Blanche almost threw up as she heard Evelyn spout her horrible phrases. She forced herself to stay quiet since she knew that this was a family matter, but that got increasingly harder.

“I don't care about you. You are just like your mother! All of you, you should never have been born! Because of you, Henry is blinded by that wretched woman's games. You should be ashamed of yourself. You took away everything I lived for!” Evelyn was still stuck in her delusions, and she wouldn't get out of them so quickly. She even yelled at Sophia, who was probably the kindest person in this nation.

It was obvious that Duke Duremont didn't like it when his family was insulted, but he wasn't able to speak in time.

Theodore lifted his hand and silenced the crowd with that as he gazed at Seraphina. “Does this answer your questions? As you can see, this will bring us nowhere, so I would recommend her to be brought away. It might be better to deal with this in private to avoid causing even more trouble for your family. I fear that she will only continue with even more crazy talk and baseless accusations, so we can end it here if there aren't any complaints.” He was obviously speaking to the empress, but Evelyn seemed to feel addressed.

“I object! I didn't do anything. You can't just arrest me for nothing!”

The emperor looked at her with disgust before turning to his lover. “I won't bother to explain since it's clear that she won't accept it. So, just bring her-”

Before he could finish, Evelyn began wailing. “You can't! This is all your fault! You blamed everything on me even though I'm innocent! You manipulative who-”

One of the guards cut her off by knocking her head onto the ground after she had tried to struggle again.

That didn't keep Evelyn from continuing her tantrum. It seemed like she had found a new goal now though.

Blanche met the other woman's hateful gaze and felt her positive emotions waver. When she was faced with this sort of her malice, her wrath quickly became stronger than her relief about being able to make it in time. She just turned her head to her lover and stayed in his arms without bothering to stop what would happen. She knew that Evelyn would end up blaming the person that had pointed out her mistakes. In the novel, that had been Seraphina, but now the concubine appeared to be a better scapegoat.

Evelyn only became even more infuriated when the other woman looked away. “Don't ignore me! This is your fault! You tried to ruin my life ever since I was your tutor! Are you happy now? I'm innocent, you murderer! Why are you-”

Blanche had enough at that moment. She whipped her head around to the other woman. “Shut your mouth. You are mentally ill, Lady Lemares. If you stopped to think about it for one second, you would notice that. With every word, you just make the man you claim to love hate you even more. Why can't you just be quiet? You lost. If you were the one to try to drown an innocent little baby, how can you blame me? Enough people saw. Since you already showed signs of wishing to harm Grace before, this isn't too much of a surprise.”

Evelyn gritted her teeth and stilled her movements but continue to yell. “Why are you doing this? You should be on my side! You're just like me!” She nodded her head in Theodore's direction as well as she could with a knight holding her down. “He married a woman that lies and manipulates him! While you are watching, she will take him away from you. You're going to end up being abandoned, and then you will-”

The guard that had dealt with her for the longest time seemed to lose his composure at that. “Oh, can you just shut up? No one wants to hear you anymore. You madwoman.” He raised his head and looked at the emperor. “Your Majesty, I would like to ask for permission to take her away immediately.”

Theodore gazed at Evelyn with a cold glare while responding. “Give me one more moment. It seems like Lady Lemares still didn't quite understand her position. Everyone here that is sane would know that comparing a person that attempted to murder a child and the one that saved that child is ridiculous. But there is also another huge issue that this woman here doesn't comprehend. I would like to remind her of that. After all, she is delusional to think that she lost something when it was, in fact, never hers.” He lifted his gaze to Henry but was cut off before he could speak.

Evelyn yelled again, even louder than before. “I never did anything wrong! I-”

Blanche felt even more hatred rise in her. She couldn't stand that woman. She needed her to stop talking, or she would lose her composure. Blanche could guess what her lover wanted to do and liked the idea. As she turned to Duke Duremont, she made sure to raise her voice enough to have everyone hear. “Your Grace. It would be best if you told her this directly to finally make her understand. I would ask you to repeat it one more time in a short and unambiguous sentence. Was there ever a time in which you thought of Lady Lemares in a romantic sense or loved her even the slightest bit?”

Henry, who normally would never think about supporting whatever Blanche had said, didn't even show his disdain for the concubine. He was far too focused on his burning hatred for the woman that had tried to hurt his granddaughter as he made eye contact with Evelyn. The visible amount of resentment in his gaze would be enough to silence everyone, and then he spoke up while emphasizing each word. “No. There wasn't a single second.”

That seemed to be the last straw for the woman on the floor. Evelyn began flailing her limbs around despite being restrained and let out slurred words and phrases that didn't make any sense. “No, no! Henry! No. How can you...” She repeated that she loved Henry over and over again until one of the guards finally tied her hands behind her back. In the meantime, Evelyn kept repeating the same thing even when her voice almost died. “Henry, you traitor. Why do you lie? You love me. Love me!” She whined more and more.

Blanche couldn't stand that anymore. She couldn't decide for the family, but she felt like this would just hurt the Duremonts more. So, she turned to Theodore. “Let's have the guards bring her away. This is a pathetic sight we should spare the others.” She only realized that her words had been heard by the wrong person a moment later.

“Pathetic...sight?” Evelyn repeated that in a barely audible whisper. As she fully processed what Blanche had said, she snapped fully and sat up with all of her energy just to scream at the other woman. “Shut up, you filthy whore! How am I different from you? You are nothing but a temporary plaything, and once that man loses interest, you will be left behind and snap. Now you laugh, but you'll be just like me!”

Blanche had been ready to ask her to shut up at this point, but when she heard that last sentence, she hesitated.

The original ending of the villainess had held up a mirror to Blanche's face as it showed her how vile she could be upon losing her mind. To say that that version of her hadn't been cruel enough to act like Evelyn would be a lie.

But did Blanche have to accept Evelyn's words because of that? She decided that she didn't. After all, the thing she wanted to prevent most was going insane and becoming evil enough to commit murder. Blanche had changed a lot because she had decided that being that awful wasn't something she could accept. So, how could someone compare her to Evelyn?

She wasn't like that. She knew that.

Maybe it was foolish to say that now, but this world was different. Blanche was in control now, and so, she rejected the original ending. She had the conscious choice to never ever be like that. Blanche wouldn't be the villainess, no matter who wanted to push that role onto her.

She opened her mouth and calmly said just what she needed. “No. I will never be like you.” Not even a second passed, and Blanche couldn't even process the weight of her words.

Theodore already squeezed her so tightly that she felt like it might be a bit too much while he gritted his teeth. “Of course not. Don't listen to that wretched beast. How could you be like a foul murderer like that?” Hearing him say that was nice. Very nice.

Blanche smiled at Theodore for a split second, but the current situation quickly made her smile fade. She tried not to focus on her internal doubts regarding her claim of being better than Evelyn and stayed in the present. Apparently, that comparison alone had already enraged others instead of her.

Theodore spoke again, and now he almost snarled at Evelyn, seemingly despising her even more than before. “You still haven't understood it even though I made it very clear on countless occasions. Everyone here aside from you knows that I love Blanche. There is no way that I will ever be separate from her. And that she would become like you is out of the question as well. She is an angel. She protected Grace on multiple occasions now despite the girl belonging to a family she never got along with well. At the same time, you, a person who belonged to that family, tried to kill a baby cold-heartedly. There is no way to compare the two of you, and that is obvious to everyone here. If you wish for it, I will ask everyone present whether they believe in your innocence and will testify for you. Let's see.” He lifted his gaze and let his eyes wander across the crowd. “Is there anyone here that believes that this woman is being treated unfairly right now? Not even a single person?”

As expected, no one spoke up. It would be stupid to do that when it was clear that at least a dozen witnesses were against Evelyn. No one was willing to risk ruining their reputation nor did anyone have sympathy for her.

The sight was balm to Blanche's soul. Maybe she should stay quiet here, but she couldn't bring herself to do that. “Do you see that, Evelyn Lemares? See who would believe your lies now. It's over.” It should be obvious.

Still, Evelyn desperately looked around and seemed like she expected someone to help her. “Open your mouths! Why are you just watching? I'm innocent. Someone has to speak up!”

No one did. It was completely silent so that one would have been able to hear a pin drop. The guests either averted their eyes in shame or glared at Evelyn openly, but they stay quiet. No one dared to move until the very end.

But at the second that Theodore began talking, another voice chimed in from afar. “What is going on here?”

Immediately, the crowd parted to make way for the approaching people.

The dowager empress was escorted by the prince as she walked over to the emperor to stop beside him.

Before Camille could say anything else, Evelyn already started to yell again. “You have to believe me! You can pardon me!”

The dowager empress gave her a dismissive look for that while Cedar chose to speak up with an expression of concern, which was certainly fake like everything else about him. “While a member of the royal family can ask for a person to be pardoned, that will only be done when that person is definitely innocent. For now, I would like to hear the whole story before making my judgment. Since my brother seems to be the one convicting you, there will not be much we can do. I assume that he would not interrupt his own tea party for a trivial matter, so your chances of being freed are low.” With that, he turned his head to the emperor. “Would you be kind enough to repeat the necessary information for us? Just so that we can understand what was happening too.”

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Blanche unwillingly tensed at that. Like Evelyn, Camille had been eaten up by jealousy and had not only tried to kill another child in her family. She had even wished for her own son's demise. Maybe the dowager empress would pity the other woman or think of a way to use her. In that case, Camille's presence was a problem. Unfortunately, it seemed like the concubine's emotions were too easy to read.

Cedar immediately looked at her. “Is everything alright? Lady Blanche seems a bit unwell. She wasn't hurt, was she?”

Blanche didn't want this conversation to indicate that, so she hurriedly corrected it. “No, thankfully not. The issue here is already settled, and luckily, there weren't any injured. Though, there was an attempted child murder.”

Theodore gestured to Evelyn and resumed with nothing but disgust in his voice. “The insane woman rolling around on the ground over there attempted to drop the daughter of the Ravillots in the fountain. We intervened, and ever since she realized that she would be punished, she has been acting like this. I would assume that she is mentally ill. And before you ask, there are at least twenty witnesses, and my question of whether anyone wanted to help her remained unanswered. So, the solution is obvious. She will be arrested in one of our cells until she can be brought to a prison in the capital. Then she will be put on trial for attempted murder, slandering royalty and nobility as well as fighting back against the royal guards. She also insulted her own family, and whether they will ask for a separate trial isn't certain yet. Judging by the proof here, she will be considered guilty for sure.”

Cedar quietly turned his head to Evelyn and watched her for a moment. “I see. How horrible. There is nothing that would excuse such behavior. That would be everything there is to know. You should send her to a prison as quickly as possible to ensure that she can never harm anyone again.”

Camille remained silent for a while too before addressing Theodore. “As Cedar just said, there is nothing else to discuss, correct? Then why is that woman still here? Drag her away already. The fact that she attempted to commit such a vile crime in the royal palace is bad enough, and still, she has the chance to lie here and yell. We should end this tantrum as soon as possible. Hurry up.” She waved to the guards, who were visibly uncertain about whether they should listen to her when the emperor was their master. When they didn't budge, she narrowed her eyes but kept quiet anyway.

Theodore's lips twitched at that, but he didn't smile, which was understandable during this situation.

But before he could speak, Evelyn cried for help again. She looked at the dowager empress with a desperate gaze while moving around helplessly, which only resulted in her ripping her clothes even more. “Your Majesty! Help me! Why aren't you doing anything? You tried to kill your son too! Why aren't-”

At the moment those words left her mouth, everyone knew that it was over.

Camille's expression remained as aloof as before, but the gaze in her eyes said enough.

Evelyn wouldn't survive this.

The dowager empress turned to the woman on the ground and towered over her while speaking. “You have nerves. It seems that you truly are sick. Your never-ending list of offenses isn't enough for you. You also accuse me, the wife of the previous emperor and mother of the current one, of treason. Do you know that spreading lies about royalty is against the law? You deserve to be executed for voicing such impudent things.”

Evelyn still wasn't silenced by that. She let out a chuckle, and a crazed grin spread across her lips. “I never lied! There is no way that His Majesty will execute me for stating the truth. He won't do what you suggest anyway.”

Blanched looked up at her lover and quickly noticed that that might not be the case.

Theodore's expression said it all. It was clear to see that he was able to imitate his mother's freezing glare, but he was even more terrifying. He replied in a cold voice that matched this look. “I wouldn't be so sure about that. Why would I need to go against her when she doesn't demand anything outrageous? You tried to commit murder in the royal palace, attempted to attack your sister and repeatedly voiced that you wished for the death of others. You accused everyone present of lying and chose to show how demented you are. Due to your poor state of mind, it might be safer for everyone to get rid of the problem immediately. Naturally, I won't make that decision now. A trial will be held, and a judge will decide.”

Evelyn at least seemed to be sane enough to understand those words. Her confidence faded as she stared at him in disbelief. “You can't do that.”

Cedar chimed in with a shrug. “My brother is the emperor. He can do almost anything. Besides...” A small grin appeared on his lips. “You said that you are innocent, did you not? If you are truly convinced of that, I recommend that you hire a good lawyer. The trial will be completely fair, so if you didn't do anything, nothing will happen to you. At the same time, you will be punished accordingly if you are considered guilty. And after you accused my mother of attempted murder in public, it will be hard to plead for your innocence.”

Theodore was clearly annoyed at his brother feigning ignorance, but he didn't point it out. He just lifted his hand while keeping his lover in his embrace with the other arm. “That is enough then. Throw her into one of the palace cells. She shall be brought to a prison as soon as possible. The investigation will be conducted in the near future, so I would ask all of you to testify in case you saw something.”

Evelyn paled at that. For a second, she looked like a sane person when she was told that she would be arrested. That didn't last long though. Suddenly, she returned to yelling crude phrases and insulting everyone around her without knowing that she was only digging a deeper grave each time that she offended the royal family.

Everyone else was aware though, and they murmured about this while watching her with disgust.

The guards picked her up, and she began flailing around again without ever having had a chance of success from the very beginning.

Among this chaos, someone spoke up again and pulled everyone's attention to herself. “I would like to add something.” Sophia was the one that glared at the woman struggling on the floor. She left Grace in her husband's hands before walking over to Evelyn. Then she brought her face closer to her aunt's but still kept some distance before speaking loud and clearly. “I never hated anyone as much as I hate you. You are truly disgusting. There is no one more despicable in this world. So, I don't want you to be executed. I hope that you rot in a cell forever as the mold eats you up and you feel nothing but regret and pain anymore.” Hearing such bitter words leave Sophia's mouth felt like a punishment in itself.

Seraphina seemed to feel the same. She stepped forward to her sister. “Don't get too close to her. We don't know what an insane person like her might do.” She put her hand on Sophia's shoulder to pull her back. “You should not over-exhaust yourself for someone like her. Let the guards take care of this. She isn't worth even a single second of your time.” She glared over her shoulder at her aunt while gently pushing her sister away.

Hearing the person that resembled Elaine so much say this had to have tipped over the remaining traces of Evelyn's sanity. It took mere seconds for her to lose it completely. “You arrogant whore!” With that, she lunged forward with a glint of insanity in her eyes.

The guards caught her and pressed her to the ground, but that only made her even angrier.

Evelyn struggled with everything in her power and yelled from the top of her lungs. “I hate you, you hear me? I hate all of you. You can die, die, die. You deserted me, Henry! I loved you! You traitor!” But none of that helped her.

The knights picked her up by her shoulders and dragged her toward the palace.

Evelyn continued her complaints without a pause though. “You will all regret this when the gods punish you! You will remember my words when you're left behind too! You are nothing but a mere insect that will get crushed when he is done with you.”

Those words seemed to have been directed at either Elaine or Blanche, but Theodore chose to respond. His gaze fell onto Evelyn, who froze upon seeing it, so it had to be horrifying. “The only insect here is you. If you say anything like that to Blanche again, I will personally sign the order to get you to the guillotine by four o'clock. Rest assured that my word alone would be enough to have you executed in an hour. I don't mind doing it. It would only cost less and keep open a valuable spot in the prisons. Don't test me.” There was silence after that before he waved to the guards. “Get her out of my eyes before I do something I will regret. Make sure to bring her to that cell.”

The knights didn't hesitate to fulfill his order, and this time, they didn't stop when Evelyn wailed again. “You can't do this!” Her screeches were so high-pitched and loud that it physically hurt to listen to them. Unfortunately, the noise was so penetrating that one couldn't ignore it either. “All of you deserve to choke on your lies. Die! You, especially you!” She glared at her sister with so much hatred that it left no doubt that the last fragment of her sanity had just given in. “You took away everything from me! You, you...whore!” She continued to list all the insults she had ever heard without stopping.

Even while the knights brought her farther and farther away from the crowd, her screaming was still audible.

Blanche couldn't avert her eyes until the very end. Maybe it was because she hated Evelyn. Or because a small part of her felt like it was horrible that that woman's parents hadn't noticed how twisted their daughter became while always being compared to her sister. All of this could have been prevented if someone had only noticed before, but now it was too late. It was scary how quickly a person could turn into such a monster.

Not that Blanche could get emotionally involved.

She didn't even feel pity, even though she knew how it felt when your loved one pushed you away. The novel and her nightmares showed her enough to make her realize that she would die if Theodore ever looked at her like Henry had looked at Evelyn. But that woman deserved it. No amount of jealousy justified hurting an innocent child.

And this thought only made Blanche's stomach churn once again at the thought of her original counterpart having helped Evelyn. That very idea was ridiculous and sickening.

How could she ever have been vile enough to support that disgusting woman? Evelyn had always looked down on her so much, so Blanche couldn't even believe that she would have worked with her before the whole matter with Grace had occurred. But then again, the original villainess had been ready to kill a pregnant woman, right? Blanche felt like she would never do something like that, but the book couldn't lie, so it seemed like the spot of the insane criminal that was being dragged away could have been hers too. Maybe saying that she was better than Evelyn wasn't fully right.

It wasn't wrong either though.

Blanche certainly wouldn't be as cruel as that witch.

Theodore interrupted her thoughts by moving his face in front of hers. He put his hands on her cheeks and made sure that she paid attention to him while speaking. “It's alright now. The danger is gone. That woman is gone. And I'm right here with you. You never have to see her again and never need to worry about what she said.” He stroked his thumb over her skin. “I love you.” He whispered that and leaned forward as if he wanted to kiss her.

Blanche almost would have let him if another voice hadn't interrupted them.

It was Sophia, along with her husband. They had approached the couple in silence and chose to speak up now. “Lady Blanche.” Sophia still clung to her daughter while pressing that out. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, which was probably why Grace was crying too. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I'll never, never forget this.” She let out a sob after that, which made her husband hug her tighter.

The count was crying as well but still felt the need to speak up. “I can't describe how grateful we are. We will do anything to thank you for that, no matter what. We'll owe you for our whole lives.”

Blanche felt uncomfortable with such words. She hadn't saved Grace to make her parents feel indebted. She barely managed to meet their gazes. “Don't thank me. I gladly helped. Calm her down before doing anything else. Grace must still be upset about what happened, and when her parents are crying, it won't help her either.”

Sophia nodded but replied anyway. “We'll thank you over and over again. You saved our daughter's life. Thank you. You're a saint.” She only stopped and focused on Grace when her husband patted her shoulder so that she didn't even see how Blanche's face scrunched up upon hearing that last word. She only thought about her daughter. “I'm so sorry, my angel. Mama will protect you from now on. Don't cry, we are here.” It seemed like she herself wasn't calm in the slightest, so this would still take a while.

Steps sounded behind the spouses. Elaine and Seraphina approached them too. While Duchess Duremont consoled her daughter, the empress turned to the concubine.

Seraphina only hesitated for a short moment before beginning. “In the name of the Duremont family, I want to express our gratitude to you. Your careful observation and analytical prediction saved Grace's life. I not only want to thank you from the bottom of my heart as her aunt but also as the empress. I can assure you that I won't forget this either.” Seraphina tried to keep a stoic expression, but she was close to losing her composure. That was obvious from the way she blinked and glanced at her family.

It was understandable that Seraphina felt like that when the person she had been cautious of the whole time turned out to be the perpetrator of such a horrible crime. In the novel, she had cried for the first time after Grace's death and one more time when the truth about the accident had been revealed. Then she had blamed herself for not intervening earlier despite having been aware of Evelyn's state of mind. For now, it seemed like she would be able to hold back though.

Blanche still didn't want anyone's gratitude for all of this, but after seeing how emotional the other woman was, she didn't truly wish to refuse her. In the end, she couldn't help herself though. “I only stepped in when I saw what was happening. There is nothing special about that. Every sane person would have helped.”

Elaine, who was hugging her daughter still, raised her head to look at the concubine at that. “That isn't true. You predicted that something would happen weeks ago. You already protected our little girl by pointing out that Evelyn had bought dangerous gifts. And you warned Sophia and Seraphina about her. We should have believed you then. I...” She closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed before continuing. “Thank you. And we thank you too, Your Majesty. Your note-”

Theodore cut her off there. “I apologize for the stressful situation. I hoped to avoid it, but to me, it seemed important to prove this once and for all. Lady Lemares already showed signs of a mental illness while she was teaching Blanche, which is why I threw her out of the palace. Some of the things she said back then hinted at her wishing to harm Lady Ravillot and her child, so I believed it to be appropriate to act. I was aware that you would have issues believing Blanche if she directly approached you, so this method was necessary.”

A note?

The concubine lifted her head to gaze at her lover. “What are you talking about?”

The emperor made eye contact with her and kept his hand on her cheek while stroking the other one over her hair. “I wrote them a note. You told me that that woman was sick in the head multiple times. I mean, she broke into your room and tried to drag you out while calling you insults and still dared to come back here after that. That was enough for me to understand that, but the more often you mentioned it, the clearer it became. You explicitly worried about Lady Lemares being alone with Grace as well. So, I asked the whole family to move aside when she ever offered to take care of the baby for a moment. But they were supposed to stay in the vicinity and watch what would happen. So that we could be sure of what that woman would do. I proposed the tea party because countless guards would be here to protect Grace in case anything went wrong. None of them seemed to believe me, but thankfully, they listened anyway.”

What? Theodore had predicted that this would happen? Blanche was a bit taken aback. Had she given her lover enough clues for him to openly distrust the duchess' sister when his relationship with the Duremonts was already rocky enough? Apparently.

Somehow, she wasn't surprised about this part. Theodore had read her emotions well, that was all there was to this. Certainly.