The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 105

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Elisha headed straight toward Ailren.

The knights who were hesitating and making way since no arrest order had been given yet thought:

‘Is she trying to get arrested directly by the Captain of the Royal Knights?’

Perhaps thinking similarly, Crodil laughed.

“Right, with such clear evidence revealed, what’s the point of running away. I suppose you’re planning to confess obediently and beg for leniency. Well then, Count Airen, why don’t you hurry up and put handcuffs on the criminal?”

Veins bulged on Ailren’s neck.

Torn between personal conscience and his duty as Captain of the Royal Knights, he looked at Elisha.

Finally reaching a conclusion, Ailren opened his mouth.

“I will make this clear here and now. The person who condoned the theft was not Princess. That person is actually…”

It was when Ailren closed his eyes as if in resignation.

“No, Knight.”

Elisha interrupted Ailren’s words.

To the hesitating Ailren, she said once more.

“The person you’re about to mention is not the one. You know that.”

As if she knew exactly what words were about to follow.

Crodil clicked his tongue.

“Huh? Don’t you understand the current situation?”

“No, I understand this situation better than anyone else. That’s why I’m telling you.”

Elisha turned around.

“It’s true that I entered the Imperial Palace treasury last night. However, there’s something you need to know first.”

Taking a breath, she said firmly.

“The theft of Empress’s sacred tiara has been fabricated. From beginning to end.”

“What?”

“From the beginning… you say?”

Crodil with a frowning face and Katarina with a haggard expression spoke alternately.

Elisha nodded to her.

“Yes, from the beginning. Because that’s not the Empress’s tiara.”

Elisha gestured to the console operator to raise the volume, then spoke with emphasis on each word.

“Because it’s not a sacred relic.”

Her eyes gleamed.

*

That crown is not the sacred tiara the Empress cherished.

The shocking words echoed loudly enough for everyone in the hall to hear.

“Ha.”

Crodil, who seemed momentarily flustered by my echoing voice, soon smoothly changed his expression.

“Ah, is that all the excuse you’ve prepared? Do you think claiming the stolen Empress’s tiara isn’t a sacred relic will reduce your sentence to simple theft? For a last desperate struggle, it’s quite shoddy.”

When Crodil sneered, several nobles burst into coordinated laughter.

“Such crude excuses might have worked on the streets, but you should know this is the Imperial Palace.”

He said coldly.

“Whatever you are, there will be no mercy for one who dared steal the Imperial Palace’s treasure, especially… the tiara my late sister cherished.”

Crodil was emphasizing that the Empress was his ‘sister.’

It was a calculated and theatrical statement, contrasting with the Princess who had protected the suspect despite her mother’s tiara disappearing.

As if to say that he, not the Princess, was the one who truly cared about the Empress.

“What are you all doing, hurry up and detain the criminal…!”

“What if it’s not stubbornness but the result of an appraisal?”

Realizing this, I stepped forward and cut off his words.

“I’m not ‘whatever you are,’ nor am I ‘one who stole the tiara.’ I’m an appraiser. I’m telling you the appraisal results.”

At those words, Lina, who had been sitting collapsed, raised her head.

Standing before Crodil, I looked straight into his eyes and spoke clearly.

“You could ignore my words and punish me as is. But what if my words are true? Then what happens to the real Empress’s tiara?”

Crodil’s eyebrows twitched.

“Shouldn’t finding out where that fake tiara came from and where the real tiara went be a higher priority than punishing me?”

The Imperial officials who had come to the festival murmured.

“Right, I saw that appraiser’s seminar.”

“She seemed skilled. If she’s speaking like this even when her head could fly off, doesn’t that mean the appraiser found evidence?”

It was Ailren who drove the wedge while Crodil hesitated.

“This is none other than the tiara the Empress cherished, Regent King. I believe we need to clearly reveal the truth of the incident. Therefore.”

Having regained his usual expressionless face, he stepped between me and Crodil.

“Please set aside your concern as the Empress’s elder brother for now. When the culprit is revealed, the Captain of the Royal Knights’ sword will not hesitate.”

If you want to retrieve the tiara your beloved sister cherished, you should be careful—why are you trying to punish hastily?

Just like someone with ulterior motives.

Ailren, who had wrapped sharp words in elegant packaging, commanded the knights.

“Guard the Regent King.”

“What…!”

“Though it’s about revealing the truth, we cannot completely rule out the possibility that this person is dangerous. The knights will fulfill their duty to protect the Regent King.”

It was called guarding, but it was no different from preventing Crodil from approaching me.

I gave a slight nod to Ailren as he retreated to Lina’s side, then stared at the tiara.

‘That’s not a sacred relic.’

I knew it instantly from the first time I saw it.

It’s not the light that sacred relics emit. It’s a forgery made by feeding it holy water.

But I couldn’t explain it with my usual ‘I can tell just by looking’ this time.

‘…It seems the color of light that determines whether something is a sacred relic is only visible to me.’

The sense of unease I’d felt since last night became clear the moment I saw the tiara.

No matter how excellent my senses and experience are, there are so many people watching in this situation.

Moreover, if it’s the Empress’s tiara, it would be a treasure that the Imperial Palace attendants and Katarina have seen for a long time.

Yet not a single one of them noticed the change in light?

‘It means… only I can see it.’

Memory flashed.

That only I could see the halo-like light I felt from Ailren,

That Crescens had asked several times how I could appraise so quickly.

And that Alter couldn’t see the light.

‘Everything supports one fact.’

The moment I realized it, chills ran through my entire body.

‘I can see divine power!’

I don’t know how that’s possible, but…

‘If I have this ability, I should use it.’

As I clenched my fist, a mocking voice reached my ears.

“Fine, let’s say you’re an appraiser. But how could you tell from a distance without even examining it properly?”

It was a noble with his hair slicked back with pomade.

Beside him, Edwina, whom I’d seen yesterday, was giggling.

It seemed to be Count Hestian, supposedly Crodil’s close friend and Edwina’s father.

“Who knows? Maybe since getting caught was obvious, she hid the real one somewhere and deliberately put a fake in her bag.”

“Oh my, that could be it. How shameless.”

Another noble chimed in agreement with the Count’s words.

Count Hestian wore a crooked smile and shrugged his shoulders.

“After raising the issue, sacred relic appraisal takes quite a while, so maybe she was trying to escape during that time?”

“Right, does it make sense to recognize it immediately? Last time we asked the Temple for sacred relic appraisal, it took over a month.”

“Is she even a real appraiser to begin with? I can’t believe it. What, is she some officially recognized appraiser?”

The members of Crodil’s Tea Time Group chimed in.

Lina was looking at me with anxious eyes.

She looked like she wanted to argue back that she had seen my emotional skills with her own eyes, but was barely holding herself back.

“If you’re questioning my qualifications, someone here can vouch for me.”

“What? Ha, you mean those bureaucrats who at best just observed some seminar or whatever?”

“Do you think a few words from such ordinary people can prove expertise?”

Behind the openly mocking nobles, I could see people.

Valerie, Hanna, Tilly, the Duke of Alchemiya, and.

“No.”

Priestesses in white robes.

Among them, the only priestess with her hood down covering her eyes had a particularly deep smile at the corners of her mouth.

As she rose from her prayer-like posture with hands clasped together, a purple stole was visible beneath the hem of her robe.

“The person I’m referring to is His Eminence Cardinal Crescenziano Diosa Pilgrim.”

“…What?!”

Watching the nobles gasp in shock, I smiled inwardly.

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