A Handsome K*nky Gangster Reporter - Chapter 89

#89

As an adult, Claude coldly rejected his daughter.

“I have no feelings for Miss Gloria, so please stop following me. It’s creepy and awful.”

His daughter was deeply disappointed by the Duke’s cold words, falling ill with a love sickness and lying bedridden. Seeing her suffer again because of a worthless man-made Bella extremely upset. As a parent, she felt her daughter’s distress was a disgrace, and at the same time, she was furious with Claude.

“Who does he think he is to reject my daughter?”

After all, he was raised almost like a commoner and was only fortunate to have a Duke as his father. If he’s going to act this way, she shouldn’t have informed Duke Lischer that there was a son in her household. She doesn’t even know how to show gratitude and acts like this.

On the day her daughter fell ill with love sickness, the rain poured all night. Without sleep, the sorceress cooled her thoughts and heart while watching the raindrops fall. The next morning, as the rain stopped and thick fog enveloped the capital, Bella finally decided to make her daughter’s love come true. All she wanted now was her daughter’s happiness. That was why she had turned back several times, increasingly losing her angelic power.

The demon that reappeared whispered in Bella’s ear.

“You don’t have much power left, do you? What’s your plan this time? I’m curious.”

The demon seemed intrigued by this foolish angel, often appearing around Bella.

“I’ll make that arrogant man kneel before my daughter. If there’s no other way, I’ll create a love potion or whatever it takes.”

First, Bella froze her daughter’s heart. While this spell was active, her daughter would exhibit a cold reaction and reject all men. Then, she slipped a potion with a bit of magical power to make Young Duke’s heart race only for a specific person, using a servant working at Duke Lischer’s residence. The potion was harmless to the body, only carrying a mild magical power to make the heart flutter for a certain individual.

“Let’s hope this love potion works.”

And one more thing, Bella imbued her daughter’s body with a special scent. It was like perfume but designed to make people remember the scent when they thought of her daughter elsewhere. It was similar to pheromones used by animals to attract mates.

Bella arranged for her daughter and young Duke to meet several times at various parties. Her daughter now acted coldly towards young Duke, and Claude suddenly felt drawn to her.

Then, by coincidence, young Duke saved her daughter from a group of criminals. After various events, her daughter and young Duke eventually married. Bella’s plan succeeded. She thought they would only have a happy ending. How foolish of the angel to believe that.

However, Claude was not a kind person. Perhaps because he was raised harshly among commoners, he distrusted people and was full of arrogance. After marrying Gloria, he bought a hotel supply factory. But the factory was fraught with problems from a managerial perspective.

“No wonder the previous owner sold it to me so quickly.”

He faced problems every day with issues at the factory. Every two or three days there was a work accident, the factory’s atmosphere was unstable, and now his secretary reported that the factory workers were on strike.

“A strike?”

“Yes. The factory workers are demanding improvements in working hours and wages, and they are currently protesting.”

They wanted the work schedule changed to a three-shift system because 12-hour shifts were deemed impossible. However, they boldly demanded the same wages as before. From a business and noble’s perspective, this was a very trivial and troublesome issue.

Claude crumpled the alternative report about the “strike” submitted by his subordinate and threw it near the door.

“Fine. Fire everyone.”

“Eh!?”

“Didn’t you hear me? Fire them all.”

His secretary, seeing Claude’s cold gaze, inadvertently defended the workers. The secretary had once been a factory worker himself, and despite having a disabled hand now, he felt compelled to stand up for the workers. He thought perhaps someone could convince Claude to change his mind.

“And then, who will run the machines at the factory? And they all have families to support. If everyone is fired at once…”

“Good. This is a great opportunity. We can replace all the workers with children and women. We can pay them less, right?”

“….”

With his employer’s cold words, the secretary bowed and left the Duke’s office. In his mind, he only thought about how to calm the workers who refused to be fired. He was worried that if public opinion was unfavorable, it might affect the Duke. So, he thought that maybe he could persuade the Duchess. But he quickly realized that it was almost impossible. Once a word came out of Claude’s mouth, he wouldn’t change his mind.

“Only the Duchess can persuade him…”

A secretary’s decision could change the lives of many workers. With this thought, the secretary went to meet the Duchess.

“Duchess, Secretary Blum from the Duke’s office has arrived. He begs to meet with you. What should we do?”

Hearing the servant’s words, Gloria, now the Duchess, happily accepted the meeting. Although she had to wait for over an hour to prepare, Blum calmed himself, thinking about what to say to the Duchess and preparing his arguments.

“The livelihoods of many people depend on this. They have no other place to go if fired from here. Ah, is this too direct? They say nobles speak in circles. No, if I do that, they might not understand…”

“What are you saying?”

Gloria, who appeared in the living room, showed great interest in Secretary Blum’s words. Fortunately, she was different from her cold husband and easier to communicate with. Gloria had managed a newspaper before marriage and had a strong interest in labor movements and equal voting rights. Even recently, she donated a significant amount of money to an organization.

“I’ll talk to my husband. We can’t fire so many people at once.”

Claude, who inherited the Duke title after marriage, was very busy with hotel and factory management. Therefore, he was often away from home. When he did come home occasionally, he looked as wilted as a withered vegetable.

Gloria, who rarely saw her husband at home, wanted to talk to him and eventually insisted on having a conversation.

“Darling, let’s talk today.”

“I’m tired. Let’s talk tomorrow.”

“You always leave early. Let’s talk first, then you can rest.”

Claude, feeling different from Gloria’s determination today, stared at her sharply.

“…Alright. What do you want to say?”

“They say the factory workers are on strike. Please fulfill their demands. It doesn’t seem too unreasonable.”

“Where did you get this information?”

“That’s not important. Don’t you think there’s a possibility that workers across the Empire will rise against us? Don’t you feel the dissatisfaction of the people has been increasing recently?”

Claude’s gaze turned cold at his wife’s interference. If he had known that Gloria was a woman who would oppose him, he wouldn’t have married her. No, he accepted her because her dowry was a large diamond mine. There was still a lot of inherited wealth from his mother that he would receive. So this time, he could endure.

“It seems you don’t understand the outside world. Don’t bring such objections to me again.”

Claude, feeling disturbed, decided to sleep separately for a while. Gloria, who initially thought this was just a temporary complaint from her husband, became increasingly anxious as the separation at home continued for a long time.

At that time, her trusted servant, Betty, tried to comfort her mistress.

“Duchess, don’t worry. I checked, and on the days when the Duke is not home, he only sleeps at Hotel Lischer. There are no other women.”

Gloria felt relieved that her husband had no other women out there, but still, she was deeply worried due to the lack of children and her husband never coming to her room. She began to regret being too involved in her husband’s business.

Then, public opinion and the media criticized Duke Lischer. The newspapers protested the factory fire managed by the Duke, which killed many workers, and formed a cold public opinion towards the Duke’s business philosophy. Even members of the imperial family began to criticize and distance themselves from him.

Strangely, even the newspaper Gloria used to manage before marriage, “Golden Wild Goose Daily,” began criticizing Duke Lischer.

As his business started to falter, Claude returned home heavily drunk one day. The next morning, Betty, Gloria’s servant, was found naked in the Duke’s bedroom. Gloria was shocked.

“Betty… how could you do this to me?”

“I’m sorry, Duchess. I couldn’t do anything.”

Betty was a servant who Gloria originally saved from the misdeeds of George Abe, the eldest son of Earl Abe. Now, the servant once considered a friend had betrayed her mistress.

Deeply saddened and shocked, Gloria did not leave her bedroom for several days. In the middle of the night, Betty quietly entered Gloria’s room.

“Now, only you need to disappear, and I can take your place. Goodbye. Thank you for everything. Goodbye.”

Betty pressed a plush pillow against Gloria’s face as she slept, and after a few struggles, Gloria’s life was extinguished.

Because of the demon’s deliberate late hints, Bella, who came to the Lischer residence that night, saw her daughter’s death and laughed like a madwoman. Bella finally realized.

“Haha. So it was you. Finally, you.”

Throughout her daughter’s four lives, the one who was always by her side guiding her death was Betty. Her daughter had turned back time several times, always saving Betty, making her a friend and servant. And now, Betty had betrayed her.

In a situation where the criminal was caught, Betty, who tried to escape, suddenly felt her body freeze and couldn’t move. Bella first asked the servant.

“Why? What fault did my daughter have that she had to die?”

‘If there was a fault with Gloria, it was only that she was too empathetic and kind-hearted. Why do you feel unsatisfied and always lead my daughter to her death?’

Betty didn’t easily answer Bella’s questions. Bella used a spell to force Betty to tell the truth. While the demon beside them laughed at the angel, Bella didn’t have the strength to pay attention to that.

“Answer. Why did you kill my daughter?”

Under the witch’s questioning, Betty’s mouth was forcibly opened.

“I also wanted to live like her! What’s the difference between her and me? If it was only about looks, I’m not any less beautiful. If I had been raised by good parents, I wouldn’t have lived like this!”

‘Ah. In the end, it was all just shallow jealousy. That jealousy brought my daughter to her death. That’s how my daughter ended her fourth life.’