It was a name that was clearly etched in my mind from the moment I visited Shadow.
To be precise, the name that appeared in the letter Shadow gave me.
〈P.S. Instead of Deborah’s real name, on the entrance to Calypso, the name ‘Mary Jane DeCzeco’ was written.〉
Actually, she was an extra that appeared quite often in the original.
Mary Jane was the precious child of the Baron of DeCzeco, and was not Deborah’s maid to begin with.
But about three years ago.
When her father took part in the business of the Duke of Douglas and the Aktoum imperial family, he fell into Deborah’s trap and made a huge mistake.
‘Low status and inexperience, trying to do business related to the imperial family…’
‘…Just based on Deborah’s words…’
‘He trusted her completely and lost.’
Baron DeCzeco, who was trying to raise his poor family, was in danger of paying huge compensation.
A loss that couldn’t be fully repaid even if repaid from generation to generation.
In fact, it could have been ‘the downfall of the Baron of DeCzeco’.
It was Deborah who hid that fact.
That was her typical way of exploiting a person’s ‘weakness’.
‘From then on, his daughter had to do all sorts of nasty things.’
As Deborah’s limbs, no, she had become her slave.
Mary Jane DeCzeco was just a girl with a good heart who loved her family very much.
Knowing how much Baron DeCzeco loved her, in order to protect her father, she did the dirty work that Deborah asked her to do.
That made her even more cornered.
All Deborah had to do was threaten, ‘Do you want to see your family ruined’, and each time Mary Jane gave in.
She even lent her name to the Calypso entry list.
Baron DeCzeco would not be completely unaware that his daughter was being treated like this.
‘It’s gone so far now.’
To the point of rummaging through my office; me, the monarch of another country and the crown princess of this country, meant that she was risking her life.
But for me this was…
‘It’s a chance.’
It felt like a sharp instinct and cold reason had penetrated my heart.
‘A golden opportunity to destroy Deborah forever.’
Mary Jane, who would normally shut her mouth for fear that things would go wrong;
In a life-threatening situation like now, there were few options.
And I was going to offer her the best of all her options.
‘Deborah, Yuria got involved with you and killed herself.’
It was not just Yuria.
Baron Hermish Tevlon was also executed on ‘the day of the high priest’s visit’.
They were all people who would not have died if not for Deborah.
How many people were led on the road to ruin?
‘……She must have done that countless times in her life……’
Deborah always took a step back and controlled people, as if she’s doing a ‘shadow puppet show’, and when things happened, she slipped away.
It was time to spotlight what was behind the shadows.
The time has finally come to stop Deborah’s journey.
I made up my mind and looked down at Mary Jane.
Her forehead was pressed on the floor, and the back of her head, with her hair in a tight ponytail, was trembling.
“Your Majesty the Queen, I have committed a deadly sin. What, w-what I was trying to do in the office… I- I- I’ll say e-everything, everything.”
“Mary Jane.”
“……Yes?”
Her tear-soaked face looked straight at me.
What I was going to say now was something that Mary Jane would have never expected to come out of my mouth.
“I know that Baron DeCzeco made great losses in the imperial business.”
“!”
Her eyes widened to the size of a candle’s flame.
Her expression was as if I could hear a desperate cry that her family and herself were dead and over.
I slowly leaned over to make close eye contact with her.
“But you don’t have to be afraid.”
“…….”
“From now on, if you do what I tell you, I will untie the leash that Deborah put on you and your family.”
“….…”
Mary Jane’s eyelashes fluttered slightly.
Holding her chin softly, I asked,
“Can you?”
I could tell without hearing her answer.
* * *
“The Queen’s ‘Emergency Public Hearing’ is open!”
“I think that woman has been mincing Aktoum’s national budget.”
“I thought so. What, you work for Aktoum’s prosperity and development? That witch-like woman?”
“I didn’t believe it from the beginning either. I got goosebumps from her wicked eyes, really!”
The Aktoum social circle was heated with the news of the ‘Queen’s Public Hearing’.
Whenever they met at any social gathering, they would talk about this. Even if there were no social gatherings, they would gather and talk about it.
The queen, who seemed to be fully established in Aktoum, was embezzling the budget?
There was no such reversal, and there was nothing to talk about.
In particular, the Nine Nobles who opposed Berylia (the expression ‘remnant group’ would be more applicable now) was bound to get even more excited.
“Madam Deborah’s requested this public hearing!”
“You’ve got evidence of embezzlement.”
“That’s great, Madam Deborah.”
‘These people aren’t even as good as dogs.’
Deborah was internally swearing, but the feeling of being noticed in society for the first time in a long time was very flattering.
So, with an elegant expression, she put down the teacup and wiped her lips with a soft lace handkerchief, and put on a humble pretense.
“I am always acting with the heart for Aktoum.”
“Indeed, it’s Madam Deborah!”
Deborah smiled gently and turned her gaze to the head of the table.