Epilogue (2)

Since he had no business attending the party today, Ezet was wearing a simple outdoor dress. Even though it was simple, she didn’t inflate her skirt. Only, a light cream lace zigzagged from chest to skirt as if woven flowers and a small drop was attached to the end of the gold-embroidered dark brown waist ribbon, making Ezet’s waist ribbon shake and create a brilliant sound every step taken by Edmond.

“Edmond, was there anything else you didn’t tell me?”

“You’re the one who told me. What are you talking about?”

Edmond, who came down the stairs with an unknown answer, dropped Ezet off in front of the hall.

The hall was filled with aristocrats who came out to transport Edmond and Ezet.

And at the forefront stood Countess Harrington, who had to be moribund.

“Countess Harrington!”

“Duchess of Jaxen…”

Countess Harrington approached slowly and bowed to Ezet. The eyes of Countess Harrington moistened as Ezet raised her hand.

“Are you feeling well? How did you get better? You’ve been hurt a lot…….”

“Her Majesty has given you medicine.”

“What? Your Majesty?”

Ezet was not aware of the situation.

She thought it would be Countess Devon or Marchioness of Barth if anyone had enough resentment to push Countess Harrington back on the balcony. Don’t tell me the Empress pushed her. Looking at Ezet with a puzzled look, Countess Harrington stroked Ezet’s hand on the back.

“You said it was an award that did not betray your faith.”

“God’s…?”

“It was terrifying, actually. I thought it was over.”

After the lake party, Countess Devon’s party visited her, noticing that Countess Harrington was strangely avoiding them.

She has been pressuring the Empress, Ezet, and Daniel to tell everything about what happened on the ship.

Countess Harrington was embarrassed. The Duchess of Jaxen has the Empress on her side. If the two were to be turned into enemies, Harrington County would be destroyed in a moment.

However, even so, it was not possible to ignore the prominent ladies in front of her. Because even if the Duchess of Jaxen had reached out, she could not yet be her shield.

“Countess Harrington. Don’t tell me…”

“All I could think of was running away. I was scared to death, to speak, to confess.”

No one pushed it. Countess Harrington jumped off the balcony as if she were running away from the pressure of Countess Devon.

I’ve read it in a book. When a weak person falls into a panic, they sometimes show extreme behavior to escape reality.

Count Harrington had no power. Countess Harrington, who had only lived to please her Countess Devon, would have seen it to have a knife pointing at her neck from both sides.

‘She jumped be herself, so the others thought didn’t think it was their fault?’

That’s why the face of Countess Devon’s party was intact even though a woman was on the verge of death. She pressed it, but she didn’t push it herself. So it’s her fault that she fell, that she was on the verge of death. As a result, it was killing two birds with one stone, as it could create a perception that ‘The end is bad if she turns to the side of the Duchess of Jaxen.’

They do not see a person’s life in its own right but calculate it as profit and loss. Ezet got goosebumps.

“But… they’re the ones who pressured Countess Harrington. Did you get the apology?”

“The Empress did ‘compensation.’”

Noblemen’s apology is not a word but a material reward. The Empress’s ‘special gift’ for the two ladies who inhaled smoke the day before was to send medicine to Countess Harrington.

Now that the center of society has turned to the Duchess of Jaxen, Countess Devon and Marchioness of Barth will no longer have time to step. They were the mainstay of Ezet’s harassment.

So, as compensation for the two ladies, the Empress ‘compensated’ so that they could avoid Ezet’s resentment.

By healing the wounds of Countess Harrington.

“So it’s okay now.”

Countess Harrington smiled vaguely. In her trembling eyes, Ezet saw herself as she was. A weak, foolish, cowardly self could not bear to rely on someone or hide behind a strong shield.

The result of the mirror of truth at the lake party. She decided to side with Ezet to avoid the responsibility for leading the case, but she was suddenly scared when she was cornered.

Ezet recalled when she attended the banquet in an indoor dress on the first day. In the absence of Edmond, the Emperor and Empress, she was cornered and could not protest. The weak cannot live alone without relying on the strong.

Edmond was the shield for Ezet. If then,

“Edmond, you said you had a bid for a railway ticket next month, right?”

“Yes, I did.”

As the Jaxen Duchy monopolized the railway, his influence on commerce was enormous. All but a small number of businesses that rely entirely on large and time-consuming maritime trade participate in the railway bidding competition hosted by the Duchess of Jaxen.

Edmond has so far sold his stake in rail rights at auction. The more money one invests, the more shares one gets, and if they don’t have enough money, they get little.

The shares in rail use soon determine the size of trade. As trade grows in size, there are huge profits.

Unlike ships that cannot float when the weather is bad, trains on the railway run fast, even in rain, snow, or typhoons. Thanks to Edmond’s unique weather-resistant ‘Roof of the Dragon’, brought from Dragon Lair. Mounting it on a train allows it to pass through a vast tornado without damaging the front.

Therefore, many merchants preferred stable rail trade. The top of Count Devon, who extended his hands to business with enormous military power as a martyr, also paid a large amount of money each time to purchase railroad tickets.