Liton led the way as they opened the door to the Count and Countess’s bedroom and stepped inside.

As expected, the two of them were lying asleep on the cold floor.

Like the other rooms, this one had been stripped bare.

Beneath the faded rectangular mark on the wall, where framed paintings had once hung before being stolen, a lonely family portrait had been carelessly discarded.

Without hesitation, Benate walked over to the Count and Countess and placed the magic tool next to them.

Immediately, the light filling the spacious room sank into their bodies.

A moment later, faint coughing echoed through the silence as the Count and Countess finally awoke from their long slumber.

“Ahem, cough…. Y-Your Majesty…?”

Count Seidler’s golden eyes shook with confusion.

Beside him, the Countess covered her mouth with both hands, unable to hide her shock.

It was understandable.

The first face they had seen upon waking was that of the Emperor himself.

Liton carefully helped the two of them sit up.

Fortunately, just like the maids in the underground quarters, neither of them appeared to have sustained any serious injuries.

“Y-Your Majesty the Emperor, Your Majesty the Empress, what brings you here….? N-No, more importantly, what exactly happened to us?”

The Countess looked around with a deathly pale face.

As her eyes landed upon the empty bedroom around her, her complexion—already pale—drained even further.

Ailie stepped closer to the Countess and spoke calmly.

“There’s no need to worry. It simply appears that thieves broke in.”

In truth, the ‘thieves’ were none other than their daughter, Donata.

For now, however, Ailie chose to keep that fact hidden.

She needed to draw as much information from them as possible.

Before entering the Count and Countess’s bedroom, Ailie discussed with Benate the possibility that they might try to protect Donata.

No matter how serious her crimes were — even after putting them into an unnatural sleep with black magic and stripping the estate of all its valuables — she was still their daughter.

They might try to downplay her suspicious behavior.

Or even lie outright.

That was why Ailie decided to approach the matter differently.

‘We’ll suspect not Donata, but the dance instructor instead.’

In any case, it had already been proven that Donata was the black magician responsible for Madame Fedroti’s murder and the strange incident at the Count’s estate.

There was no need to confirm that fact any longer.

What mattered now was finding out more about the dance instructor.

If they wanted to discover whether a greater force was operating behind Donata, they first needed to uncover how she had learned black magic.

That was why Ailie and Benate had coordinated their story beforehand.

Breni and Liton would quickly grasp their intentions, and there was no need to explain the full situation to Dea.

That alone would be enough.

“Th-Thieves, you say?”

“It seems someone used suspicious sorcery to put everyone in the estate to sleep before stealing everything of value.”

“S-Sorcery….”

The terrified eyes of the Count and Countess trembled wildly.

The fear in those eyes did not seem fake.

It was the fear of an unknown power.

Just as Ailie had suspected, it did not appear that Donata had learned black magic from her parents.

“W-Where is Donata…?”

“It seems she wasn’t in the estate when the thieves broke in. Fortunately, she doesn’t appear to have become involved in the incident.”

“T-Thank goodness…. Thank goodness.”

Ailie forced a bitter smile and lowered her gaze to the discarded portrait on the floor.

Eventually, the Count and Countess would discover the truth that it was their own daughter behind everything.

From the moment she set foot in the forbidden land, Donata had become a continental-scale criminal.

She would never escape the sins she had committed.

Never.

Perhaps the kinder outcome for the Count and Countess would be to uncover the truth quickly and stop Donata before she could commit an even worse crime.

As these thoughts passed through Ailie’s mind, Benate began questioning the Count and Countess.

“Then let me ask for the sake of the investigation. Among the people who visited this estate, was there anyone suspicious? Someone of unclear origins, perhaps—or someone with a strange atmosphere about them?”

For an ordinary person, this would have been the kind of question that required careful consideration, involving mentally going through each person in turn before answering.

However, as soon as Benate had finished speaking, certainty rather than suspicion flashed across the faces of the Count and Countess.

Then, they both blurted out the same answer at once.

“The dance instructor!”

“The dance instructor—that woman!”

The dance instructor.

It was the answer that Ailie had expected.

Even so, she had not anticipated such immediate certainty.

When asked what had made them suspicious of the woman, the Count and Countess hurried to explain.

Apparently, they had been wary of her from the outset.

“It was when Donata was fifteen, I believe. One day, a strange person dressed in robes suddenly arrived at the estate. She had pitch-black hair and red eyes like drops of blood, but she refused to tell us her name or where she came from. There was also something unsettling about the way she spoke.”

“In what way?”

“How should I explain it? At first, she said she was just a visitor, but then, during her next visit, she suddenly told me she was a dance instructor. That alone was odd enough. From the second visit onwards, she even started wearing normal clothes.”

“No, it was definitely the same person. The voice and atmosphere were identical. There couldn’t possibly be two women with such an eerie and unpleasant presence visiting this estate.”

“Was there anything else suspicious about her?”

“Despite calling herself a dance instructor, she claimed she’d never taught any students before. She said the lessons would be useful when Donata entered high society, but she kept trying to stop her from going to real balls.”

“Hm….”

“No matter how we think about it, it must have been that woman! She had to be the thief! That’s why I told Donata over and over again that she should find another dance instructor instead.”

“And Miss Donata insisted on keeping only that instructor?”

“Yes. Again and again… almost as though she were bewitched.”

It was certainly an unusual figure, especially given how strongly the Count and Countess felt about it.

It had pitch-black hair and blood-red eyes.

Could it really have been Madame Fedroti all along?

Sirion’s hair was dark grey, almost black, but not quite pitch black.

His eyes were a pale lavender color.

He did not resemble Donata’s dance instructor at all.

Perhaps he took after his father instead.

She would only know the truth once she asked Sirion directly.

However, hair and eye color alone were hardly enough to identify someone with certainty.

‘Changing one’s eye and hair color is easy enough. Potions for that are sold almost like toys in magic shops.’

If someone were intent on concealing their identity, they could easily have used a different magical potion each time they visited the estate.

They needed more definitive information.

Ailie asked the Count and Countess another question.

“Did the dance instructor have any particularly distinctive features? A scar, perhaps, or a mole on the face…?”

“Ah! Ah, that’s right! She did! That woman had moles!”

“Where?”

“Above her right eyebrow—near the end of it. It was quite noticeable. And another one beneath her left eye.”

It is located above the right eyebrow and below the left eye.

Yes, that would probably be enough to confirm the woman’s identity.

After all, it’s unlikely that someone would alter something as minor as the placement of a mole.

It was a valuable clue.

Ailie quietly committed the information to memory and gave a small nod.

At that moment, the Countess — still searching through her memories of the dance instructor — spoke again, looking uneasy.

“Despite how suspicious she was, Donata became extraordinarily close to that instructor. Even on days without lessons, she would leave saying she was going to see her teacher. Still… after that, her tantrums did lessen considerably…”

This made the situation seem even more suspicious.

If Donata had visited the woman on days when she didn’t have lessons, it might have been for a different reason.

Something that could not be done on the Count’s estate.

Nevertheless, Ailie was taken aback by the suggestion that her complaints had decreased.

Dea had said something similar before.

“I was just a maid, so I don’t know the details, but I heard that the young lady had been expecting a job offer that fell through.”

“She kept complaining about wanting it back. Something along those lines. For a very long time. Then, after the dance instructor arrived, she suddenly stopped completely. I think it was probably around that time.”

Donata had apparently been promised some kind of position, only for it to fall apart.

And the Count couple undoubtedly knew exactly what that position had been.

“But what sort of complaints was Miss Donata making?”

The moment Ailie asked the question, the count shot his wife a sharp glance.

The Countess immediately covered her mouth with both hands, as though she had accidentally revealed something she shouldn’t have.

It was an unnaturally suspicious reaction.

Everyone in the room turned to look at the two of them.

“Do you intend to refuse answering a question asked by the Empress?”

Benate asked coldly, his voice as sharp as a blade.

The Count and Countess both widened their eyes.

The nervous glances they exchanged looked deeply unsettled.

What secret were they trying so desperately to hide?

A brief silence followed.

“T-This is not something we should say before Your Majesties…. Truly, it is not….”

In the end, neither of them could withstand the cold pale-blue eyes staring at them without mercy.

The Countess finally began speaking hesitantly.

“T-The truth is, our daughter Donata was… secretly selected… without it ever being publicly announced….”

Her trembling voice faltered before she could finish the sentence.

Just as someone was about to urge her onward, the Count answered in her place.

“…A candidate to become Crown Princess.”