TIRS 83

CHAPTER 83……………………………………..

 So Many Who Love the Princess

“Tr–trial, you say?”

Titarus looked anxiously at Anselot and asked.

“You’re saying it’s too hasty to call him a criminal when he hasn’t even stood trial yet.”

Anselot curled his lips into a sly grin toward Titarus.

“Exactly. So let’s hold a trial.”

“H-here? Right now?”

“Mm-hm.”

Anselot gave a lazy nod, and Titarus leapt to his feet with a shout.

“E-everything has its proper procedure! Even if you try to threaten me like this…”

Having lost his first son, Titarus treasured his second son above all else.

No matter how great the crime, he could not condone such a trial without due process.

He was about to flatly refuse when—

“F-father! I-I’ll confess to everything!”

It was none other than his son, Enzer, who stopped him.

“What are you saying, Enzer!”

“Uncle Anselot is mad! Look at those crazed eyes of his! If we don’t do as he says, he’ll truly—he’ll blow us, no, the entire Luenhart, to smithereens!”

And just as Enzer said, Anselot’s eyes rolled wildly.

Even Titarus, who adored his last remaining son, could no longer argue.

And so, in the council chamber whose three walls had been blown away, a sudden on-the-spot trial began.

Enzer realized too late he had provoked someone he should never have touched. He confessed to the plots he had orchestrated against Anselot all this time.

Thus it was revealed that he and the late Arno had sent assassins after Anselot for years.

Even the false charges and defamations against Anselot were their doing.

“There’s one more thing. The Heart-Throbbing Cookie.”

While quietly listening to Enzer’s confession, Anselot spoke in a chilling voice.

“T-that…!”

It was about the cookie Enzer had given Luibel, intending to seduce her.

“The princess’s bird, who ate the cookie you gave instead, still hasn’t returned, has it?”

On their way back to the royal palace last night, after handing Enzer over, Anselot had asked where the pig-bird had gone.

Luibel had pouted her lips and said that Piya had eaten the cookie and gone off in search of love.

Maria, hearing this, had furiously declared that ordinary Heart-Throbbing Cookies only made someone look a little more attractive, so Enzer must have illegally altered it.

Giving someone a cookie imbued with holy power wasn’t a crime in itself. But illegally modifying it was a serious offense.

“I never intended to harm Princess Luibel. As I just confessed earlier… it was only to keep Uncle Anselot in check…”

Pressed further, Enzer admitted he had bribed a priest to alter the cookie.

Just then, Klaus returned from contacting Luibel’s homeland of Azester. Enraged by the revelation, he exploded:

“How dare you attempt such a dangerous thing against Her Highness!”

But Anselot wasn’t finished yet.

Before Luibel awakened, there was another he had to deal with: Arbella.

Luibel had gone to her, thinking that woman was connected to the quest.

“I’m innocent! I’ve been framed!”

Dragged out of prison in a disheveled state, Arbella had lost all her elegance as she shrieked desperately.

“Princess Luibel is only pretending to be dead! She’s trying to frame me!”

“Why would Luibel bother with someone like you?”

Anselot sneered, and Arbella glared back.

“Because you still love me! She fears I’ll take you away, so she wants me gone!”

“Hah…?”

Her ridiculous answer left Anselot dumbfounded.

“How can you do this to me, Anselot?”

Arbella began pleading to him.

“You know it. Though misfortune forced me to leave your side, the one I truly loved was you.”

She even brought up the past, her eyes glistening with tears. The sight was sorrowful indeed…

Pfft.

What slipped out between Anselot’s teeth was a mocking laugh.

Unlike Enzer, Arbella clearly had no intention of telling the truth.

Titarus at least entertained him with his blabbering.

But this woman wasn’t amusing him in the slightest. Perhaps he should…

“Force your mouth open.”

His voice, sharp as a blade, made Arbella flinch and even stop sobbing.

“Anselot…?”

She recoiled, sensing the violent bloodlust radiating from him.

At that moment—

“Allow me to assist from here.”

Appearing with graceful steps was none other than Maria, who had fully awakened by the power of her love for Luibel.

The awakening had not only restored her divine power but filled her with more of it than ever before.

Maria smiled radiantly at Arbella.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Arbella.”

Her manner was gentle and benevolent, like a goddess from scripture.

“L-Lady Saint Maria…!”

But Arbella’s face turned ashen. She knew well the sins she had committed.

“Did you think I wouldn’t notice you directing Lady Azeline and others to torment me all this time?”

Maria narrowed her eyes with a soft laugh.

“And for such a petty reason too—because you couldn’t stand that a commoner-born woman was being called the noblest lady in the kingdom.”

“T-that’s slander…!”

“Oh, but I didn’t come here to press that matter.”

Maria cut her off with a sweet voice and a bright smile.

She had no intention of confronting Arbella just for such petty slights.

Maria, never as kindhearted as Luibel imagined, always exacted harsher revenge behind the scenes on noblewomen who tried to bully her.

Of course, Arbella’s two-faced slander had been contemptible, but Maria hadn’t intended to step forward against her.

If only Arbella hadn’t touched Luibel.

Suddenly Maria’s smile vanished. Her voice turned cold.

“What matters now is that you endangered my Lady Luibel’s life.”

Maria raised her saint’s staff. And then—

“The goddess Amor teaches: love must always be true. Speak only the truth!”

Thwack!

She struck Arbella’s head with brutal force.

“Kyaa! You crazy woman!”

Arbella was sent flying.

Anselot calmly mused that when Maria had fought the dark guild, she’d hit them more lightly than this.

“I never tried to kill Princess Luibel!”

A pink glow flared, and the truth spilled from Arbella’s lips.

“Oh, it must be true—Amor’s power confirms it.”

“See! It’s true! I never tried to poison her!”

Arbella shouted, brimming with confidence.

But only briefly.

Thwack!

“Kyaa!”

Maria struck again.

“Then why did Lady Luibel collapse?”

“B-because she ate fake poison that only induces a coma…”

Another truth slipped out.

“And how did she end up eating that?”

“That’s… because I…”

Arbella’s face paled.

Only after being struck once more did she confess:

“I had prepared poison to frame Princess Luibel, but she—she switched it with that fake…”

“What did you just say?”

Klaus seized her by the collar, growling.

“You tried to frame Her Highness?”

If Luibel had seen her ever-courteous knight acting like a brute akin to Anselot, she might have jumped up in shock.

“I-I never truly meant to harm her… sob…”

Arbella wept pitifully, but her beauty no longer stirred Klaus in the least.

“For daring to disgrace an Azester royal, Azester will never overlook your crime.”

With an icy voice, Klaus turned to Titarus.

The king’s face was hollow, drained by the endless revelations.

“If this matter is not properly judged, the Luenhart royal family will be deemed complicit in dishonoring Azester.”

“Ahh…”

“Should Luenhart become Azester’s enemy, His Majesty the Emperor declares Azester will wage war with its full might.”

“O God…”

Titarus fainted.

Anselot watched coldly.

This was revenge enough for those who had dared harm Luibel. Yet it still wasn’t finished.

Luibel’s own quest had yet to be completed—the utterly useless task of exposing the truth behind the rumors surrounding Anselot Luenhart.

But that was not Anselot’s to fulfill. It was Klaus’s.

Only Klaus had been registered as Luibel’s aide.

Anselot had never cared who she chose, but… just a little, he felt a pang of disappointment.

Still, he had laid the groundwork. Klaus would surely finish it.

Step, step.

Anselot approached Klaus and whispered in his ear:

“Luibel sought to uncover what that woman was hiding.”

Klaus’s jaw clenched, his face stiffening.

“If it was Her Highness’s will, then it is the duty of her knight to see it done.”

Anselot gave a faint chuckle and left.

Anselot went to the chamber where Luibel slept.

He halted quietly before her bed.

Thanks to Maria’s awakening and divine power, the words [Coma] above her head had changed to [Sleep].

Luibel breathed softly, her face peaceful as if in a deep slumber.

“Luibel…”

Anselot’s expression as he spoke her name was astonishingly tender.

He gazed upon her sleeping face for a long time.

[Sudden Quest: Detective Lulu] Complete!

At last the notification rang out—the quest was done.

Klaus had accomplished it.

Pfft.

Anselot let out a short laugh, then spoke to the sleeping princess.

“See, Princess.”

His fingertips brushed lightly against the ends of her hair.

“There are so many who love you.”

Though sometimes he wished she had fewer.

“So wake up soon, and show us your smile again.”

He twined a lock of her hair around his finger and kissed it.

Gentle sunlight poured over Luibel’s sleeping face.

The next morning.

News spread that Enzer and Arbella, imprisoned and awaiting judgment, had been brutally killed.

A sudden death, unforeseen by anyone.