Chapter 26

Worn carpets and shabby sofas. There are no chandeliers or even candelabras, only moonlight streaming in through a small window near the ceiling. In such a poor and dimly lit room, Clemens let out a sigh.

“Why……? “

A sigh escaped from his mouth.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve ruminated on this one, too,” Clemens kept muttering words riddled with resentment, but he never got tired of it.

“Why? Why?”

A room in the royal castle.

The room was uncomfortable, as it was tucked away in one of the spires, totally out of character for the Marquis, who was both a Guru and advisor.

However, it’s probably a reasonable environment if you consider it a house arrest room until you are found guilty and convicted.

However, Clemens could not accept the fact that “He” was trapped there.

At the ball, only a few moments after a maid named Elma accused him, Clemens was seized by the guards, searched, made to sign an oath to face the king’s interrogation, and thrown into this room.

It was truly a flash in the pan.

“Why?”

Clemens was stunned to be confronted with a situation far beyond his comprehension, he kept sitting on the couch, and now he finally regained his ability to think.

Suddenly there was a flood of questions that started with just the word

“Why?”

Why did Elma find out that she was the mastermind? Why did the others believe it so easily? Why was the process so smooth?

(No)

That handmaid arrived at Clemens’ murderous intentions because she saw him trying to lay his hands on a man who was a bad actor.

And those around her easily believed her accusations because of the various physical evidence that came out of the seized Clemens.

For example, a ring with a poisonous needle.

The same needle that was on the sole of a servant’s shoe, smeared with its identical poison.

The letter used to threaten the servant was found.

In addition to that, the people around them began to testify one by one as if they were folding.

For example, it seemed as if the marquis often threatened his servants, and took a horseshoe out of the first prince’s room.

He once ordered someone to steal a chamberlain’s brooch or was in a meeting alone with a musician from another country.

Each one was a trivial rumor.

But when they are combined, people find a solid “truth” in it.

When witnesses all over the castle, regardless of rank, begin to testify at the same time, things start to happen quickly.

This was originally the plot that Clemens was supposed to have drawn up to make Felix “The Mastermind”.

But, as it turns out, the plot is about to choke him.

“Why?”

The most inscrutable part was the sheer smoothness of the progress.

The advisor of a country tricked the first prince to be king and tried to murder the second prince.

That too on the eve of the coronation.

Nevertheless, although it was discovered, the people around them were smooth and efficient in arranging for Clemens to be captured and brought to justice.

‘It was as if someone had planned it in advance.’

Isn’t it funny?

‘Now, at the top of this country, there is only a foolish prince who can do nothing without me.’

Felix.

A dumb, irritating, shallow prince who is incapable of making any practical arrangements.

But yes.

After that maid pointed at him, he immediately ordered the capture of Clemens.

There is no confusion, no hesitation, really, no hesitation.

“Hi, Clemens. How are you feeling?”

Then, without warning, a voice called out to him and Clemens shook his shoulders in a jolt.

Standing under the shadow cast by the moon was the very person he had in mind at the moment – Felix.

But something was different from the usual.

Clemens noticed, staring into his eyes with a strange sense of trepidation.

His spine straightened up.

“It’s almost dawn. The coronation starts at ten o’clock. But I want to get all the old dirt off my hands before my new era begins. I’ve decided to move your hearing before that. That means it will start at dawn.”

Hearing Felix speaking smoothly, Clemens was taken aback.

So smooth.

There is nothing slippery about his tone at all.

Step by step, his face tightened, and an unmistakable intelligence peeked out of its eyes.

“I don’t want to disturb too many people, so I’m going to hold the hearing in private. I don’t want to confuse people unnecessarily. Don’t you think this showing of kindness is important for those in charge?”

And horrifyingly cruel, too.

“Ah…….“

A murmur escaped from his mouth.

‘But I didn’t know what I wanted to say, I didn’t know myself.’

Felix smiled at Clemens, who was sitting up from the sofa and staring at him in a daze.

“What’s going on? Did I startle you? Yes. You were the driving force behind making me the Fool Prince.”

He came right in front of Clemens and pressed his fingertips to his chest.

With that, Clemens immediately felt as if his legs had melted and collapsed into the sofa.

“Yes, I do. Since you don’t seem to be susceptible to spontaneity, would you like me to return the favor by explaining the circumstances and what awaits you in the future?”

A strange scent, like a sweet flower, is still wafting from the prince.

The moment he inhaled it, Clemens felt a dull numbness in one corner of his head.

“Where do I begin? Well, I knew that you were enjoying the nectar of power with my father the king as your pawn, and I also knew that you compared the children of the king and decided that I would be the best choice, thinking that I would be the easiest to manage. I knew that I had to get the third and fourth princes out of the country in a deft manner.”

Felix spoke softly, but the content hardly entered his ears.

Clemens was just looking up at him, stiff like an idiot.

“But they were fine with me. If I’m going to be carefree, you’re automatically going to raise my position, so why complain? I’m not complaining. But once I get to the top, I don’t need you anymore. And you tried to kill Lucas with my harness. That was a bit overkill.”

“Lucas, Your Royal Highness?”

“Yes. Yes, I’m quite proud of that man. It’s like a wild gut feeling, it was as if he has always been aware of my true nature for a long time. You have to be able to keep a man like that even if you have to tie him up with a woman or a parent. You can’t do anything about it.”

While listening to the story, Clemens vaguely wondered when he had misjudged the nature of this prince.

At the time of the previous king, Clemens poured holy power into him little by little in the name of “counseling” and brainwashed him.

He should have treated Felix in the same way.

‘No, no. Whenever I talked to him, I was always irritated, and I would get sick of him first.’

‘Yes, whenever I talk to the prince, I become distracted.’

‘When I think about it, I wonder why I chose such a bold measure such as murdering the royal family. I put my emotions first.’

‘I didn’t even have a good plan in case of failure.’

‘On the occasion of the coronation, taking advantage of musicians, killing with wine and poisoned needles.’

‘It certainly seemed like a great plan at the time, but now I don’t know why I took such a sluggish and labor-intensive approach.’

‘I think it was right after I had a conversation with Felix that I decided that I had to do this.’

When he lifted his gaze, Felix gently narrowed his eyes and nodded.

It was just that.

“Well. At your hearing, I’m going to take the same approach that you used to take when you threw an inconvenient person in jail, that is, if the accused ‘confesses’, you will be sentenced immediately. Witnesses will be prepared by the judge, and defense counsel will not be prepared unless there is a candidate. It’s going to take five minutes to get it over with. Because you’ll ‘confess’ right away.”

“What?…”

Clemens flinched at the indescribable power that emanated from Felix, even more so than the fact that his charges and modus operandi had all been revealed.

Stuck.

Felix’s arm, with its sweet perfume or something, slowly approached him.

“Now, look at my palm. Take a deep breath. This whole thing, this whole thing, is a setup—“

“I am.”

At that moment, Clemens’ eyes widened a little when a figure suddenly appeared in the space where only moonlight should have shone, holding a candlestick.

At the same time, he noticed that his body, which had seemed to be in chains, had loosened up and was able to move freely.

“You–!”

Raising his gaze in a hurry, Clemens exclaimed again.

In the darkness, a girl with glossy black hair pulled up into a bun and dressed in a maid’s outfit stood with her cheek against the candle flame.

It was the good-looking maid who accused him at the ball.

“How did you get into this room?”

“I have brought a candle to his Excellency the Marquis.”

“Not the motive, the means. I’m sure they have several of the Order’s elite standing at the door.”

“Thank you for sleeping.”

She held up a candle to Clemens with a look that belied her true intentions.

“A room without light is a lonely one. I’m sure the situation of ‘captive

without sin’ is even more so. I have come, if I may be so bold, to bring you a light of hope. Now, my lord. You can see the fire here. Doesn’t it soothe your heart?”

“Huh?”

At the words of the captive without sin, Clemens looked up lazily.

And with the usual habit of quick thinking.

Does this girl think he is “innocent” and came to help?

And if so, there’s no reason not to use this one.

In the first place, a legitimate question crossed my mind as to why the maid would call me a criminal in the first place, but it wavered and receded, as did the candlelight.

Because she has come to help me herself.

Such a beautiful girl.

Eyes like the color of the dawn, oozing with enchanting compassion and strength.

Gazing into Elma’s deep eyes, and the flames flickering nearby, I felt even more fuzzy-headed than when I faced Felix.

“You have done nothing wrong. Didn’t you? Because you are a prosperous Luden advisor and a pious priest. You are not the kind of person to be caught as a criminal. There is no way you can come up with a great crime. It’s not your fault. You are here now because someone put you up to it. Isn’t that right?”

“Ah.”

“Yes and no, it’s not my fault.

I’m an authority figure. I am a priest.”

Funny to be caught.

“I can’t think of any crime that I would do—“

As he ruminated over the parts that should be true, Clemens became more and more unintelligible.

“I can’t think of any crime for myself.”

“Would it have been so?”

When he was about to raise his eyebrows, Elma stared into his eyes and Clemens relaxed his whole body.

I see.

It might be.

I’m sure it is.

Head numb.

“ No, I’m going to melt—“

“Hey.”

This time Clemens came to himself, triggered by Felix’s voice.

When I turned my unfocused gaze on him, he looked disgusted and held out his hands.

“What were you doing in the past?”

“Brainwashing, but what?”

“It’s not a question, it’s an accusation. What, you’re going to shamelessly alter your confession in front of me, the judge?”

“I was told that the verdict is in the hands of the one who said it.”

The questions seem to be interlocking, but not subtly interlocking.

Felix sniffed dumbfoundedly and muttered, “What’s that?”

“But that doesn’t mean you can’t force a confession out of me by implication!”

“Does Your Highness say that?”

The conversation was beginning to take on the appearance of an insane person showdown.

“I mean, you’re the one who figured out Clemens was the culprit in the first place, so how could you be defending him? Are you his illegitimate daughter or something?”

“No, I don’t know him well enough to be able to defend him, nor do I hate him, and to be honest, I’m not that interested in his motives, his true guilt, and, incidentally, whether he will be executed or not.”

Clemens, who had been following the rally of the conversation between Felix and Elma, shaking his head, twitches his face.

But there was no one here to take care of it.

“The verdict is based on a confession, with a limited number of witnesses and an intimate hearing. So, if I ‘confess’ with some of those witnesses, then I’m a criminal, right?”

“Well, you will, but he wanted to murder the royal family and tried to blame me for the crime.”

“He did not commit the crime and did not attempt to do it, so he cannot be executed, but that would be a sentence of imprisonment, wouldn’t it?”

“He’s not even charged, though.”

“Yes, I’ll ‘turn myself in’ and prosecute myself.”

Felix raises an eyebrow dubiously at the accused.

Elma nodded and told him his charges.

Well, I’m actually the daughter of a prostitute who was sent to prison by Luden’s predecessor, and I actually had a vendetta against Luden. So I used the brainwashing skills I learned while growing up in prison to manipulate the Marquis and in revenge, I killed the second prince I actually hated and tried to plunge the country into chaos.”

In fact, the repeated use of “actually” is a confession that feels like an afterthought, as if it had been hastily added to the novel in order to fold it up.

But Elma, no more seriously than this, put the candlestick on the floor and thrust her hands out curiously towards Felix.

“Come on.”

Only that pose is strangely salty.

But conversely, the rest of it was really imposing.

“As a felon, please send me to jail as soon as possible.”