“Your Majesty! Th, there is one more thing I must say!”

The maid, who had been hovering anxiously in the corner, threw herself flat on the floor.

“There is something I…… did not say earlier.”

The sudden action silenced the murmuring nobles.

“And what else is there.”

King Rubens frowned, clearly thrown off by the interruption.

“The robetaine found in Miss Blair’s room…… in truth, it belongs to someone else.”

The strange declaration left everyone in the audience hall dumbfounded.

Blair stared at the maid with equal bewilderment.

Not a moment ago the maid had been accusing her of murder, and now she was saying the robetaine belonged to someone else? Blair couldn’t begin to guess what she was after.

“What on earth do you mean. Not Blair’s.”

The king pressed his brow into a deep frown.

“That robetaine…… was stolen by Miss Blair. From its original owner.”

What is this woman on about. Stolen? Original owner?

The claim was so far outside anything Blair had expected that she was past bewildered and into genuinely dizzy.

But what came next was even more outrageous.

“The person who had the robetaine…… is my mistress.”

“……What?”

Blair murmured before she could stop herself. Then she slowly turned her head toward the person the maid meant by ‘my mistress.’

Olivia had gone white as a sheet and was shaking visibly.

“M, Marie, what are you saying right now?”

But the maid ignored Olivia and continued her testimony.

“The truth is, Miss Olivia had the robetaine in her possession before the poisoning ever took place.”

“What on earth is she—”

“Silence! No one is to interrupt until this maid has finished speaking!”

King Rubens slammed his armrest, and Olivia’s lips trembled.

“That day, it was just as the sun had begun to set. I was coming back from the laundry when I saw someone rush out of my mistress’s room. I thought it strange and went to check…… and a pouch containing robetaine was gone.”

The maid kept her gaze lowered, speaking as though pulling the memory back piece by piece.

“I ran after the thief in a hurry, but the thief disappeared into Miss Anais’s room.”

Gasps broke out here and there as the maid laid out each detail.

“And that thief, as I said before……”

The maid paused, then slowly turned her head and looked steadily at Blair.

Blair felt the back of her neck go stiff. She had no idea where to even begin refuting this.

“No, I never stole any robetaine, and I never entered Anais’s room—”

“Wait. Before that.”

King Rubens spoke in a sharp voice.

“Why did Olivia have robetaine in her possession.”

Beside him, Olivia was screaming that none of it was true, but the king paid her no attention.

After a moment’s hesitation, the maid delivered her answer.

“My mistress intended to use that robetaine…… on Miss Anais.”

She kept her eyes moving uneasily as she continued.

“She said that if it were mixed into the black tea Miss Anais liked, no one would ever know……”

The bombshell landed, and cries of disbelief erupted throughout the room.

“Wait, so Olivia bought robetaine to poison Anais?”

“And then Miss Blair stole it and actually did it?”

“Goodness, what in the world is……”

Blair was just as lost as everyone else.

What is happening. Wasn’t Olivia the one who told her maid to frame me?

But right now, Olivia’s maid was framing her and putting Olivia in a terrible position at the same time. Nothing about it added up.

Olivia seemed to sense that things were going wrong, and cried out in a panic.

“This is a conspiracy, Your Majesty!”

She shouted with her voice cracking, veins standing out in her neck.

“I don’t know why she is saying these things—”

“Shut your mouth!”

The king dismissed Olivia entirely and turned to the maid with a cold, measured voice.

“Do you have anything to support your claim.”

“Ah, that would be……”

The maid kept glancing toward somewhere as her voice trailed off. At the end of that gaze was someone no one had expected.

“I have that evidence.”

The cold voice belonged to Duke Willer Brienne.

“……You?”

King Rubens looked at Duke Brienne with an unreadable expression.

“Yes, Your Majesty. While investigating the source of the robetaine used in the crime, I tracked down the merchant who sold it to Miss Olivia.”

“!”

That, too, was not what anyone had expected.

“Bring him in.”

Duke Brienne gave a brief gesture to his attendant. The attendant brought forward a man with a prominent belly.

“Is the person who purchased robetaine from you present in this room.”

Duke Brienne asked in a flat, hard tone. The merchant nodded vigorously.

“Who is it.”

“Th, there…… that person.”

The merchant raised a trembling hand and pointed.

“Good heavens.”

Blair murmured as she followed the direction of the finger. Olivia stood there, white as paper and shaking.

“Th, that lowlife has no right to lie like this—!”

Olivia raised her voice, sounding rattled.

“Duke Brienne! Where did you find this swindler to slander me with!”

“Slander, you say. Let’s see if you still call it that after looking at this.”

The duke drew something from inside his coat with a thin smile.

“Your own signature is right here in plain sight, and you still call it slander.”

On the creased parchment were the date, quantity, and price of the robetaine sale. Below that was the buyer’s signature.

Olivia Lorentz. Even at a glance, it was unmistakably her hand.

Olivia froze like a statue.

King Rubens immediately ordered the chief chamberlain to compare the handwriting. Letters coming in and out of the palace were mostly subject to inspection, so obtaining a sample of Olivia’s handwriting was not difficult.

The chief chamberlain returned with a grave face and presented both Olivia’s letter and the merchant’s transaction record to the king.

“The handwriting…… matches, Your Majesty.”

King Rubens looked back and forth between the two samples, then spoke in a cold, flat voice.

“This…… despicable creature.”

“I, I did have the robetaine, but…… I never intended to kill anyone!”

Cornered with nowhere to go, Olivia waved her hands and frantically changed her story. But Duke Brienne cut her down immediately.

“Robetaine is lethal in even the smallest amount. Purchasing such a thing without any purpose makes no sense, Your Majesty.”

He then raised his voice and swept his gaze across the room.

“Truly, it is a cause for grief.”

The duke’s commanding voice silenced the room in an instant.

“Those chosen as frons, blinded by jealousy, one buying poison, another stealing it to commit a horrific murder. Can this truly be considered acceptable.”

The audience hall went as quiet as if cold water had been thrown over it.

“My daughter would not have died if not for this strange tradition called the frons. Before another tragedy repeats itself, should this institution not be abolished.”

At the duke’s speech, nobles began nodding and murmuring in agreement.

He pressed on without losing the momentum, raising his voice further as though bearing down on King Rubens.

“Your Majesty. I humbly ask that you impose the severest punishment on these two frons connected to my daughter’s death, and that you put an end to this meaningless relic of a bygone era.”

Duke Brienne’s eyes gleamed. With the room entirely in his grip, he looked at Blair with an arrogant smile.

Ah. So this was it.

Blair thought back to what Queen Rhea had told her yesterday.

‘He will do everything in his power to bring you down. He is not the kind of man to stand by while someone else takes the position of princess consort.’

The duke was not only tying both her and Olivia to Anais’s murder, he was trying to abolish the frons system itself.

So that no one could take the princess consort position at all.

That maid bringing up the robetaine out of nowhere was the duke’s doing too.

The saying that he had the royal family in the palm of his hand felt suddenly, viscerally real.

Haah. What do I do now?

Blair felt the darkness closing in. She couldn’t see a way out.

Tap tap tap.

A small sound caught her attention. She looked up toward it and found familiar amber eyes looking down at her.

Kalintz had been tapping the armrest. When his eyes met Blair’s, the corners curved slightly. He moved only his lips, making no sound.

Shall I help?

Blair stared at his insufferably handsome face for a moment, then accepted it with cold clarity. There was truly no way to avoid taking his hand now.

Nod, nod.

Seeing the small but unmistakable up-and-down movement of her head, the corner of Kalintz’s mouth pulled into a smile.

The princess consort position?

Blair let out a quiet sigh and nodded even more firmly than before. A bright, open smile spread across his face.

That smile. Genuinely dangerous.