PRKE 75

CHAPTER 75………………………………………..

“Did she really drive a dagger into her own chest too?”

“…….”

“Detective, how could someone as healthy as Lady Emern make such a choice?”

The detective raised an eyebrow.

“Logically, before someone makes that kind of decision, wouldn’t there have been some sign?”

He looked around at the now-quiet audience.

“If you were thinking that, you wouldn’t have ordered 100 saplings just a week ago.”

Then he turned to the judge.

“This death is clearly unnatural.”

“I understand what you’re trying to say. It is odd,” the detective replied.

Aris’s face stiffened with tension.

When Lady Emern was found, her room at first glance seemed normal.

The medicines she usually took were scattered, and a diary with notes of distress lay nearby.

It looked like a suicide caused by depression.

“……But what if all of this was staged?”

“…….”

“Couldn’t it be the meticulous work of someone who knew her well?”

Clack.

Two letters were taken out and placed on the table.

The detective glanced at the letters and opened them.

“This is Lady Iliane’s salon invitation, and Lady Emern’s reply confirming she would attend.”

“…….”

“It was the very next day after she passed. That was when the salon was held.”

“…….”

“Lady Emern was really looking forward to that day.”

He said this meaningfully and fell silent.

Her behavior didn’t match that of someone suffering from depression. The detective, realizing what I meant, nodded.

“Alright. It seems there’s no reason for Lady Emern to have made a tragic choice on her own. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Aris Dolencia is the culprit—just being close in life isn’t enough.”

Aris immediately interjected, not missing the detective’s words.

“That’s right. If we look at it that way, I wasn’t the only one close to Lady Emern. Egrain… you were very close to her too, weren’t you?”

Her figure, clutching a handkerchief and shouting, was tragically dramatic.

I, naturally, was dumbfounded.

‘She just opens her mouth and says whatever comes to mind.’

“Of course I respected her, but well… I question the standard of closeness. She was strict with me.”

I gave the detective a faint smile.

“Lady Emern passed away that dawn. And that day, I had my maid secretly check the mansion.”

“Oh? Why did you do that?”

“As I said, I was convinced she wouldn’t make such a choice. I sensed that something had gone wrong. As a result—”

She stopped there. Swallow. Someone somewhere swallowed.

“I confirmed that the fence gate was open. It’s usually always closed. One could say someone forgot to close it, but…”

She shrugged.

“My maid saw a stranger in the middle of the night.”

The detective called Jenny forward. She was visibly tense but testified that she saw a man with his hat pulled low.

“That person sneaked out from the second-floor window where Miss Aris was. It was so suspicious, I kept thinking about it……”

The crowd stirred. People who had initially dismissed Aris’s delicate appearance as trivial now sat up straighter.

I seized the moment.

“Could it be that Lady Emern saw something she wasn’t supposed to, and was killed by the culprit?”

“That’s just speculation!”

Indeed, Aris shouted out impulsively.

“You can’t connect the open fence to me, and the person who saw the suspicious man was my sister Egrain’s maid! She told the maid to do it!”

I nodded inwardly. She did make Jenny lie.

‘If only I could have caught them in a secret rendezvous, that would’ve been ideal.’

Unfortunately, that opportunity never came.

“Sister, why are you putting such an absurd accusation on me? Our family names are different, we look different, but still, we’ve lived like sisters!”

Aris’s shocked face, if it were a play, could have earned applause—so intense and vivid it was.

‘If we were sisters, then every woman in the world is my sister.’

But I couldn’t scoff at her.

If it were a play… there would be no need for assumptions.

At this moment, this situation was a play. The people turning their eyes this way were the audience.

The winner was the one who could move them.

“Miss, don’t you understand that this is all I can do? I’ve been so good to you all this time! Even when busy with housework, I woke early to prepare your meals and made sure you weren’t embarrassed at parties, checking every dress and accessory carefully.”

“…….”

“Even when the Count said I acted like a maid, I didn’t mind. Because I cared about you.”

“What!”

“But… I have to say what’s not right. That’s what I learned from the Count.”

Unlike Aris, she spoke quietly, calmly, letting her voice tremble at the end. It made me appear sympathetic to the situation.

“They must have originally had a good relationship?”

“I’ve heard Egrain Lorenst is devoted to her family. That young lady wouldn’t have acted carelessly…”

Aris was flustered. But though she wasn’t smart, she had the ability to turn the situation to her advantage.

Sure enough, she seemed to have found a way out.

Her face slightly bowed. A clear tear fell onto her cheek.

“I’m truly wronged, honorable judge.”

If you asked who understood the power of tears best, I would choose Aris without hesitation.

She seemed like someone who constantly studied how to make herself look most beautiful when crying.

“I… had an improper relationship with another man.”

She took a breath as if even saying it was painful.

“……If I did, why does no one know him?”

Her eyes were on me, but her voice appealed to everyone.

“The only person who saw that man was my sister’s maid. I know it wasn’t me, but my sister keeps… keeps, sob……”

Aris wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Tears soaked her hand.

“I don’t understand why my sister is doing this. Did you hate me? Or did you hate Lady Emern?”

‘Clever girl.’

To everyone else, she seemed overcome with grief, speaking blindly, but she was thinking carefully.

Sure enough, people were already leaning in to listen.

“Calm down, Miss Aris Dolencia.”

The detective tried to soothe her, but Aris ignored everything and continued speaking.

“Oh, I understand now.”

Aris stared at me, tears dripping, picturesque.

“Lady Emern really liked me. Even when I fought with my sister, she took my side. But that was because I stayed by her side since I was young. Could that have upset you? Enough to do something so absurd?”

She buried her face in her hands.

“I have nothing more to say. Do as you wish. I will follow the result. I’m only sad that I couldn’t understand my sister’s feelings until things reached this point.”

Aris avoided addressing any part that could hurt her.

She knew that in this situation, where there was only suspicion and no evidence, she held the advantage.

‘So, she’s trying to frame me for Lady Emern’s murder, huh?’

I stood up.

Those who had been watching Aris and me with half-doubt now turned fully to me.

Their gaze was not light.

‘But Aris, you don’t know this. Do you think I’d act without a plan?’

I looked at the detective and spoke.

“By now, the trial should be underway, right?”

Kichef, throwing a spear shirtless, glanced at the high sun.

On the opposite side, Giovanni replied, holding the same spear.

“Probably.”

Suddenly, a sharp spear lunged at Giovanni.

He turned as if expecting it and avoided the attack, kicking Kichef’s spear shaft upward.

Barely missing losing his spear, Kichef groaned.

“You don’t seem particularly interested?”

Despite his words, the tone suggested, ‘That can’t be true.’

“He’ll manage.”

“Well, that woman, even though smaller than a fist’s reach, has a strong will. With that kind of spirit, she won’t be intimidated in front of the judge either.”

“Strong, huh……”

Giovanni threw the spear to the other end. It landed with a loud crash at the edge of the royal training ground.

Throwing the spear fully wasn’t difficult; Kichef could do it himself.

But driving the spear so deeply into the ground that the blade was invisible? Impossible.

Kichef swallowed in awe at the unbelievable strength.

“Eh? Eh, yeah, she’s quite strong, isn’t she?”

Giovanni smirked and removed his gloves.

“That woman has a tender heart.”

“Tender?”

Kichef pictured Egrain in his mind. The woman who had no personal acquaintance, yet came secretly at night to ask Giovanni to be her secret guardian, offering herself as collateral.

Not only that, she had asked for help regarding suspected imperial spies. If that had been all, he wouldn’t have blinked. But when she said she would use Princess Laratu as bait and wanted him to find the mastermind—he was shocked.

She looked delicate, but her words and actions were far from it.

That woman, tender?

Kichef laughed awkwardly.

“I think we’re thinking of different women. The one I meant is Egrain Lorenst.”