The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 107

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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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‘Ever since he signaled me earlier, Alter had been blocking the escape route.’

As if he had anticipated the attendant’s attempt to flee.

Alter stepped on the collapsed attendant’s back with one foot and snatched the brooch from the Old Minister’s hand.

He held the brooch against the attendant’s hand and smirked.

The Old Minister, who confirmed the brooch, shouted with a trembling voice.

“Th-the brooch is blinking like crazy! Then the culprit who stole the tiara is, just as that appraiser said…!”

The rest didn’t need to be said to understand.

The culprit wasn’t me. It was the attendant.

Among the murmuring people, Alter’s voice resonated low.

“So?”

It was an absurdly leisurely tone for someone stepping on another person.

I looked at Alter for a moment as he asked languidly, as if to say catching this guy was one thing, but didn’t I have more to say, then opened my mouth.

“This proves my innocence. But tell me, why did Countess Rosaline intentionally exclude the possibility that the attendant was the culprit?”

“Ha.”

A sigh-like sound came from Ailren behind me.

“Don’t tell me.”

“Yes. The person behind that attendant, the person who dared to conceive of stealing the Empress’s tiara, and not content with that, the person who devised the vicious plan to frame an innocent person is.”

Heads turned.

Crodil, who had stepped back and was merely observing Rosaline losing her composure, was now looking at me.

“Rosaline Rionet.”

I stared at him and said.

“It’s you.”

*

“Rosaline Rionet, it’s you.”

Crescens imagined what expressions people would be making at Elisha’s words.

Actually, there was no need to imagine. He could see it clearly without looking.

Someone would be shocked, someone would be intrigued, and someone else would be smiling vilely.

‘Is this why I wasn’t keen on the Princess’s invitation?’

Witnessing the darkness of the world directly wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience.

To think that the World Tree loved even such people equally.

Crescens smiled bitterly and clasped his hands as if in prayer.

‘Your servant Crescenziano is so lacking, World Tree. When will I ever dare to understand you?’

However, he decided to postpone the prayer of repentance.

If he became immersed in prayer and fell into a trance like before, he would miss Elisha’s words, which were the reason he was still here.

Crescens lifted the corners of his mouth, slightly lifted his hood, and surveyed the main hall.

He saw Rosaline in her dark blue dress rising like a ghost, slowly.

“I gave orders to that attendant?”

Haha!

Rosaline’s eyes flashed as she laughed loudly.

“Can you prove that?”

This was a part that Crescens was curious about too.

Since the orders would have been given secretly, there would surely be no evidence like letters.

Then how could Elisha prove Rosaline’s crime?

“Is there even a shred of evidence that I was involved in this crime!”

“Well, actually.”

Rosaline’s laughter stopped abruptly at the following words.

“There is.”

“…What?”

Elisha pointed to the empty exhibition hall where the tiara had been.

Right on cue, the screen that had been floating in the air for the auction proceedings was enlarged.

“Look at the seal on the exhibition hall that’s been torn. Doesn’t it look different from the other seals?”

Crescens squinted and looked back and forth between the tiara’s seal and the seals of other treasures.

At first they looked identical, but upon closer inspection.

‘I can see it now under the sunlight. The Emperor’s signature is a different color.’

The signatures on other seals were written in black ink with a subtle silver pearl.

But the tiara’s signature was just plain black.

“This seal is forged. To make an identical tiara, they would have had to examine it closely beforehand, so they had no choice but to damage the seal.”

People gasped.

“They discarded the damaged real seal and attached a forged one, but who could have done such a thing?”

Someone who could access the treasury after receiving the key from the Princess.

Someone who had enough knowledge about treasures to remember the tiara’s craftsmanship, even though they missed the ink’s pearl in the dim treasury.

『Malcolm Rinoer』

The goatee appraiser’s name was written next to the forged Emperor’s signature.

‘You remembered what I said about Malcolm appraising the palace’s sacred objects too. Sister.’

Malcolm had claimed innocence, saying how could he forge sacred objects when he was someone who appraised palace sacred objects.

It was worth casually mentioning to Elisha in case it might be a hint.

Crescens smiled as he looked at Elisha.

She picked up a document from among the scattered bag contents.

The red circles on the bank transaction records were enlarged.

Malcolm Rinoer, Malcolm Rinoer, Malcolm Rinoer.

“Laundered funds were regularly deposited to Malcolm Rinoer. From none other than your brother Hugo Rionet’s account. It goes without saying that the source of those funds was you, Rosaline Rionet.”

Elisha, who had been muttering that she could find it thanks to your foolish brother forgetting to erase the traces, turned her head to Ailren.

“Knight? Were there holy waters in the transaction records of Malcolm Rinoer, who is currently imprisoned on charges of facilitating stolen goods trading and document forgery?”

“That’s correct. It was an excessively large amount for personal use, and we found numerous empty holy water bottles at his pawnshop.”

Elisha nodded and raised her voice.

“I can’t go into detail due to the risk of misuse, but forging sacred objects requires large amounts of holy water. Yet Countess Rosaline’s funds were used to purchase holy water. What does this mean?”

Everyone knew what would follow.

Ailren gripped his sword tightly, and people covered their mouths.

“Then, then Countess Rosaline…”

“Not only instigated the theft of the Empress’s tiara but also forged sacred objects?”

“From what I’m hearing, it seems like she didn’t do it just once or twice…? My goodness, she’s insane…”

‘Ah, so that’s how it was.’

To think that Countess Rosaline was behind that goatee.

Crescens looked down intently at Rosaline, who was trembling.

“Stop talking nonsense. Do you think such things, such things could be evidence!”

She screamed.

“It’s just exchanging a few coins at most! How can such a thing be grounds for arresting me? Is there anyone who saw me plotting? Is there even anyone who heard it!”

Just as people flinched at the sharp shouting.

The corners of Elisha’s mouth curved up smoothly.

As if she had been waiting for those very words.

「…」

At the same time, crackling noise echoed through the garden.

‘What’s that?’

Crescens, who had furrowed his brow, smiled when he saw what newly appeared on the screen that had been showing the account records.

‘As expected, for our sister…’

「…That idiot Malcolm, not content with being kicked out of the temple, he even got himself caught making trouble!… …Yes, haa. I can’t trust anyone. I can’t watch him ruin even the Empress’s tiara matter, that can’t happen. I have no choice but to watch over it myself…」

‘There are too many things I desire.’

What appeared on the screen was Rosaline muttering half-dazedly in the dark basement.

That wasn’t all that was visible.

「…So what’s happening with Nicholas’s memory? This isn’t something that ends with turning that bastard into a cripple! I need to deal with this before that man dies. What I need is a painting doll that will never run away from me again!…」

Rosaline kept nagging at someone in a black robe who was secretly filming her.

Behind Rosaline, who was lashing out with fierce momentum…

There was a man covered in blood, unconscious and collapsed on the prison floor.

*

I looked toward the citizens’ section behind the invitation seats.

‘You succeeded, Chloe.’

In the front row, there was Chloe wearing a black robe.

When I met her at the Duke of Alchemiya’s residence.

What I gave Chloe when I sent her off was none other than a magical device that could store images.

“Rosaline will definitely nag Chloe about when the memory implantation will be possible.”

“Th-then what should I do? I don’t have Sir Nicholas’s memories…”

“It’s okay. Then show her this magical device, saying it’s an unrefined memory orb.”

“This magical device?”

“Yes. Since Rosaline only believes what she can see with her eyes, paradoxically she’ll consider this suspicious orb as proof of magic.”

Chloe had completed her mission.

Though her complexion was pale and haggard, Emma was beside Chloe, who was smiling as if she had finally accomplished something good.

Just like at the seminar, Emma, who had switched the screen to broadcast the video from the magical device, was also smiling contentedly.

Looking at the two of them, I smiled as well.

“What did Countess Rosaline do to those people?”

“What does she mean by painting doll, and what’s this about turning her ex-husband into a cripple!”

“It’s too horrible…”

The shocked people jumped up and competed to get away from Rosaline.

Now there was no one beside her.

Even the Tea Time members who had been pretending to defend her seemed to realize the seriousness of the situation, and were just looking on with eyes fearful of being implicated.

Even Ailren, who rarely showed emotion, was grinding his teeth so hard his jaw was trembling.

He spoke in a low voice.

“In the name of the Captain of the Royal Knights, I command you. Arrest Rosaline Rionet immediately!”

The knights slowly approached Rosaline.

“No, no. This is the mage’s, no, that girl’s doing!”

Rosaline, who had been struggling frantically to the end, unable to accept reality, suddenly stopped.

“Right. …That girl.”

She whispered in an ominous voice.

“I should have set a fire, I should have spread poison. I should have… I should have eliminated you long ago.”

What was contained in her mad eyes was none other than me.

“To bring down Uncle, I should have killed you first-!”

It was an instant.

Rosaline grabbed a piece of broken glass and ran toward me, looking only at me.

The knights couldn’t even stop her in time, not expecting that she, a noble, would act so suddenly and impulsively.

It was just before Rosaline, who had instantly approached through the corridor that had become empty as people fled, grabbed my sleeve.

‘The sword on my thigh…!’

At the same time I felt something was missing.

“Aaaahhh-!”

Blood splattered along with Rosaline’s scream.

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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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