***

In the Celsior ducal family annex.

Howard was imprisoned alone, separated from his daughter, in a space made like a prison.

“Cough, cough!”

He, spitting out dry coughs, was in a shabby and wretched state beyond recognition.

Sitting slumped on the damp stone floor with his back against the wall, Howard bit his lips.

“D*mn……!”

The shock he felt when his nephew, whom he thought was dead, returned alive and appeared in the courtroom was still vivid.

August Dawson had clearly reported that he killed Kyllen and disposed of him without leaving a trace.

While he was eliminating Kyllen, Howard had disguised a servant of similar build as his nephew’s corpse.

To ensure that his murder wouldn’t be discovered, he had prepared a fake who really died in the fire.

But was that the wrong choice.

‘I should have killed him with my own hands. Then that bastard wouldn’t have returned alive……!’

Kyllen, who returned with loyal retainers following him, seized control of Celsior in an instant.

Under the pretext of investigating Howard and his daughter, he confined them in the annex and ruthlessly took away the family by thrusting documents at them.

Just like when Kyllen was a child, Howard could only watch helplessly.

As he was grumbling alone in frustration, two knights entered and roughly dragged him.

“Let go, you bastards! What are you doing?”

“Follow quietly.”

The knights bound him tightly with rope and took him to the interrogation room.

In the place where he naturally expected Kyllen to be sitting, an unexpected person was leisurely drinking tea.

“Hello, Duke.”

Shailyn smiled brightly at the dazed Howard.

“No wait, should I call you former Duke now? Or Count Dempsey?”

Even though she had only mentioned objective facts, Howard’s face turned red and blue.

“……How dare a thing like you come to mock me?”

“Well, I wonder.”

Shailyn shrugged her shoulders and gestured with her chin toward the seat across from her. Then the knights forcibly seated him there and went outside.

The gaze glaring at Shailyn was full of hatred and anger. She chuckled and put down her cup, saying.

“Before coming to see you, I visited Johanna Dempsey.”

When his daughter’s name came up, Howard flinched. He hadn’t seen Johanna since the heresy trial.

Since they were captured as soon as they arrived and separated into different parts of the annex.

Confirming his slightly shaking gaze, Shailyn curled up the corners of her mouth.

“She was in terrible shape…… Do you know what your daughter told me?”

“Shut up! Don’t mention my daughter with that filthy mouth!”

Howard glared with wide eyes and shouted. Then Shailyn hardened her expression coldly.

“Who’s really filthy.”

She muttered quietly and soon showed a leisurely smile.

Since getting excited and shouting would make her the same kind of person, she planned to maintain as much composure and calmness as possible.

“Emma, the former head maid of the ducal family of Diart, you know her, right?”

“……I don’t know.”

“There’s no point in playing dumb. Emma and Viscount Dawson confessed.”

The owner of the note Emma had was August Dawson.

At first they had trouble finding him because they didn’t know, but they got a clue when Kyllen remembered accidentally witnessing the two of them.

August, who learned of his survival from the newspaper, was preparing to flee but was caught by Kyllen one step too late.

‘It’s been a while, Gus.’

‘Y-young master……!’

‘It’s so nice to see you again, could you spare some time? By the way, this isn’t a request but an order.’

‘Gasp……!’

August knelt before him, crying and spitting out all the truth he knew.

Then, ignoring his pleas to be spared, Kyllen first delivered that information to Shailyn.

Thanks to that, she could enjoy watching Howard’s face turn pale blue with anxiety.

“I don’t know what they confessed, but it has nothing to do with me. The viscount must be planning to frame me after committing crimes alone……!”

The end of his voice, rapidly pouring out words, cracked pathetically.

His vocal cords were very hoarse because they hadn’t given him a single sip of water since yesterday.

“Oh my, your throat seems very dry.”

Shailyn made a pitying expression and spoke to someone behind her.

“Give the poor Count Dempsey a cup, Mandy.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Mandy, who had been standing quietly by the wall, approached and poured tea into an empty cup.

Howard watched him with a face full of wariness. Fortunately, Shailyn, who drank the same tea, had no problems.

Well, unless she’s crazy, she wouldn’t poison me here.

“You need to untie my hands to drink.”

“Just lower your head and drink. Like a dog.”

Shailyn elegantly lifted her teacup and replied.

Howard’s brow immediately furrowed as his pride was hurt.

Glancing at him gritting his teeth and remaining unmoved, Shailyn openly sighed.

“Goodness, you’re as troublesome as a child. Go call a knight.”

Mandy called one of the knights guarding outside the interrogation room.

The knight roughly grabbed Howard’s jaw and practically poured the tea in.

Gulp, gulp.

Watching him barely manage to drink the mercilessly rushing tea without choking, Shailyn casually asked.

“Do you know something?”

Her gentle voice clearly penetrated Howard’s eardrums.

“Johanna Dempsey also insisted she didn’t know anything like you at first, but became honest after drinking that tea.”

Shailyn smiled wickedly.

“Because it was laced with truth serum. Made by my capable cousin.”

“……!”

This was also the method she had proposed to Kyllen. Feed them truth serum made by Deborah to find out the truth.

She had tried it on Johanna earlier and the effect was quite good, so she came straight to meet Howard too.

Shocked and wide-eyed, Howard began to struggle to avoid drinking more tea.

But the knight held him tight and poured in every last drop.

“Gag, urgh!”

“It’s useless to try vomiting it up now. Even if you spit it out, we’ll just make you drink it again.”

Shailyn made scary sounds gently while ostentatiously sipping her tea.

Since the truth serum was in the teacup, not the tea, she was fine even drinking from the same teapot.

When the knight who completed his mission left, Howard, finally released, ground his teeth.

“You despicable—!”

“You’re not in a position to say that to me. Look who’s talking, you really have no conscience?”

Shailyn made an incredulous expression and narrowed her brow.

What’s despicable is framing someone for crimes they didn’t commit, and she had merely corrected the behavior of an uncooperative criminal.

“You had August Dawson and Emma bring heretical objects to the ducal family of Diart, right?”

“Ugh…… Yes, it was me!”

Unlike his head that tried not to answer somehow, his lips moved on their own and spat out the truth.

“The magical tool explosion incident was also something you and Johanna Dempsey plotted?”

“That’s right, and I sent the bribed mage to the eastern Kingdom of Doben!”

“Ah, I see.”

So that’s where that mage went, he fled to Doben.

“One more thing.”

Shailyn, who had been smiling with satisfaction, brought up a secret matter.

She, who had been thinking hard to solve the mission, thought.

If there was a secret behind the death of the former ducal couple, perhaps the person who benefited most from that death was involved.

That’s why she deliberately left Kyllen out and came to meet Howard alone today.

“You know the real reason the former Celsior ducal couple died, don’t you?”

“What…… Of course I know!”

Howard, who had turned pale, reflexively tried to deny it, but under the effect of the truth serum, his tongue moved on its own again and spat out the truth.

To stop the confession from coming out, he had no choice but to bite his tongue.

Shailyn, who quickly noticed this, jumped up and stuffed a handkerchief into his mouth.

Thud!

“That won’t do.”

“Mmph, mmph!”

Watching Howard struggle to spit out the handkerchief, she was certain.

‘As expected, this man knows!’

Shailyn’s eyes flashed as she grabbed his collar and pressured Howard.

“Tell me right now! What secret is there behind the former ducal couple’s death!”

“Mmph, mmph!”

“Speak!”

She fiercely pulled out the handkerchief. Howard’s mouth, having missed the chance to bite his tongue, betrayed its owner’s will and shouted.

“I killed them!”