The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 106

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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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Before coming to the Imperial Palace yesterday, I had sent several telegrams.

Among the recipients was Cardinal Crescenziano.

Hello, Crescenziano. This is Elisha.

I heard that the Temple priestesses are coming to the Founding Festival. Are you coming as well?

The Cardinal had replied to my telegram in his characteristically straightforward manner.

Yes, Sister Elisha. I received an invitation. Though it wasn’t from someone I particularly wanted to hear from.

But you don’t seem to be asking because you miss me? Do you need something?

‘What did I say back then…’

As I was recalling, Crescenziano wrote something down.

[I have circumstances that prevent me from speaking right now, but well, that doesn’t make me a different person, so I hope you’ll all take that into consideration.]

One of the priestesses read the Cardinal’s writing aloud.

It was straightforward as always, but the priestess recited it in a tone several times colder than what he used with me.

“I can vouch for Sister Elisha’s expertise and appraisal skills. Because our sister is an appraiser of sacred relics for the Temple of the World Tree. I personally selected her, and I trust her greatly.”

The nobles’ faces turned pale.

“Therefore, I wholeheartedly agree not only with our sister’s assessment that the tiara is not a sacred relic, but also with her claim of innocence. Just as our sister has a good eye for sacred relics, I have a good eye for people.”

Crescenziano, who seemed to be watching from beneath his pulled-up hood, continued writing.

“But if you wish to distrust, you could even distrust this Cardinal’s words. As people who oppose for the sake of opposition usually do. I’m curious how far you can deny things.”

Several nobles hiccupped.

Crescenziano’s lips curved upward.

He took something out of his pocket.

“Let’s see if there’s anyone who can turn away even from the World Tree’s divine power.”

What I had requested from Crescenziano was.

Nothing other than borrowing a sacred relic detection tool used by the Temple.

Like the brooch that was lent to the Royal Knights or the camera that Crescens carried around.

It was a brooch.

The very brooch that Ailren had used to find Lina’s emerald pendant.

The Old Minister who had been sitting near the altar rushed over to receive it.

“Th-this is the Temple’s sacred relic detection tool! Yes, if we really can’t trust His Eminence the Cardinal’s words, we can test it with this!”

Of course, sacred relic detection tools cannot distinguish the authenticity of sacred relics.

Just as the magical tool detectors used by knights only detect ‘magical power,’ that brooch is a tool that detects ‘sacred power.’

But the nobles, unaware of this fact, could no longer dare to suggest verification when the Cardinal had even invoked the name of the World Tree.

‘As soon as I heard from Hugo that Rosaline was after the treasure, I thought such a tool would be needed and asked for it.’

Though I hadn’t expected Crescenziano to take my side so forcefully.

That’s when it happened.

“What ridiculous nonsense…”

Crash.

Along with the sound of a champagne glass breaking, the person who stood up was Rosaline.

“If that’s fake, then where is the real one?”

Her voice was chilling beyond eerie.

Her chest heaved rapidly with anger.

“Everyone shouldn’t be fooled by such words. Excluding that wench, who else could have touched the Empress’s tiara?”

Her venomous purple eyes gleamed.

“Who else but that wench could have stolen Princess’s key and secretly entered the treasury!”

“V-Viscount. Please calm down!”

“Calm down? Did you say calm down, Count Hestian? I’m just saying what everyone’s too afraid to say while reading the room. Yes! You said that wench and the Princess are close friends, but what if all of this was something the Princess orchestrated?”

“Viscount!”

Count Hestian gasped, but Rosaline seemed not to hear him.

“Ah, I don’t mean she did it on purpose. Our poor, pitiful Princess, who inherited only a pendant from the late Empress, might have needed something else to remember her mother by?”

“Wh-what are you saying now…?”

“So she impulsively decided. There was even a commoner girl right in front of her, perfect to use as a facade and then discard as a friend.”

Shocked by the unimaginably insulting words, Lina staggered.

“So she incited that wench to take the tiara from the cold, dark treasury and put it in Your Highness’s jewelry box?”

But Rosaline’s eyes were focused on only one place.

“That would explain it. Why that thing has answers ready as if prepared in advance, and why the Princess is protecting that wench!”

At me.

Rosaline, who had been staring at me as if she wanted to tear me apart, suddenly dropped to her knees.

“Regent King, this Rosaline Rionet earnestly pleads with you. Make a decision! Hasn’t it been revealed in broad daylight that Princess lacks the capacity to manage the palace affairs, that she’s unqualified to care for relics and treasures!”

‘Ha. So this was your plan?’

Rosaline’s words revealed her purpose.

‘You wanted to ruin this event to take away Lina’s treasury key and emerald pendant. To hand everything over to Crodil!’

So that’s why she specifically used the Empress’s tiara among all the treasury treasures.

If I hadn’t been here, who would Rosaline have framed for this crime?

And if I hadn’t been here, how many more long nights would Lina have had to despair alone?

‘Rosaline, you’re really…’

When her past wicked deeds overlapped with this vicious act, my vision went white.

My teeth chattered. Is this what it feels like when reason becomes paralyzed by rage?

It was when I bit my lip until it bled.

‘Elisha.’

Suddenly, I saw Alter.

He was speaking to me with lip movements.

‘We should have gone pea shooting together. Then you’d be warmed up and less heated right now.’

It was quite a leisurely thing to say at this moment. And also unlike him.

The moment I realized it was Alter’s way of trying to distract me, I felt blood flowing back into my cold body.

When my expression relaxed, he slightly adjusted his lips, then immediately furrowed his brow and gestured with his chin.

‘Look over there.’

Where I turned, there were attendants. It wasn’t hard to figure out who he was pointing to.

The sense of reality that had fled far away returned.

Right, now is not the time to be angry at old grudges.

‘Now is the time to sever those grudges.’

My body no longer trembles.

Taking a deep breath, I spoke clearly.

“Do you really think I’m the only person who could steal the key and secretly enter the treasury?”

Rosaline’s eyes became bloodshot.

“Haha, so you’re claiming there’s another ‘friend’ who can access Princess’s private spaces?”

It was clearly malicious talk intended to smear the Princess.

“No. I’m saying that assumption is wrong from the start. There’s a contradiction in your claim, Viscount. If it were the Princess’s scheme, would she have created a situation that could harm herself?”

However, I didn’t fall for her provocation.

“Then who could it be? Someone who wanted to harm Princess.”

“…What?”

“Someone who didn’t need to steal the key. Someone who could wait and receive the key directly from Princess on the morning of the Founding Festival. Therefore, someone who could enter and exit the treasury without being suspected by anyone.”

I glared at the brown-haired attendant.

“Please check that attendant in charge of the treasury with the holy relic detection tool. His hands will have an amount of holy power on them that can’t be explained by simply being near holy relics!”

Fingerprints might have been concealed with gloves or something.

But holy power is different.

‘His fingertips are glowing faintly. He touched the holy relic just before coming here!’

In the process of hiding the real holy tiara and placing the fake holy tiara in my luggage, holy power must have rubbed off on him.

That was undeniable evidence.

The attendant who had been keeping his head down suddenly looked up.

“Wh-what on earth… are you talking about me? I-I don’t understand what’s happening, so…”

His stammering made him look like someone who had just woken up from a nightmare.

Gone was his brazenness when trying to frame me – now that everyone’s attention was focused on him, he was visibly flustered.

And then.

“Ah, ah, ahhhhh-!”

He clutched his head and tried to flee toward the exit.

The knights by the exit had all come up on stage under the pretext of protecting Crodil.

Just as the attendant was about to run out through the empty entrance before the knights could follow—

“Where do you think you’re going.”

Bang!

Alter caught the attendant’s arm, twisted it, and threw him straight into the wall.

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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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