No. Even on the day we held the reading club at Odik Castle—if you had apologized even then, I would have forgiven you.

But now the relationship between the two had traveled too far to be undone.

"You must have felt driven into a corner."

Cecilia murmured, laden with bitterness. Wasn't the timing of the apology quite exquisite? Cecilia had been intentionally provoking Count DeNeuve whenever opportunities arose lately. Rosein's apology appeared, no matter how one viewed it, to be a reflexive outcome born from agitating Count DeNeuve's anxieties.

The current Cecilia was not soft-hearted enough to accept such a thoroughly calculated apology from an old friend who had betrayed her trust, nor did she have such emotional luxury.

Cecilia arrived at the Serin estate only around sunset and sat at the desk in the study to begin drawing weapon designs.

Then there was a knock followed by a middle-aged man's voice.

"Miss, it's Maksian."

"Come in, Uncle."

Maksian, with a tired-looking face, hesitantly entered the study. Cecilia approached him and spread her arms wide to embrace him.

"You must have had a hard time at the DeNeuve estate. I'm sorry for making someone whose creed is honesty tell lies."

Maksian smiled faintly.

"My creed is 'be honest only to honest people.'"

The two sat at the table and discussed the progress of the operation they had plotted together. The operation the two had devised was called the 'as you say' operation.

"As you told me, Miss, I said that when tempering the metal needed for weapons, post-processing not in the blueprints was necessary. I also demonstrated and explained the post-processing method myself."

Cecilia smiled a complex smile mixed with bitterness and relief.

"Now complaints about DeNeuve weapons will really pour in just as I said."

On the day of Rosein's tea party, what Cecilia had planted in Count DeNeuve was a small anxiety. She had boasted loudly that there was a secret technique unique to the Serin family not in the blueprints, but in reality, no such secret technique existed.

However, Count DeNeuve, who had recklessly expanded his business while taking advantage of the Serin family's moment of instability, appeared to suffer psychological damage even from a single baseless remark. Being someone who possessed only basic knowledge about weapon production without profound expertise, it would have been difficult for him to discern the veracity of her words.

On the day Rosein invited her to play word puzzle games in the garden, Cecilia intuited that the plan was progressing smoothly when she witnessed Count DeNeuve's obsequious smile as he gazed at her and laughed.

As anticipated, Count DeNeuve, unable to endure his unease, recruited Maksian, who had worked longest among the Serin family's workers and had shouldered important responsibilities. Cecilia had compiled in advance a list of those Count DeNeuve might attempt to approach, and Maksian was among them. Now the false secret technique that Maksian had imparted to him would gradually corrode the metals used in the weapons, diminishing their durability and transforming Cecilia's prophecy into reality.

"Count DeNeuve made a mistake. How could he not know after all those years that Uncle Maksian is someone who lives by his convictions?"

"That's not all. He also overlooked how much I love my wife and daughter. He dared to mention my family to try to manipulate me."

Maksian shuddered as if shaking off something unpleasant. Then he pledged his loyalty to Cecilia in a heavy tone filled with sincerity.

"Miss. I will never forget your kindness. When I returned completely broken from the demon's forest, you cared for me like a father."

"You don't know how much strength you gave me at that time, Uncle."

Cecilia also spoke with genuine feeling. When her father had gone missing, Maksian's return alive was like salvation itself to her. Thanks to Maksian, she learned of her father's traces and could nurture hope that her father too was alive like Maksian. That was why she tended to Maksian with even greater devotion. Watching him recover day by day, she renewed her faith that her father would soon return to share everyday life with her.

Cecilia clasped Maksian's weathered hands with both of hers. From those tightly held hands, she truly seemed to feel her father's warmth.

After Maksian departed, Cecilia drew aside the heavy curtains that veiled the study window to gaze outside. The waning sunset light surged instantly through the parted curtains, bathing the study in crimson. Through the window, she could see the expansive gardens of Count Serin's estate suffused in scarlet hues and the servants bustling to and fro.

But she now envisioned in her mind an even more vast and extensive place that couldn't be seen but existed behind the mansion.

In the weapon production facilities and smithies scattered throughout the Serin family's land, there were workers who looked only to the Serin family and worked up a sweat today. Not only that. In the homes where the workers would return to around this time of sunset, there were wives and children whose livelihoods they had to support.

Cecilia reminded herself that she was in a position where she had to take responsibility for many people's lives.

'I need to steel my heart.'

Due to the false secret technique she had spread to the DeNeuve family, the DeNeuve family would soon collapse without resistance. The sensation of driving another's life into an abyss with her own hands was not pleasant, but this was something that had to be done for the Serin family. Whenever her heart threatened to grow soft, Cecilia recalled words that Teros had once spoken.

["Listen well, Cecilia. This is like throwing a bomb that's about to detonate. You must quickly pass it to someone else before it explodes in your hands."]

The path for the two families to coexist had already vanished. The snare she had laid was also a trap that Count DeNeuve would not have fallen into had he not resorted to the underhanded method of recruiting workers.

Cecilia took a long, thin deep breath to steady herself.

"Teros, I'm doing well, aren't I?"

When she softly called the name of her husband from whom she had parted immediately after their wedding, she felt somehow tranquil as if he were together with her. Imagining that if Teros had been present in this situation, he would certainly have said she had done well and stroked her head, Cecilia smiled gently.