“Ah, that’s right! She said she lost it…… when she went out for a walk, didn’t she?”

Tilda clapped her hands together and called out as well.

“I’ve been keeping it for her since that day. I meant to return it eventually.”

Kalintz rose from his seat and walked slowly toward Blair. He stopped in front of her stunned face and held out his hand with a smile.

“To think it would come back to her like this.”

Blair looked at the amethyst brooch resting in his palm.

She had never imagined getting back the brooch that held her memories of Allen in a moment like this. Something about it felt strange.

“I…… had no idea you had it, Your Highness.”

Blair forced a composed expression and played along, taking the brooch.

At her strained smile, Kalintz gave an amused look, then immediately wiped his expression clean and turned to Olivia.

“Does it still seem like I’m lying?”

“Th, this can’t be……”

Olivia murmured to herself, looking utterly lost.

“……Unbelievable.”

King Rubens said it quietly, watching the scene.

“Blair Mervish. Why did you not say any of this from the start.”

“Ah, Your Majesty. That……”

The only thing going through her head was: I don’t have your talent for spinning stories this elaborate.

Kalintz had provided her alibi while cleverly reworking the account to conceal the fact that she had slipped out of the palace alone.

It was something she could never have come up with herself.

“She could not have said it.”

Queen Rhea spoke in Blair’s place as she stood there fumbling. A faint smile appeared on the queen’s face for the first time since the inquiry had begun.

“To say so would have meant exposing, before everyone present, the fact that the prince had snuck out of the palace. What a thoughtful child.”

No. Absolutely not.

“Hmm. She thought of that even while under false accusation. I always knew she was perceptive.”

There was no way that was true.

“Y, yes, Your Majesty.”

A small sound of suppressed laughter came from beside her.

Blair shot a quick glare, and Kalintz gave a small cough and rearranged his face into something serious.

“As I have said, Miss Blair has no connection whatsoever to the death of Anais Brienne. If anything, I believe the one attempting to frame an innocent young lady is the more likely culprit.”

Kalintz fixed Olivia with a cold stare.

“N, no! I didn’t kill her! Marie, you! Say something!”

Olivia grabbed her maid by the shoulders and shook her, frantic and desperate.

“I, I was only…!”

The maid stumbled over her words in what seemed like panic, her eyes darting around uneasily.

But the direction of those eyes was strange.

Right.

Following the maid’s gaze, Blair found herself looking at Duke Brienne’s rigid face, and the suspicion she had formed earlier hardened into certainty.

Olivia’s maid had undoubtedly been working under Duke Brienne’s orders as well as her mistress’s. In short, two separate schemes involving her had collided. Olivia’s and the duke’s.

To be precise, the duke had used both Olivia and the maid for his own ends.

Blair exhaled quietly to herself.

She had no idea how her life had become this turbulent. She found herself missing the quiet, unremarkable days she used to have.

Just then, the maid crumpled and sank to the floor.

“P, please, just spare my life! I only did what I was told…!”

“Ah, what you were told.”

Kalintz’s eyes narrowed. He looked like a man who had been waiting for exactly those words.

“So someone put you up to this.”

He turned his gaze to Duke Brienne. The duke, who had gone quiet some time ago, looked deeply displeased.

“Who? Tell me who told you to do this.”

Kalintz kept his eyes fixed on Duke Brienne’s face as he spoke.

“Th, that is…… the truth is—”

“His Highness asks an obvious question.”

The maid had been watching for an opening and was just about to speak when Duke Brienne cut her off.

“A servant does as their master commands.”

The duke looked down at the maid with cold eyes.

“Who else but Olivia Lorentz.”

At that threatening gaze and voice, the maid flinched and went rigid.

Kalintz let out a quiet, contemptuous laugh.

“Ah, I had a feeling there might be one more person who gave the orders.”

“I wonder. That would not be so easy to arrange. Unless someone happened to have a ‘hold over’ that maid.”

“……!”

The duke stared the maid down and put force into his words. Under that chilling gaze, the maid bowed her head with a frightened expression.

Then, in a voice that sounded like someone giving up, she opened her mouth.

“Miss Olivia…… told me to do it.”

“You…… you crazy—! Shut your mouth!”

Olivia, trembling with panic, finally let out a shriek and lunged at the maid. But the captain of the guard moved quickly and seized her arm.

“It is true that someone stole a portion of the robetaine my mistress had. And it is true that I saw that person enter Miss Anais’s room.”

The maid began pouring out the truth as though collapsing under the weight of it.

“But that person being Miss Blair…… is not true. The culprit was wearing a heavy robe and I could not tell who it was.”

The brazen certainty she had shown earlier was gone entirely.

“When the poisoning occurred, Miss Olivia was afraid she would be named as the culprit. So she took the remaining robetaine and used it to kill…… even her own bird.”

Blair drew in a sharp, silent breath. She remembered the incident a few days after Anais’s poisoning, when Olivia had come running to her room in tears.

“Wait…… the bird that supposedly died from eating robetaine, was that……”

“Sh, shut up!”

Even through Olivia’s screaming, the maid gave a silent nod. The cruelty of it drew cries of horror and condemnation from all around.

“And then when Miss Blair began receiving His Highness’s attention, and drew notice at the riding competition as well…… she told me to lie. She knew Miss Blair had no alibi for the day of the incident.”

“You crazy b—! Shut up! Shut your mouth!”

“The robetaine found in Miss Blair’s room was also…… placed there by me in advance, at her instruction, before she reported it to the captain of the guard.”

The captain of the guard, clearly furious at having been played for a fool, tightened his grip on Olivia’s arm.

“Aaagh! Let go! Marie, how dare you betray me! I suppose you don’t care what happens to your little sister? She’s going to die because of you! I’ll kill her myself!”

Every one of her crimes laid bare, Olivia rolled her eyes and hurled curses and threats.

“Silence! How dare you cause such a scene here!”

King Rubens had seen enough. He rose from his seat and shouted.

“Not only did she purchase poison with the intent to kill, she tried to pin a murder on an innocent person. Throw that vile creature in prison at once!”

At the king’s furious command, the guards moved quickly to take Olivia into custody.

“How dare you put your hands on me! Do you think my father will let this stand? Let go! I’ll walk on my own, so let go!”

The guards looked uncomfortable at her invoking Marquis Lorentz, and the captain of the guard let out an irritated sigh and ordered his men to step back.

Seething, Olivia began to leave the audience hall, but stopped in front of Blair.

“You scheming little—”

The blue eyes once praised as sapphires flashed with venom.

“How long do you think you’ll last here?”

“Hard to say. But I’ve already outlasted you.”

Blair held back the urge to slap Olivia hard across the face and answered.

“All talk and no sense of your place. This isn’t somewhere that scraps with no backing can survive. You’ll regret it later. You’ll wish you’d just left with the frons title to your name and nothing more.”

“I may not have much to my name, but at least I won’t be leaving covered in filth the way you are. Don’t worry about me.”

“Why you—!”

Unable to contain herself, Olivia’s eyes went wild and she lunged at Blair with a rough, outstretched arm.

Blair shut her eyes on instinct. But no pain came.

Instead, she felt a familiar warmth and a hand closing carefully around her shoulder.

“Both your mouth and your hands are thoroughly graceless.”

Kalintz’s cold voice came from right beside her.

Opening her eyes carefully, she found Olivia snarling, her violent reach stopped by Kalintz.

“And by now, you ought to know. Who it is that will be standing behind Miss Blair from here on.”

Blair felt the hand on her shoulder tighten slightly.