Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 102
***
Since Izar arrived at the mansion with Freesia in his arms, the whole place was turned upside down.
What was more shocking? The fact that the master, who always built walls around himself, brought in the bastard woman in his own arms? Or that he had fiercely commanded the doctor to examine her properly? Or perhaps that the woman’s condition was truly critical?
She was constantly sweating coldly, twisting her body, retching, and struggling to breathe in her unconscious state.
The doctor, also sweating nervously, kept glancing at Izar for approval.
“This is… no matter how you look at it, some sort of… poison, Your Grace.”
“Yeah, that much is obvious.”
Izar suppressed the urge to punch the wall and glared fiercely. She had been like this after drinking, so it was clear that poison was involved.
“So, you’ve figured out what kind of poison it is, right? And the antidote?”
“Y-Yes, sir. It’s only a paralyzing agent, so if she didn’t ingest much, she should just develop a fever and then recover.”
“Only paralysis? Ha…”
It sounded simple, but for the person suffering, even breathing was a struggle in an unconscious state.
“Shxt.”
He bit back a harsher curse as he looked at Freesia. When Electra had beaten her bloody with thorny whips, he had felt something similar…
But the emotions he felt now were incomparable. At least back then, he had the excuse that he had only just returned from subduing monsters.
But tonight, he knew.
He had failed to protect her despite being near her.
He had ignored Freesia.
After the banquet, he had planned to declare that ‘this marriage is null and void’…
He had thought the Duchess Antares was just going to ‘tease’ her a bit…
He had seen countless times how wives treated women who bore their husband’s bastards and how much disdain they held for bastards among nobles.
He needed to hear from Freesia herself what had happened to leave her lying on that cold ground.
‘I can’t trust a damn thing the people of Antares say.’
Before departing for the mansion, when he met the Antares family, the mother and daughter looked incredibly confident, excluding the frantic Duke Antares.
<Your Grace, I am truly sorry. Freesia wanted some fresh air, and our maids failed to attend to her properly.>
As soon as Izar protested, Duchess Antares presented the maids who had been whipped as if she had prepared them in advance.
Fresh whip marks were clear on both their cheeks, and the hems of their indigo cotton dresses were stained black with blood.
Judging by their labored breathing, one of them looked like she might die if the wounds become infected. But Duchess Antares merely frowned with a face full of regret.
<I should have been in that room as well… I am truly sorry. I was so busy welcoming guests that I couldn’t even think of looking after my daughter.>
<You mean the daughter of the woman you killed?>
<…>
<You left that woman’s corpse to rot and fester with maggots, yet you claim to care for her daughter now?>
Izar couldn’t hold back his contempt at her hypocritical expression and insulted her directly. However, the Duchess of Antares just smiled faintly.
<But Duke, didn’t you see me chasing after Freesia?>
It was a question implying, ‘You knew I hated bastards, so why are you surprised?’
Though he thought his own stepmother was quite formidable, Freesia’s stepmother was on a whole different level.
‘Insane woman.’
At least Electra wouldn’t create a scene in front of outsiders. She took great pride in the Arcturus name.
On the other hand, Duchess Antares didn’t seem to care if she was criticized in a gathering under her husband’s name. In fact, she seemed to welcome it.
<Now, Duke Arcturus. Izar, don’t be too angry.>
Duke Antares cautiously tried to calm the fury of his ‘son-in-law’.
To properly ascertain what had happened that night, Freesia needed to wake up.
“Ugh, uh, ugh…!”
“Freesia, hang in there, breathe…!”
But there was no way to wake the woman suffering from high fever and seizures all night long.
Especially during a seizure, Freesia couldn’t breathe and curled up in pain. Watching her suffer beside the bed, Izar felt as if his insides were burning and he couldn’t breathe.
Clenching her hand tightly, Izar gritted his teeth and gave an order.
“Bring the one with the highest divine power from the temple. Right now!”
