The Devil Who Breaks My Neck

“What does that mean?”

Ezekiel’s voice dropped sharply. His dangerous spirit gave the child a hiccup. The old butler asked Erzen in a calm voice instead of Ezekiel.

“Young Master, this cake is specially prepared for your birthday. But what do you mean you can’t eat it? Who dares to say such a thing?”

“If you eat this…… He, he said I’d never see my Mom if I ate this.”

“What?”

“I want to see my mother…… I’m sure Mom misses Erzen, too. Heuaang!”

Erzen eventually burst into tears. The cry of the sad child was evidence that he wasn’t lying. When Herace was mentioned, Ezekiel turned the chair to the side and looked into Erzen’s eyes.

“Who said that?”

“Mom, ahhh!”

“Don’t cry. Who told you that, Erzen?”

The shining gold orbs were filled with anger. However, Ezekiel suppressed his emotions and wiped Erzen’s tears with slow gestures and waited for the child’s answer. Erzen stopped crying after a long time and answered with a shiver.

“Bro… Mi… Miguel…….”

“…….”

“Young Master Miguel… Heuk……sure enough. Haa.”

When an unexpected name came out, everyone’s expression changed. Most were surprised, but life began to flow from Ezekiel’s face.

In a space where only silence flowed, Ezekiel suddenly felt a certain gaze and turned his head slightly. A child who looked just like him at that time who peeped at Charles’ birthday banquet was grinning and laughing at him from the window. A long tongue came out through the red lips and quickly disappeared.

The grinding of his teeth sounded fierce, and Ezekiel straightened his bent back. He held the crying Erzen roughly and ordered the old butler as if chewing every words.

“……do a thorough investigation.”

“Yes, what….”

“Investigate to see if there’s anything wrong with this cake. Now!”

Erzen stiffened when a roar burst out of his mouth. Ezekiel called Erzen’s nanny and handed over the child and ordered her to stay in the corner of the banquet hall. Looking at Erzen’s condition, he had to send him up to the room, but right now, he was even anxious that Erzen would disappear from his eyes.

Some maids’ feet became busy with the brutal nature of the owner. Edgar and other knights at the table felt unusual and were wary of the surroundings.

The doctor, who was called soon, looked around the cake and inserted long iron needles made of silver here and there. The cake, which was poked roughly, was quickly destroyed. However, unlike what was done, the iron needles didn’t lose their colour.

The doctor, who was tilting his head amid people’s relief and despondency, took out a small box and cut some roseberries and cakes into it.

Squeak… Squeak! Squeak!

Everyone guessed what kind of creature was in the box just by the busy footsteps and squeaking cries. Ezekiel stared at the wooden box.

Squeak! Squeak! Squeak, squeak! Squeak!

The wooden box, which seemed to have no problem for a long time, suddenly began to rattle. The mouse inside was jumping so roughly that the box was shaking. People turned pale at the unusual sound. And soon….

Squeak…

The wooden box became quiet with the creature’s final breath.

“Open it.”

When Ezekiel gritted out a short order, the doctor opened the lid with a trembling hand. The people who looked inside stepped back, gasping and breathing heavily. In the box, a mouse had died terribly, vomiting black blood.

No one would have believed that the mouse had just been alive if it hadn’t had a slightly twitching back foot and a long tail. The doctor barely opened his mouth without controlling his trembling voice.

“Po, poison.”

***

“Let go of me! Let go of me!

Sturdy servants dragged the struggling Charlotte out. All people’s attention was focused on the sunny weather and the scene that did not match.

“Do you know who I am? I’m Miguel’s mother! Do you think you’ll get away with this!”

Charlotte screamed loudly as she was dragged barefoot down the long stairs without a maid. The servants walked fast, keeping their rigid faces even at her words. As they came down the stairs, they saw a fancy carriage and several knights waiting outside. And in front of them stood a man with silver hair.

The servants went straight to their master. Charlotte, who was screaming and twisting, stiffened up when she saw Ezekiel, and soon made a pitiful expression. When Ezekiel signalled to his servants, they put Charlotte down.

“E, Ezekiel! Duke!”

As soon as Charlotte was released, she cried and clung to Ezekiel’s feet. Thanks to this, the skirt was swept and wrinkled on the floor, but Charlotte looked up at Ezekiel without paying attention and shook her head like crazy.

“I, I didn’t do that.”

“…….”

“Trust me, Ezekiel. I didn’t…….”

Charlotte said no, but both psychological and physical evidence pointed to her.

The investigation found that someone poisoned the glass jar in which roseberries were marinated to decorate the cake. And there was a witness who saw Charlotte’s maid Lily hanging around near the glass jar.

Ezekiel ordered them to search Charlotte’s room straight away. At the owner’s order, the servants soon brought a small bottle and a ring of Charlotte hidden in the dressing table. And there was something like poison in it that almost hurt Erzen.

“Do you have something to say?”

Ezekiel spread his palm in front of Charlotte. Charlotte’s face turned white with the appearance of familiar bottles and rings. However, she bit her lips until she soon bled and made an expression of resentment.

“No!”

“…….”

“Think about it, Ezekiel. If he died, I’d be the criminal as I am now. How could I do that? I’m not!”

“…….”

“No, I’m sure someone is setting me up! Yeah, it’s her. She came back to take my place, and she used her own child…….”

“Shut that mouth.”

When Herace was mentioned, Ezekiel recited fiercely. He tore off the Charlotte hanging from his feet at once.

“Argh!”

“I would have made it clear. I will no longer overlook your delusion.”

Ezekiel looked down at Charlotte, who sat on the floor, and threw the bottle in his hand on the floor. The bottle that hit the stone tiles broke in an instant and black liquid poured out.

Chiiiik.

As soon as the black liquid spilled, it turned into a transparent color and soaked the tiles. And soon the smoke rose, and the hard stone tiles dented. Ezekiel said with a cool look after throwing the ring to the floor and breaking it.

“It was a few years ago that I got this. And you….”

“Ah……”

“……You headed to the annex like that?”

Charlotte was wearing the maid’s attire instead of her usual fancy dress.

As Ezekiel scanned her outfit, Charlotte shuddered and took her nails to her mouth. She couldn’t think of any excuse for her dress. As Ezekiel expected, Charlotte switched to a maid’s clothes to meet Herace secretly.

‘Uh, where did I start?’

She mixed poison in the cake the child was about to eat. She just went to inform the woman of the fact, and give her the same poison while watching her suffer. She was a woman who cared so much for her child that she would have drank poison unhesitatingly. She didn’t have to drink obediently. She (Charlotte) was going to force the poison in her mouth somehow.

‘It was definitely perfect, but why…….’

Is it because Lily, the maid who was distancing herself when it was confirmed that she would be kicked out, suddenly said she would help with anything? It was definitely a plan that she thought was perfect until it was implemented. But looking at it now, everything was sloppy.

‘This isn’t it…… Things shouldn’t be like this.’

No, in fact, she was confident that even if she was caught, this man would be forced to overlook it if she killed the woman and the child. Miguel would be the only heir left. She was confident that Miguel would help his mother, who can’t help herself.

‘Yes, I have Miguel, smart and intelligent. He’s a son who’s better than that woman’s son. He’ll make me the Duchess. He’ll give me everything I deserve. So if I just hang in there…….’

Charlotte, who recalled Miguel, imagined what she would be in her hands in the future. When she thought of her son, everything seemed to be solved as always.

She grinned and approached Ezekiel on her knees. There were so many things she would have if she overcame this crisis. She couldn’t have been accused like this.

“Ezeki…”

But the moment she looked into Ezekiel’s eyes, she couldn’t say anything. The man looked at her with contemptuous eyes as if she were a worm. It was Charlotte’s least favorite gaze. Indifferent eyes to her as if she’s the world’s dirtiest thing.

“You don’t have to say any more.”

Charlotte hardened as Ezekiel turned his back. But at that moment, they heard a middle-aged woman’s worried tone.

“Yo, Young Master!”

“Father!”

At the same time as Ezekiel’s face crumpled, the child ran and clung to him. Ezekiel roughly pushed the child with eyes and hair the same color as him away. Miguel’s nanny sat down on the dirt floor and gasped for breath.

Miguel jumped up, shook off his clothes, and approached Ezekiel again. The child dropped tears with a pitiful face, but whispered in a joyful voice so that only Ezekiel could hear it.

“Kill her.”

“…….”

“She dared to hurt her. So kill her now. That’s the right choice.”

In Ezekiel’s eyes looking down at Miguel, there was a hatred and contempt that could not be compared to when he was looking at Charlotte. Ezekiel, who was fiddling with the handle of the sword hanging from his waist, took his hand off and said after a long time.

“No, I won’t kill her. I won’t play with you anymore.”

“……You might regret it someday, Father.”

Miguel, who whispered like that, turned and ran to Charlotte. Charlotte shouted to Ezekiel, holding Miguel tightly in her arms.

“Yes! I’m the mother of this child, Ezekiel. I’m the mother of your heir!”

“…… keep my word. You’ll be out of this castle with gold. Anything else. Burn them.”

At the order of Ezekiel, the servants separated Charlotte and Miguel. They both struggled to hold each other as if they were not going to break up, and soon fell back.

“Let go of me! Miguel! Miguel! Come to mother! Miguel!”

“Mother!”

***