Chapter 69

“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. I can’t exactly forgive you for trying to stab Lord Nazel… but he’s unharmed. Still, you look terribly pale.”

It wasn’t that Lilianne lacked a sense of guilt; rather, she was terrified by the reality that she had actually laid a hand on a crime.

“I… I…”

As her breathing quickened and her body began to rattle with tremors, I decided to shift the subject to support her. Kelly brought over some tea.

“Calm down. Did you know that ever since Lord Nazel became the Lord, the once-shambolic justice system of Sutrena has been completely overhauled?”

That’s right—Lord Nazel is actually in the middle of reforming Sutrena on multiple fronts.

Apparently, in the past, many punishments were handed down based solely on the Lord’s whim. You’d probably wonder, “What do you mean, ‘whim’?” It’s beyond aggravating to think that someone’s sentence could be decided like that.

“No, I don’t know anything about Sutrena, but I tried to kill the Lord. Rationally speaking, there’s no way I’ll be allowed to live.”

It was a valid point. Even in other territories, attempting to kill a Lord is a capital offense, and most perpetrators are executed.

That was also the reason why the incident involving the previous Lord, who was killed by a magical beast, had been hushed up.

“Normally, murder is unforgivable. However, this was an attempted murder, so if you confess everything, you can avoid the death penalty.”

Despite my advice, Lilianne stubbornly kept her mouth shut.

“What’s the point of surviving now? I have nothing… no status, no home, no means to live.”

“What do you mean? Aren’t you a Count’s daughter?”

“No, I’m not a Count’s daughter anymore! I’ve been disowned!”

“Disowned!? Why?”

Kelly and I exchanged a look.

Is disowning people becoming a trend in the Royal Capital? I really hate that trend.

“I was kicked out into the streets with nothing but the clothes on my back. I have no way to survive. It’s my own fault, though.”

“Should we contact your family to see if they’ll take you back?”

“It’s useless. I wasn’t just abandoned by my family; I was cast aside by my last ray of hope as well. And I believed in him all this time.”

“In whom?”

I waited patiently for Lilianne to answer. Eventually, she began to self-deprecatingly laugh, as if something had finally snapped.

“Hehe… there’s no point in protecting someone who threw me away, is there? I’m such a fool.”

Taking a small, deep breath, Lilianne looked me in the eye.

“I will tell you everything.”

The story that followed was unbelievable.

As it turned out, the young noblewoman Lilianne had lost everything after being deceived by Lord Robin’s sweet words.

Of course, she wasn’t entirely innocent, but she had already received the heavy punishment of being disowned and cast out for her romantic involvement with the Princess’s fiancé. It was a blessing in disguise that she hadn’t been physically intimate with Lord Robin.

And so, Lord Robin had used the desperate, destitute Lilianne as a disposable pawn to eliminate Lord Nazel.

Since she had only recently arrived at the frontier, it seemed she had no connection to the Baron’s other misdeeds.

“Thank you for being honest with me, Lady Lilianne.”

But it didn’t make sense.

Why was Lord Robin so blatantly hostile toward Lord Nazel?

According to Lord Nazel, the two of them had barely interacted at all.

Fabricating charges against Lord Nazel in the Royal Capital and exiling him to the frontier wasn’t enough; now he was inciting a young lady and sending her as an assassin. It was nothing short of madness.

“Lord Robin is a complete coward.”

He keeps his own hands perfectly clean while dragging innocent people into his schemes, all while reigning from on high as the Princess’s husband.

I wondered just how many people had their lives ruined because of him.

“Anyway, I understand your story now. I’ll make sure to convey everything to Lord Nazel, so for now, just focus on healing your injuries.”

Leaving the rest to Kelly, I stepped out of the room, only to find Torre practically glued to the door.

“Torre, you’re in the way standing there. Kelly won’t be able to get in or out.”

“I’m just so worried about Lilianne.”

“Don’t tell me you were listening to what we said inside?”

“Yes, um… I’m sorry for eavesdropping.”

I peeled a dejected Torre away from the door and headed toward Lord Nazel.

“You still love Lady Lilianne very much, don’t you, Torre?”

“My feelings haven’t changed!”

Torre answered with sparkling eyes, his pure affection radiating from him.

“Tell me, Torre, what is it you like about Lady Lilianne? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but I was curious how you could care for someone that much.”

“I don’t mind. It’s not something I need to hide. I love how hard Lilianne works! She looks like a quiet, docile lady… but she has enough grit to overturn that image, and she devotes herself to her studies every single day.”

The cause of Torre’s heartbreak was Lord Robin, and apparently, Torre had even gone to confront him personally in the past.

It seemed they had gotten into an argument right then and there.

“I’m not very good with words and I tend to get hot-headed, so I couldn’t say everything I wanted to that Robin fellow when I ran into him at the castle. But Lilianne is a harder worker than anyone!”

It was true that Torre wasn’t the silver-tongued type. However, he was straightforward and had a kind heart.

“But I thought that if I married Lilianne, I wanted to make her life easier. While her diligence is wonderful, it always felt like she was suppressing her true self, and she always seemed to be suffering somehow.”

“…I see.”

The image of the wounds on Lilianne’s wrists flashed through my mind.

“While Lord Nazel and Sir Henry are the ones who will decide Lady Lilianne’s fate, I also feel pity for her.”

Looking at the injured Lilianne, a thought occurred to me. She was just like another version of myself.

If I had been kicked out of the Eventail house just like that, if Lord Nazel hadn’t saved me… what would have happened to me?

With nothing left to cling to, if someone had reached out with a kind voice, wouldn’t I have grasped at that straw with everything I had?

“We can’t place the blame solely on Lady Lilianne for this incident. But we also can’t choose not to punish her at all. Taking everything into account, let’s go talk to the others.”

“Yes! Lady Agnes! I’ll follow you anywhere!”

Matching my pace with Torre’s long strides, I headed toward the inn’s dining hall where everyone was waiting.