Their carriage was still waiting for them in front of the compound. They got in and began their journey home.
The carriage was silent as no one spoke. Lady Vena appeared to be the same. She was calm, and her eyes were cold.
Arthur had closed his eyes while regulating his breathing. Ruff wanted to climb onto his lap, but Arthur didn't allow it because of his bloody mouth.
Lady Vena spoke first. She said, "You did good earlier."
He didn't say anything. He was too angry to speak right now.
His silence made Lady Vena smile. She said, "The decision to kill is never an easy one. But it is a decision that you must be willing and ready to take. You must also be ready to execute it swiftly when you make the decision. You'll thank me someday."
He didn't speak.
Lady Gena didn't care. She laughed. "Or maybe not. Maybe you'll bear a grudge towards me for the rest of your life. That is likely to be the case when you find out that the man was not a serial rapist and killer."
Arthur opened his eyes in shock and asked with an aghast expression, "What?"
Lady Vena replied nonchalantly, "He wasn't a rapist or a killer. I lied."
Arthur's heart began to beat wildly, and his breathing went out of control again.
He couldn't believe what he had just heard. He raised his voice as he asked, "Why would you do that?"
Lady Vena rolled her eyes and said sarcastically, "What a conundrum! What reason would I have to lie about a man that I wanted you to kill? Why would I do such a thing?"
"Of course it is to compel you to make a decision. Because if you didn't, I would have made one for you and killed Ruff. I didn't want to kill Ruff, so I nudged you with a lie."
He asked, "So what crimes did the man commit?"
Lady Vena shrugged. "His crimes depend on who you ask. If you ask those who put him in jail, his crime is the attempted murder of a member of the Dyson family."
"If you ask others, his crime is having a beautiful sister. If his sister hadn't been beautiful enough to draw the attention of a young master in the family, she wouldn't have been raped, and he wouldn't have had to try to get revenge."
"His attempt at revenge failed. His parents were killed, and he was imprisoned to be beheaded. So you only completed what was in store for him."
The more he heard, the more a cold feeling crept all over his body. But Lady Vena wasn't done.
She said, "But if you ask me, his crime was being weak. He was weak, so he couldn't protect his family. He was weak, so he couldn't avenge his sister. He was weak, so he was imprisoned. He was weak, so he became a tool to be used for a bastard in the family he hates so much to learn a life lesson."
By the time she was done, Arthur felt cold all over. He slumped in his seat weakly and said, "This world is cruel."
He knew the world was cruel. Even Earth in his past life was cruel. There was the murdering of business and political enemies, the use of child labor to mine cobalt for the lithium battery that everyone used, and the use of slavery in the United Arab Emirates and other large corporations.
He knew all those things, but they had been far away from him. It was only now, when he had to kill a man who he thought was a criminal who deserved it, only to realize that it was a lie, that he truly experienced the cruelty of the world.
What's worse is that his mother spoke about it casually. She didn't consider what he did or what she had forced him to do a crime.
She scoffed when she heard that. "Of course the world is cruel. You eat meat every day. Have you asked yourself where the meat came from? Have you asked yourself if the source of the meat was willing to give up its life?"
"Living things are in a constant struggle for survival. They eat others or are eaten. If one must survive in this world, they can't be soft, or they will be taken for granted. They must be willing to do everything in their capabilities to survive. That is the lesson I want you to learn today."
"The young man who taped that man's sister got away with it. I lied and forced you to kill the man, and I will get away with it."
"You can take anything out of this experience. You can hate me and revile me. But I want it to be clear that I was willing to lie and kill to get my way. If you learn that, I will be satisfied."
They became silent after that. Arthur didn't want to speak with her, but the question was gnawing at him, so he felt compelled to ask.
"Did you really send that maid away, or did you kill her?"
She was looking out the window when he asked that question. But she looked at him and laughed when she heard the question.
She was clearly amused. She was so amused that she shed a tear from her eye.
"I didn't kill her personally, but I had someone kill her and kill everyone in her family while I watched to make sure it was done."
"Now before you ask why, I did it to make sure that there would be no leaks from her end. It felt foolish to send her away to keep a secret when I can make sure that she won't speak by killing her."
"I wanted to protect you, and I was serious about that. If I am serious about it, then I must do everything necessary without stopping short. Sending her away wouldn't have solved the problem completely. Killing her would, so I did it."
Arthur's face had become pale. But it didn't conceal the disbelief and fear in his eyes.