“If Joselyn never taught anyone else, at best only Edith and my family would know and use this method.”
“Yes, maybe. However… Even if I ask why you asked that… why is that?”
Lise asked after looking around the room with a frightened look.
“It’s none of your concern. Go away for now.”
Unlike the cold gaze directed at her, the voice he sent to Lise was soft. Lise looked at her, worried that she had done something wrong. However, she could not disobey the Duke’s order to leave, so she silently bowed and left the room.
“That’s very strange, Edith.”
A sigh came out. It’s such a big deal that she felt like she was just sighing these days.
“A table is a concept that anyone can understand just by looking at it once…! Ha… no. That’s it. I think you’ve concluded that the culprit is me anyway, right?”
“That’s not the end.”
“Even though I showed you a table that was completely different from what I usually draw, and a misaligned handwriting, it all turned into nothing at Lise’s words. She told you such a great testimony again…”
It was honestly disappointing. In the original story, she couldn’t quite remember how Lise framed Edith as the culprit, but if she were the main character, she would have put in a more plausible reasoning or evidence.
‘Did the probability granted to Lise decrease because of the evidence I presented?’
Really… The taste was bitter. If you write a novel with this kind of probability, you will get a lot of curses from readers, but the flow of the original work was still driving Edith as the culprit. Moreover, the Duke expressed it as ‘Edith and her family’. She also had the surname Ludwig, but the Duke has been excluding her from the other day to the extent that she wondered if it was intentional. As she was getting confused, the Duke let out a long sigh and nodded his head.
“Yes, what you say makes sense. It’s hard to be sure with such evidence. Anyway, I’ll leave this matter out of the question. I will also revoke the probation order issued to you.”
He meant to admit that she wasn’t guilty, but it didn’t mean that he believed that she was innocent. In the original version, it was clear that Edith was the culprit, so the end of this episode wasn’t so blurry, but now she felt uncomfortable because she didn’t know if this situation was beneficial to her or not.
“All right. I’ll just go back… wait a moment! What are you looking at?”
While she didn’t pay attention for a moment, Killian was reading her diary. So she hurriedly took the diary from him.
“Reading other people’s diaries, what are you doing?”
“Did you write down any information that others shouldn’t see?”
“Is there anyone who writes down information in a diary and doesn’t refuse to show it? It’s because it’s my secret story! Really everyone… You have no intention of being polite to me!”
She jumped up in anger and left the Duke’s office. Then Killian came out and grabbed her. But of course,she didn’t mean to apologize.
“I can’t trust you.”
“I know! It has always been and always will be!”
“Isn’t it natural that you are suspected, considering what you’ve done in the Rigelhoffs? There were so many things that you can just bury things like this.”
“It has nothing to do with me.”
“It doesn’t matter. You, too, have assisted in much of your father’s conspiracy.”
“What is that…!”
The moment she tried to refute, the things Edith had done in the past began to come to mind. Edith not only seduced men and stole information, but also ruined a family party that was favorable to the Ludwig family according to her father’s order, and interfered with the marriage by creating a scandal among the children of the family.
‘Why is that only being entered now!’
Thanks to that, she was able to keep her mouth shut in front of Killian.
‘This possession… It seems like there are too many flaws for some reason.’
Her anxiety increased. She thought she became the main character of the villain’s fantasy novel, but the situation didn’t change no matter what she did. As soon as she kept her mouth shut, Killian let out a sigh as if he had given up on something and began to pull her arm.
“I will take you to your room.”
Like Killian, she let out a deep sigh and trudged along. But Lise was waiting in front of her room.
“Lise…?”
“Ah! Killian… Edith…!”
She looked at her with a worried face.
“Are you okay? I was so worried that I might have said something strange earlier…”
Killian stroked her hair as if to reassure her.
“Nothing happened, so don’t worry, Lise.”
“But… Then why is Edith…”
She was staring at Killian’s hand stroking Lise’s hair without her knowledge, and suddenly came to her senses.
“I was trying to figure out who I could teach about tables. His Excellency the Duke is also very interested in it.”
“Ah, that’s right! I’m glad if that’s the case. I couldn’t see Edith at all these days, so I wondered what was going on.”
“I just took a break because I had a cold. I am all better now.”
Only then did Lise smile broadly. Edith didn’t know why her sunny smile was so uncomfortable.
‘Lise… You really don’t know anything…?’
She couldn’t understand the concept of ‘table’, apparently. To the extent that no one could teach it. But Lise definitely understood everything she said that day. It’s not a difficult concept, so there’s no way that smart Lise couldn’t understand it.
She shouldn’t be like this, but she kept getting suspicious of the heroine, Lise. Was it because of Killian who left her and went to Lise, or was it because the role of Edith came about that way?
“I will go in. Please talk between you two.”
She deliberately smiled brighter and went into her room and shut the door.
From behind, Lise said, “Uh, uh…’, but she pretended not to hear. Even so when she was right in front of the door, she could hear all the sounds outside.
“Killian. I think Edith is offended…”
“It’s none of your business.”
“What happened? Eh?”
To Lise’s question, which seemed to be shaking her feet, Killian sighed and paused for a moment before he answered.
“Edith is… She was suspected of stealing internal documents.”
“What? Could it be that you were referring to that document?”
As if Killian nodded, his words paused for a moment, and then Lize shouted softly again.
“It can’t be!”
“I want to believe that too, but…”
“Have you got any evidence?”
“It’s a bit ambiguous.”
“Oh my God…”
It was a shocking voice. Kind and pathetic…
“It’s my fault.”
“Lise?”
“Sometimes, in the afternoon, I would stop by the Duchess’ office to do some more work and then leave with the door open. If someone stole the document… Maybe it was then.”
Edith, who was eavesdropping, frowned involuntarily.
‘Wait a moment. This is kind of weird…?’
Lise said it as if she was almost certain that the documents had been stolen from the Duchess’ office while she was away. If she were to hear that, she would think that the kind-hearted Lise was blaming herself again, but if someone who knew the circumstances of the mansion listened to it, of course they would doubt her. There were always guards guarding the area around the Duchess’s office, and it’s obvious that he’s someone who could pass there without any suspicion.
“Well…”
She heard Killian’s weary voice.
“What do I do? What should I do to ask for forgiveness from the Duke?”
“You don’t have to. Because he decided to put this thing away anyway. It’s not even clear if Edith stole it.”
“But who knows that the document was in your mother’s office…”
Lise blurted out her words, but it was clear who she wanted to frame as the culprit.
‘Lise Sinclair! You…!’
She laughed out loud because it was so absurd. She said Edith couldn’t do that until just now! But contrary to her thoughts, Lise was suspicious of her. And she of Lise.
‘Anyone who has access to the room at will, who knows about the tickets, who knows where the papers are… That also applies to Lise!’
However, this was just her opinion. Killian, who only saw Lise as his own, would have been convinced with Lise’s words that she was the culprit. Soon he would be screaming or banging on this door.
“Lise. Let’s not talk about this any more.”
Huh? Why was his voice so calm? Was it to gain momentum in anger?
“Killian?”
“Don’t dig into what’s done. Forget it. Understand?”
Killian wasn’t angry, and he didn’t accuse Edith of being the culprit. She was really surprised. Even Lise seemed surprised.
“Yes… all right. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
“No. Let’s go back.”
He took Lise and left the front of her room.
‘What? Until now, you seemed to firmly believe that I was the culprit, so why don’t you come running?’
She stood at the door for a long time after they left. She couldn’t understand Killian at all.
How do you feel?
