“Is that true?”

“Yes. I happened to run into that woman, and she begged me not to say anything to Marquis Ter Giuo. When I asked what had happened, she told me that Marquis Ter Giuo had tried to kill her.”

“What is that woman’s name?”

“I do not know her name, but I encountered her in a small village next to the Mangila Forest.”

“That account lacks credibility.”

At the presiding judge’s firm response, the man hastily added,

“But there is something the woman told me!”

“What is it?”

“She said that when Marquis Ter Giuo engaged in s*xual relations, he was extremely coercive and violent. Fearing she would truly die, she pushed Ter Giuo away and fled, and in the process, Ter Giuo briefly lost consciousness. After he came to, he tried to kill her.”

The attempt to kill someone was shocking enough, but to do something like that as well?

Ter Giuo is truly the worst.

“Who are you to insult my son!! Who do you think you are!”

The former Marchioness’s wailing rang out once more.

“Please be silent. This is a matter that must have the truth sorted out in due course.”

“…No.”

A frail voice echoed through the courtroom. Everyone’s gaze turned toward the source of the voice.

A visibly delicate young noblewoman stood there, her entire body wrapped in a robe.

“The same thing was done to me.”

The young woman’s account was difficult to hear. She, who remembered clearly what Ter Giuo had done to her, wept throughout her entire testimony.

Even after the young woman finished speaking, not a single sound could be heard in the courtroom.

Everyone pitying one woman. Everyone feeling distressed that there was nothing they could do.

The presiding judge, who had been listening quietly to everything, finally opened his mouth.

“There is no need to hear any more. I will deliver the verdict.”

Throughout the entire verdict, the former Marchioness’s wailing filled the courtroom.

“Marquis Ter Giuo…”

My mind grew increasingly distant at that wailing.

“…is ruled to have died by accidental death due to…”

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

At the sound of the gavel striking down hard, my body was about to give way beneath me.

“Loa.”

“……”

“It’s over now.”

He caught me.

With the words that the trial had ended, I was pulled along by a strong force. Thanks to leaving the courtroom quickly, the constricting sensations faded away as well.

“Are you all right?”

“Thanks to you.”

“I see…”

The expression on his face as he answered in acknowledgment was somehow unsettled.

“You are truly all right?”

“Yes. By the way, Sir Enoch…”

“You were both here. You disappeared so quickly.”

There had actually been a condition Enoch had set in exchange for testifying.

I was not sure how he had known the trial was being held, but upon learning that we would be attending as suspects, he had been the one to propose standing as a witness first.

***

A few days prior.

“I heard you will be attending the trial for the Marquis’s murder as a suspect.”

“It is merely a matter within our nation.”

“That matter is also related to the young lady, is it not?”

“The young lady… It seems the Prince takes quite an interest in my wife.”

“I believe she is still your fiancee, but I simply wish to help the young lady.”

At the sight of Enoch smiling pleasantly, Eden felt an inexplicable wariness rise within him.

“I will testify on your behalf. Would my testimony not solidify both of your alibis?”

“And what does the Prince gain from doing so?”

“A cup of tea with Lady Eloa.”

After a brief silence, Eden opened his mouth.

“Loa is not my possession. That is a matter to discuss with Loa herself, not something for me to permit or refuse.”

Upon hearing Eden’s answer, Enoch was briefly dumbfounded before bursting into laughter.

“I was greatly mistaken. I will speak to the young lady directly.”

Enoch’s proposal, which he brought with him when he came to the ducal estate together with Eden, was sudden, but a cup of tea was not a difficult thing to agree to, so I accepted without hesitation. All without knowing what kind of conversation had taken place between Eden and Enoch.

***

After the trial ended and we returned, only Enoch and I sat together in the drawing room of the ducal estate.

“Are you satisfied with just a cup of tea with me?”

“There was much I was curious about regarding you, my lady.”

“I am merely a Count’s daughter.”

“I have a rather special ability.”

“A special ability?”

“I can tell whether what people say is a lie or the truth.”

I briefly wondered whether to believe what Enoch was saying.

But well, in a world where there is someone like me who has transmigrated into a book, and where sorcerers exist, a human lie detector could very well exist too, could it not?

“I imagine it is hard to believe.”

“No, it is not that I do not believe you… I was just wondering how far the distinction goes.”

“Would you like to say something, anything at all?”

His expression, which had been playful as though trying to demonstrate his ability to me, shifted into a rather serious one.

“…I am a person of this world.”

I let slip a secret that only I knew to him. Out of curiosity as to whether he could truly tell.

“That is a lie.”

His answer came without a single moment of hesitation, and my eyes trembled slightly. The thought that he might be the only person in this place who could ever know my truth made me tremble just a little.

I could not tell whether this trembling was from fear of my identity being revealed, or a trembling that hoped for some kind of help.

“This is actually why I wanted to be alone with you, my lady.”

“……”

“Do you remember the conversation we had at the banquet hall?”

“A conversation, you mean…”

Was he referring to the brief exchange we had when we crossed paths at the banquet hall? The question soon turned to certainty at what Enoch said next.

“When you said you had become fully accustomed to being here.”

“Ah…”

“Throughout our conversation, you had not told a single lie, my lady. That was the first moment you did. That is what made me curious.”

It was less that I had not lied and more that I had simply not said anything.

“And so?”

He asked again as though he had not heard my question properly.

“Pardon?”

“I was wondering what it has to do with Sir Enoch.”

It may have come across as a little rude, but it could not be helped. If I tried to hide things from someone who could distinguish lies, he would see through it anyway. I figured it was better to speak plainly than to bother.

“Ha ha, as expected, you are interesting, my lady. It is nothing much, simply a sense of kinship and curiosity.”

“Kinship?”

“If you are not a person of this world, may I ask which world you are from?”

The look in Enoch’s eyes as he asked me was tinged with a certain wistfulness.

“The world I originally lived in has neither magic nor an Emperor like this place does.”

“Then?”

“Instead of magic, there are means of transportation that run on automatically generated power, and instead of… a fast inter… rather, there are spaces for communication. In those spaces, many people gather regardless of age, gender, or place of origin and voice their opinions.”

“That sounds like a wonderful world.”

“……”

“Among ladies, I understand that the way to become true friends is that when one person shares a secret, the other shares one in return.”

They have that kind of rule here too?

“Well, that is not wrong.”

Just as I was thinking he could not possibly have any great secret to share, the teacup I had lifted to drink came to a halt in midair, never reaching my lips.

“I am, in truth, not a prince.”

“Pardon?”

Still holding the teacup I could neither set down nor drink from, I asked him again and again.

“If you are not a prince…”

“There is a real prince elsewhere. Due to certain circumstances, I have come to act in the prince’s place.”

As though knowing my doubt that his face would differ from the prince’s, Enoch added,

“I look exactly like the prince.”

Impersonating a prince simply because they look alike. I have my own situation, but Enoch was living quite an extraordinary life as well.

I felt as though I understood what Enoch had meant earlier by kinship.

The first words I said to him were,

“What made you decide to do something like this?”

“Simply because I wanted to be happy.”

He answered my question without hesitation.

“I made a promise to someone I had loved for a long time. That I would surely become happy.”

“Have you become happy?”

“Not yet.”