I Seducing the Black-Hearted Duke Wasn't Me - Chapter 24

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 24
“That’s absolute nonsense! Don’t feed me that garbage!!”
Jerold’s voice cracked as he shouted, neck flushed with rage.
He turned desperately to the crowd around him. “Don’t believe a word of it! How could I possibly steal a ring from the House of Marquise Jaha Lete? She handed it to me directly—that’s why I have it now!”

“Well, now that you mention it, the idea that Jerold stole it does seem a bit far-fetched.”
“But why would the Marquise…?”
“Why? Erna, this whole thing is a setup to frame me! You and she played things loose, and now that it’s falling apart, you’re trying to bury me. Right now!”
Jerold’s voice turned hoarse with fury as he bellowed across the Club.
His outburst sent tremors through the assembled crowd.
“Obviously you two saw my interview with the press and panicked, so you rushed to file a Missing Item Report. Wake up. I’m not stupid enough to fall for something this transparent…!”
“What are you saying, sir?”
The Public Security Bureau chief cut him short.
“The Missing Item Report was filed approximately three weeks ago—March twenty-sixth, to be precise. The date is clearly documented here.”
“…What?”
Jerold froze mid-sentence.
Three weeks ago. That was exactly when he’d purchased the ring from the Pawnshop.
‘She filed a Missing Item Report after pawning the ring? Is she out of her mind?!’
But none of that mattered now.
“Following that, we received a tip from an eyewitness. After confirming the facts, we came to bring Jerold in.”
As he spoke, the chief produced what was unmistakably a photograph from Jerold’s interview—a picture of him wearing the ring.
“It matches the ring’s design from the Missing Item Report exactly. Now then, will you come with us without further fuss?”
“Wait, wait. Something’s wrong here. I swear I didn’t steal the ring!”
“We’ll hear the details at the Public Security Bureau. Let’s go.”
How had this happened? How?
He’d thought it was finally in his grasp. He’d thought it was all over.
Everything had gone catastrophically wrong.
“This is strange, isn’t it. He said he received it as a proposal gift. But why did the giver file a Missing Item Report?”
“And three weeks ago, not yesterday or today. That was quite some time ago.”
“Now that I think about it, didn’t the Marquise say she ‘lost’ the ring at that charity event the House of Earl Ebrel threw? If that were true…”
The spectators began murmuring amongst themselves.
This time, the current of opinion turned decidedly against Jerold.
Then his gaze drifted—to someone he’d nearly forgotten in the chaos.
A brilliant man who had appeared suddenly at this gathering, as out of place as a jewel in mud.
Leon Obsidian was smiling thinly.
“Well. It seems I needn’t have worried about my reputation after all.”
“Hkk…!”
“Or perhaps reputation is something Jerold never had to begin with, so why bother. Still, I hope you won’t take it too hard. A woman like Marquise Jaha Lete is someone anyone would covet, after all.”
His pitying gaze swept over Jerold—the same gaze Jerold had turned on him moments before—and Leon’s eyes seemed to laugh at the irony.
Jerold’s face went white as he realized his own words had been thrown back at him.
“Ah, now I understand! This was all you and Erna scheming together, wasn’t it?!”
“…”
“Ha! But you made a mistake! You wanted to get rid of me because I was in the way, so you tried to frame me. But I have proof I didn’t steal the ring! I have evidence!”
Jerold’s eyes bulged red as he shouted across the room.
As if to say: your plan won’t work. As if he’d already won.
“I didn’t steal the ring. I bought it legitimately, paid in full! I have the receipt. Let’s go to the Mansion. I’ll show you. So let me go, right now!”
“…”
“…”
A heavy silence settled over the Club at his declaration.
What was this? The atmosphere felt wrong, somehow.
“Wait. Jerold. What did you just say?”
“What!”
“You bought… that ring? Yourself?”
“Yes, at the Pawnshop! So I didn’t steal it. You tried to frame me without even knowing that. This won’t be forgotten, I assure you, Grand Duke. You’d best prepare yourself… Why, why are you all looking at me like that?”
Jerold faltered, his moment of triumph crumbling.
Every spectator in the Club was staring at him with the same expression of shock.
What was happening? The atmosphere felt very wrong.
He blinked slowly, scanning the faces around him, then his eyes fell on the Grand Duke.
Even amid the crowd, the luminous man’s face bore an expression Jerold had never seen before—a cold smile.
Like a chess player’s face at the moment before announcing checkmate.
“That’s peculiar. Wasn’t the ring given to you by the Marquise as a pledge? Yet now you claim to have purchased it directly from the Pawnshop. I’m not certain how to make sense of that.”
Gasp!
Jerold froze as the weight of his blunder crashed down upon him.
His murky golden eyes flickered with rapid panic.
“That is… well, what I mean is!”
“Are you saying it was all a fraud scheme? That you perpetrated this against both me and the Marquise?”
“No, no… it’s not!”
“It seems the second son of Count Valentín possesses audacity that defies all measure.”
A ripple of shock crossed the crowd’s faces, while dismay bloomed across Jerold’s own.
His contorted visage, slick with cold sweat, told the entire story.
Damn it. I’m ruined!
* * *
Beyond the Club, where the chaos had finally subsided into an uneasy stillness.
Jerold Valentín was dragged out in restraints, drawing the stares of every passerby.
Unable to bear such humiliation, Jerold’s face had turned ashen, trembling visibly.
Leon stood apart from the crowd, taking in every detail in silence.
“Your Grace.”
The Public Security Bureau commander approached him and spoke.
“Thank you for your cooperation in this investigation.”
“It was nothing. Merely what was necessary.”
“It was only thanks to the photograph you provided and the location information on Jerold that we were able to make such a swift arrest. But how did you obtain this evidence?”
The commander held up a photograph as he spoke.
It was an image of Jaha Lete’s ring adorning Jerold’s finger.
“I came across it while reading the newspaper. My fiancée had been despondent over losing her ring, and there it was in the photograph—quite fortuitously.”
Leon explained how he’d sought out the newspaper office to obtain copies of all relevant photographs, which he then submitted to the Public Security Bureau as a report.
“We have no intention of letting this matter slide. This fraud scheme was perpetrated against none other than Jaha Lete and Bernstein themselves.”
Leon’s blue eyes gleamed with cold resolve, making clear he would see justice done.
His gaze remained fixed on Jerold, who even as he was loaded into the detention carriage continued to protest his innocence and flail against his fate.
‘Is this truly how the Bernstein Grand Duke ordinarily conducts himself?’
The commander, who had paused a moment in bewilderment, soon shook his head.
Of course—his beloved had nearly fallen into a dire situation; how could his eyes not burn with fury?
“Then we shall take our leave. We will inform you of any further developments, so please rest assured.”
“Much obliged.”
The commander bowed and turned to depart.
“Phew, what in the world has all this been about?”
One of the officers, who had barely managed to force the thrashing Jerold into the detention carriage, approached with beads of sweat on his brow.
“We’re fortunate the fraud scheme came to light when it did. If it hadn’t, an upstanding person might have borne an undeserved stain on their honor.”
“Indeed.”
“The Marquise is truly wise. If not for that Missing Item Report filed three weeks ago, how would this matter have unfolded?”
………
“Yet how did the report end up misfiled in the first place? Who would have thought it mixed in with the general public intake?”
The officer wiped his brow, grateful disaster had been averted.
Originally, reports were divided by class—nobility and commoners—and processed separately by their respective departments.
Yet strangely, Marquise Jaha Lete’s Missing Item Report had been discovered among documents being handled by the bureau division responsible for commoner cases.
“And we only learned of this fact because the Grand Duke himself came forward with the information. Without that, no one would have known anything about it.”
“Now that you mention it, that’s true. How extraordinary…”
The commander, seated in the Public Security Bureau carriage, gazed back at the marble-like figure still standing in the distance.
A man renowned for beauty matched only by a gentle nature and bearing.
Yet his expression was impassive, and only his blue eyes burned with keen light.
The commander quickly turned his gaze away.
‘Better not to inquire too deeply.’
And so the carriage they occupied departed.
Carrying with it an ill-defined unease.
And a foolish criminal who had dared to slight two houses of the highest nobility.
* * *
“Your Grace.”
Outside the Club, with the stupid criminal and the officers now gone.
An aide descended from the Grand Duke’s carriage and approached Leon.
He was the second aide, serving under Vincent, the senior aide.
“Shall we return to the Mansion at once?”
“No.”
Leon, who had hesitated only briefly, shook his head while looking at the silk box in his hand.
“We’re going to the House of Marquise Jaha Lete.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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