Beast’s Flower - Chapter 14

Thank you kuroneko_chan for the kofi~!

***

“Nonsense”

Ariadne just muttered those words for the thirtieth time. Had the obnoxious Crown Prince’s attendant been present, he would have retaliated by saying, ‘It makes sense.’

But no matter how much she says it, it doesn’t make sense.

“It’s not me?”

“Ariadne. Now, please calm down…”

“Do I look like I could calm down right now?”

Ariadne turned with an angry voice to her father, who was trying to appease her, and her shoes were trampling on a vase.

It wasn’t just the vase that was broken. There was also a painting with a hole in the shape of the heel of her shoe, and a stag’s head, a hunting trophy hanging proudly on her wall, had one horn broken.

The books on the bookshelf were also scattered on the floor, but they were not torn. It’s the cheapest, so the Baron’s heart would have hurt less if they were the ones torn instead.

“O-of course, it must be difficult for you to calm down right now.”

After all, thinking that his most difficult opponent was Ariadne, the Baron broke into a cold sweat.

“It’s not me, but Layla? That stinky thing would become the Crown Princess? Do you think that makes sense, Father?”

“It doesn’t make sense. I also don’t think that it makes sense. But it’s not something that I decided, and it’s something inevitable now, isn’t it?”

“Inevitable?”

Ariadne’s eyes ripped open. Seeing her daughter’s even more ferocious face, the Baron quickly looked back at what he had said wrong, but he did not know.

“Like the attendant said, that thing is also Father’s daughter, so you’re saying it doesn’t matter who will go to the imperial palace? After all, it was still your daughter that will become the Crown Princess?”

“No, that’s not…”

“Think properly, Father! She’s a witch!”

At the sound of Ariadne’s screaming voice, sweat dripped down Baron Valencia’s forehead.

“I didn’t know that His Highness the Crown Prince had such a unique taste, but it is what it is. His taste is unique, so he thought of taking Layla with him. How long do you think it will last?”

“That…”

“Of course, it won’t be long.”

Ariadne didn’t give her father time to think, and answered. She didn’t know what was the need to think about such a simple thing, and answered in his place.

“He was taking her because she’s unusual and fascinating, but where is the woman who can be adored and loved? I met her a while ago, I really thought that my nose would rot. Father also knows it.”

“I-I know. I know it too…”

“So you know the best how much of a nonsense this is!”

“Child, Ariadne. There’s nothing we can do just because you’re cornering your Father.”

The Baronin, who was sitting quietly in a chair, intervened, feeling sorry for her husband. Just because she intervened didn’t mean she could handle her daughter’s temper, but at least she was better than her father, who foolishly spoiled their daughter.

“How can I not corner him? It’s a matter concerning our family’s ruin.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“That witch is about to be the Crown Princess, mother.”

Ariadne looked at the Baronin Valencia with serious eyes, as if telling her to listen carefully to her words.

“And, of course, when His Highness the Crown Prince unique blindness in love peeled off, that witch will be depose.”

Ariadne turned her head, this time looking into the eyes of Baron Valencia.

“Then, what will happen to a family that dares to raise a witch to the position of Crown Princess, and to disgrace the imperial lineage?”

“N-no. We didn’t send Layla, but the Crown Prince himself said so. We are just following his order.”

“The high-ranking person in the Imperial Palace will need to admit that he made a mistake in the past. Do you know what happened to the deposed imperial women? And what about their family?”

“That’s…”

Baron Valencia’s eyes blinked. The former empress of the Orlion Empire was insignificant. Perhaps because the imperial power was so powerful, the imperial family did not even choose the Crown Princess or the Empress from an influential family.

Just because she was elected, her family did not gain power, nor did she gain great authority.

Because of that, the influential people did not exert much effort regarding the empress’s succession, and even if the empress’s dethronement was decided by the imperial family, there was no strong opposition. It was the same with the Crown Princess.

It wasn’t often, but there were some references to deposed imperial women in imperial history books, but they didn’t know what happened after that.

Also, the stories about their families.

“I don’t know.”

“Look. There was a family that even produced an Empress, but they don’t have a rumor like this.”

“H-however, even if it’s a family that produced an empress who was not deposed, isn’t the existence of the empire’s empress originally insignificant?”

“Are you talking about the former Empress? When that person became the Empress, she died after a year when she gave birth to the Crown Prince.”

“Enough. This is not the time to study the history of the Orlion Empire, just tell me what you want to say.”

Again, it was the Baron’s wife that stopped the argument between the Baron and Ariadne.

“If the Crown Prince gets tired of Layla, he will, of course, depose her, and our family won’t survive.”

“N-no, what did we do wrong!?”

“How many times do I have to say it! We’ll be helping make that witch the Crown princess. This is like treason.”

The Baron staggered at the dizzying words that came out of Ariadne’s mouth.

Oh my gosh! Treason!

He was just a local baron with a little bit more money, a little more land, and a little bit of hope for a better career, what treason! It was an absurdly enormous crime.

“Snap out of it, Father.”

Ariadne, who was the one who confused the Baron’s mind, said so.

“I have an idea.”

“What idea?”

“Please call over the villagers to gather right now.”

“The village… ers?”

“Yes. We’ve been unable to make a decision for a long time. Now you have to make a decision.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“Layla… we need to get rid of her.”

“Ariadne!”

“Ariadne!”

The Baron Valencia and the Baronin shouted at the same time as their daughter said that they should get rid of her sister.

“You have to choose. Is it that person or our family?”

Ariadne’s face, looking at her parents with a determined expression, was ruthless. Seeing the faces of her bewildered parents, she smirked inwardly.

They must have listened to her words after all. As always.

When they saw their newborn baby crying all the time because of her stinky sister, Layla was driven out to the stable.

When she grew up and wondered if she stinks like her sister, and because of the child who spent hours washing in her bathroom, Layla was driven out to a cabin in the forest.

And now, at last, Layla was about to be thrown out of Ariadne’s life.

‘You can’t have what I can’t have. Absolutely not, you dirty stinky thing.’

***

A dark night.

A single light rose from the ground, not from the sky. And as if responding to it, the lights increased one by one. They came together to form a galaxy on Earth.

However, the difference was that the lights were not meant to illuminate someone, but to harm someone.

“Hey, are you really okay with this?”

Someone cautiously asked the man who was taking the lead.

“Ah, we have the Baron’s permission, of course it’s okay!”

“No, but the opponent is a witch!”

“Why? Is it still not standing?”

The man in the lead turned his head and looked between his legs. The butcher’s face behind him was burning red, but it wasn’t because a torch was shining on his face.

“W-who is not standing!”

The man shouted.

“If you want it to stand up again, you need to uproot the evil.”

Seeing the man smiling confidently, the butcher nodded his head as if he was right.

The man in the forefront was Hans, whose strength was incomparable to anyone in the village. There were even rumors that he came home with the injured cow on his back.

Then he looked at the people behind him. About a dozen or so people followed, each with torches in their hands. In addition, these were all men who used their strength in the village.

Although she was a witch, their opponent was a woman. It was also a small, skinny woman. With such a large number of people, there was nothing such a woman could do against it.

It was a simple matter of killing the witch before she could cast her curse.

He wasn’t afraid because she had never done such a thing to a little girl, but isn’t that d*mn witch the Baron’s esteemed daughter?

Now that the Baron finally gave permission, it was right to kill the witch immediately before he revokes the permission again due to unnecessary indignation.

“It’s no big deal, right?”

The butcher looked at the flickering torches and asked an unknown question.

Strangely, anxiety crept up somewhere in his heart. Because of his constantly beating heart, the man had to look behind.

The familiar faces, darkly shaded by the flickering torches, looked like strangers.

Just like villains who were about to kill an innocent woman.

***