[Chapter 250] Megara’s Ruin

Abelus was stunned.

No one had ever called him stupid to his face. Not even Camille, who had verbally and nonverbally belittled and crushed him countless times.

He was momentarily at a loss for how to react. Megara continued to laugh, her eyes still unfocused.

"I'm cunning? I was just trying to survive. What else could I do? All I have left is my head. You, on the other hand, were born the child of the Emperor and Empress, even if you're stupid, you have everything. Can't I use my head a little?"

"This…!"

Abelus was taken aback by her sharp words. At the same time, he was furious.

Megara was right. When the Earl and Countess of Islani first revealed to him that Princess Camille had been framed by Megara and imprisoned, and presented her letter as evidence that Megara had made Nellusion her accomplice, Abelus had been outraged. As the Crown Prince, he couldn't tolerate the insult to the Imperial Family. But soon, he came to think that it was okay.

After all, Camille was imprisoned for attempted regicide, and it was Megara who had pushed her to attack even the Emperor. Thanks to her, Abelus was free from his sister for the first time in his life.

He just didn't want to keep Megara around anymore. Honestly, he was creeped out. He wondered how someone could be so insidious.

He thought he could just investigate her in a secret room, lock her up, and send her far away, secretly from the nobles. He could use the Lesser Marquis of Rikeandros as an excuse.

He, the Crown Prince, had been played by a lowly consort and had caused the downfall of a fellow royal. He had even dragged a Duke into it. If this got out, it would be a disgrace, so he had come to capture Megara discreetly. Several Imperial Knights were waiting outside to take her away.

But who would have thought that Megara, who should have been begging for forgiveness after being caught, would be so bold as to spew out these words?

"You've always been a joke to me. How can you be so naive as to believe that the world revolves around you? How can you be so certain that you can't be wrong? The nobles seeing your majesty and being truly impressed? It won't happen. Do you know why?"

Her pretty lips.

"It's because you're stupid, Your Highness. Oh, really. I've always wanted to say this, and it feels so good to finally say it. What good are your eyes, which are like gems? You can't sell them. Gems are just rocks, after all. Why are you so proud of them? Princess Camille, and even Princess Izet, are better than you."

Those lips, which had always spoken sweet words.

"Did you think I would beg? I haven't done anything wrong to you. I've done some wrong things to other people. But not to you. You met me, and I made you happy every day, followed you around like an ornament, played games with you, chased away the ministers you didn't like… What have you lost?"

Like a dam bursting.

"You were jealous of the Grand Duke of Maindelant, weren't you? He's handsome, intelligent, skilled… Well, you could just be jealous, but you always puffed yourself up, trying to look better than him. What about the Duke of Ellandria you're always with? He's crazy, but he knows what he wants. They're both charming men."

She spewed out words like needles.

More than any other words, Megara's last words exhausted Abelus's already shallow patience. He raised his other hand, the one that wasn't holding Megara's wrist, to cover her mouth. As their bodies drew closer.

Something silver glinted.

Clang. It was a dagger, which Abelus had carelessly knocked away and was now trembling on the floor. Abelus opened his mouth in surprise.

"You were trying to stab me…?"

Megara, who had failed to stab Abelus with the dagger she had hidden in her skirt, laughed as if she had expected it. Ha, ha, ha. Her shrill laughter grew louder.

"Yes! Our family was ruined trying to please someone like you! Natasha Grunehalz and I were both destroyed trying to have someone like you, who is worthless! My mother spent all her money trying to please someone like you, who is ugly! My father died trying to get you to look at me, someone like you, who is stupid! My brother, oh, that poor boy, said he would never look at me again! Now that my father is gone, the entire nobility will tear the Marquis's family apart! Will that boy even have enough money to buy a bottle of ink next year?"

The reason Abelus couldn't stop Megara's mouth despite the continuous insults was that he was too shocked. He never thought that the white hand that had caressed him like an angel would hold a knife.

Megara finally shed tears as she watched him standing there, his hand raised.

"I never loved you, not even one-hundredth of my sister!"

That was the end of it.

Abelus, his mind jolted by the word "sister," finally covered Megara's mouth. He shouted roughly,

"Come in! Put out the fire!"

The knights who had been waiting outside, watching the smoke, rushed into the room. Two or three of them, who had already prepared water, quickly extinguished the fire in the fireplace and the silk. Abelus's bloodshot eyes were slightly teary from the acrid smoke.

Megara was already on the verge of fainting from the smoke. Abelus, with his strong body thanks to the power of the azure gem, had no problem. He threw Megara's body to the knights like a piece of luggage.

"Throw her into the lowest level of the dungeon! She'll never get out, so there's no need to treat her well!"

The knights, who had vaguely heard Megara's words outside, didn't question the order.

****

Megara opened her eyes, feeling a terrible pain, and the first thing she saw was a bright orange dot.

What is that, she thought faintly. And when she realized that it wasn't just a dot, but a flickering torch, she…

Like waking from a dream and remembering reality, the events before she fainted flooded her mind. The chamberlain from the Crown Prince's chambers telling her that Alekto had come to Abelus with all the evidence, despair, the anger of wanting the whole world to crumble, powerlessness…

'I failed.'

For some reason, she laughed. Everything was meaningless. How did it come to this?

'Abelus.'

The words that she had never loved Abelus were a lie. Sometimes, she was attracted to him. She had found him cute in a normal way, and she had been touched by his efforts to care for her in his own way.

'But I ruined everything.'

Everything was irrevocably ruined. Her life, and the long-standing Marquis of Rikeandros's family.

Megara wasn't worried about her younger brother, the Lesser Marquis. Abelus would know that he hadn't been involved in this, and now wasn't the time to reduce the number of grand noble families. The balance between the nobles that the Imperial Family had maintained for so long had been shattered, as several grand noble families had collapsed one after another in the past few months.

But the Marquis's family was already on its deathbed, even though its roots remained. They had fallen out with their in-laws, they had spent all the money that would have protected the family, and the Marquis had died without the Lesser Marquis being prepared to take over. Naturally, they had lost most of their family's soldiers at that time.

The Lesser Marquis would probably have to grow up trembling, with nothing but his name. The name of a grand noble would be just a name.

'I'm sorry.'

The only person Megara felt sorry for was her brother. The timid boy who had followed his pretty and intelligent sister around. She had sometimes hated him because she thought the Marchioness had died giving birth to him, but she had eventually come to love him.

Megara got up, feeling miserable. Her body, which had been sprawled out, was a mess, but at least she wasn't bound. The stench made her frown.

"What, how is this… cough!"

Her throat was so hoarse that she could barely speak. Megara coughed for a long time, struggling, and looked around.

She was in a prison without a single window. A dirty, dark place big enough for four or five people. Three sides were made of unhewn stone, and the remaining side was blocked by rusty iron bars. It seemed like a sewer ran nearby, as the smell of water and filth suddenly intensified and then weakened. It probably got stronger whenever the wind blew.

The floor was covered in rat droppings and rotten straw. But the most horrifying thing was the rats, which were dead and stinking. As soon as she saw flies flying around, Megara screamed in disgust.

"Eek!"

She had never imagined such a filthy place. Her voice echoed through the dirty corridor outside the bars. Eek… Eek… Eek… Aak.

Since it was a prison, there must be guards, and other prisoners must be imprisoned in the surrounding rooms, but no one looked in despite her screams. Megara was surrounded by her own echoes and trembled with fear for a moment.

She knew she would be imprisoned. A commoner's daughter daring to attempt to assassinate the Crown Prince. Megara knew very well that Abelus was too strong to die from such a dagger, and she just wanted to vent her frustration, since everything was over anyway. She didn't want to live anymore. But Abelus, with his selfish head, liked to orchestrate everything his own way.

He was probably making himself the protagonist of a tragedy right now, saying that he had been betrayed by the woman he loved and had even almost died.

So, Megara had already guessed and was surprised by the situation she had somewhat brought upon herself.

'No.'

She calmed herself down after a while.

'I don't need to endure this for long. I'll die soon anyway.'

Megara knew that Abelus wouldn't have killed her under normal circumstances. That's why she acted so defiantly. It was better to die than to see a world where nothing was in her hands. She wanted to disappear quickly.

But she had been terrified a few hours ago, and she had clearly acted impulsively to some extent. She hadn't seriously imagined herself being thrown into a place like this hell.

Still, she had sufficiently offended his pride, so she would be executed soon. Perhaps the Crown Prince would take all the blame for his past mistakes. Megara hoped that would happen before she became as shabby and dirty as this prison.

That was when it happened. Elegant and powerful footsteps echoed through this place, where the echoes had subsided and it was quiet.

Megara chuckled when she saw the cold face that appeared inside her iron bars shortly after. Yes, that's how it would be.

"You've finally entered the place that suits you."

Camille said in a cold tone that didn't even feel vindictive. Megara grinned.

"Did you come to mock your defeated enemy?"

"No. I don't have time for that."

"Aren't you still imprisoned? The reason for your decisive imprisonment was attempted regicide. Even if I orchestrated the Crown Prince's assassination, the attempted regicide was real, wasn't it?"

"Abel is always careless. His people don't even notice that I'm free to come and go."

A fleeting smile crossed Camille's stiff face.

"I'm here to check. To see if you have any value."

"Value? As you can see."

Megara shrugged.

"I'm in a trashy situation. I'll be even worse than trash when I die soon."

"No, I don't think so."

A clear joy now shone in Camille's eyes. She stared intently at Megara's blonde hair and purple eyes for a moment before turning away.

"I'll put something else, something more lowly, on the gallows in your place. You'll live a little longer."

Why? Megara tried to understand those words. But she couldn't anymore when a man entered the prison, opening the door, and began to chant.

A moment later, Megara became like a doll, unable to see or hear anything around her, and hugged her knees. She began to smile vacantly.

"Disguising appearances is a complicated magic."

Ulrich, the one who had to create something to put on the gallows in her place, grumbled, but he didn't seem unhappy. He soon closed the prison door again and disappeared, following Camille.