“Have I really done something so terrible to you that you would misunderstand me like this, Evelyn?”

As though she had been waiting for the cue, Adonea burst into tears.

Evelyn inwardly muttered, Oh, here we go, while marveling at Adonea’s performance.

‘She doesn’t even blink when she lies straight to everyone’s faces. You really are something.’

At this point, Evelyn wasn’t even angry anymore. She was simply dumbfounded.

‘But what am I supposed to do? I’m not the Evelyn I used to be anymore. If you’re going to attack me with tears, then fine. I’ll cry, too.’

“That’s what I want to ask you. Why are you taking things this far, Sister?”

She had only said it to throw Adonea’s words back at her, but the moment the words left her mouth, a surge of grievance welled up inside her.

Without even trying, a sorrowful expression naturally settled over Evelyn’s face.

“I don’t want to fight with you, Sister. I don’t want to get dragged into something like this with you, either.”

“What are you…”

“If you tell the truth now, we can pretend this never happened. We can just let it go and live without bothering each other.”

‘If you want to be loved by your family, just ask them to love you. If you’re jealous of me, you can tell me that, too. Why do we have to fight like this?’

That was how Evelyn truly felt.

Being suddenly possessed by Evelyn’s body and struggling every day just to stay alive was already exhausting enough. Now she had to deal with a completely corrupted Adonea on top of that?

Having to face someone who radiated such inexplicable hostility every single day…

If this had been her old life, Evelyn would have simply admitted defeat and run away with her tail between her legs.

‘But I can’t do that here. If I tuck my tail between my legs and disappear now, I’ll end up on the bad-ending route before I even know what happened!’

As she watched the confusion spread across Evelyn’s face, Adonea’s eyes wavered for the briefest moment.

Slowly, Adonea rose from her seat.

The bandages that had been wrapped around her hand all this time fell to the floor.

The wound had not yet healed, and it looked as though fresh blood might gush from the raw cut at any moment.

Adonea composed her expression before speaking again.

There were already tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.

“I never imagined you would be this shameless. I suppose I’ll have to call in the witnesses after all.”

Evelyn gave a hollow smile.

“Fine. If you’re going to act like this even after I’ve spoken honestly… I don’t know what else to say, Adonea.”

“Yes. Call them in. Let’s find out who has misunderstood whom.”

‘As if I haven’t had to endure this kind of framing more than once.’

Evelyn forced herself to relax.

She had expected things to diverge from the original story.

When Adonea nodded toward Oden, he summoned a servant and ordered him to bring in the maids who had witnessed the incident.

The maids entered the room nervously, standing awkwardly near the door.

“W-We’re here…”

[All right. Tell us again what you saw that day.]

The maids exchanged uneasy glances.

The first to speak was the maid who had been closer to the scene.

“We heard a noise, like something had fallen, so we looked toward the stairs. By then, Lady Adonea was already injured.”

“I-I saw the same thing. When I saw Lady Adonea injured, I immediately went to get help, so I don’t know what happened after that…”

Sachi interrupted them.

“So neither of you actually saw Evelyn directly hurt Adonea?”

The maids flinched.

The first maid seemed relatively assertive, while the other, who wore her hair in twin braids, appeared much more timid.

‘Which one should I press? The confident maid? Or the girl with the braids?’

While Evelyn considered her options, the more assertive maid clenched her fists.

“…But anyone would have thought Lady Evelyn attacked Lady Adonea. Given the circumstances, there was simply no other explanation.”

“That’s only circumstantial evidence. It doesn’t prove that Evelyn actually attacked Adonea.”

Evelyn inwardly nodded at Sachi’s perfectly logical argument.

‘See? Having a smart person on your side really does make things easier.’

Sachi was defending her so earnestly that he could have given a lawyer a run for his money.

Evelyn’s eyes even began to sting with emotion.

Then Oden turned toward the maid with the twin braids.

“You there. Why do you keep trembling?”

“Pardon?”

“Are you really saying you didn’t see the incident yourself, just like the other maid?”

“Ah, well…”

The girl lowered her eyes, looking troubled.

Duke Chantalis asked her gently.

[Don’t be afraid. I don’t think we’ve properly heard your side of things before.]

“Yes. Don’t simply say you saw the same thing as her. Tell us what you personally saw and heard.”

Pressed by Oden, the braided maid glanced toward Adonea.

Adonea gave her a fragile smile.

“It’s all right. Tell them honestly. What did you see that day?”

The girl squeezed her eyes shut and finally spoke.

“…The truth is, I did see it.”

Slowly, she opened her eyes and raised a trembling hand, pointing at Evelyn.

“I saw Lady Evelyn stabbing Lady Adonea with a knife!”

“…What?”

Evelyn stared at the girl in utter disbelief.

The maid trembled violently as she continued.

“At first, I thought I must have seen it wrong, which was why I didn’t say anything. But I hadn’t. I definitely saw it that day. I saw Lady Evelyn trying to stab Lady Adonea with a dagger!”

For an instant, Evelyn thought she saw a smile flicker across Adonea’s lips.

Another ominous feeling surged through her.

Evelyn was about to demand why the maid was lying, but Oden questioned her first.

“Then why didn’t you say so immediately? You had plenty of opportunities.”

“Because you’re both young ladies of the household. It was difficult for me to say anything. In any case, if Lady Adonea hadn’t dodged the blade, she would have suffered a serious wound to her side instead of merely cutting her palm.”

Adonea covered her mouth with one hand.

Perhaps because her hand was trembling, the sorrow she was supposedly feeling seemed painfully vivid.

“I’ll leave the judgment to everyone else now. To be honest, I’m afraid Evelyn will hurt me again for telling the truth.”

“…Adonea.”

“I want you all to understand that even being here feels like hell to me.”

Oden supported Adonea and helped her sit back down.

Locke looked utterly bewildered.

He seemed half-convinced by Adonea’s words and the maid’s persuasive testimony, yet his eyes kept asking Evelyn the same desperate question:

‘Evelyn, you didn’t do it, right? You couldn’t have, right?’

Duke Chantalis stared at Evelyn with an unreadable expression.

Evelyn could feel the atmosphere in the room growing colder by the second.

Sachi squeezed her hand tightly.

“Evelyn, say something.”

“…No matter what I say, it feels like everyone is going to believe whatever they want anyway.”

“Evelyn, even so…”

Evelyn gently pulled her hand away from Sachi’s.

If this was how things were destined to unfold, she couldn’t allow another victim to be created.

Evelyn met Duke Chantalis’s eyes.

“Even if I say the maid is lying, you won’t believe me, will you?”

[If you have something to say, say it all the way to the end. Only then will I be able to make my final judgment.]

At the duke’s words, Evelyn drew a deep breath.

She had no intention of becoming some tragic heroine who lost to a false accusation and could do nothing but shed tears.

“I’m going to insist on my innocence until the very end. I never tried to stab Sister Adonea.”

‘If anything, I was the one who was shoved down the stairs and nearly killed.’

But if she explained every little detail, she had no idea what counterargument Adonea might come up with.

So Evelyn deliberately kept her explanation brief.

“Rather, I was the one whose life was threatened by Sister Adonea. Only Adonea and God know the truth.”

“A God? You mean that evil god dwelling within you?”

Oden scoffed.

The venom in his voice made Evelyn’s heart sink.

Sachi raised his voice.

“Brother!”

[Enough. I’ve decided how this matter should be handled.]

Duke Chantalis wrote something on a piece of parchment before handing it to Evelyn.

[What is written here is the address of the rural estate where you will be staying from now on, Evelyn.]

“A rural estate? Then…?”

Evelyn tried to keep her expression under control, but it was difficult.

She remembered the setting from the original story.

Of the countless estates belonging to House Chantalis, there was only one that could truly be called a rural estate.

A small village near the border, a desolate wasteland notorious for its harsh people and complete lack of anything worth seeing.

Lapitt.

[Evelyn, I order you to remain in Lapitt under disciplinary confinement for the next two years, until you come of age.]

“Father! Lapitt? You can’t send Evelyn to such a remote place for two whole years!”

Sachi vehemently protested.

But Duke Chantalis’s expression did not change.

Evelyn felt something inside her shatter.

‘I’m screwed. Aaaagh!’

Not a few months. Two years.

That was far too long for a mere period of confinement.

And what about the Black Diamond Club?

She had finally thought she was going to turn her life around and actually enjoy living for once.

‘Is this happening because I tried to change the original story?’

Even as Duke Chantalis watched Evelyn’s expression crumple into a near-crying face from only a few feet away, he remained firm and wrote another line in the air.

[That concludes our discussion for today. You may all leave now.]

Evelyn was the first to leave the study, clutching the letter the duke had given her in one hand.

The others dispersed soon after.

Only Sachi remained behind until the very end, staring at his father with an expression of deep resentment.

“I thought you, at least, would believe that child.”

With those words, Sachi left the room.

Once Duke Chantalis was alone, his gaze turned cold as he looked toward the spot where Adonea had been sitting.

‘All of this happened because I became careless about what was happening inside the mansion for even a short while. I let my guard down.’

The duke let out a deep sigh.

Should he be grateful that nothing even worse had happened?

They said that when making preparations for something of great importance, one had to be willing to accept small sacrifices.

But this was too much.

He walked toward the portrait of the late Duchess.

A bitter expression crossed Duke Chantalis’s face.

‘I can’t be certain this was the right decision, but given the situation, this is the only way I can protect that child. You understand my heart, don’t you?’

Even now, preparations for the great undertaking were proceeding swiftly behind the scenes.

Duke Chantalis forced himself to forget the sight of Evelyn’s sorrowful retreating figure and sat down at his desk once more.

The more chaotic the circumstances became, the more important it was to remain calm and ensure that every task was handled without fail.

He wrote a letter to be sent by express messenger to Lapitt.

It informed them that Evelyn, the Chantalis family’s only legitimate daughter, would soon be arriving there.