Chapter 26

Like people who lived in this house and died in a fire.

Then even if someone finds this place, they won’t notice that they ran away.

“Take off their tops.”

Grace ordered quickly. Both were wearing vests.

Jay hurriedly took off Karen and Jen’s vests. It was strange seeing their dead bodies in the middle of the night being undressed.

Nicole and Jay shuddered and threw the body into the house.

The house was burning and they felt a burning sensation all over their bodies.

“These two hid in the cabin near the abandoned mine?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Nicole managed to answer. Smoke filled her lungs and she felt faint.

“You two run away there.”

“I can’t leave my mother behind.”

Cried Jay.

“Do as you are told. I’ve tied up the horse I ride here. That’s only one horse, so I’ll take your mother to the mansion and give her first aid. You go through Karen and Jen’s belongings and get their IDs.”

“…….”

Nicole now understands what she means. No, she knew it from the beginning…….

It was Grace’s plan to swap Karen and Jen for the two of them.

“It’s like an opportunity God has prepared for you.”

Jen and Karen were actually siblings, and they were about the same age. They may be criminals, but at least they weren’t of traitorous descent.

“Are you scared? If you don’t like these methods, don’t even think about getting my help. And I’m only helping you in order not to repeat my daughter’s tragedy, and to give a blow to my disciple, Prince Valentine, who neglected her death.”

Grabbing the hesitant Nicole by the collar, Grace whispered.

“Will you do as you’re told?”

“I will. Please take good care of my mother.”

“I could feel the wind blowing. Now we have to go down to town. And….”

Grace twisted her mouth and said.

“Raul, he’s coming. If that fire spreads into a forest fire, he’s the only one who can handle this.”

Nicole nodded. She knew it too.

“Isabel is missing!”

Then Jay shouted. There was no sign of Isabel where she had fallen.

Nicole bit her lip.

‘Isabel, you rat. It’s just like you.’

While they were busy disposing of the body, she ran away.

But there was no time for Isabel.

“I have a favor to ask of you. There’s luggage that I hid in the forest. It’s from the Yveschapel family. Can you take it for me?”

Grace replied that she would.

Nicole quickly disclosed where she had hidden the luggage.

Then they hurriedly moved.

“Take care of my mother.”

Nicole looked back at Freya several times and ran to the cabin near the abandoned mine.

??

Grace and Freya did not move as they looked at where the two had left.

Freya leaned against the wooden lantern and looked at Grace quietly.

“How far do you know…? Our family’s situation…….”

“I don’t know anything. Even though I belong to the Imperial Intelligence Agency, the secret about your family, which is the “perpetrator of ability,” has not been disclosed.”

Grace’s tone changed after she was convinced of Freya’s identity.

Sith, in her words, is the name given to the Knights and the Secret Intelligence Service of the Grand Duke.

Likewise, the royal family has a secret intelligence service.

Grace held high positions in both institutions.

Freya did not know about the Sith or the Imperial Intelligence Agency, but understood Grace’s words.

“Never, my children…… My children shouldn’t be in their hands. My parents… I can’t let them suffer the same way as my family did…….”

Freya beckoned Grace. It was a desperate plea.

It became apparent to Grace that Freya was dying.

She was already sick in the first place. And with the amount of smoke she inhaled from the fire and the trauma she suffered tonight, Freya was already at her limit.

‘Isabel, you’re such a horrible girl. You did this to your parents.’

Isabel is trying to kill them. Grace was sure.

Grace leaned over Freya. Freya vented a few words into Grace’s ear.

“Will you help us?”

“…… Won’t you regret it?”

Grace helped her. Freya shook her head weakly.

“I will take good care of your daughter.”

Grace treated Freya with respect.

Grace wanted to pay tribute to Freya as a mother like herself.

“As I missed my daughter, what can I do if your daughter says she doesn’t want to die the same way as mine?”

“Thanks to you, I will leave this world with hope. I’m so grateful. I can’t believe such an incredible person is helping my daughter.”

Freya said.

“I was really stupid. I loved my husband, but we were both immature. I wanted to protect them, but I had no strength or ability.”

She continued in a low voice.

“Nicole… My eldest daughter is a very smart child.”

“Yeah, she played with me slyly. I tried to take care of Karen and Jen by my own hand. And she’s got me all over the place. Looking like my daughter……. I was going to kill her because I thought I’d been caught up in such a hassle.”

Grace grumbled. Freya smiled faintly.

“Until now, Nicole didn’t know her true value. Even I had forgotten how clever she was. She knew this would happen, so she packed our things in advance. Thanks to her, I am able to rest with my valuables on my body just in case.”

Freya held out her parched hand. There was a loose ring on her finger.

A ring given only to the seven great families of the Empire.

The ring is the same kind as the one handed down to the Grand Duke of Valentine and was engraved with the emblem of the Yveschapel family.

This was a magical tool from the imperial family a long time ago.

“Only the owner and the person with the owner’s permission can read the contents of this ring. You know that, right?”

“All seven great families have it, I know.”

“I need a pen and paper. Could you bring it to me?”

The paper and pen she usually carries on her saddle were brought by Grace.

Freya struggled to write.

She is a sinner who lived in hiding for fear of the imperial family for a long time.

As soon as she heard that Prince Valentine was near today, she was so terrified that she decided to leave the world.

?It was my two children who slept in the cabin…….?

Freya wrote a false will.

It was a letter saying that the descendant of the traitor killed her own children and set fire to their house. This was because she was tired of their life living in hiding.

And Freya made the ring recognize the contents of the letter.

The ring was not damaged by the fire nor with heavy impact.

Besides, it’s not accessible to just anyone, so it’ll prove her identity.

When the fire goes out, people will find the bodies of Jen, Karen, and Freya.

‘That’s enough. My children will be treated as dead. They’ll mistake the bodies of those two for my children.’

Finally, my children get their freedom. Even Isabel who abandoned her.

“I’m dying soon.”

Freya said. And with Grace’s help, she hung a long white cloth on the tree at the entrance of the house.

“When I close my eyes…….”

“I will stage your suicide.”

Grace said.

“Never let my children blame you. I’m dead because…… It’s because of my illness……. I can’t see them with my eyes anymore. Since you’re a mother, you understand.”

“You’ve been running away for a long time and survived. Won’t you regret it?”

“Why would I regret it? I’m… I’m glad. I should have done this earlier. As a parent, it would be a great pleasure to sacrifice and die for your child.”

Freya, who was looking at Grace, nodded.

As soon as she closed her eyes, she remembered her beloved husband. Their life of fleeing passed like a flash.

Then… a happy memory came to mind.

The moment their children were born. The moment they were in their arms. The happiness of seeing their growing children…….

‘Nicole, I’m sorry.’

The last face that came to her mind was somehow Nicole’s.

‘Your mother was such a fool. Embrace your emotions and be greedy for anything……. As I grew up, I only learned from my parents, so I raised you the same way.’

Nicole stuck like a sore finger as she was their first child.

‘I reasoned that it was my first time. I didn’t know how to make you happy because I only thought about not losing you.’

She poured her love on her second and third children, something she couldn’t do for Nicole.

‘If you’re going to be born as a child of another family in the next life, do so. But if you were to be born again as my child, if I could…… I’d really do better then. I’ll do my best to make you happy then. My daughter.’

Freya closed her eyes thinking so. Grace looked at Freya, who had died, as if she were asleep.

Then she slowly wrapped Freya’s neck around a white cloth.

Now, it was time to make up a clean suicide. Fortunately, Grace was an expert in this kind of work.