By evening, the guards gathered before Edwin once again.

They had returned to report everything they had learned while investigating throughout the village.

“After their grain was confiscated, those families apparently went to the village representative and asked to borrow food. He refused them immediately.”

“And how exactly were people being expelled in the spring supposed to repay borrowed grain?”

“They said they would give up receiving their share of the pork during the New Year pig sl*ughter ceremony. In exchange, they asked for grain instead.”

The pig slaughtered for the New Year festival was raised communally by the village.

Because of that, every household normally received an equal share.

But the families facing expulsion had tried to forfeit the pork—which was difficult to preserve long-term—in order to receive grain instead.

“The real problem came afterward. Apparently, the representative repeatedly warned the villagers not to help those families later if they tried to trade pork for grain.”

“He went that far?”

“It seems he told them that since those families had fallen out of favor with the Count’s household, anyone who helped them could end up dragged into trouble as well.”

‘Now I understand why that woman attacked the village representative earlier.’

That woman had abandoned her limping daughter in the forest seven separate times.

If the villagers had shared even a little grain with them, perhaps she might have made a different choice.

The guard continued his report.

When the villagers were told that the families marked for expulsion were suspected of stealing the pig, most people apparently responded with sympathy, saying it was understandable.

“They weren’t angry even after the New Year festival was nearly ruined?”

“There were a few who were angry, but most people wanted the matter quietly buried.”

Even if they could not openly help those families, the villagers still did not want to see people they had once lived beside suffer even further.

Edwin frowned deeply.

“And the families facing expulsion? Did they know the pig had disappeared?”

“Because both you and the Countess came here personally, they suspected something had happened and asked around. When they heard the accusation that they stole the pig, they all vehemently denied it.”

“So they were isolated badly enough that information reached them late. If Richel and I hadn’t come here, they might never have found out at all…”

Edwin abruptly stopped speaking.

Because something about his own words triggered an unsettling sense of familiarity.

Rumors and stories spreading everywhere while the isolated person remained the only one unaware of them.

That sort of thing happened constantly within high society, a place built on hierarchy, gossip, and watching others carefully.

And in such circles, there was always someone leading the charge.

People who created the atmosphere they wanted, controlled the situation, and profited from it from the center.

‘In this situation, the only person who could be called the ringleader is the village representative…’

He had driven the families marked for expulsion into an extreme situation and built walls between them and the rest of the villagers, isolating them completely.

Even regarding this pig incident, he had pointed directly at those families and repeatedly insisted that they held a grudge against the village and were capable of anything.

‘But it’s difficult to say his attitude is entirely wrong. I can understand why he’d want to draw a line between himself and those families. And it’s not as though he gains anything from taking advantage of this situation either.’

“So we won’t know for sure unless the child who was found with the pig wakes up…”

A sigh escaped him before he realized it.

The weather had been cold enough to freeze a pig to death.

How could a child possibly remain unharmed?

Especially when even the physician’s diagnosis had offered little hope.

If the child died, all that would remain would be opposing claims.

The village representative’s word against the families’ word.

And if that happened, the incident would likely end unresolved.

At that moment, a thought flashed through Edwin’s mind like lightning.

‘What if only the pig had gone missing…?’

Then the matter would have been buried even more vaguely than it was now.

The villagers believed those families were the culprits, which was precisely why most of them wanted to quietly let the matter pass.

There was no proof that those families had stolen the pig.

But everyone believed they were desperate enough to do it.

‘Then what if… the village representative anticipated that and stole the pig himself?’

It was not an absurd assumption.

The village representative seemed accustomed to controlling situations through words.

Moreover, those families were so isolated that they learned slowly about the village’s situation and the suspicions surrounding them.

Of course, Edwin still did not know why the stolen pig had ended up in the forest with the child.

‘I need to verify it first.’

If the village representative had stolen the pig to benefit from it, then he would have needed to keep it somewhere sheltered so it would not freeze to death.

At the same time, it had to be somewhere he could make an excuse for if discovered.

After thinking it over for a long while, Edwin finally spoke to the guards.

“Search the barns and huts located away from the village. Check whether there are any traces of an animal being kept inside.”

***

Hans moved back and forth between the forest where the pig had been found and the nearby village, piecing together the situation.

After even summoning villagers experienced in raising pigs, they eventually reached a conclusion.

“It seems the pig saw the child as one of its own and tried to protect them. In its own way… it built a nest.”

The dry leaves and dead grass lining the inside of the pit were apparently part of a pig’s nesting instinct as well.

Hans recalled the pig’s body—stiff, rigid, frozen solid in death.

A body that large would not have gone cold all at once.

As it slowly died, the pig itself had likely served as a source of warmth for the child.

The villager clicked his tongue.

“I don’t know why they ended up all the way out here, but it doesn’t look like the pig was dragged here by force. There aren’t any signs of that nearby.”

All the investigation at the scene revealed was what had happened there.

Why the child and pig ended up in that place remained a complete mystery.

Hans returned to the village and waited for the child to regain consciousness.

Fortunately, the child woke up safely.

‘At least the child survived. Though what we heard afterward was completely unexpected.’

Without delay, Hans mounted his horse and raced toward the upper village.

Night had already fallen, but the moon shone brightly overhead.

The widened dike road stretched out perfectly for riding at full speed.

As he rode farther along the path, Hans spotted clusters of moving lights in the distance.

The range was far too wide to simply belong to a village.

It was unmistakably the scene of a search party.

Hans scanned the areas where the lights moved before letting out a short murmur of admiration.

“Well. That saves me one task.”

The search area matched exactly the orders Hans himself had intended to give.

As though someone had already fully grasped the truth behind the incident.

‘I assumed nothing would really progress with his lordship remaining behind…’

Because he had never expected it, the surprise hit even harder.

Hans urged his horse into a faster gallop.

Just as he approached the village, the moonlight dimmed behind passing clouds—and at that exact moment, a dark figure suddenly leapt over the village fence and disappeared into the darkness.

‘Don’t tell me…’

Hans immediately spurred his horse forward and gave chase.

The clouds drifted aside, and moonlight once again poured clearly across the ground.

The fleeing shape gradually came into focus.

It was a man carrying a large travel bag.

The moment he reached the horse tied beneath the hill, he grabbed the reins and hurriedly mounted it.

Hans recognized him instantly.

The village representative.

“Where the hell do you think you’re running, you bastard?!”

Hans cursed through gritted teeth and chased after him.

The two horses thundered across the fields side by side.

Naturally, the village representative was caught quickly.

The moment Hans began catching up to him, the man practically panicked out of his mind.

He jerked wildly on the reins, and the already irritated horse reared violently in response, throwing him straight to the ground.

Still moving at full speed, he crashed hard onto the road, breaking both an arm and a leg.

“Aaaagh!”

Hans hoisted the screaming representative over his shoulder and carried him back to the village.

“If I’d left him there, he probably would’ve frozen to death overnight. I thought he should at least live long enough to be properly punished, so I brought him back alive.”

Hans dropped the village representative heavily onto the floor in front of Edwin.

Unfortunately, he landed directly on his broken limbs.

Unable to withstand the shock, the representative foamed at the mouth and immediately passed out.

Edwin stared silently at the unconscious man before slowly letting out a breath.

The village representative had attempted to flee the moment he noticed the search.

That meant Edwin’s suspicions had been correct.

And yet, strangely enough, he felt no satisfaction whatsoever.

Because the fact that he had nearly allowed the culprit to escape without noticing made him feel utterly pathetic.

No—it was simply absurd.

‘I was so focused on proving my suspicions that I almost let the actual culprit get away…’

No, almost was not even accurate.

The truth was that he had failed.

Hans had only caught the man because of sheer luck.

Inside the representative’s luggage were clothes, shoes, and every valuable item he could carry.

He had fully intended to abandon everything and flee elsewhere to settle in another territory.

Once he crossed into another domain and disappeared, tracking him down would have become extremely difficult.

In a gloomy voice, Edwin muttered.

“It’s no different from leaving the gates wide open while claiming I was trying to catch the criminal.”

“Don’t say it like that. Piecing together the truth from circumstantial evidence isn’t easy. When you think too deeply about something, mistakes are bound to happen.”

“……”

“Still, the culprit was caught in the end. And the matter’s been resolved properly.”

After offering those words of comfort, Hans kicked the unconscious village representative with his foot.

A groan escaped the man, but he did not wake up.

‘Interrogating him is going to take some time.’

Hans stepped outside briefly.

He wanted to inspect the pig’s body himself.

The dead pig’s nose and snout were covered heavily in dirt.

There were also numerous scratches visible across it.

Clear traces of desperately digging through the earth.

‘So the pig really did save that child. Is this what people mean when they say animals are better than humans?’

A bitter taste lingered in his mouth.

Cold wind swept past him, and then something lightly touched his face.

When he lifted his head, he saw snowflakes drifting gently down from the sky.

‘Now it’s even snowing.’

Strangely, the bitter cold no longer felt quite as sharp as before.

Brushing the snow from his clothes, Hans returned toward where Edwin was waiting.

“It’s started snowing outside. Before it piles up too heavily, wouldn’t it be better to return to the estate?”

Edwin glanced briefly toward the window.

The snowflakes were already fairly large.

“We should finish the investigation first. Once the village representative wakes up, we’ll interrogate him.”

It seemed Edwin was trying, in his own way, to remain responsible until the very end.

And yet despite that, the discouragement lingering on his face could not be hidden.

Seeing that expression, Hans was suddenly reminded of Richel when she had first begun handling work herself.

Back then, she too had acted as though every small mistake meant everything had completely fallen apart.

‘Looks like his lordship is faithfully walking the same path the Countess once did.’

That was simply how beginnings worked.

People became excited by success and made mistakes.

Then became intimidated by those mistakes and made even more.

And with every mistake, they slowly grew.

Hans finally spoke.

“Before you interrogate the village representative, there’s something you should hear first. We found out how the pig ended up in the forest with the child.”

“You found that out?”

Edwin looked at him in surprise.

Grinning broadly, Hans answered,

“The child woke up.”