CH 49.1

“Three?”

“Yes. There are three truths that I believe about this case. I hope that one of them is correct.”

I paused for a moment.

“The first is that the purpose of this incident was revenge.”

I estimate the possibility of this being true to be around 80%.

“Revenge?”

“Yes. They killed the young princess of the royal family in a strange way, in front of all the nobles and aristocrats.”

Lavigne even was thrown into the fire after being stabbed by my hand (even if it wasn’t intentional).

‘Can someone be so cruel to a child?’

It’s natural for me to have such thoughts.

“Then you staged the situation like a play. Actually… there were easier ways to harm Lavigne if that was your intention.”

If the culprit was within the palace.

“It was definitely overly dramatic.”

“Yes.”

“So, someone with a grudge against the royal family planned this conspiracy on purpose? In that case, you were wrongly accused.”

“Yes…”

“To dare use my daughter, it’s outrageous.”

Collene bit his tongue.

“And the second one is like a political conspiracy, using me, the daughter of the Duke, to make Lavigne stabbed by me and drive a wedge between my family and the royal family.”

“Is it a possibility of a political conspiracy? That’s also possible.”

“Yes. But the it is not high.”

In my opinion, the probability is at most about 15%.

“Originally, this role was supposed to be Angel’s. Besides, I’m the Duke’s daughter. If Jade had been involved, I wouldn’t be surprised. Normally…”

I swallowed my words. Collen would probably think that I, the Duke’s daughter, would be cast aside. That’s why I was surprised that Collen and Jade came forward to support me.

‘Of course, I trust both of them, but…’

Collene was also quick-witted. He squeezed my hand tighter.

“I won’t abandon you. After all, even the royal family is always a card that can be discarded by the nobles. Don’t worry. I will protect you until the end.”

I nodded heavily.

“Then what’s the final hypothesis?”

The third and final one is…

That I think has only about 5% chance of being true. It’s a truth that is almost impossible to happen.

‘If I hadn’t seen that secret passage with a 5% chance of being there, I might not have known anything.’

Then it happened.

“Ah!”

Something hit my foot. I held my breath and lowered my body. And what I saw…

Collenn held up the candle towards ‘it.’

It was a bundle of cloth like a quilt. I pushed the cloth aside.

“I found… it.”

Inside the cloth, I saw Lavigne’s pale face.

‘Lavigne’s corpse?’

Her chest didn’t move. Is she not breathing? I lowered my head.

No, that wasn’t the truth I was thinking of. I listened to Lavigne’s heart again.

‘It’s weak, but her heart is beating.’

I checked her breathing again. She’s… breathing.

‘She’s alive.’

Lavigne was alive. I felt relief and my legs weakened. Tears were about to burst out.

‘I didn’t commit murder.’

I collapsed to the ground and tears poured out.

“Dad, it wasn’t me.”

“Leticia?”

“Lavigne is alive. It’s a miracle.”

The truth that even I couldn’t believe. It was only a 5% chance.

Collen patted me on the back.

“Take it easy. Just breathe slowly.”

“So, what happened?” Colllen asked as she checked Lavigne’s condition while trying to calm me down. I held back tears as I spoke hesitantly.

“It’s strange. There was a murder in the theater connected to an underground passage. Then a fire broke out… I saw it from the stage. There were candle wax stains on the bed.”

“Candle wax stains?”

“Yes! And something was off. Now that I think about it… someone had been sawing the bed little by little and attaching the wax. When the candle wax melted, the bed would collapse immediately.”

Now that I had found Lavigne, I was sure. The bed itself was a trap.

In other words, when the bed caught fire, it collapsed and Lavigne fell to the floor.

“So I suspected that the space beneath the theater, which is a theater venue, could be a secret passage. Someone tricked us and kidnapped Lavigne.”

“And what was the purpose?”

“Obviously, it was a kidnapping! This is a kidnapping case.”

Of course, I also suspected that they might have taken Lavigne’s body. However, even if they were bad guys, I didn’t think they would do that.

‘Eventually, what they wanted was for Lavigne to be alive.’

Well, that’s what it means.

In addition, the illusion I saw spoke to me. It said there were three entrances to the secret passage.

What I found was the easiest door among them. There were also underground and ceiling doors. It’s entirely possible to fix the underground door or modify it to connect with the stage. Isn’t it?

‘But I didn’t have high hopes for the possibility of Lavigne being alive.’

However, a miracle happened.

‘Now, I think we’re starting to understand this incident.’

Little by little, the outline of the mystery is being unraveled.

“Dad, the kidnapper set a fire and caused a commotion, then took Lavigne and hid her here. They were going to take advantage of the confusion caused by the fire and take Lavigne out of the castle.”

“Is this a hostage situation? What is the motive? Money? Revenge? Or the work of a foreign country?”

“It could be one of those three. Or maybe all of them…”

“But didn’t the princess get stabbed with a knife?”

He looked at her chest. It was covered in blood, but she still looked okay.

“The knife might have been… a trick. If we can find the knife that was used as evidence, we might be able to figure it out.”

Now that he thinks about it, something doesn’t seem right.