I once again asked blankly. The self-proclaimed witness was the young lady who had spilled champagne on me earlier. Since I don’t know her name, let’s just call her the Champagne Lady.

“Do you have any evidence that I stole that ring?”

“Because I saw Miss Rischefeld put the stolen ring in her bag.”

What did she witness that makes her so confident?

While I glared at the Champagne Lady with an incredulous expression, the attention of those around us focused on us.

Well, it was clear that a debutante making her first appearance in high society being suspected of theft was more delicious gossip than any common dessert.

The fact that this young lady was none other than the future Duchess of Celestine was enough to add fuel to this commotion.

But what can I do? I’ve never even seen the ring that Julia claims to have lost.

“Miss Rischefeld, would you mind explaining what happened?”

Julia’s eyes were red as if she was about to burst into tears, and the people around were looking at me with sharp eyes.

The gazes of the people were colder and sharper than any I had received today. The whispered conversations were mixed with sneers, as if they had expected this of me.

Of course, if I were to list my mistakes today, I could immediately count them on my fingers. There were quite a few things to point out.

But I swear I didn’t do anything wrong to Julia.

Rather, I wanted to ask. Why on earth are you suspecting me!

As I was pondering how to explain this absurd situation, Julia made another request.

“Miss Rischefeld. I’m not suspecting you, but if it’s alright, may I check your bag?”

Holding back a snort, I obediently handed my bag to Julia.

You, Champagne Lady, know that I’m holding back because of Julia’s face.

I smiled calmly while inwardly grinding my teeth.

What did I steal…

“Oh my, this is…”

“See? I told you!”

No, why is that coming out of there?

The ring, which I had confidently assured wouldn’t be there, unbelievably came out of my bag, and the Champagne Lady raised her nose proudly, saying her words were right.

I stared blankly at the ring Julia had taken out. It was none other than the ring I had lost this morning.

It was hard to believe, but a rather plausible hypothesis was formed.

Julia found the lost ring, and the Champagne Lady, who received the ring from Julia, deliberately spilled champagne on me and put the ring in my bag while I was distracted.

Then, she made a show of excessively shaking her bag, claiming to have lost the ring, to draw attention, and then dropped this bombshell?

I wondered if this was really possible, but no other possibilities came to mind.

Is this the noble ladies’ way of initiation? It was a truly elegant and exasperating method to socially bury me.

You must think I’m such a great prey!

The daughter of a fallen count’s family with no knowledge of noble society, no experience in social circles, and no connections to defend her innocence.

Moreover, even the Duke, her greatest shield, was absent, so there could be no easier prey to devour.

So what do I do now?

If Ilion had been here, he might have been able to quickly end this stupid farce, but waiting for him to return when I didn’t know when he would be back would only be to my disadvantage.

The surrounding public opinion already believed that I was a thief.

Rumors, the worse they are, the harder they are to change. Even if the truth comes to light later, people won’t care about the facts.

In their minds, only the fact that I was accused of being a thief at this moment will remain like a brand.

What’s important now wasn’t who the real owner of the ring was. Trying to drag out the conversation with such hard-to-prove matters would only benefit Julia.

Having decided on a response, I raised my head to face Julia.

I may have only learned a few words about high society from books, but people’s worlds are all similar anyway. And I happen to have a knack for politics.

“Actually, I found this item when I went to the powder room to clean up the champagne earlier. It looked so similar to my engagement ring that was recently stolen, I was worried that the owner might have purchased stolen goods, so I was planning to quietly mention it to the Marchioness… It turns out it was Miss Julia’s item.”

“Engagement ring… you say?”

Julia asked. Her eyes wavered for a moment. Yes, you must be dumbfounded too. Did you ever think this would be an engagement ring?

You probably didn’t expect that even if I was an ignorant fiancée, I’d be stupid enough to lose my engagement ring. Well, I didn’t know either. Sigh…

“Yes. Unfortunately, it was stolen not long after the engagement ceremony. I had given up after searching everywhere, but I was very surprised to find it in the powder room today.”

I continued, hesitating slightly. As if implying that I didn’t want to say such things in such a public place.

“Given the nature of the matter, it needs to be investigated thoroughly, so I was trying to handle it quietly… Of course, I’m not suspecting Miss Julia. You must have purchased it without knowing it was stolen goods.”

At my calm lie, Julia’s mouth fell open. From Julia’s perspective, it was surprising.

Not only had the ring she lost this morning suddenly become stolen property, but now she had become someone who purchased stolen goods. She probably didn’t expect me to respond like this.

“D-don’t lie. Are you saying that Miss Cecilia is lying then?”

Julia shouted at the suddenly reversed situation. Didn’t you say you weren’t suspecting me earlier? I was astounded at how quickly she changed her stance.

It was possible to unknowingly buy stolen goods. As a count’s daughter, it might hurt her pride a bit, but it wasn’t something to hesitate about for fear of damaging her honor.

However, if she admitted now that the item might be stolen goods, it would be difficult to avoid the Duke’s investigation.

That’s probably why she brought up Cecilia, intending to insist it wasn’t true, but it would have been better to admit it rather than respond like this.

“I don’t know why Miss Cecilia is trying to frame me, but if you continue to call me a criminal without any evidence, I will consider it not just a slander against me, but against the Celestine family and respond accordingly.”

When I mentioned the Duke’s name, Cecilia’s face turned pale as she looked at Julia.

They probably expected that I would be flustered and ramble, at best making excuses that the lost ring looked so similar that I thought it was mine.

Moreover, they planned to make me realize I had fallen for her scheme and traumatize me so that I would never set foot in high society again.

Judging by Julia’s lack of response to my reaction, it was clear how much they had underestimated me.

Really, how much of a fool did they take me for, to prepare such a stupid farce and be so confident?

“I’ll return the ring, Miss Julia. I was planning to find the owner anyway. It’s a shame it wasn’t in a more private setting. I should have spoken to the Marchioness sooner, it’s my fault. Please forgive me.”

But I decided to back down at this point.

The quest I received from Ilion was to stay quiet. So it was best for the incident to end as just an incident. I didn’t want complicated issues arising if it reached Ilion’s ears.

Moreover, while I have no attachment to high society, these two people need to continue to have a place in this world.

No matter how despicable their behavior was, I had no intention of crushing these young people with promising futures to the point of no recovery.

It was enough to change the atmosphere of suspicion and give the two of them the impression that I wasn’t to be trifled with.

“This item is not stolen goods. I had it custom-made long ago!”

While I was trying to end the incident, Julia shouted. When I apologized, keeping your mouth shut would have been the last resort to maintain your image…

I looked at Julia, inwardly sighing.

“Is that so? Then could you tell me where you purchased it? I might be able to get some information about the ring that was stolen from me.”

At my question, Julia pressed her lips tightly shut.

Her pale eyelashes trembled. If she named the wrong store, this would no longer end as a mere incident. Even Count Grenoble would have to get involved.

Seeming to understand this, Julia couldn’t continue speaking. She seemed to realize that challenging me further would only hurt her.

It was then that the Marchioness, who had been observing the situation, intervened.