***

The fact that Sybel poisoned Jonas Blanche was sufficient grounds to punish him.

The only problem was that there was no evidence to prove it.

However, I learned from Jusepe, whom I met at a winter travel destination, that if there is no physical evidence, one must make the criminal move.

No matter how much Belinda claimed to have heard Sybel confess to killing his uncle, no one would believe her no matter how long she insisted.

But what if absolute divine power declared my words to be true?

‘From that point on, the situation would change.’

For that, I needed to stand trial in a divine court.

However, the temple does not intervene in private matters. They only hold trials to punish sinners who violate their faith.

So what could I do? I had no choice but to place myself on the judgment seat.

Whether it was luck or not, strange rumors were circulating in the annex that I needed sacrificial offerings and dealt with evil spirits.

Thanks to that, being reported as a black mage was quite easy.

I pressured Sybel to think of using the temple, and deliberately summoned Kao right when Mary was coming to attend to me, and voilà!

I was reported as a black mage and received a divine trial.

The most difficult part of this entire plan was obtaining Sugar’s cooperation.

Basically, fairies cannot tell lies.

If someone were to accidentally question Sugar about the truth and Sugar carelessly answered, the entire plan would have fallen apart.

Therefore, I gave Sugar one gold coin and asked her not to say anything during the trial.

Unfortunately, Sugar was a fairy who knew how to do business.

She pushed aside the gold coin I gave her, shook her tiny head, and held up four fingers.

Sugar wanted 4 gold.

Since I had originally planned to give her about 5 gold anyway, I was willing to accept Sugar’s deal.

If only that fairy hadn’t added what came next.

<Sugar wants four gold per hour.>

Wait, are you kidding me? For a trial with no set end time, 4 gold per hour?

That’s worse than loan shark interest!

“1 gold.”

<Four gold.>

“2 gold.”

<Four gold.>

“3 gold…!”

<Four gold!>

When her eyes went crazy at the casino, I should have realized she wasn’t a fairy but a money-obsessed bug.

“Fine… I accept.”

<Okay, thank you. Four gold!>

Since I was the more desperate one, I had no choice but to surrender to Sugar.

After obtaining Sugar’s cooperation, the rest went as you can see…

“‘His’ execution date has been set.”

The Crown Prince elegantly put down his teacup as he began speaking.

The moment the royal judge pronounced the verdict, Sybel’s behavior, disregarding noble dignity and causing a commotion, claiming innocence, was talked about by people for a very long time.

I moistened my mouth with tea and, like the Crown Prince, returned my teacup to its place as I answered.

“It’s all thanks to Your Highness’s efforts.”

“That’s true. But since it was mutually beneficial, you don’t need to thank me separately.”

The Crown Prince didn’t deny that his contribution was significant and smiled playfully.

After the divine trial ended, I reported Sybel for the murder of Jonas Blanche.

The Crown Prince, with whom I had been in contact beforehand, stepped forward as if he had been waiting, and this time, with completely reversed circumstances, Sybel was immediately imprisoned in the palace’s underground dungeon.

Since Sybel was a representative of the noble faction supporting the prince as the next successor, removing him would be helpful to the Crown Prince.

“By the way, the verdict came faster than I expected. I thought it would take longer.”

The fact that Sybel stood trial in the royal court for patricide spread quickly.

At first, everyone expected him to be released soon.

The only evidence that Sybel had poisoned his uncle was my testimony, and Sybel continuously and consistently pleaded his innocence.

The trial began to turn when, starting with Eleanor’s letter, it was revealed that Sybel was not Jonas Blanche’s biological son, revealing his motive for killing his father.

The back-and-forth arguments continued for quite some time.

And just yesterday.

“The investigator ‘luckily’ discovered evidence that Sybel poisoned Marquis Jonas Blanche. As if someone had prepared it, the evidence was conspicuously placed at the scene where the investigator went.”

Sybel’s hanging was decided.

At the Crown Prince’s words, I smiled sweetly as I poured more tea into his cup.

“It seems he has many enemies besides me.”

“…That might be so.”

The Crown Prince also poured more tea into my cup, and we exchanged casual conversation as if we had gone back to the past, playing house.

Then, when all the tea had cooled.

“Your Highness, I would like to meet that death row prisoner one last time. Would that be possible?”

At my words, the Crown Prince stared at me intently.

I couldn’t identify the emotion that appeared in his forest-green eyes.

I glanced at him cautiously and asked.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s unexpected.”

“What is?”

“The Bel I knew is gone now. Well, that thought just suddenly occurred to me.”

“……”

I couldn’t say anything because it was true.

As I moistened my lips with the cold tea to avoid answering, the Crown Prince nodded awkwardly, as if he had said something meaningless.

“I’ll make arrangements so you can have a comfortable conversation.”

***

Once upon a time, Sybel sincerely believed in an impossible dream that a child might draw.

What if one day he suddenly awakened the Blanche family’s ability and was recognized as a true noble?

But such dreamlike things never happened.

He learned noble etiquette, mingled with nobles, and lived a noble’s life, but he could never become a true noble.

That was the way of a bastard’s bloodline.

Then, that news was delivered.

“Father… became Marquis Blanche?”

A golden opportunity that would make his incomplete life perfect.

If he succeeded his father to become the head of the Blanche family, he could repay the insults he had received and gain recognition from the world.

With that single goal in mind, Sybel began to thoroughly isolate Belinda, who was an obstacle to his objective.

Although his father sometimes treated him and Belinda differently to a disappointing degree, Sybel believed without doubt.

That Jonas would pass the family to him.

After all, wasn’t he his bloodline?

For now, because of people’s gazes, he pretended to cherish Belinda and excluded her from family matters, but when the time came, he would surely pass the family succession to him.

But that was Sybel’s misconception.

“Sybel, don’t cross the line. I have no intention of passing the family to you.”

It was when Sybel first subtly asked Jonas about the successor.

At the unexpected answer, Sybel laughed hollowly and asked.

“Surely you don’t intend to pass it to Belinda? You know best about that child’s usual conduct.”

If it were his father. He would understand the humiliation he had endured, being disparaged for being a bastard’s child.

So naturally…

“What does her usual conduct have to do with her being the rightful heir to the Blanche family? If Bel doesn’t have the ability to lead the family, I’ll bring in a son-in-law.”

Shouldn’t he understand and cherish him?

“You trust a man that girl chooses over me? A complete stranger with no blood relation?”

“Sybel! What harsh words toward your sister!”

Jonas raised his voice, but it was Sybel who wanted to shout.

“Why exactly can’t I inherit the family? Surely you’re not using bloodline as a reason. Haven’t you seen how hard I’ve worked? So…”

Sybel’s voice gradually diminished.

Jonas was affirming with his silence.

“Ha, haha. Really, because of bloodline? Even as you sit in that position, to me… How can you be so cruel to me? After all I’ve been through… After what I’ve done to get the position you’re sitting in!”

“…What have you done? Sybel, what are you saying? Have you truly stabbed this father in the back?”

“……”

“Sybel! Answer me!”

“It’s already too late.”

It was a mistake to trust the soft-hearted Jonas from the beginning.

In this situation, he would make him have no choice but to choose him.

‘If I’m the only heir left, father will have no other option.’

Sybel turned his body toward the door.

“Sybel, Sybel! Stop right there!”

He didn’t look back at Jonas’s call. If he opened this door and went out, he would cross a river that could never be turned back.

As he gripped the doorknob with that determination.

“Sybel, whatever you do is useless. You don’t have Blanche family blood flowing in you!”

Sybel froze and then slowly turned around.

“Father, no matter how urgent you feel, such nonsense…”

“When I met Eleanor, she was already carrying you in her womb. Ask Hound. He has been by Eleanor’s side for a long time and knows all the truth.”

Father must be senile and talking nonsense. Otherwise, how could…

“But not for a single moment have I considered you not my son. Sybel, isn’t that enough?”

How could he say such crazy things?

“Sybel, my son. In my view, my brother’s life was not happy. Rather, it was unfortunate. This position is such a position. It’s not something that the likes of us should covet.”

That’s your thought, Father. No, this man’s thought.

When exactly was he planning to announce this fact?

Was he digging a trap to pass it to Belinda and plunge him into the abyss?

Suspicion spread endlessly.

“Father… Does anyone besides you and Hound know the secret of my birth?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I considered you my own son. What father would go around announcing his son’s birth circumstances?”

“I see. Thank you.”

Sybel smiled. But his determination had not changed. Only his target had changed.

Sybel immediately had Hound steal the will from the safe.

It contained a clause passing the marquis title to Belinda.

Perhaps because he felt betrayed.

When he put drugs in Jonas’s food to stage a riding accident, when he manipulated him to be poisoned by lead, he didn’t feel as much guilt as expected.

Rather, he felt a kind of justification.

“You can’t even imagine how miserable my past was.”

All of this was a rightful effort to change his unfortunate life.

Belinda looked down at Sybel, who spoke to her with a haggard appearance.

“Your past?”

As if curious, Belinda opened the prison door with the key she received from the Crown Prince and entered.

Sybel, with both wrists bound by shackles extending from the wall, hung his head low as if he had no strength to support his body.

She forcibly lifted Sybel’s head with the tip of her fan.

“You still can’t come to your senses and are making a disgusting misconception. Why on earth would I be curious about a criminal’s past?”

Sybel still had a genius talent for gaining others’ sympathy and acting as if he was an innocent victim.

But he didn’t know this.

“In the end, the truth is that you’re trash who killed your father because of your inferiority complex.”

People are not curious about a criminal’s narrative.

As if sincerely believing he was an innocent victim, his previously dignified face showed killing intent toward Belinda.

Belinda looked down at him, now looking like a proper murderer who had killed his father, and smiled with apparent pleasure.

“You know what, Sybel? I’m going to pass this family to a child who has neither my blood nor a drop of noble blood.”

“…What?”