CH 70

The moment she regressed four years ago and realized she was alive, a lot of things had changed. Duke Marsetta wanted to be a father to her, and Delphir chose to return to the memories he had missed.

Each time, she engraved in her heart that she would never love again or believe in love again. Because she thought it was the only way to live.

Arensis didn’t give up knocking in the locked room so no one could enter. No matter how sharply she spoke or hurt him, he put his back against the door and waited. He said he would rather die than live in a world where she died. He said that he would stay by her side to be with her forever. That’s how Charelize opened the door that had been closed once again.

* * *

It was the next day. Royal Princess Casilla finally came to her senses and appointed Count Hivior as the investigator. She gathered all the people present and listened to the situation. Then she took all the authority of Royal Princess Ioella and apologized to those offended by her.

Countess Yoseph and Lady Ameline, who were in charge of the wine, and Marquis Teoren, who inspected the glass, were already imprisoned. However, nothing came out. It was also because too much time had passed. To make matters worse, the doctor couldn’t identify the poison, so the patient couldn’t be treated appropriately.

Although she had already been restrained, Royal Princess Ioella, who was in charge of the direct interrogation, slowly approached someone. She headed to the place where Marquis Dicelon, who had adopted Arensis’s mother as his adopted daughter and then abandoned her.  

“Marquis Dicelon.”

“…Yes, Your Royal Highness.”

Royal Princess Ioella still considered him her enemy, as he didn’t support Empress Sione.

As if nervous, Marquis Dicelon barely answered in a trembling voice.

“Do you know how the empress and Brother Edenberg died?”

“That… that’s…”

“They died unjustly by someone who used wicked magic. I still hear the cries of their resentment at night.”

“…”

“I think he may have taken revenge on His Majesty Father, who had made the inventible choice. What do you think, Marquis?”

“The Royal Prince, re…venge?”

Royal Princess Ioella spoke as if Arensis was the one who poisoned the emperor.

Count Hivior asked on behalf of Marquis Dicelon, who had no answer. “Are you asking because you don’t know? He should be thankful for just letting go of him, who should have been decapitated and hung on the gate!”

“That word…”

“Didn’t he dare harbor a resentment to His Majesty Father… without even knowing his subject?”

“…”

“Haven’t everyone thought about it at least once?”

“But…”

“His eyes that usually look at His Majesty…”

“I’ve heard that he’s cruel enough to cut off the tongues of his servants. This is why he doesn’t even know grace—”

At Royal Princess Ioella’s instigation, words came out here and there. It was to the extent that you couldn’t even breathe comfortably in this situation. It didn’t matter whether it was true or whether there was evidence to support it. One by one, everyone started to talk about their thoughts.

“No matter how old you are, didn’t you learn from your teacher how to treat your brother, who was born earlier than you?”

At that moment, Arensis finally opened his mouth.

“If you’re going to deal with just such an absurd feeling… Okay, let’s take the predecessor case as an example.”

Since Arensis suppressed all his emotions, he seemed to have a colder impression. Some of the nobles who were suspicious of him realized their mistake and cautiously turned their heads.

“If it’s about the predecessor case…”

“…Certainly, Is Your Royal Highness going to talk about that?”

Those who weren’t swept away by the atmosphere listened carefully as if Arensis’s words were interesting.

When Royal Princess Hillane was poisoned at that time, Royal Princess Sylvia was pointed out as the culprit. They said that it was because she wanted to avenge her mother, Queen Euphredia, who was killed by Queen Shailin.”

“…”

Royal Princess Ioella, who had heard about the tragedy of the emperor at that time from her teacher, Marquis Garon, knew what he would say next. So, she was angry that she couldn’t do this or that and only gritted her teeth.

“But… In reality, it was Royal Prince Rubren who was born in the same womb, did it, right?”

“…”

“Marquis Garon.”

Arensis smiled and called Marquis Garon, the teacher of Royal Princess Ioella.

“…Did you call me, Your Royal Highness?”

“I thought you were only in charge of the second royal princess’s history class, but… Did Marquis teach her to frame her innocent brother without any evidence?”

“I will correct her. It’s my fault for being a bad teacher who couldn’t teach properly. Please release your anger, Your Royal Highness.”

Arensis had no intention of blaming Marquis Garon, who was over sixty and whose hair had become gray.

“Ioella, bring the exact evidence that everyone can understand. I didn’t live in the place where my mother died unjustly just to see your nonsense testimony.”

Instead, he looked at Royal Princess Ioella and gave a stern warning.

“…I will listen to the advice that Brother gave me with pleasure.” In the end, Royal Princess Ioella chose to step back.

“Count Hivior.”

“?”

“Just—“

The knight who rushed up to Count Hivior whispered to him.

“Your Royal Highness Princess Casilla.”

“… What’s going on?”

“It is said that Countess Yoseph, who was in charge of wine, confessed.”

Count Hivior, whose expression was getting more and more serious, told Royal Princess Casilla what he had just heard. Didn’t stop them as usual, Royal Princess Casilla just sat in her chair, quietly watching her younger siblings’ conversation.

“Right now… bring her here,” she said in a quiet but commanding voice. She also stopped using the honorific she used as a habit.

Countess Yoseph, who was immediately brought in, had been beaten so badly that they could hardly recognize her face.

“Ah…”

“Why… no matter how…”

Some of the nobles who saw her turned their heads.

“If Royal Princess Casilla had woken up a little later, she would have passed away at the hands of Royal Princess Ioella.”

“She who hasn’t even had a coming-of-age ceremony yet can be that cruel.”

Among them, some clicked their tongues sarcastically.

“…Nothing has been clarified yet.”

“She was directly in charge of wine, and it seemed she couldn’t help it because of the situation.”

Charelize immediately frowned at what the Royal Princess Ioella did.

“The wine that His Majesty and Count Saint will drink… I was ordered to poison it by…”

Forced kneeling down by the knights, Countess Yoseph was a person Charelize would never forget.

“…Lona?”

She sounded like the voice of a person Charelize had never been looking for.

“Ro… Royal… Prince… Arensis.”

“I’ll leave the possibility that it could be a false confession that Countess Yoseph threatened with. Therefore, there is no clear evidence that Arensis is the culprit.”

After hearing that Arensis was the culprit, Royal Princess Casilla agonized for a long time and then said this. “But… just in case… I will decide to detain him in the palace.”

Originally, it was natural to object. However, no one objected because Countess Yoseph’s condition was severe even at first glance.

“Do you have any proof that His Royal Highness ordered it, or do you know what kind of poison it is?” asked Count Hivior.

“I’m… sorry. I’m… sorry.”

Countess Yoseph didn’t give an exact answer.

“Countess Yoseph. Do you know what date it is today?”

“…1509… January 6th…”

Countess Yoseph, who kept repeating that she was sorry, gave a totally unexpected answer to the question of what date it was today.

“Since it seems she lost her mind, Countess Yoseph will be imprisoned again and will be punished accordingly in the future.”

Countess Yoseph was led away by the knights. In that fleeting moment, Charelize clearly saw that Countess Yoseph had averted her eyes when their eyes met.

When Arensis was detained, Charelize once again moved to Royal Princess Casilla’s palace again.

On the third day, Charelize’s patience had reached its limit. She could get into gossip or get into trouble. However, she had more important things to do than that, so she headed to the prison.

“Greetings to the little Duchess of Marsetta.”

“It is an honor to be able to offer greetings to the little Duchess.”

As soon as Charelize had her coming-of-age ceremony, she was recognized as the successor of Duke Marsetta. In addition, she was the only one out of seven to graduate from the Faculty of Political science, which required passing the exam. Her graduation was enough to earn her respect even by completely unrelated knights.

“I want to see Countess Yoseph right now.”

“Your Highness, in this situation… you may get caught up in bad rumors.”

“How about considering it once again…”

“If I’m going to back down because of rumors, I wouldn’t have come in the first place.”

As the knights hurriedly tried to stop her, Charelize spoke sternly.

“Instead, Your Highness should be accompanied by two or more knights.”

“…Okay.”

The knights, who were exchanging glances, sighed quietly. Charelize, who was guided inside, stood in front of Countess Yoseph.

“Lona.”

“…”

Countess Yoseph was as lifeless as a dead body. No, Lona’s eyes flashed open.

“…Prin…cess.”

“I know why you suddenly pretended to be crazy while you were talking normally until you pointed out His Royal Highness.”

“…”

“You always said lying is bad, and I shouldn’t hang out with people who take advantage of it.”

“…”

“Eight years ago… the fact you said that about that on the day you left me was because you wanted me to notice,” Charelize spoke like a child.

“Did you hurt your hand? I will help you.”

“Thank you, Lona. I’ll treasure it for the rest of my life.”

“Let’s eat together, Lona. It’s boring to eat alone.”

Just like when she was nine years old, she used to be childish to only one person. She reunited with the person who she tried to bury in her heart. Unknowingly, she recalled those memories.