“I feel bad just thinking about her. To bewitch the Duke and Duchess of Ludwig while pretending to be kind and naive with trash in the gutter… It’s really cunning.”
“The problem is, that cunning bitch even has Cliff and Killian bewitched.. Seeing that Killian even married Edith, he seems to have given up halfway, but thanks to that, Lise has a higher chance of marrying Cliff.”
“It’s crazy?”
Layla’s anger spurted fire from her mouth.
“It’s not going to be solved just because you’re so angry.”
“You mean if I marry Killian, I will have to treat her as my superior! I absolutely hate it!”
“That’s why I say Rize is more of a problem than Edith. Besides, if Lise becomes Cliff’s wife, it will be more difficult for our family to become close aides to the ducal family. It could be your biggest obstacle to marrying Killian.”
Layla felt her eyes go dark.
“It is a sin for that girl to be born. And they want to make her the Duchess of Ludwig? Nonsense.”
“So before you take the seat next to Killian, you have to figure out what to do with the bitch.”
Silence fell between the Sinclair’s siblings.
She had to get rid of Lise, but she had no way to point their swords at Lise, who was fully protected by Cliff and the Duke of Ludwig. Layla, who had been tapping so nervously on the armrest of her sofa, suddenly stopped her hand, and she spoke cautiously.
“How about using Edith Rigelhoff?”
“What are you talking about?”
Anton frowned and asked back, but Layla’s face was colored with a faint smile.
“Looking at her bragging about her wedding like that before, it’s clear Edith has a crush on Killian too. If so, wouldn’t she be hating Lise too?”
At those words, Damian nodded his head slowly.
“Well, there’s probably no woman who won’t fall in love with Killian.”
“So we just stab Edith’s side well. We make that woman hate Lise even more, so just lay down her plate and she will take care of the rest.”
“Hmm… You also have good ideas sometimes.”
“I know. If it’s Killian’s problem, your sister will be racking her brains too!”
“Did you finish talking?”
The three siblings, who resemble each other, curled their eyes similar to each other and laughed happily. But there was a sinister undertone in the laughter, and it sent chills down the spines of the maids who served.
* * *
The days that should have been called ‘probation’ but were really a ‘vacation’ were passing by. She was spending time leisurely embroidering and practicing, having become bored with making and dressing up doll clothes.
“Edith!”
“My God, what a surprise!”
Thanks to Killian’s sudden attack, she had to pierce her fingertip with a needle and see blood.
“Killian! The courtesy of knocking was…!”
“A document written in your handwriting has been found! Are you saying this isn’t your fault?”
He grabbed both of her forearms painfully and shook her.
“Ah! It hurts, so let’s talk about it for now!”
“Father will call you soon. What are you going to explain?”
He had an urgent, anxious face. Evidence that she was the culprit was found, but she didn’t know why it’s a mess.
“I would say you tried to put the blame on me for something I didn’t do. Why?”
“You… Are you sane now? Or are you making fun of Duke Ludwig?”
He glared at her like he was going to devour her, but to be honest, she knew she wasn’t going to be kicked out of this, let alone killed.
‘There’s still a long way in the story before I disappear.’
In the original work, this work itself was Edith’s work, and the evidence was found as it was now, but in the end, Duke Ludwig buries the issue. Of course, he threw a tingling warning at Count Rigelhoff with this.
“I’m sorry for interrupting. His Excellency the Duke is calling Miss Edith.”
She did come out as if the original work had to proceed quickly, and the knight she saw then came to pick her up.
“Okay, let’s go.”
She put the embroidery frame aside and got up lightly, but Killian’s face was still terrifying.
“Control your face, Killian. Wouldn’t it be nice for you if evidence was found?”
She jokingly threw it out to change the atmosphere, but he left first with a hard face. Anyway, with a temperamental mind…
Following Anna and the knight to the Duke’s office, the atmosphere was rather light compared to last time. Only Killian seemed serious.
“Sit down, Edith.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
As she sat down, he put the ‘evidence’ Killian had spoken of in front of her.
“This is a list of items requested for trade that the arms dealer received from Count Rigelhoff. Written in your handwriting.”
She picked up the paper and examined it to see how the original work made her a criminal. And at a glance, she realized that someone had forged her handwriting. The tables were also not the way she used to draw them.
‘My handwriting was forged by the Duchess, Lise, or someone who probably learned how to draw from the Duchess.’
It was a strange thing. Why did they have to imitate her handwriting? As if they knew that this would be discovered, and they had to accuse her of being the culprit… In any case, she had no intention of taking on this false accusation.
“Someone copied my handwriting.”
The Duke and Cliff snorted at the same time.
“Who?”
“That’s the part that the Duke and others should look into.”
“Edith.”
The Duke called out to her with a voice full of laughter.
“Rather, the Rigelhoff family suffered losses, so to be honest, I won’t punish you.”
She had never missed forensics so much. If it was modern, it wouldn’t be a problem in the first place…
“Forget it. This is not a matter of being punished or not. It’s a matter of my honor. Could you bring me the papers I filed back then?”
The Duke looked displeased, but he obediently handed over the papers. She drew a table herself, unfolded the parts she had organized, and compared them with the ‘evidence’ presented by the Duke.
“To me, a ‘table’ is a concept that allows you to adjust the height or width of a column according to the amount of information. But when I first explained this to others, they all drew tables with the same cell size, like a grid.”
It was only then that the Duke seemed to have noticed that the table she drew and the table for ‘evidence’ were a bit different.
“I don’t draw sloppily like this. This means that a person who has not yet grasped the concept of ‘table’ is framing me by doing something similar to the tables drawn by me.”
“…Or maybe you drew it like this on purpose.”
“What are you saying? If I had prepared for discovery, I wouldn’t have written it in my own handwriting in the first place. Do you see me as a fool from last time?”
She was so embarrassed that she laughed out loud.
“And if you look closely, the handwriting is a little different. Perhaps I did not use a capital Q throughout this document.”
The capital letter Q used in ‘evidence’ was written in a sleek, one-line style that would have been written by a lady from an aristocratic family. But she didn’t use Q like that.
“I will ask Anna to bring me my diary. I probably have a Q written in my diary.”
The Duke agreed and Anna brought her her diary. It wasn’t a great story, but there were a lot of writings that she wrote because she was emotional from daily life, so she searched for Q while hiding it from the Duke and others.
“Ah, here it is. I write Q like this.”
Everyone’s eyes widened at the completely different handwriting from the Q used in ‘Evidence’, where the circle was drawn first and the writing style was drawn in the second stroke. In particular, Killian seemed surprised enough to pick up her diary and take a closer look.
“You see? This is a document someone forged to frame me as a criminal. The Duke must catch that rat.”
“Um…”
At first glance, the Duke seemed to agree with her words. Then, someone knocked on the Duke’s office.
“Your Excellency the Duke. This is me, Lise.”
Lise didn’t seem to know that a ‘trial’ was taking place here. She knew the Duke would tell her to leave or to come later.
“You’re here. Come in.”
“Excuse me. Ah! Did I interrupt you?”
Seeing the serious atmosphere, Lise widened her eyes as if she was surprised, but she was probably more surprised than she was.
‘What, why did you let Lise into the room?’
Then she realized something obvious that she had completely forgotten about.
‘Oh right. Lise will reveal Edith’s crime, indeed!’
It seemed to be the right time for the main character to be active.
“No. I called because I have something to ask you.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
Although Lise was nervous, she looked at the Duke with clear eyes.
“Lise. Hasn’t it already been four years since you helped Jocelyn with her work?”
“Yes. It already happened.”
“I see. Didn’t Edith teach you how to organize the contents in tables last time?”
“Yes! It was a very efficient method, the Duchess was delighted.”
“How about that, who knows?”
Lise seemed to think for a moment, then she answered in a clear voice.
“Edith explained it to the Duchess and me, but I didn’t really understand. The Duchess seems to have understood, but it’s different from the document format we’ve been using so far, so I was not using it well yet.”
“What else?”
“I think we should ask if the Duchess taught her aide. Lord Cliff and Lord Killian are probably familiar with it from the Duchess. I didn’t understand the concept well, so I never explained it to anyone.”
The Duke’s cool gaze returned to her.
How do you feel?
