I Became the Tyrant's Servant

Sally looked away.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

My lips moistened with impatience. If Sally continues to claim to be the perpetrator, she will really not be saved.

A voice close to a growl came out scratching my throat.

“Attempting to assassinate an aristocrat and requesting an assassination are different charges. If you tell the truth, your life will be spared.”

“I have nothing more to say.”

It was an immediate answer.

Seeing Sally’s stubborn tongue, I didn’t think she would open her mouth easily.

My heart pounded to the point where I felt sick.

Sally seemed to have been completely caught in the trap set up by the Empress Dowager.

I handed her a letter with the butler’s will. My hands trembled, but I managed to hide them in my sleeves.

“Don’t tell me……, you believe this letter that I’m behind the slave market?”

Unlike my obnoxious voice, I approached Sally closely and bent down to look her in the eye.

Hoping that my sincerity could be conveyed through my eyes, I recited it softly as if whispering.

“You know better than anyone, Sally. How much I’ve tried to free the slaves.”

Please. Believe me.

If Sally is branded as a criminal and dies…….

“I…I…….”

The letter crumpled in Sally’s hand.

“Trust my grandfather.”

I was devastated by the words she spat out.

The same despair was reflected in Sally’s eyes, which shed tears but still stared at me.

“My grandfather is not someone who can poison a virtuous person for no reason.”

“…….”

“There’s someone else who’s guilty. Why, my grandfather, why did my grandfather had to die? Why did he have to go like that without even saying goodbye to me?”

“Ah……”

Guilt weighed on my heart. I knew in my head that there was no reason to feel guilty, but my heart was overwhelmed.

“Why! Why did you throw out like crow food my grandfather without burying him? He could not even close his eyes comfortably even when he died!”

Eventually, Sally burst into tears and let out her breath.

My breath got hot.

Sally grabbed me by the leg, howling like a wounded beast.

It was a tough touch, but I had no choice but to stand still.

“My grandfather had a hard time raising me without my parents all his life. I said I’d make him happy when I grow up. Yet I don’t even have a grave I can visit to see my grandfather?”

I almost stumbled at the sensation of blood escaping all over my body.

That’s what aristocratic misdemeanors are supposed to be. That’s why the law can’t help it. I couldn’t bring myself to speak.

In other circumstances, I would have pointed out the facts, but what she needed was not the truth.

It happened only because of me.

I made Sally like this.

Intentionally or not, Sally is in such pain because of me.

So I had no choice but to stand blankly.

If it wasn’t for the surrounding noise, I would have collapsed.

“How dare you say that it’s unfair despite being a sinner?”

“It’s shameless. There is no felony like aristocratic assassination.”

“In addition, even his granddaughter asked for an assassination attempt. That’s why commoners are—”

I came to my senses as if I were doused in cold water.

Oh, that’s how it looks in the eyes of the aristocrats.

And the Duke of Baloa was noble to the bone.

I must not be shaken here by the subject of the Duke of Baloa’s shell.

In addition, the more Sally shows herself clinging to her grandfather, the more disadvantaged she becomes.

As expected, the nobles in the conference room were already whispering.

“Seeing her so resentful, the motive is clear.”

“She must have saved money somehow.”

My heart began to pound.

As long as Sally firmly believes me to be behind the slave market, there will be no way to persuade her.

Then there’s no choice but to use fear.

As the Duke of Baloa has always done.

I have no choice but to press the opponent with fear and draw the answer I want.

Before long, I put on the mask of the Duke of Baloa and shook off Sally’s hand, which held my leg.

“You are only being taken advantage of by your grandfather.”

Surprisingly, a cold voice came out easily.

My mask, which was in danger because it didn’t know when it would break, endured surprisingly well.

“Go ahead and tell me. Who brought you in?”

“…….”

“If you don’t say it, you’ll have no choice but to be sentenced to death.”

I snapped at Sally’s unperturbed face and curled up the corners of my mouth thinly.

“No. Unfortunately, it’s the price of trying to kill a nobleman twice. You can’t kill them easily.”

I lowered my body and looked at Sally, who knelt down. I stared straight at her, praying for her to read the earnestness in my eyes.

“I’ll make you suffer until you beg me to kill you. Tell me if you don’t want that.”

“I’ll never tell you.”

Sally exclaimed in a loud voice.

And without a break. I got spit on my face.

For a moment the conference hall froze.

It was an insult to the aristocracy.

I felt the eyes of the nobles staring at me sorely.

The Marquis of Sherrington also looked at me with a delicate expression.

If it were the Duke of Baloa, the aristocrat of the nobles, she would have fought back immediately.

No, I have to fight back.

If I don’t want to be looked down upon here. To save face as Duke of Baloa. And above all, if I don’t want to put Sally’s crime and insult the aristocrat, I have to respond right away.

If I punish her myself, I can act like I’m a big guy later on. There was no choice but to punish her according to the law.

I have to be tough on myself.

However, when I tried to raise my hand, my stomach felt nauseous and my whole body hardened.

I couldn’t move my body.

The shell of the Duke of Baloa suddenly became too much for me to bear.

I shouldn’t be playing into the Empress Dowager’s plans.

The Duke of Baloa wouldn’t have done this.

“Heok…!”

The moment when my mask was about to be broken.

“I’m bored, so I can’t watch you anymore.”

A dull voice came from behind.

I was relieved at the sound of the heavy echo in the conference room.

After that, only the sound of heavy footsteps approaching me for a while rang in my ears.

As the sound approached, my whole body relaxed.

“I think this is enough for today’s meeting.”

Just before my mask collapsed, a big hand grabbed my arm.

On the surface, it was a motion that stopped me. The image of the emperor stopping his subject to end this boring meeting.

But I knew. That he’s trying to support me.

As expected, he was a much better actor than me. Cardan.

(t/n: get a man like Cardan, you guys)

“Everyone’s leaving, right?”

With a sharp voice, the other nobles looked at Cardan and hurried to the exit.

The soldiers who brought Sally also took her back to the meeting, and we were the only two left in the meeting room.

“Oh… I was so terrible, right?”

I broke the silence and started speaking awkwardly.

Maybe it’s because I don’t want to die to be caught in this mess that’s swirling inside me.

When I came to my senses, I smiled like a traitor as always.

“I didn’t expect the Empress Dowager to come out like this…….”

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly.

“That was a shot.”

I didn’t have the confidence to face Cardan’s gaze looking at me without a word, so I said something else.

“But I thought that if I coax Sally well, I would be able to blow out information that could be used in the conference room. I didn’t expect her to distrust me like that…….”

I was talking in a hurry, and a big hand covered my forehead.

I closed my eyes reflexively.

“You don’t have to do this.”

A gentle voice reached my ears.

I coughed in vain.

“What do you mean this much……. What do you mean…”

“You’ve done enough.”

I felt as if my mask had been pierced and caught my breath.

And the words began to pour out as they squeezed through the gap.

“After all, I haven’t done anything. With this opportunity, the Empress Dowager succeeded in cutting her tail. We’re not making any progress in trying to destroy Lores. Sally is the only one who’s going to be falsely accused. I have to stop it.”

I seemed to have been conceited that I could make it.

I’ve been keeping the Empress Dowager in check so far, so I hope I can continue to do so.

Although the empire was destroyed in the original, it would be different as long as I was there.

I can take responsibility and save the empire that the Duke of Baloa ruined.

I think that’s how I hypnotized myself.

However, when there was a gap in the plan, the weight of reality weighed on my shoulders.

I was the one who tried to stop the Empress Dowager for nothing.

At the time, I said I liked it, saying it was a good plan.

My hasty judgment has led to the unjust execution of an innocent person.

What am I so confident that I can do everything?

It’s not like I’m really the Duke of Baloa. I’m just a call center employee who somehow opened her eyes in this world.

I’ve never felt more acutely than today that someone’s life is at the mercy of my words and actions.

“Her grandfather died because of me. I, I didn’t think he didn’t even have a grave.”

I gasped so much that I didn’t know whether it was words or breath that burst out.

At the same time, my face was heated and my cheeks were burning.

“By the way, the Duke of Baloa should not be shaken. Because the Empress Dowager will take advantage of that. Because of me, the empire shouldn’t fall because of me. I promised to take responsibility.”

It wasn’t until Cardan wrapped his hands around my cheek that I realized that the identity of the burning sensation was tears.

“You’ve done enough.”

“…….”

“You did enough to stop the Empress Dowager, to pretend to be the Duke of Baloa, to the point of suffering from guilt.”

“…….”

“You’ve done enough, so you can put it down now.”

It would be a lie if I said Cardan’s words cleared my mind in a moment.

Instead, tears burst out.

It’s been a long time. I’ve cried so plainly.

Why are the tears that didn’t come out even when I fell, rolled, and rolled, pouring out in front of Cardan at this moment?

He was my most feared opponent in this world since I came to my senses.

I never imagined I’d be crying in front of him.

“Give me a handkerchief.”

I tried to take a handkerchief out of Cardan’s pocket, but before I knew it, his arms were wrapped around me.

Suddenly I wiped my nose on Cardan’s shirt instead of a handkerchief.

“Ugh.”

Cardan smiled softly.

“But it’s better than throwing up like last time.”

His hateful scolding sounded sweet for some reason so I burst into tears again.

“I didn’t mean to cry.”

Cardan patted me on the back and I buried my face in his shirt.

The shirt that was getting wet quickly was embarrassing, but I thought it would be okay to look like this if it was Cardan.

Cardan smirked as he swept my back.

“Now you can cry as much as you want.”

Hanging on to him like that, I cried for a long time until his shirt was completely wet with tears.

As my tears dried up, I slowly realized.

“Oh, no. I can’t.”

“Why?”

With the gentle touch of his hand on my back, I buried my face deeper into his shirt.

Although it had been a long time since my tears stopped, my fingers entangled in the hem of his shirt could not be loosened.

I didn’t want to let go.

I murmured again as the realization gradually turned to conviction.

“……I’m in trouble.”

Cardan hugged me more strongly, perhaps thinking it’s because of the stain on his shirt.

“Not at all.”

I thought quietly, leaning my head in his arms.

I guess I like Cardan a lot more than I think.

It was a terrible realization that made my heart skip a beat.

(t/n: ಥ_ಥ)