Chapter 243: Chapter 243

A nobleman asked in a cracked voice.

“Is the palace safe?”

“What exactly is going on right now?”

“Your Majesty! Please explain—!”

The noisy council chamber fell silent in an instant.

“...Everyone, quiet.”

Leonia had slammed the scabbard down on the table before calmly withdrawing her hand.

The ever-composed Duke of Voreoti swept her sharp black eyes slowly across the nobles, one by one.

“Do not speak rudely to Her Majesty the Empress.”

“The Duke is right,” the young heir of Marquis Pardus agreed at once.

Yet Leonia didn’t look particularly pleased even with his support.

“What we need to do right now is show proper respect to Her Majesty and begin the noble council that has been delayed.”

The young heir’s expression was grave, devoid of the polite smile he usually wore. He was reminding them of their duty as nobles.

“But if it’s really a rebellion outside, shouldn’t we be doing something instead of sitting here talking?”

One of the nobles raised an objection.

“That’s nothing to worry about,” Leonia said with a lopsided smirk, her tone light and unconcerned.

‘Why are you dragging this out again?!’

Inside, Leonia was burning with urgency.

She had to wrap this up quickly and get through the Northern Gate to help her father and mother.

‘Calm down, you Northern Lunatic...’

I am the Northern Lunatic.

The Northern Lunatic does not lose her temper easily.

The only time the Lunatic goes wild is when her mate is in danger.

Leonia hypnotized herself. If she lost her cool here and caused a scene, it would only waste more time.

Thankfully, her nerves settled somewhat. Years of pretending to be the "Northern Lunatic" and being raised by the real one helped her internal self-soothing succeed.

“We can discuss the rebellion during the council session.”

“Didn’t you hear what was said earlier?”

Leonia repeated the Empress’s earlier line about being delayed because of suppressing the rebellion.

“Her Majesty and I took care of the rebels.”

The nobles turned to the Empress and Leonia with expressions of disbelief.

Leonia, growing slightly impatient, pointed to her own eyes with two fingers and drew them sharply down.

It meant: Cut it out.

Fortunately, the Lunatic’s gesture was well understood.

“Th–Then who are those knights outside?”

A noble sitting near the window asked, his voice trembling. He clearly feared the reality of armed men surrounding the palace.

The number of knights encircling Kasus Palace had indeed grown.

“Gladiago and Revoo,” said Empress Tigria.

“They’re here to arrest the instigator of the rebellion.”

As soon as she finished speaking, her gaze turned to one particular spot.

Leonia, Carnis, and Marquis Ortio all turned their heads in the same direction—toward a pale-faced old man with fiery red hair who now looked as though he were on death’s doorstep.

“...I-It’s a conspiracy!”

Viscount Olor kicked back his chair and shouted.

His wrinkled neck, veined and strained, was flushed red—completely at odds with his pale face.

“It’s a setup! I didn’t do anything!”

“Is that so?” Leonia chuckled.

“If you’re so confident, then by all means—try and argue.”

The young duke’s faint smile was calm and ominous, like a funeral dirge.

‘She’s the spitting image of Ferio...’

Carnis thought as he looked at Leonia.

The other nobles were thinking the same thing. Some even muttered that the Voreoti line seemed to become more terrifying with each generation.

“Well then, let us begin.”

The Empress declared the official start of the noble council.

At that moment, the doors to the chamber swung open.

Normally, attendants would enter to distribute agendas and relevant documents—but instead, what entered now were fully armed knights.

They were none other than the Gladiago Knights, under House Voreoti.

“First agenda item,” the Empress called out.

“Revocation of Viscount Olor’s title.”

At last, the curtain rose on the drama Voreoti had long been preparing.

‘Why don’t you just kill him already?’

Leonia, her black hair neatly tied in two ponytails, popped her head over the office desk and asked.

Ferio looked at the sapphire hair ties he had gifted her recently. They matched her black hair beautifully.

‘My perfect reflection in the mirror?’

Leonia gave him a look full of genuine pity.

Feeling strangely offended by her sympathetic gaze, Ferio lashed out at an innocent target.

‘I didn’t do anything!’

Lupe, silently working at the secondary desk, protested bitterly.

‘I mean, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) why haven’t you dragged Olor out and beaten the crap out of him already?’

‘Where did you even learn to talk like that?’

‘From the orphanage, obviously!’

The little beast, her tiny fists propping up her chin, sparkled her black eyes and whined sweetly.

‘...Because killing him now wouldn’t be fun.’

Ferio squished Leonia’s cheeks with his fingers until her lips puckered like a fish.

It was punishment for foul language, but Leonia only wriggled her lips happily.

‘What, you’re into weird stuff now?’

‘My own daughter calling me a pervert...’

Surely tomorrow would bring a blizzard.

Ferio sighed as he gazed out the window at the rare, clear spring weather.

“Eek!” Leonia, huffing, gave his thigh a light punch with her little fist.

“Hunting,” Ferio began, sitting the growing girl on his lap and explaining like a fairy tale.

“Must be done so there are no lingering consequences.”

“Can’t you just kill everyone?”

“That would end things too quickly.”

He used the orphanage staff in the underground prison as an example.

They had survived for nearly a year after being brought to the North. Although, of course, none of them were alive now.

Some of them had been gifted to the East for use in experiments—whether they survived was unknown.

“You have to gnaw away at their minds with the fear that something might happen to them at any moment.”

Leonia nodded enthusiastically.

“And you have to find out where they’ve been, who they’re connected to—everything. You can’t kill them until you’ve wrung out every last drop.”

You kill them only when they’re no longer needed.

When everything is over.

That’s how Ferio uncovered the true identity of Connie from the orphanage staff.

And from there, he discovered the Olor family’s involvement.

“...So what about now?”

Leonia, who had been listening quietly, asked.

Her father’s teachings had always steeled her softer side.

“What are you trying to uncover right now?”

“I told you earlier, didn’t I?”

Ferio tapped her nose gently.

Leonia blushed and swayed, hiding her nose with both hands.

“To eliminate future threats, I have to uncover everything connected to them.”

“Which is going to kill me, by the way...”

Under Ferio’s orders, Lupe’s under-eye circles were darkening by the day.

The predator and his cub paid no mind.

Leonia casually scratched her nose with her pinky, then wiped it sneakily on the chair.

Olor and the Imperial Family.

Ferio lifted Leonia’s pinky to her lips.

Leonia recoiled in horror and clamped her mouth shut.

“You can’t just stop at what those two bastards have done.”

You had to include their bloodlines, their allies, and their allies’ allies.

Even if someone had gained a benefit, you had to investigate whether that benefit was connected to the prey.

If the target had died, then investigate their family, their lovers.

Even if they were in another country—hunt them down.

Everyone connected. All of them.

Relentlessly. Horrifically.

So that even when the prey was cornered, there would be no one left to help.

And above all, this all had to be done with great patience.

If you moved too obviously, the prey might get spooked—or worse, get bold and try to rebel.

Ferio twirled a strand of Leonia’s black hair.

The meaning was clear: a black beast as excellent and magnificent as them always stood out.

Until the white snow gently falls to cloak their black, beautiful form.

Until the prey feels safe and lowers its guard.

Leonia wrinkled her nose.

The baby beast grumbled that if she waited any longer, Remus Olor and Emperor Subiteo might just fall in love and get married.

Ferio scowled, and Lupe gagged.

And after seizing the title of duke through a coup, Leonia finally understood the depth of her father’s teachings.

“Human trafficking, rape of women and children, contract killings, habitual gambling...”

The noose that Voreoti had prepared for years now wrapped tightly around Viscount Olor’s fate.

With every new charge read aloud, Olor’s wrinkles deepened.

His once-red hair, already streaked with white, had turned completely ashen.

The murderous glint in the viscount’s eyes bore down on Leonia.

His gaze, filled with fury, screamed that he wanted to strangle her on the spot.

Leonia merely smiled sweetly—and waved.

“Illegal confinement, embezzlement, money laundering, arson-for-hire...”

Empress Tigria, reading aloud the countless undisclosed crimes of Viscount Olor, finally paused.

There were so many charges that her throat had gone dry.

A single sip of water now tasted like honey.

“...Truly remarkable,” the Empress murmured.

“Am I reading a miniature lawbook? No—even that’s shorter than this.”

“Quite the industrious man, isn’t he?” Leonia beamed.

“...Incredible,” the Empress muttered, clicking her tongue.

But she wasn’t referring to Olor.

It was terrifying enough that Olor had committed so many crimes—but that Voreoti had uncovered them all, with ironclad proof, was even more chilling.

Voreoti was, indeed, the most dangerous name in the Empire.

And anyone who made them an enemy—like Olor—was simply the most pitiful creature alive.

Leonia laced her fingers together and placed them on the table, her smile dripping with mockery.

“Just for your reference—your son and your associates haven’t even been mentioned yet.”

Not even what he did with Emperor Subiteo.

The nobles sitting near Olor flinched in horror at that remark.

Among the newly risen nobles, many had ridden Olor’s coattails with smug arrogance.

Like Erbanu, for example, who now trembled like he might faint at any second.

At that moment, one of the western nobles asked in a quivering voice,

“Are you saying... all of this was committed by Viscount Olor?”

Unable to speak the charge aloud himself, the noble was spared as Leonia kindly offered the explanation.

“The infanticide charges refer to the babies of women who claimed to have borne the Viscount’s illegitimate children. The molestation charges stem from assaults on his mansion’s maids. Ah, and the negligent homicide... what was that again...”

Leonia tapped her temple with her finger, then recalled it with a bright voice.

“Oh! His wife was beaten to death.”