Chapter 90

Chapter 90: The Flower of Evil

Tilda, who had entered the Dandolo family as a daughter-in-law, was dissatisfied with everything.

The reason was simple.

Because that mansion was not hers.

Tilda, unable to even act like the mistress in a house that didn’t belong to her, found nothing but annoyance in that place.

— Heheung~.

She, who used to be like that, was sitting on the sofa today, humming happily.

There was only one reason why she seemed to be enjoying the world.

It was due to the ring hanging from her hand.

A ring with a band made of shining silver and an enormous diamond set in the center.

That was no ordinary diamond.

A red diamond that only miners venturing beneath the Hell’s Boundary, in the God’s Tomb of the Western Continent, could extract.

Called the Blood Diamond because it claimed tens of thousands of lives, it was a rare item among the rarest that couldn’t be obtained with money alone.

Tilda was euphoric that such a rare object that others couldn’t obtain was shining on her own hand.

However, that pleasant smile lasted only an instant.

— My love, is something good happening?

The moment she heard the voice, Tilda’s happy moment vanished in the blink of an eye.

The one who poured cold water over her was Henri Dandolo, the heir to the Dandolo estate.

Her fiancé, and the very person who had given her this ring.

Tilda turned her head.

A rehearsed smile, as if in a theatrical play, formed on her face.

— I was thinking of you.

— What a coincidence. I was thinking of you too.

Henri, with a clueless face, laughed pleasantly and kissed Tilda’s hand.

He forced his way next to her and sat beside Tilda.

Tilda, annoyed even by the touch of his flesh through clothing, subtly moved away and asked:

— How is business going lately?

— Business? It’s going wonderfully! I heard the dwarves of the West discovered a vein of rare earths used for magical materials. Money will literally rain from the sky.

Henri clapped and shook his body as if delighted.

Yet what welled up from Tilda’s mouth was a sigh.

Henri’s face, which had been smiling, was tinged with bewilderment.

— Why? It’s good news, isn’t it?

— It’s good. Right now, of course it’s good. But why does the future seem so invisible to me?

— The future isn’t visible? As I see it, I just think we will continue to prosper even with just the present…

— That’s because you’re an optimist. As I see it, it isn’t like that. I don’t even know how I’ll live from now on; it’s very uncertain. Those beasts are still lunging to try to take what is mine, aren’t they?

— Are you referring to my brothers-in-law?

Tilda nodded.

— Those two are more tenacious than you imagine. Do you know how much I suffered because of those two men when I was young?

A flood of emotions emerged.

Tilda continued speaking with a voice gripped by passion.

— That kind of beast thinks I came into this family to use you. After turning me into the worst villainess in the world, they are trying to turn me into a fool who can’t exercise power anywhere!

Tears welled up in Tilda’s eyes.

At that single drop, Henri’s heart crumbled.

— Tilda, my love. Don’t distress yourself. My love is only for you.

Henri gently took Tilda’s hand.

— Now, look. This diamond. It’s the gem you like most, isn’t it?

— …

— I swore it when I put this on your finger: that I would make you happier than anyone in this world. So there will no longer be any reason for you to be so anxious.

— …Really?

— Of course it’s real.

Henri kissed the back of her hand again and spoke in a soft tone.

— My love, for you I would even bring down the stars from the sky.

Tilda, who had been shedding crocodile tears, finally smiled.

“This idiot, he really is this easy.”

They say all men become simple in front of women, but Henri’s case was particularly severe.

Henri as a human being was just like that.

Unlike his father, who continued expansion through aggressive investments and methods, he was meek and sought a peaceful lifestyle.

Lacking thoroughness; a man with an impulsive tendency.

“Even so, he has ability.”

Pioneering the Western region was also possible thanks to his impulsive drive.

His appearance was ugly and he was old, but for that sole ability, it was worth enduring him.

At least until she resolved all her annoying matters, she had to use him.

At that moment, an employee approached and whispered into Tilda’s ear:

— We succeeded with the trap.

It was good news.

— Faster than I thought. Understood.

— What is fast?

asked Henri.

— It’s a secret.

— Do we have to keep secrets between fiancés?

— It can only be a secret. Because I prepared a gift for you.

— Oh, f-for me? For me?

A smile formed on Henri Dandolo’s mouth.

He subtly placed his hand on Tilda’s shoulder and said:

— That gift for me… can you show me just a tiny bit?

Tilda matched him with an innocent smile.

— No. I’ll tell you later, so just hold on a bit for now.

— Come on, can’t you show just a little to your fiancé?

— I like surprises. If Henri figures it out, it feels like my effort was in vain, so I would be sad.

She lowered the corners of her mouth and puffed her cheeks.

Henri looked at that face and smiled broadly.

— All right. I’ll pretend not to know even if I see it like a blind man who opened his eyes.

— If you’re pretending not to know, that means you already know.

— I act well, you know?

— What nonsense, hohoho!

Tilda laughed loudly.

Seeing her mood completely relax, Henri put on a face of relief.

— I’ll go now. Father, isn’t it time for his meal?

— You could just leave it to a maid, isn’t it rather annoying?

— There were details I neglected while sightseeing in Halim and, above all, he is your father, Henri.

— Hahaha, what a matter! To have a daughter-in-law like this, both your father and I are too blessed!

Henri scratched his head and laughed hehehe.

He hummed, singing about how happy he was as a person, and Tilda looked at him and laughed hoho.

That laugh lasted exactly until she crossed the door and it closed.

Tilda’s face turned freezingly cold.

She walked toward the Patriarch’s room following the red carpet.

As she walked like that, a maid subtly stuck to her side.

— Condition?

— Same as usual.

— Is that so? Understood. Is the preparation done properly?

— Yes.

— Give it to me here.

Tilda took the tray, and the door opened.

— Father, it’s Tilda. I’ll be coming in.

Tilda entered the Patriarch’s room.

Inside the Patriarch’s room, wallpaper written with the history of the Dandolo family and a rooted family tree drew attention.

Since the lineage had been maintained for over 200 years, that pride was strong as well.

The figure who expressed that pride the most was Henri’s father, Rico Dandolo.

Rico Dandolo was the most aggressive merchant in the history of the Dandolo family.

He jumped into high-risk, high-reward ventures to check Herman Pascal, who continued an aggressive expansion.

However, with both ability and heaven’s luck accompanying him, Rico Dandolo’s business grew bigger and bigger, building its current reputation.

Yet no matter how much one earned, no merchant was free before time.

For Rico, that time had turned him into an old man who didn’t have much left.

He had no strength to lift a spoon; breathing was all he could do, an old man at the level of living day by day.

— Hello, father-in-law. How is your body today?

Tilda asked him.

She knew no response would come back.

Tilda continued her monologue.

— They say the weather is clear today. Going out for a short stroll might be a good option.

— …

— Of course, with Father’s condition like this, even sitting somewhere must be difficult. It’s a pity.

— …

— Even so, doesn’t it give you strength that this daughter-in-law talks to you?

Tilda shoved the porridge forcefully into Rico’s mouth.

— They say the place Henri contracted discovered a vein of rare earths this time. Do they say it has good mana resonance, so they are sitting on a cushion of money?

— …

— It’s truly surprising, isn’t it? Just a few years ago, they cursed him as a piece of useless trash, lamenting that the Dandolo Company would go bankrupt if that bastard became president, and now that son is trying to bring another period of resurgence to the Dandolo Company.

— …

— Who do you think made your useless son like this?

— …

— None other than me. It’s my achievement.

Tilda wore a deep smile, immersed in self-admiration.

— I am this amazing as a woman.

She shoved the wooden spoon into his mouth.

— It means I’m not a woman who deserves to be treated like a ghost who will destroy this company.

She stirred the inside of his mouth.

— Everything is mine. The Pascal Company, the Dandolo Company, this mansion…

A bit rough.

She pushed the wooden spoon into his mouth.

Deep enough to make one wonder if it could even reach that far.

— And even your life, which is no different from that of a plant.

Gasp, gasp—.

Rico, his throat obstructed, his complexion turning pale.

Tilda made a face of delight.

Right before he suffocated, Tilda pulled the spoon out.

Breath returned to the blocked airway.

— Even so, you have to live. Living a bit longer is more profitable for me than if you die right now.

— …

— They say that to fix that will you hid, you need to be alive first. Why keep useless secrets and make me go through this trouble.

Tilda caressed the old man’s chin with her finger.

The pleasure of dominance was brief.

Tilda’s finger stopped.

— Oh?

Her smiling expression turned cold.

Rico Dandolo, who shouldn’t be able to move a single finger, moved.

His eyes turned toward Tilda.

Both eyes trembled subtly.

Trembling so much that they were red and bloodshot, looking as if he were about to turn into a ghost.

Murderous intent.

A hatred hard to sense in a mute old man was directed at Tilda.

Tilda looked down at those pupils and muttered coldly:

— It seems the medicine was a bit insufficient…

Tilda silently pulled a small medicine vial from her chest and dropped one more drop into the porridge.

Without even mixing it, she took it as it was and put it into Rico Dandolo’s mouth.

Strength drained from Rico Dandolo’s eyes again.

He turned into a frail old man who could only breathe once more.

— Rest, Father. You don’t have much time left anyway.

Tilda smiled brightly again and spoke into the ear of Rico Dandolo, who had turned into a plant.

— When Father passes away, I’ll send your son along too so you won’t be lonely.

Tilda stepped out carrying the empty porridge bowl like that.

In front of her stood the mansion’s employees.

— Is it certain that Merkat’s Mercenary Company side was framed properly?

asked Tilda, handing over the porridge tray.

— Yes. Merkat went to Valdrova Castle late at night to speak with Stefan, but returned in two hours.

— Sent back late at night… it seems the talk didn’t go well.

Tilda smiled as if delighted.

— Now I just need to make them burst one by one. One by one.

— That’s right.

— Proceed. Let’s take everything as ours.

— Yes.

The employee moved busily.

The plan had begun.

“Now everything will fall into my hands.”

Merkat Pascal and Stefan Pascal.

They were blood relatives, but to Tilda, who wanted the Pascal Company, they were neither more nor less than obstacles.

Tilda raised her hand and held it up to the light.

The sophisticatedly cut Blood Diamond gleamed beautifully.

— If only it weren’t for the name of an engagement ring, it would truly be perfect.

Even while expressing such regret, she was happy.

The name of engagement is only for a moment, but the diamond’s beauty is eternal.

Merkat returned that very day.

It was very late at night, but not offering him a place to stay was no different from turning him away at the door.

With that, the world could guess that the rift between Merkat and Stefan had deepened.

Merkat showed signs of separating and becoming independent after that.

Merkat prepared to split off by transferring all the businesses he had run to the mercenary company.

It was the intention to make him move openly, and it went according to that intention.

Herman Pascal made his move.

Knowing that power must not be divided, he attempted to stop Merkat’s attempt at independence and, at the same time, tried to reinstate Stefan as director to oust him.

“It was within Stefan’s expectations.”

Herman doesn’t know what’s happening.

He only knows that the two brothers fought and that the division is occurring because of that.

The best actor is the one who meddles without knowing anything.

Herman became an important player who erased everyone’s suspicions.

Father, Herman Pascal.

Brother, Merkat Pascal.

Myself, Stefan Pascal.

A three-way battle between three men began under the name of the Pascal Company.

She made them believe that everything moved according to Tilda’s plan.

It was while she was thinking like that.

— Regent-nim.

Isabella entered Ferda’s office.

In her hand was not the usual mountain of documents, but a single thin handkerchief.

— A carpenter discovered it while organizing the building materials. He said he couldn’t read the letters, so he brought it to me…

What Isabella handed over was a neatly folded black scarf.

When she unfolded the inside, there were letters written in chillingly red blood.

“No, it’s not blood, it’s dye.”

If it were blood, it wouldn’t stay this bright red.

Whether it was blood or dye didn’t matter.

The only group Ferda knew that wrote letters using red dye on a black scarf was one.

“Black Handkerchief.”

A secret organization spread throughout the Serdes Continent.

An underground organization with the provocative slogan: “There is nothing that cannot be found, nothing that cannot be obtained.”

True to such an intelligence organization, the written content was provocative as well.

— To Ferda Valdrova.

— We know about the Pascal Company’s recent affairs.

— We will visit you soon.