Chapter 21

‘Tch. I thought I had them all convinced.’  

Jaeyon let go of Adelina’s hand as he watched Lexion stride over.  

“Duke, we were working on a portrait. I’m thinking of learning to paint someday.”

Adelina quickly came to her senses, linked arms with Lexion, and signaled Jaeyon to leave.  

She didn’t want to get caught in the tiresome tension between the two.  

“If it’s what my wife wants, I can do anything. If you want to sprinkle diamond dust, I’ll buy the finest diamonds and crush them for you.”  

Crazy! Why crush diamonds? They should be kept intact and sold!  

“Duke, that’s too romantic. But I’m not such a luxurious lady, so I’ll just paint with oil paints.”  

Adelina suggested a way to secure oil paints, leaving the diamonds untouched.  

“I heard there’s a tea party with Princess Isabelle today; shouldn’t you start preparing now, my wife?”  

“Ah…”  

Adelina sighed deeply.  

She really didn’t want to go, but it was a tea party directly invited by the Princess, so she couldn’t refuse.  

“I’m not your wife yet.”  

“If you’ve confessed your love, you’re my wife. Jaeyon, you heard it too, right? Adelina’s passionate love confession.”  

Lexion continued to glare at Jaeyon, who was packing up his painting tools.  

“Ah, Duke, I wasn’t in the banquet hall at that time.”  

Jaeyon flashed a friendly smile at Lexion, similar to Prince Isya’s, and then looked at Adelina.  

Naturally, his eyes formed a crescent moon shape.  

“I’ll come again tomorrow.”  

“Yes, see you tomorrow.”  

Adelina began preparing to leave for the tea party, leaving Lexion to continue glaring at Jaeyon’s retreating back.  

+++

The Princess’s palace seemed to reflect its owner’s taste, being incredibly lavish.  

The walls and corridors were adorned with art sculptures and paintings that seemed expensive at first glance.  

Following the corridor of the Princess’s palace led to an inner garden with a different feel from the outer garden.  

This garden could only be entered under the guidance of the palace maids, and today, noble ladies invited by Isabelle had already arrived and were seated.  

Four round tables for six were set up, and three were already full.  

The two empty seats at the head table were likely for Princess Isabelle and Queen Sweeney.  

No one sat at the remaining table.  

‘What is this? Are they ostracizing me? How childish.’  

Adelina went to sit at the empty table.  

Ladies she was already acquainted with chatted in groups, covering their mouths with fans and glancing at Adelina.  

“Thank you all for coming to my tea party. Please feel free to talk.”  

As Isabelle took her seat with Queen Sweeney, the tea party officially began.  

‘Well then, let’s eat.’  

The table Adelina sat at was also set for six, so there was a fair amount of dessert.  

Adelina picked up a small strawberry cake from the three-tiered dessert plate in front of her.  

‘Eating alone. What’s the big deal?’  

Having often eaten alone in a cafeteria with 300 others in her past life, this was nothing to Adelina.  

“I’ll have tea, please. With milk and honey, in the Ernst style.”

When the maid in charge of the table tried to pour coffee without asking, Adelina deliberately changed it to tea and continued eating.  

As the maid poured tea into Adelina’s cup and set a small milk jug and honey beside it, Sweeney approached.  

“May I join you here?”  

Adelina wiped her mouth with a napkin and stood up, bowing slightly.  

“It would be an honor if you joined me, Your Majesty.”  

As Sweeney sat to Adelina’s right, a maid set chamomile tea and desserts in front of Sweeney.  

“Why didn’t you join them? It would taste better if you ate together.”  

Sweeney, who had taken a sip of the properly brewed tea, set down her cup and spoke without looking at Adelina.  

As if saying, ‘Why not bow to Isabelle first?’ Resisting will only make it harder for you.  

“If I eat with them, there’ll be less for me. I’m a greedy person, so I planned to eat it all myself.”  

Adelina answered while placing a plate of tartlets topped with cranberries in front of her.  

Once you start bowing, you’ll have to stay under their feet.  

If you squirm, their foot will grind you into rough sand like a worm.  

Sweeney’s lips curled slightly at Adelina’s response.  

“It’s a shame we can’t meet often.”

“I’ll visit the Kingdom of Iberis to see you, Your Majesty.”  

“Hahaha. Indeed. Then you’ll sit at the head table with me.”  

As Sweeney, who usually only smiled softly, laughed loudly, the eyes of Isabelle and the other ladies turned to Adelina.  

‘Why are they glaring like that? They might as well bore a hole through my face.’  

Adelina feigned thirst and lifted the water glass beside her teacup to cover her face.  

Sweeney laughed loudly, but everyone seemed to glare at Adelina as if they wanted to kill her.  

“Princess, is this cup the one you received as a gift from the Tiola Empire?”  

A lady at Isabelle’s table tried to lighten the mood by bringing up Isabelle’s gift.  

“Yes. It’s called a Mirror Cup. I heard it’s made from a meteorite from space and is very precious.”  

“Yes, Your Highness. I heard there are only five sets in the world. It’s an honor to touch this cup.”  

Hearing their words, Adelina also picked up her cup.  

‘Is it titanium?’

As the name Mirror Cup suggested, it reflected her face very well.  

After looking at the cup for a while, Adelina placed it back on the table with a smile on her face.

‘Trying to steal the evidence, are you?’

In the cup that looked like a mirror, Adelina saw the reflection of the person who was stealing the evidence she had placed in the bedside drawer.

+++

“Marquis Young Lady, where is the evidence? If you report without evidence, you could be accused of defamation.”  

The next morning, the Imperial Guard, having received Adelina’s report, entered her bedroom.  

Inside the drawer, there was not a single threatening letter or blade that Adelina had mentioned.  

“Adelina, are you alright?”  

Stephan approached Adelina, who sat down on the bed in shock, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.  

“I’m alright, Father.”  

Adelina placed her hand on her chest and took a deep breath.  

She slowly stood up again and faced the Imperial Guard.  

“I stored the evidence in two places. Someone else will bring the remaining evidence.”  

At Adelina’s words, the maid who had been accused as the culprit suddenly lifted her head.  

‘What? I’m sure there was only one letter in the envelope!’

In her haste, she hadn’t checked the contents, but she was sure that expensive stationery was in there.  

And there was a blade too!  

“But you see, Sir Knight.”

Adelina scoffed at the maid whose eyes were wildly shaking and then put on white gloves.  

After laying white paper on the table, she carefully took out two glass plates from the drawer and placed them on top.  

“There are bloodstains here. Fingerprints, it seems.”  

It was the transparent glass she had deliberately placed over the evidence yesterday.  

The culprit would have cut their hand while lifting the sharp-edged glass.  

A fingerprint stained with blood was left on another piece of glass placed under the evidence.  

‘The glass was too big to handle easily. They would have had to lift all the other items too.’  

She had thought of that as well. She had attached glass to the jewelry boxes inside the drawer.  

“I see. Lady Marquis, the culprit left a bloodstain. However, it’s difficult to catch the culprit with just this.”

The Imperial Guard examined the stain for a while but soon showed a lukewarm reaction.  

It was not uncommon for women to play such pranks out of jealousy and envy.  

Their expressions clearly showed they wanted to wrap this up quickly and leave.  

“Sir Knight, look. Isn’t the pattern precisely left like this? Here, even the cut mark.”  

Adelina pointed sharply with her index finger.  

“I see. This might be useful…”  

Among the many marks, the attention of the Imperial Knight Order was drawn to one fingerprint that was precisely left.  

The mark stained on the transparent birch sap thinly applied on the glass would not have been easy to erase.  

Well, in a place without the concept of fingerprints, they wouldn’t have cared much even if the mark remained.  

“Why is your hand like that?”  

Adelina suddenly grabbed the maid’s wrist, who was trying to hide her hand by curling it between the folds of her dress.  

“It’s nothing.”  

“Come here. Don’t you think your fingerprints will match exactly with the ones here?”  

“No, Miss!”  

As the maid struggled, twisting her arm to resist Adelina’s grip, Lexion, who had entered unnoticed, tightly grasped the maid’s arm.  

“I’m curious too. Who is harassing my fiancée?”  

Lexion applied red ink to a handkerchief and inspected the maid’s fingers.

“Duke, when did you arrive?”  

“I intended to take my fiancée for a morning walk, but I found something more interesting.”  

Lexion’s lips curled slightly.  

He precisely stained the maid’s right ring finger with red ink and pressed it onto the clean part of the other glass.  

“Isn’t it fascinating how it matches so perfectly to be a mere coincidence?”  

Lexion showed the two pieces of glass to the Imperial Guard, perfectly matching even the cut mark.  

“However, Marquis Young Lady, it’s difficult to conclude the culprit with just these glasses.”  

Just opening the drawer wouldn’t constitute a crime.  

Moreover, the accused was a personal maid of this room.  

The maid nodded vigorously at the Imperial Guard’s words, looking at them pitifully as if she was wrongly accused.  

Knock, knock. Jaeyon knocked twice on the open door.  

“Lady Adelina, I brought the item you entrusted to me yesterday. I thought you might need it now.”  

Jaeyon waved slightly from the doorway, holding an easel and canvas with Hailyn.  

“Sir Jaeyon! Hailyn! I was just about to send someone. You arrived just in time.”  

As Adelina ran over to stand in front of Jaeyon, he took an envelope out of his jacket pocket.  

‘Damn! Including the Tiola Empire’s delegation as witnesses… I can’t end this lightly now.’  

It seemed the Imperial Guard was swallowing a sigh.  

“Let me see it first.”  

As Adelina placed the evidence on the letter tray, Lexion, wearing black gloves, opened the envelope.  

“Duke, this is evidence…”

“It’s evidence of someone threatening my beloved. Does anyone object to me seeing it first?”  

As Lexion frowned and coldly snapped, the Imperial Guard kept their mouths shut and watched his actions.  

“It’s high-quality paper. The letters attached to this stationery are likely from the magazine ‘Le Moncole.’”

After placing the stationery on the letter tray, Lexion handed it to the Imperial Guard.  

“How can you be so specific?”