Chapter 30

She kicked aside the wooden plank that no longer functioned as a door and stormed into the room with that same momentum.

“Is it true?! Are you really about to be framed as the culprit behind the attempted assassination of Prince Lucas?!”

“Huh?”

Elma was taken aback by Irene’s immediate outcry.

But before she could retort with, “Wait, what exactly—”, several more figures swarmed into the room.

“Elma! What has happened?! Is it true you are being coerced into a false confession for murder?!”

“Oh, Elma, I can’t believe it! Who on earth is spreading such nonsense that you harbored murderous intent toward my foolish son?!”

『Hey, Elma, what kind of strange incident have you gotten mixed up in? You’ve got a vital job tomorrow—no, today—helping with the preparations for the coronation banquet!』

“Miss Elma! It’s rich coming from me, considering I was deceived by the Marquis, but I can’t believe you’d be caught up in such a conspiracy! We have to clear these suspicions immediately!”

『Oh, my Muse! That you would succumb to such an unbeautiful situation! Even if the gods permit it, I shall not!』

In order, it was Gerda, the former consort Juliana, Chef Georg, Holy Medical Mentor Dennis, and Joran.

They spoke with excitement, mixing in their native tongues, and behind them stood Marc, looking immensely satisfied with himself.

The six of them, seemingly roused from their sleep by the Prince’s page, were still in their nightclothes or casual attire, yet their eyes burned with an intense fire of indignation and combativeness.

“Wha…?”

Seeing how uncharacteristically fired up they were, Elma felt a sinking premonition.

While she stood there in a rare moment of speechless paralysis, the six, led by Irene, interpreted her silence in their own way and quickly surrounded her. They placed hands on her shoulders, took her arms, or hugged her.

“It is an utterly unbelievable story. To think he would try to pin a crime on an innocent person and send them to the notorious Walzer Prison. Marquis Rottner truly is a despicable man.”

“Um, excuse me… regarding it being ‘notorious,’ Walzer Prison is actually my home…”

“That’s exactly it, Elma! So that was the source of your eccentricities! But the idea that it’s okay to frame you just because you were raised in a prison is horrifying! I heard you were threatened—told that there is no future for someone from a prison anyway?!”

“Eh?”

As Juliana and Irene rattled on, Elma’s mind simply ground to a halt.

Synthesizing their stories, it seemed the narrative was now: “Elma, who was released from a harsh prison environment by a royal pardon, was being threatened by the Marquis—who discovered her origins—that ‘there is no future for someone like you,’ and was being forced to take the fall for the attempt on Lucas’s life.”

What even is that? she wondered.

“No… um, that’s not it. I am actually wishing to be sent to prison of my own volition… and, well, I am the mastermind of this situation who planned the assassination by utilizing even the Marquis…”

“Is that the script the Marquis wrote? Honestly, the idea of you specifically ‘utilizing’ others to plot an assassination is nothing short of absurd.”

“Eh?”

“Exactly. If you had that level of ability, you could have assassinated a man as full of openings as Lord Lucas in an instant. How much he must have underestimated you.”

When she tried to argue solemnly, she was immediately shut down by Juliana and Gerda.

Apparently, Elma was being trusted not in the sense of “She would never do something so (morally) bad!” but rather “She would never do something so (inefficiently) bad!”

Feeling a slight sense of emptiness, Elma fell silent for a moment.

“…No, well, if you all think so highly of me, why the assumption that I was ‘utilized’ by the Marquis…?”

“Because! You seem so smart, yet you are so terribly out of touch!”

“Yeah, you really don’t seem to have any common sense.”

“I simply thought it sounded like you’d accept going to prison for some completely bizarre reason.”

『Oh, Muse. Even your Ludenese speech is so terribly musical.』

When she tried to persist, she was hit with a barrage of “disks” against her “ordinariness” by Irene, Georg, and Dennis. Meanwhile, Joran, likely because of his artistic temperament, was making comments about something else entirely.

Elma, reflecting on the heartlessness of the world, chose silence once again.

Then:

“Don’t worry, Elma. I shall assemble a legal defense team for you. As the former consort of this country—no, even if I have to use my Rutland connections—I will secure the finest lawyers and prove your innocence to the world.”

Juliana nodded powerfully, her refined features colored with confidence.

As if inspired by her, everyone present began to give a thumbs-up, one after another.

“Though my influence is small, I can move at least the lower nobility who have a heart. Let us show them the latent power of the lower gentry, renowned for our light footwork!”

“Leave the groundwork with the younger maids to me, Irene!”

The women’s eyes sparkled with determination.

“I… hold the… stomach… of this castle. I’ll make… every one of them… your lawyer. Montaigne men… side with… beauties.”

“I have influence with the Knights. I’ll mobilize every patient I’ve ever treated.”

The men also beat their chests, brimming with confidence.

『By the way, if the Marquis who invited me is the culprit, what becomes of my payment? If my performance fee isn’t paid, I intend to sue through a friend of mine who is an international lawyer.』

Only Joran was saying something completely nonsensical—though, considering he actually has connections to an international lawyer, he might be more troublesome than the other five combined.

Faced with the emergence of a massive, international, and exhaustive defense team that even royalty might struggle to hire, Elma’s face twitched.

The “massive” part was the real problem.

In the few hours remaining before the inquiry, brainwashing or persuading this many people would be difficult, even with Elma’s capabilities. In exchange, her opponents looked ready to summon their comrades at any moment with their characteristic proactiveness.

“With such a heavy-handed defense, an indictment is impossible. Give up on going to prison.”

Having been quietly handed this conclusion, Elma turned back to Lucas, her face pale.

“No, well… it’s not that I need a defense… I just want to go home—”

“Elma.”

Lucas interrupted the unusually shaken Elma with a truly brilliant smile.

“It seems you still don’t understand.”

“Wh…at exactly do I not understand?”

Seeing that the eyelids and cheek muscles of the seemingly pleasant Second Prince were twitching ever so slightly, Elma broke into a cold sweat.

What kind of sign was this micro-expression?

Anger? No, excitement? Or perhaps pleasure? It felt like all of them, yet also subtly different from any of them. However, she could understand one thing: she had ignited some kind of fuse within him.

And for some reason, at this very moment, Elma recalled the words her mother, Heidemarie, had once told her.

There is a catch to love, Elma.

She had twisted her perfectly shaped lips into a wry smile.

Love… favor, friendship, goodwill… you must be very, very careful of them. Once you are ensnared by them, they will never let you go.

What had they been talking about then?

Ah, right. She remembered they were having a lively discussion about who among the “family” named after the Seven Deadly Sins was the most wicked.

Her mother had worn a troubled, resigned smile as she gazed at Gilbert, who was standing a short distance away—

“In the outside world, you see… there are virtues far more persistent and troublesome than the Seven Deadly Sins. We call them ‘love’ or ‘affection’.”

She snapped back to reality at the words Lucas uttered with a smirk.

As she stood dazed by the word that matched her internal thoughts perfectly, he leaned down low, bringing his lips to her ear as if whispering sweet nothings.

“After being loved this much by us… did you really think we’d let you go so easily?”

Depending on how one heard it, the line could sound like he was hitting on her. But to Elma, it sounded like a threat or an ultimatum.

While she stood frozen, Felix raised a hand to break the tension.

“Going back to the topic: it’s obvious Miss Elma isn’t the culprit, and even if she insists she is, surrounded by such a powerful defense team, non-indictment is almost certain. So, can we just ignore her now? And, as originally planned, we’ll proceed with the inquiry for Clemens.”

Given that the defendant had already been imprinted with a confession, the inquiry was essentially meaningless. Yet, no one present—including Clemens himself—raised an objection.

“Eh… eh…”

Only Elma let her gaze wander as if she couldn’t accept reality.

Seeing this, Lucas raised an eyebrow as if remembering something.

“We got completely sidetracked, but there was one more thing I wanted to ask, Elma. No matter how much you wanted to go back to prison, was it really a good idea to protect this man?”

“…What do you mean by that?”

Lucas nodded as expected at Elma’s puzzled face. Then, he ruffled her hair and sighed,

“You still have a long way to go.”

“That’s what happens when you only look at people’s faces or the surface of things. You don’t know what this man—Marquis Rottner—has done, do you?”

“Ah, I thought so. That explains it.”

As Lucas spoke with exasperation, Felix clapped his hands in realization.

“What has he…?”

Toward the frowning Elma, the two princes both gave slow, deliberate nods.

“Following this incident, we searched the Marquis’s quarters. We found record after record of him using the prison as material for dealings with various countries. This man is a great criminal who used his position as Prime Minister and his power of suggestion to send innocent people to prison one after another.”

“A courtesan who simply refused a King’s advances; a hero who criticized corrupt politics after refusing an engagement to a princess. There seem to be many others… but if your mother is a beautiful courtesan, then that means he is—your sworn enemy.”

Eh? Her dawn-colored eyes widened.

Seeing this, Lucas let the corner of his mouth curl into a grin.

“An innocent lady gets revenge on her enemy with the help of her companions, and only the villain gets sent to prison. That is what’s ‘normal’ in the outside world. Do you really not understand even that much?”

This time, Elma was left completely agape.