“S-Sir, I sincerely apologize! I beg your forgiveness!”
Count Castiglione finally collapsed, groveling on the polished floor. The chair he had just vacated lay toppled behind him, a casualty of his haste to press his forehead to the ground. He wailed, his voice raw with a terror that suggested his life hung by a thread.
No one in the room felt an ounce of sympathy for him.
In fact, some envied him.
Of all the nobles gathered today, Count
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