Chapter 182

Kikal had been thinking lately that life was just too damn hard.

“This goddamn dungeon, why is it…!”

He failed to rephrase his urge to call it “fucking bullshit” in a manner befitting nobility and just spat out the curse instead.

He had dumped nearly ten times the usual time into clearing a gate that others could handle in a single day.

‘Monsters, too many monsters! Retreat!’

‘That one’s doable… no, more behind it! Retreat!’

‘Just pull three!’

Given that he’d bolted at the first sight of a swarm, it was only natural.

As a result, the state he emerged in was little better than a beggar’s rags.

The Porleng knights who’d gone in with him looked utterly fed up.

Not with the gate, but with Kikal de Porleng.

They vowed never to sortie with him again.

If the order comes to go with him, I’ll be sick for sure! Definitely getting sick!

It was while they were all praying with one mind that it happened.

“You’ve finally emerged.”

A group appeared right at the gate entrance, as if they’d been waiting.

None other than the Imperial Knights.

“?”

Kikal hesitated.

Shouldn’t meet people looking like this?

“Wh-what is it? This was a brutally tough swamp gate we just cleared…!”

An imperial knight cleanly cut off his rambling irrelevant info.

“You must come with us.”

“Where to?”

Kikal stupidly asked back.

“We just cleared the gate.”

His abrupt self-introduction was meant to emphasize his need for rest.

But the imperial knights’ cold expressions didn’t change.

Why are they here?

Waiting in case I failed, to go in my stead?

As he entertained such idiotic thoughts,

“Drag him.”

The imperial knight said something he hadn’t even imagined.

“Wh-what?”

The words fell over Kikal’s head as he was seized.

“Arrested for collusion with the Eastern Empire.”

“???”

Before he’d even properly colluded(?), Kikal was dragged off with a face gone white as a sheet.

They said House Porleng had once boasted of being a “family of great potential.”

It had surely been true before Senia took the poison.

Precisely, Senia had been the sole source of that potential—back when she held Porleng Castle.

But things were different now.

Whatever potential was gone; only criminals remained.

For starters, Viscount Porleng, who’d tried using Rikas as a spy.

He’d originally just planned to dig info from our house for himself, but when the spy he’d sent—Rikas—turned out to be a double agent for the Eastern Empire, Viscount Porleng was royally screwed.

“Un-unjust! Spies have ranks too!”

Having uttered that legendary line, he insisted that sending a spy to another Western Empire house was worlds apart from Rikas working for the enemy nation.

No matter how you sliced it, collusion with the enemy meant clan extermination, but he seemed desperate to save his neck at least.

But?

“Drag him away.”

With Shin Jae-heon deciding the punishments, no amount of barking from Viscount Porleng would change the outcome.

Viscount Porleng: off to the underground prison.

Next, Rikas de Porleng. He’d been an Eastern Empire spy from the start—no room for excuses.

Rikas de Porleng: underground prison.

Finally, Kikal de Porleng.

He’d been the least(?) guilty, but his attempt to flee to the Eastern Empire got caught red-handed.

Naturally?

Kikal de Porleng: underground prison.

A triple trip to the dungeons, yet no noble house raised a single objection.

“What nonsense is this amid the gate crisis chaos!”

On the contrary, they flew into a rage.

And furthermore.

“On top of that, they scattered magic stones in Edelweiss territory!”

“What?”

“They embedded magic stones into the monsters of Edelweiss territory!”

As my prior official statement got reexamined in that gap, House Porleng’s atrocities peeled back like an onion, and Shin Jae-heon neatly summed up their crimes.

“Crimes of collusion with the enemy nation, and during the national emergency of the gate crisis, strengthening gate monsters and threatening Western Empire security.”

With them lined up kneeling, Shin Jae-heon declared,

“If you had two necks, I’d sever both.”

Regrettably just one each, but death sentence nonetheless.

“Your Majesty!”

“Mercy, please!”

Kikal and Viscount Porleng begged for compassion, but Shin Jae-heon naturally turned a deaf ear.

With the death sentence handed down, the score hit exactly 99.

One point shy of S-rank.

If their heads rolled cleanly, would that push it to S?

As I entertained that tidy thought,

Evidently not keen on clean beheadings, word came of Viscount Porleng earnestly pleading.

The news reached me, and naturally Shin Jae-heon too.

Shin Jae-heon asked oh-so-casually.

He’d have said it just as lightly even face-to-face.

‘Annoying. Just kill ’em?’

…Yeah.

Yet somehow those words looked infuriating.

As I thought that, conviction hit me unbidden. No illusion.

He was truly pissed.

Come to think of it, he’d always been hypersensitive about my safety. More than me, even.

I barely tore my eyes from his name and thought,

If it’s bullshit, I’ll pop a polymorph potion and play executioner myself!

“Greetings, Countess Edelweiss.”

A gleaming imperial carriage pulled up before my mansion.

“I am Head Chamberlain Alpera. His Majesty commands me to escort you.”

Head chamberlain. Seeing him gave me a brief moment of confusion.

“He has ordered me to guard and attend you on the way to visit the prisoners.”

Sending the head chamberlain just to visit prisoners? Talk about overkill.

But gazing at him stirred something odd in me.

He would’ve come himself before.

‘Gotta see what bullshit they spew before their heads roll.’

Something like that. Squeezing out time somehow.

‘I’ll pull an all-nighter.’

Then I’d smack him, and he’d get an earful from Joo Hunter Yian.

“Countess?”

“…Yes, let’s go.”

I stared blankly at the chamberlain before boarding the carriage after him.

Right, he might not come.

Busy, so maybe not…

…Shin Yuri.

Suddenly, his face as he looked at me and cried flashed in my mind.

My mouth went dry.

‘Help me, Shin Yuri.’

I’m going insane.

That voice echoed in my ears.

Just thinking it blanked my mind.

“We’ve arrived.”

No one dared block an imperial carriage, so the trip to the underground prison was swift.

And as I was still half-dazed thinking of Shin Jae-heon,

—Clank!

The metallic clash snapped me back.

“Oh.”

Right by the bars next to me, Viscount and Viscountess Porleng thrust their faces out like they might burst free.

They looked like they’d been through a hurricane.

People who’d prattled about noble dignity and kept up appearances—now unrecognizable.

“Senia! You came!”

Like beholding a savior, but I had zero intention of saving them.

Viscountess Porleng said with hopeful eyes,

“You know, Senia! I did nothing! This man—this bastard—plotted it all!”

Viscountess Porleng’s swift blame game began.

But I’d already heard her excuses via chat on the way.

Why say the obvious so dramatically?

As we let our guard down with that thought, Shin Jae-heon’s chat dropped.

Peak TMI of the year, no contest.

“And the seal thing’s unjust too! I only lent it to him briefly when he asked! No idea the info came from Rikas!”

I gave Viscountess Porleng, forcefully insisting lending the seal wasn’t a crime amid useless info, a gaze cold as ice.

Yeah, seals aren’t toys…

Given Porleng’s sloppy document handling, the viscount had likely just used his wife’s seal out of laziness to fetch his own.

Got swept up wholesale.

Not a shred of pity, of course.

“I have no crime!”

Really? None? I arched a brow.

The crime of trying to cover up the poisoning like starting a cover-up diner in front of me? Crime of going all-out to show “connections’ power”?

Plus, spreading rumors slandering House Edelweiss Countess in high society? Obviously Viscountess Porleng, the social butterfly.

Viscount Porleng was old-school, thought showing face in society was shameful.

“Senia!”

Then Viscount Porleng smacked against the bars.

“Your face looks half-gone! My god…!”

Probably ’cause the bars blocked half the view?

Ah, didn’t say it out loud!

I dismissed the flashing system window.

“You know it’s all a misunderstanding, right? Me colluding with the Eastern Empire! Even if I’m a worthless father, I wouldn’t sell out the nation!”

But when Viscount Porleng shouted that, I couldn’t hold back.

“Instead, you sold your daughter.”

Penalty incoming?

[……]

But even the system went quiet—probably ’cause even Senia would snap here.

“Wh-what?”

As the viscount panicked, I praised Senia inwardly.

Yeah, gotta speak your mind and live!

She’s quiet, but she does speak up!

“You said you’d show me the power of connections. Said I’d never make it without the family too.”

Tale from when I received the Edelweiss countess title.

“And before that, you said to cover up whatever happened.”

How’s the cover-up diner business? I smiled prettily.

“That was…”

The Porleng couple flapped mouths seeking excuses, eyes darting.

That gonna conjure a defense?

“As you know, there’s a saying in Carman.”

I slowly opened my mouth.

Suddenly recalled Shin Jae-heon taught me this.

No one asked, but he dropped it in chat out of nowhere—probably for me.

Right after I announced heading to the prison.

I know you’re pissed at these bastards too.

More than me, even. You’ve always been like that.

Angrier about my stuff than I was.

Thinking of him heated my head, then cooled staring at the Porleng couple.

And the words I needed came clearly.

“‘Even in death, one cannot escape paying for one’s crimes.'”

I quoted the Western Empire proverb, staring them down.

Still alive, they’d pay plenty.

“You said Family Honor matters.”

I spread my hand.

“For Edelweiss honor, and Carman imperial honor.”

And to calm that boy angrier than me.

“I intend to reveal everything that happened in Porleng.”

Leave them not even honor at death, let alone title.

“Senia, that’s…”

The couple froze.

Honor matters even in death, huh?

“Senia, no, fine. Yes, that was a big mistake. But the collusion charge…”

To the stammering viscount, I answered clearly.

“That, the gravest crime, will be paid last.”

Said my piece—no need to hear more. I turned away.

RP Dungeon gave Senia’s memories, yet no lingering attachment to their lives.

Their being “threats to me” hit clearer than any memory.

Yeah, they’d targeted me since dungeon start.

Threatened my safety, my team.

No mercy for such.

“Senia—!”

I didn’t look back, no matter how desperately they called.

Soon after, even their poisoning to disrupt the succession rite came fully to light.

“Not a single decent soul in that house?”

“Now I get why Countess Edelweiss bolted from the family.”

Afterward, “Porleng” became noble slang for “trash.”

The magic stones embedded in my territory’s monsters? Hard labor.

“Grave crimes, little time left before execution.”

Carman’s custom of 12-hour labor days for “peak efficiency”? Shin Jae-heon flipped it casually.

“Make the prisoners labor non-stop.”

Even assigning healers.

Probably rolled them to near-death, healed just enough to keep going. Repeat.

Only after days of that could House Porleng face execution.

Of course, Shin Jae-heon didn’t let it end simply.

Pushed it back bit by bit till they’d beg “just kill us already,” then carried out.

I watched without blinking.

Vowing never to be threatened again.

Not by them, nor anything else—nothing that targets me or mine.

The moment House Porleng was executed,

Finally, S-rank. Awakening.