Chapter 541: Chapter-541
(Please be aware that there could be disturbing depictions of murder and abuse, so it’s important to read it with care.)
Heena looked out the window again, completely unable to look at the bloody 3D projection on the table.
"Her stepmother," Heena stated coldly, "was a deeply religious woman who entirely ignored the girl and spent ninety percent of her time praying at the local temple. Because the merchant father didn’t differentiate much between his legitimate and illegitimate children, the girl lived quite peacefully with her grandmother. All the surviving servants from her maiden home swore she left that house without a single blemish on her skin."
[So...] the System whispered. [You mean to say... all of this happened during her two years inside the Prime Minister’s house?]
Heena nodded once, a sharp, jerky movement.
"And do you want to hear the absolute most comedic part of this tragedy, System?" Heena asked, a dark, humorless laugh escaping her lips.
"The exact week that the first wife supposedly slipped and drowned... was the exact same week that a powerful, high-ranking aristocratic family officially offered their daughter’s hand in marriage to the rising, twenty-three-year-old Prime Minister."
The carriage hit a bump, rattling the wooden wheels.
"He needed to marry a noblewoman to secure his political power in the court," Heena said, her voice dripping with venom. "But he already had a low-born merchant wife holding the position. So, the moment he got the offer from the noble family... his merchant wife suddenly ’fell’ into the frozen water."
She turned back to look directly at the trembling blue hologram.
"But the maidservant who drew these pictures told my guards one final detail," Heena whispered. "On the morning she died, the young wife had ordered a carriage. She was scheduled to visit a Buddhist temple located exactly three miles in the complete opposite direction of the estate’s koi pond."
Heena leaned forward, her eyes blazing with an unholy, murderous fire.
"So tell me, dear System," she hissed. "How does a woman who is actively riding in a carriage toward a temple three miles away... suddenly end up drowning at the bottom of a frozen pond in her own backyard?"
The blue holographic lion flickered violently, its digital light dimming as the horrific reality of the first wife’s death fully processed in its artificial mind. It immediately terminated the 3D projection, unable to bear the simulated sight of the tortured thirteen-year-old girl.
The carriage was plunged back into a heavy, suffocating silence.
[Host...] the System whispered, its mechanical voice sounding incredibly small. [If... if that was the first wife... what happened to the second? The noblewoman?]
Heena leaned back, her dark eyes completely devoid of light.
"The second wife was the daughter of a highly prestigious, aristocratic family," Heena said, her voice a hollow, rhythmic cadence. "On paper, she was the perfect political match. A woman of high status to solidify his new position in the court. But if you look closely at the family registry... you will notice the exact same predatory pattern."
She tapped her leather-clad finger against the wooden table.
"She was only seventeen years old. And more importantly? Both of her parents were already dead."
The System’s ears drooped.
"Her parents had died in a carriage accident a few years prior," Heena explained. "Her uncle had taken over as the head of the noble house. He didn’t care about her well-being; he only saw her as a highly valuable bargaining chip. He essentially traded his orphaned, vulnerable seventeen-year-old niece to the rising Prime Minister in exchange for a lucrative seat in the Ministry of Revenue. Once she was married off, her uncle washed his hands of her. Just like the first wife... there was absolutely no one left to check on her."
Heena reached across the table and slowly flipped to the next page of the shadow guard’s intelligence report.
There were no drawings this time, only tightly written lines of text from an autopsy report that had been heavily suppressed by the civil court, bribed out of the official archives by Vanguard gold.
"For three years, she suffered in absolute silence behind the high walls of his estate," Heena said, her voice tightening with a righteous, burning anger. "And my guards found the exact same terrifying patterns. The few surviving servants from her courtyard reported hearing muffled screams late at night. They saw the same heavy makeup used to cover bruises on her neck. They saw the same strange, circular puncture wounds peeking out from beneath her silk collars."
[He tortured her too...] the System realized, its hologram shivering. [He isn’t just an abuser. He is a sadistic monster. He uses his wives as physical outlets for his cruelty, and he specifically picks women who have no family backing to protect them.]
"Exactly," Heena nodded coldly. "He targets the isolated. The orphans. The ones nobody will miss. He plays the elegant, poetry-reciting scholar in the Great Hall, and then he goes home and tortures teenage girls to death behind closed doors."
The carriage rolled to a stop for a moment as it waited for the capital guards to open the inner city gates.
"But eventually," Heena continued, her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits, "the Prime Minister’s ambition grew again. A mere noble’s daughter was no longer enough for him. He needed an even higher political alliance. He needed a third wife. And so... his seventeen-year-old second wife outlived her usefulness."
The System braced itself, floating closer to the table.
[How did she die?] the System asked quietly.
"Fire," Heena stated.
She picked up her cup of water, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the porcelain.
"According to the official court records, a tragic, accidental fire broke out in the dead of night in the second wife’s isolated courtyard," Heena recited, her tone mocking the official narrative. "The Prime Minister played the role of the devastated, weeping husband perfectly. He claimed a rogue candle must have fallen over while she was sleeping. The entire pavilion burned to the ground, and she perished in the flames."
Heena took a sip of water, letting the cold liquid soothe her dry throat before delivering the final, damning piece of evidence.
"But once again, the details simply do not align with reality," Heena whispered.
She set the cup down and looked directly into the System’s glowing blue eyes.
"My shadow guards tracked down the city watchmen who first responded to the blaze that night. They were paid a massive sum of silver to keep their mouths permanently shut, but Vanguard blades are far more persuasive than scholar gold."
Heena leaned forward, the absolute disgust in her expression hardening into a vow of pure execution.
"When the watchmen arrived to put out the fire, they found the young lady’s charred remains right by the front entrance of her bedroom. She hadn’t been asleep in her bed. She had been wide awake, desperately trying to escape."
The System’s digital interface flickered rapidly.
"She couldn’t get out, System," Heena said, her voice dropping into a deadly, freezing octave. "Because the heavy wooden doors to her pavilion hadn’t been jammed by the fire. They had been chained and heavily barricaded from the outside."
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