I sighed inwardly, feeling utterly bored but maintaining a sombre appearance on the outside as a never-ending stream of well-wishers came up to express their "sympathy" for my loss.

I've now officially attended the second biggest farce of my second lifetime in the name of Richard Verne. The first was his wedding and then there's this. His funeral.

I don't know who these people thought they were fooling with these empty words of sympathy. Perhaps they thought my head just as empty, because I knew for a fact that they couldn't care less whether Verne kicked the bucket or not. What they cared for instead was the potentially exploitable widow with the huge fortune.

It didn't matter either way, that man was already in the ground. And I was completely free from suspicion. I was prepared to use any means necessary to make sure his dead weight didn't pull me down too, but it was surprisingly easy to literally get away with murder in this world if you had enough hush money.

The thought of it still tugged lightly at my sense of guilt, having Verne killed... but then I thought of who it was I was talking about and I was over it. The world was better off.

Those wagging tongues were a problem though. The nobles were like circling vultures over Verne's corpse watching to see if the survivors were going to keel over as well so they could swoop in. I'd already had a seemingly endless stream of lower nobility trying to take advantage of my "grief" to attach their children to me as playmates or wheedle information out of me about the going on of the estate so they could gossip to their hearts content. Really.

If this was how they gossip, then the servants in their homes must be the basest kind of gossip mongers. I won't complain about this fact though, because it was this same fact that allowed me to have an opening to put an end to Richard Verne.

You see, the servants on the Verne estate were just that: gossip mongers. Furthermore, they were quite easily influenced by hearsay. Verne was far too busy living his hedonistic lifestyle to look into the quality of the hired help too.

The servants from Onyx house on the other hand were the complete opposite. Many of them were past adventures or simply people from Onyx fief who have a limitless amount of respect for my late father. They would go to hell and back for Ronnie and me and their circle was airtight.

I simply had Maddie and the others lower themselves a little front of Verne's staff, make the fact that they were from a baron house very apparent in almost subservient conduct. Along with "letting slip" Claire's commoner origins, I subtly manipulated them into subconsciously looking down on her. It wasn't outright scorn. No. These people had at least the barest minimum of professionalism, but their pride as servants of a wealthy, high ranked Ducal house was clear as day in their gazes and willingness to carry out orders. Sowing the seeds of discord was easy.

And, of course, Claire could only ever have the best. She also had her inflated pride from her promotion to Duchess, she definitely wouldn't stand for being looked down upon by the help. In the inevitable clash of authority, it was obvious who would win. It led to Claire getting rid of the majority of the servants and replacing them with the Onyx servants who she still believed were loyal to her.

It was a bit difficult to get rid of some of the more higher ranking staff but there wasn't even a single really capable person in the entire house so once those were taken care of with a little sabotage the rest were easy pickings. It couldn't be too fast, or it would have raised suspicion of the new Duchess throwing her power around to bully the servants and roused Verne, so this was done gradually.

I basically borrowed Claire's pristinely manicured, jewel covered hands to hollow out Verne house. Beneath the paper-thin name "Verne", Onyx house came back into existence, and once my people took hold of the estate it officially became my domain.

Once it became like this, if I were to say, have Verne tossed down the central staircase and claim it was a drunken stumble, no one would refute it. It would also be helped by Verne's reputation of being an unsociable drunk even before he got hitched to Claire. There would have probably been a few questions as to why he was missing an eye, but glossing over such facts is what I paid the coroner and undertaker to do..... Hypothetically.

As for Claire... well, I had her locked up in some small corner of the estate. I'm not the type to leave loose ends but I'm also not the type to enjoy having people killed either. Besides, her little breakdown in which she almost strangled me seemed to have done a number on her mind. She wasn't completely off her rocker yet, but being locked up in a room for a long while with only minimal human contact ought to do the trick.

Cruel?

Certainly, but so is attempting to whore one's eight-year-old son for material gain. She was lucky I didn't get her a pretty new rope necklace so she could join her dear husband six feet under. She had her uses, however, as a widow so aggrieved that she fell ill and needed her son to watch over her only serves to further remove me from any possible involvement with Verne's death, as long as I play my part off the filial son.

It even gave me an excuse to respectfully withdraw from the tutoring sessions with the royal munchkins. Thank god. I don't think I could stand another day of pretending to learn in those sessions. I also didn't want to get to involved with the other capture targets. These are people destined to be mixed up in all kinds of drama that I want no part in. I ain't no main character; that's the airhead heroine's shtick. I'm not even the original Kaoru, so I was not sure if I even had any of that ridiculous plot armor. Let's assume that I was completely mortal (because there is no way Aphrodite would give up a chance to toss me into another hell) and stay away from that. I decided to focus on managing the spoils from my little coup dé tat.

As his widow, Claire was legally entitled to his estate until the coming of age of the heir apparent, me, and since she was still alive no one could legally implant a regent to control the estate in my stead. Claire was useful alright, even if only for a convenient excuse for my absence from social circles... and her status as a legal adult, because I now had Verne's Ducal seal in my hands, and since she was currently... indisposed (coughcoughincarceratedcough) the one in control was really me.

'It's good to be in charge again.' I smirked on the inside

Unfortunately, I couldn't relax and bask in the feeling of being in complete control of my life just yet.

Since hitting her head on that tree during Claire's burst of insanity, Veronica, has been down with a high fever. She even had a concussion in the beginning. She was still delirious when I left her this morning and I'd like nothing more than to go back to her side, but I had to leave her in Maddie's capable hands. Someone had to represent the household and go watch them throw dirt on that bastard's corpse.

Despite being somewhat of a hermit that only ever visited the underworld scene, Verne was still a high noble and a distant relative of the royal family, so his funeral was no small affair. The place was swamped with nobles that wished to use this as an excuse to pry into our private life. Added to this was the absence and alleged illness of not only the widow of the hour, but also the young miss of the household and they were like sharks who smelled blood.

"We're so terribly sorry to hear about the loss of your stepfather, young lord." An old baroness approached me with her grandson in tow. "Aren't we, Joseph?" Said child snapped out of his gawking at me and nodded furiously. "Joseph, the dear, would be more than willing to accompany you should you feel the burden to much." I gave her a faint smile.

"I'm thankful for your sympathy. Really, your words are too kind. I'll make sure to relay your sentiments to my mother." With this noncommittal reply, yet another attempt to attach a lackey to me was thwarted. She looked unsatisfied, but I could care less. I just wanted these people out of this house. Out of my house.

Ah. As expected, I missed saying that.