Chapter 180: Sue Byron Chiqmefriar’s Story
The low voice called her name again. She thought it was an auditory hallucination, but startled, she rubbed her eyes and focused on the direction of the voice.
And there he was. Shina Fritz, looking disheveled.
“Master Fritz…”
“Are you okay?!”
Fritz was locked in the cell across from hers. Sue, just in case, checked the other cells. Enzhe’s parents and the Lopetrefer servants were lying there, unconscious.
“They’re all familiar faces…”
Sue sighed.
She had assumed they would be in the underground chamber, since there had been no one in the Lopetrefer mansion. She was a little surprised that Fritz was also captured, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected, as even in the novel, Enzhe had tried to kidnap him before.
“How long have I been unconscious?”
“What? …About 10 hours.”
Sue shook her head and sighed.
“That’s not too bad, is it?”
“Byron, this isn’t the time to be saying that. This place…”
“It’s the Lopetrefer underground chamber.”
Sue said flatly to Fritz, who was looking around with a disgusted expression.
“You knew about this place?”
“I knew it existed, but I’ve never been here before.”
“You knew about this… and you didn’t report it?”
“It would take a long time to explain.”
“…Sigh, what the hell is going on? My magic isn’t working either.”
Fritz, his face filled with confusion, leaned against the bars. Sue, her tension easing now that they were in the underground chamber, started doodling on the floor.
“Master Fritz, how did you end up here?”
“Enzhe said she had something important to tell me and invited me to the Lopetrefer mansion… And then I was trapped here without any resistance.”
It was a humiliating story, but Fritz felt more defeated than anything.
“I think I’ve been here for three days…”
“Three days? That’s impossible. If you had been missing for three days, the Fritz family would have sent out a search party…”
“My relationship with my father hasn’t been very good lately.”
He chuckled bitterly.
“So this is how I die…”
Sue felt sorry for him, he seemed so foolish. He was the man who would become emperor if Halo was by his side, and yet, here he was, facing a lonely end.
No, that couldn’t happen.
“Master Fritz, I’ll save you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Then you have to save me too. Promise?”
“Byron.”
“Ah, and one more thing.”
One absurd statement followed another.
“I’m going to abandon Lady Enzhe. Just like you.”
“….”
“You need to think for yourself. Ah, why don’t you try being friends with Soran Halo? I bet you two would hit it off.”
Sue rambled on, like a child. Had she lost her mind, or was this her true personality?
At that moment, they heard footsteps coming from the direction of the wind. The footsteps were approaching, crushing the dried flesh underfoot.
“Enzhe!”
“Ah, shut up, Shina. Be quiet.”
Enzhe covered her ear with her hand, as if she was annoyed. She then approached Sue’s cell, her deep-set black eyes glaring at her broken toy.
Sue greeted her cheerfully,
“Good morning, Lady Enzhe.”
“Sue, tell me where Michaela is.”
“I’ll think about it if you release everyone else.”
“…You’re getting bold now that your curse is broken.”
“Yes, I’m very excited. The slave shackles I’ve been wearing my whole life are finally gone! I feel like I could fly.”
“Yes, congratulations. You’re about to die, but…”
“….”
Sue, who had been chattering nonstop since she had woken up in the underground chamber, finally shut her mouth. Enzhe looked at her with a mocking gaze. Sue, staring back at her, said in a clear voice,
“Stop it, Lady Enzhe.”
“Shut up, don’t order me around.”
Sue was the only one who knew Michaela’s whereabouts. And Enzhe was trying to kill Michaela first. In other words, Sue and the others were safe until Enzhe found Michaela.
That was why Sue had prioritized saving Michaela.
She was a baby, innocent of any sin in this hell.
So she was definitely more of a “success” than the other Lopetrefer humans here.
Sue swept her hand across the floor.
“At least you’ve only killed Prince Cedric… Ha, it’s a bit strange to say that, isn’t it? Why did you kill Prince Cedric anyway?”
“What the hell are you talking about, Sue? Do you really think I can’t kill you because of Michaela?”
Sue continued to sweep the floor. On and on.
“I have to say this because you’ve always been crazy.”
“…Sue, I just… I have to find more fun and lovely things. If I can’t find them, I can’t feel anything. I was born that way, just like you were born to be my slave.”
“I know, that’s why I’m telling you to stop. If you stop now, at least you can live.”
Ah, magic was flowing in.
“You’re saying I can live? …Poor Sue, have you gone mad?”
Sue mocked her pitying eyes. This was why she had become the bait. This was why she hadn’t run away, even though her curse was broken.
“You exposed everything to me by using Azette.”
“…So what?”
“Never thought it would happen to you?”
She wanted to slap her across the face.
At that moment, an endless stream of light erupted from the magic formula Sue had been drawing on the floor.
“W-what’s this?”
Enzhe frowned at the sudden light.
Halo, outside, was diligently searching for the barrier and weakening it.
But even if she weakened the barrier, she wouldn’t know where Sue was, so Sue had been drawing a magic formula to signal her location and infusing it with magic power.
It seemed like Halo’s magic power and Sue’s magic power had finally met.
The ceiling started to shake.
“Don’t tell me… You planned this?”
“Yes.”
“Y-you…!”
Enzhe, her face pale, tried to gather magic power, but it was impossible. A weak magic bullet flew towards Sue, but it was deflected by the protective barrier. It was the magic contained in the pendant Acrea had given her.
“What’s this…?”
Enzhe tried to gather magic power again, but she failed. Reeves had used the power of the divine beast to suppress everyone’s magic power within a certain range.
“What’s this…! What’s this…! What’s going on…! S-Shina! Help me! Save me!”
But Fritz just looked at her with pity, unable to do anything. Sue, watching Enzhe scream, sighed bitterly and mumbled,
“It’s a good thing you, me, and Melaine are all equally stupid.”
The ceiling of the underground chamber, along with the Lopetrefer family’s long-standing barrier, soared into the sky. It was Reeves’s magic.
The knights descended, ready to arrest Enzhe. The divine beast’s magic suppression barrier gradually weakened as Enzhe’s arrest was confirmed.
Sue, shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight, looked up at the sky.
Rem’s breath. The divine beast’s flapping wings. Halo’s large staff. And Woo Acrea and Raines Noel, running towards her.
Everyone witnessed the scene. The Lopetrefer family’s past, Sue Byron’s past.
Sue, stepping out of the cell, reached out to the ripples of Atlantis, shimmering in the wind.
Beyond the tiny droplet.
The headless cockroach finally died, and the villainess’s story ended in ruin.
***
“Byron, are you feeling better?”
“Noel, how’s the Knights?”
“I’m off today.”
“Hehe, then stay and play. We don’t have much time left.”
“….”
Byron, whom he hadn’t seen in over a month, was full of energy.
It had been over two months since the discovery of the Lopetrefer family’s massive underground chamber.
The underground chamber, hidden behind a strong barrier, had been like a human anthill. The Imperial Family couldn’t ignore it after it had been exposed to the entire nation.
They had immediately arrested everyone with Lopetrefer blood, including Enzhe.
The Grand Duke, Duchess, and Lady Lopetrefer, in particular, were treated as serious criminals and imprisoned in the deepest level of the Imperial prison.
They had then started interrogating and arresting everyone connected to the Lopetrefer family. Eren and his wife were arrested, as evidence and testimonies had surfaced, placing them at the level of accomplices. Marquis Yuna, after being interrogated, was released, but she was stripped of her title as Knights Captain.
Sue, who had made a plea bargain with Reeves, wasn’t arrested, but she was put on trial for being Enzhe Lopetrefer’s accomplice. This time, it was at the Imperial Court, not the Student Tribunal.
Sue’s final sentence, as she had wished, was “permanent exile from the capital.” She had been able to reduce her sentence because she was considered a “victim,” having been trapped in the underground chamber with “Master Fritz,” and because her plea bargain had been treated as a “confession.”
Well that was quick