So I Was the Persecuted Grand Duchess Destined to Die? Chapter 43

At daybreak, Xavier went straight to the reception room where the servants had been assembled.

There, he received every statement related to yesterday’s incident without missing a single one.

“So… in the end, according to everyone’s testimony here, Katharina Hugo attempted to deliberately harm the Grand Duchess.”

“Y-yes! That’s correct, Your Grace.”

“And you ladies. Has your opinion changed at all?”

At that, the young ladies traded glances among themselves.

“Your Grace, actually…”

A green-eyed lady looked as though she’d made up her mind and was just about to begin—

Bang!

“Xavier!”

Unlike her usual perfectly put-together self, Katharina burst into the room in disarray, flinging the doors open.

She strode straight toward Xavier, who sat at the head of the room, talking nonstop.

“I simply can’t believe this! All of you are trying to frame me as an attempted murderer! What is the meaning of—”

“Shut your mouth.”

The room froze.

It wasn’t even loud, but the low, resonant voice carried a force that made everyone tense instinctively.

But Katharina’s momentum didn’t fade.

“Hah! You believe those pathetic lies? There’s no way I would do such a thing. I’m the Grand Duchess’s one and only maid!”

Katharina raged, pouring out her indignation.

It sounded sickeningly false.

Xavier’s eyes sharpened as he mocked her immediately.

“And you also hated that Grand Duchess. The only person who doesn’t know that is probably the Grand Duchess herself.”

“T-that’s…! Oh—Lilian, say something! Back me up!”

Having run out of words, Katharina latched onto Lilian the moment their eyes met.

Startled, Lilian shook her head rapidly.

“Me? How could I possibly—”

“You little—then why are you even here?! Honestly, every last one of you is useless!”

Katharina screamed with her usual temper.

But she’d overlooked one thing.

The situation had completely changed.

All expression drained from Lilian’s face in an instant.

The other ladies looked the same.

“Your Grace, I will tell you what I couldn’t finish saying yesterday.”

Without even glancing at Katharina, Lilian addressed Xavier directly.

Katharina felt a flicker of alarm at Lilian’s unfamiliar, icy expression.

Then the confession came, swift and merciless.

“We came to Celeste at Lady Katharina’s request.”

“W-what?!”

Katharina stared, but Lilian didn’t stop.

“To humiliate Lady Renée, and to teach her painfully what high society is like. In other words, it was meant to be a public shaming.”

“Lilian!”

Katharina, beyond panicked and now furious, tried to lunge—

“Do not move!”

“Eek—what is this?! Let go!”

Knights who had already surrounded the room seized Katharina and dragged her before Xavier.

They bound her hands and forced her to her knees.

“How dare you! I’m a count’s daughter! Do you have no chivalry? How can you treat a lady so roughly?!”

“Silence. If you make another sound, we will gag you.”

“Th-this is insane!”

“Continue,” Xavier said.

Ignoring Katharina’s sobbing with cold indifference, Xavier turned back to Lilian.

Lilian swallowed hard, then spoke again.

“Ever since the marriage news began to spread, Lady Katharina has hated Lady Renée. At banquets where we happened to meet, and in letters we exchanged, everything was filled with venom toward Lady Renée.”

“It’s true,” Julie added from nearby. “There’s plenty of proof in my desk drawer. All of the ladies close to Katharina would have similar things.”

Serena nodded along as well.

“We thought it would stop at complaints. How could Lady Katharina possibly overturn a marriage arranged by His Majesty the Emperor?”

“But she forced her way into the castle as the Grand Duchess’s maid. She said she’d reclaim her rightful place and waited for an opening. Even then I thought it wasn’t normal, but…”

As the explanation dragged on, Xavier cut in, pinning the point.

“Back to the matter at hand. I will ask all of you. What do you think about the claim that Katharina Hugo meant to harm the Grand Duchess?”

“We didn’t witness it directly, but given the circumstances, I don’t believe it’s entirely baseless,” Lilian said.

“Yes,” Julie said. “Lady Katharina’s anger was worse than we realized.”

“No! You—what are you even saying?! I only wanted to embarrass her a little! That’s all!”

But nobody listened to Katharina’s shrill defense.

“And… Lady Katharina has always been vain and prone to exaggeration,” Lilian said calmly. “Even humoring her was part of our role.”

Lilian confessed what she’d been hiding.

Admitting wrongdoing wasn’t easy, but she had no intention of stopping.

Because Renée’s honest, upright face kept flashing through her mind.

“It’s shameful to say, but… being by Lady Katharina’s side came with benefits.”

Standing near Katharina meant attention.

She was beautiful, always ahead of trends, and the Hugo house was among the richest in the empire.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say society revolved around her.

“What?! You disgusting snakes! You called yourselves my friends! Did you think I ever saw you as real friends? You’re just my props!”

“To keep posturing even now—Lady Katharina, come to your senses! Read the room!”

“Please behave like a noble!”

As the four young ladies snapped at one another, the atmosphere in the reception room turned uglier by the second.

“Enough.”

With a headache pounding, Xavier spoke.

The moment his word dropped, all voices vanished.

Everyone in the room felt pressure so heavy it was hard to breathe.

They couldn’t forget:

This was the Grand Duke of Celeste, a man with power and force second only to the Emperor.

If he chose, he could crush every life in this room.

“Y-Your Grace…”

Hands trembling as she clasped them, Lilian dropped to her knees.

Julie and Serena followed suit.

“Please show mercy. We were thoughtless, and we feel overwhelming guilt and responsibility.”

“Now we only wish for Her Grace the Grand Duchess to wake safely.”

As the tide turned against her, Katharina’s wide eyes filled with tears.

“But I truly did not harm the Grand Duchess! This is all slander from people who hate me! Who was it? Was it you?!”

Not a hint of remorse could be found in Katharina’s attitude.

Instead, she grabbed the skirt of a young maid who’d been hiding at the back, watching in silence, and shrieked—

“Was it you?!”

“Eek!”

The maid stumbled back in terror.

“Y-you pushed the Grand Duchess… Everyone here saw it…!”

Her voice was barely audible as she scurried behind the knights.

Just then—

Thud, thud, thud!

Urgent knocking rattled the reception room doors.

“Your Grace!”

A middle-aged couple, faces as pale as Katharina’s, burst in.

“…Count Hugo?”

They were Katharina’s parents: Count Hugo and the Countess.

Surprise flickered across Xavier’s face.

The Hugo lands were far from Celeste.

I expected them to come… but not this quickly.

They must have ridden through the night the moment they heard, terrified for their precious daughter.

“Mother! Father!”

Katharina’s tears finally broke loose like a flood.