“Deputy Commissioner Gildart. What are you waiting for? Let the Grand Duchess examine the suspect’s hands.”

Marcel called to Deputy Commissioner Gildart as he approached with his heavy frame.

Gildart hesitated while looking at me, then bent his knee and removed the cloth covering O’Toole’s hands.

“Will this suffice?”

“Thank you.”

“No need for thanks. On this late night, distinguished guests have gone to great lengths and spared their time to gather here for the Grand Duchess. However, Her Highness may not be satisfied with just that.”

As Gildart stepped back with mock courtesy and sarcasm, I looked around while about to examine O’Toole’s hands and realized everyone was exhausted and struggling to endure this late hour.

I hesitated for a moment.

What if everything I sensed when I fell into the river was just my imagination?

Was what I was certain of actually true?

Was I making unnecessary trouble when the culprit had already been caught?

The gazes of people rushing to judgment and the doubts I created for myself invaded my mind in confusion.

But still… shouldn’t I do this anyway?

Just then, footsteps stopped nearby.

Turning my head, I saw Carlo standing beside me.

“Just do it.”

“……”

“I’ll take responsibility.”

Though his tone was indifferent, from the moment he approached, everyone fell silent, not daring to intervene.

Even though he was a man who claimed I meant nothing to him, at this moment he was my greatest support.

“……”

I knelt down and examined the hands of O’Toole, who was still trembling while prostrated.

His hands were completely covered in dirt and wounds.

The wounds might have been traces of my scratching and clawing.

“Ah…”

No. The wounded area was too extensive for that. It looked more like abrasions over a wide area rather than thin scratch marks.

“I need to see other parts too.”

I suddenly acted as if something had occurred to me and pretended to examine his clothes, legs, and feet.

If I only checked his hands, everyone would know that I was specifically looking at just that body part.

“She’s checking everything down to the toes.”

Someone watching me remarked to the person beside them that the Grand Duchess seemed to have a more thorough memory than expected.

“Spread your fingers too.”

When I spoke, O’Toole, who had been pressing his forehead almost to the floor, hesitated and raised his head.

“……”

The moment I met his terrified eyes, I nearly collapsed.

“N-no, I refuse.”

Whether he sensed something, he shook his head in refusal and clenched his fists tightly.

Just as I reached out to forcibly spread his fingers, Carlo firmly gripped both of O’Toole’s wrists.

“Aagh!”

With a scream, O’Toole’s clenched fingers spread open.

“Ha!”

O’Toole’s hand had something that shouldn’t be there.

And something that should be there was missing.

“You can let go now.”

I spoke as if I had little interest in his fingers, while pretending to carefully examine other areas as I stood.

After a long moment, I took a deep breath and said:

“This man is not the culprit.”

As soon as I finished speaking, murmurs erupted from all around.

Gildart, who had been watching me, denied my claim as if unwilling to let go of a suspect they had finally caught.

“Th-that can’t be right, Your Highness. Please look again.”

“I’m certain. This man cannot be the culprit.”

The hand that had grabbed and scratched me was definitely missing a finger joint.

All five fingers were attached, but one joint of the middle finger had been cut off long ago.

And the back of the other hand was definitely covered with warts.

When I had clawed at the hand of the man choking me, I remembered warts repeatedly catching on my fingertips.

“No, I am the culprit. I did it all, I tell you!”

O’Toole, who had been staring at me in bewilderment, crawled forward on trembling knees and grabbed my dress.

He shouted at me as I startled.

“You fell into the water, so you cannot remember the situation accurately. I am the culprit, I tell you!”

“……”

“I shoved the Grand Duchess’s head underwater and strangled her neck. I grabbed her legs and pulled her underwater! I did it all!”

Soldiers rushed forward to seize him, and Carlo quickly pulled me into his arms.

With his limbs restrained, O’Toole began shouting that he was the culprit.

The soldiers’ hands were busy quickly gagging him.

In the midst of the chaos, Gildart approached me.

“He could be right. The Grand Duchess may have had difficulty distinguishing clearly after falling into the water…”

“What characteristics did the culprit have, Grand Duchess?”

Genevieve’s gesture cut off Gildart’s words.

The room fell silent at that moment.

“Tell us what you remember.”

With a generous expression suggesting she was willing to hear me out, she waited for my answer from her distant throne.

“Grand Duchess?”

I slipped out of Carlo’s arms and barely stood on my trembling legs.

“…I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I cannot say now.”

“What?”

“I cannot do so now. Not with everyone listening.”

As I spoke firmly while suppressing my trembling, Genevieve’s expression immediately returned to a blank stare. My heart sank at her face, but I tried to continue.

“If I speak up, another innocent person will come forward or be brought in claiming to be the culprit. Next time, they might even fabricate all the characteristics of the perpetrator for their confession.”

“……”

“Even if O’Toole’s confession and the circumstances all match, this person cannot be the culprit, Your Majesty. For whatever reason, he appears to have been instructed to act as the perpetrator.”

“……”

As Genevieve silently watched me, Gildart protested as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“If you won’t tell us the physical characteristics, how can we find the culprit…”

“Deputy Commissioner Gildart, stop.”

At Marcel’s solemn voice, Gildart quickly shut his mouth.

“Forgive my presumption, but in the current situation, what the Grand Duchess says is correct. Given these circumstances, we cannot rely solely on the situation and confession to confirm or question Merverly O’Toole as the culprit. Furthermore, we must find out who made O’Toole confess like this.”

Genevieve stared at Marcel for a moment before raising her lips casually.

“Hearing your words, yes, that makes sense. But someone must be told for verification, right? We can’t keep calling the Grand Duchess for confirmation.”

“Of course. Based on how carefully the Grand Duchess examined O’Toole earlier, it seems there are several physical characteristics identifying the culprit. I would be grateful if you could mention just one of them.”

I nodded and looked at Marcel.

“The culprit was missing a finger joint.”

Marcel’s eyes widened considerably at my answer.

He looked at me through his glasses, then belatedly nodded and took a deep breath.

“I understand. And there’s one more thing we need to confirm. Merverly O’Toole. Why did you confess to being the culprit? Who ordered you to do this?”

As Marcel gestured for O’Toole’s gag to be removed, O’Toole immediately rushed toward us.

Running with his arms bound, O’Toole quickly lost his balance and fell, then immediately knelt and wept.

“Please save me! My child has been kidnapped…!”

I unconsciously stepped back at his shocking answer and staggered.

At the same time, Carlo’s arm caught my waist.

His desperate plea continued like the wail of a man out of his mind with fear for his child’s life.

“My child disappeared suddenly while I was on duty. They said if I wanted to save him, I had to do this. I don’t know who they were. Men in masks beat me and taught me what to say. They said if I wanted to save my child, I had to confess and die!”

“What should we do…”

As I clutched Carlo’s arm in fear, he looked down at me briefly.

He soon took me with a hardened expression and walked toward Genevieve.

“Your Majesty, I have a request.”

Genevieve looked me over with a forced smile, then nodded to Carlo.

“What is it, Grand Duke?”

“Please allow us to interrogate each person responsible for this party. We need to find the child.”

The smile disappeared from Genevieve’s eyes.

“…Why?”

“Suddenly kidnapping a child to force a false confession suggests someone needed to quickly create a fake culprit. The fact that the confession was precisely memorized means this incident was carried out according to a plan.”

“……”

“However, the plan went wrong because the Grand Duchess didn’t die, so they brought a child from Rishelt Island and seized Merverly O’Toole who was on duty. This response seems too sophisticated to come from someone who doesn’t know how to command people.”

Carlo answered calmly.

“Most nobles invited to the party can be excluded since they couldn’t bring knight escorts when entering the imperial palace.”

“……”

“The remaining suspects are those in charge here… and coincidentally, the person falsely accused is on duty at Rishelt Island. The scope must be small. Through interrogation, we should easily find the child.”

Genevieve’s eyelids trembled slightly.

“So, you want to interrogate those in charge?”

“That’s why I called it a request.”

“Carlo, how is that merely a request!”

Aiden, as if unable to watch any longer, jumped up from his chair and shouted.

Genevieve elegantly restrained Aiden.

“Aiden, no need to get excited. The Grand Duke has a point. Yes, the Grand Duke is right. He always has been, hasn’t he?”

“……”

“But I would be at the end of this party’s chain of command. What would you like to do about that? Surely you don’t mean to include me, the Empress?”

Her leisurely tone asked whether his actions were a challenge to her.

It was a clear warning to Carlo, who seemed to be suggesting she should be considered a potential suspect.

However, Carlo, who had been gazing steadily at Genevieve, raised one eyebrow and smiled as if hearing an unexpected answer.

“Were you planning to reveal that?”

“…What?”

My heart sank at his response, sending chills through me.

“I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“……”

“Then I’ll need to make plans as well.”

There was no trace of playfulness in Carlo’s low voice.

At that moment, Genevieve’s complexion visibly changed.

“…I’ll authorize Marcel to interrogate those in charge.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Carlo smiled cleanly and bowed his head at her words.

“We found the child!”

Not long after Marcel began the interrogation, shouts from soldiers waiting outside were heard.

Through the door that swung open, O’Toole ran like a madman and embraced his young son who burst into tears.

What? Could it be found this easily…?

“Now that the child is found, are you satisfied?”

Genevieve sighed and asked through gritted teeth, and Carlo raised his beautiful eyes and lifted the corners of his mouth faintly.

“I was never interested in the child.”

A bluish madness swirled in his eyes.

“Only the Grand Duchess matters.”