Chapter 29

She kicked off a wooden plank that was already not functioning as a door and stepped into the room with her momentum.

“Is it true that you are involved in the assassination attempt on Prince Lucas? “

“What?”

Elma was stunned by the content of the shouting. But before I could say “what the hell are you—“more people stormed in the room.

“Elma! What happened! You are being forced to confess a murder?”

“Hey Elma, I won’t believe it! Why are you saying that you wanted to kill my son?”

“Oh, what are you involved in, Elma? You have an important assignment tomorrow–no, today, today—to help prepare for today’s coronation dinner.”

“Elma! The Marquis deceived me and I can’t believe you are involved in this conspiracy! Why don’t you clear your mind of all this nonsense as soon as possible?”

“Muse! You can’t take this beautiful thing for granted! God may forgive me, but I will not forgive you!”

In order, Gerda, Queen Juliana, Chef Georg, Guru Denis, and Göran. Behind them, excitedly speaking even in their native tongue, is Marc with a sense of accomplishment in the foreground. The six people who were apparently awakened by the prince’s peasant in their sleep had a burning anger and fighting spirit in their eyes.

“What?”

Elma had a bad feeling about their appearance, which was so serious. Unusually, as she stood there unable to say anything, the six people, led by Irene, quickly approached her and surrounded her, wondering how she received it. And put a hand on her shoulder, or take her arm, or hug her.

“It’s completely unbelievable. It’s unbelievable that you would blame an innocent woman for sending her to the infamous Walzer Prison. At last, the Marquis Rotner is a man who looks down on you.”

“No, no, I mean, the infamous Walzer Prison is my family home.”

“There, Elma! That’s why you’re insane. But the idea that it wouldn’t be a problem for you to be falsely accused because you were raised in prison is a horrible idea! If you ask me, you were threatened that a person from prison would have no future anyway!”

“….”

I can’t help but stop thinking about what Juliana and Irene are rolling up. From the sum of their stories, it seems that Erma was “freed from the prison where she grew up in a poor environment and was pardoned, but when the Marquis found out her origins, he threatened her with ‘no future for you from prison’ and she was about to be accused of attempting to kill Lucas. It’s like, what the heck is that?

“No, no, no, I really wanted to go to jail and I was the mastermind behind the whole thing, and I planned to kill the marquis, too.”

“That’s the scenario the Marquis wrote? I mean, the fact that you would go out of your way to take advantage of someone else to kill them is just ridiculous.”

“….”

“That’s right. If I were as good as you, I would have killed a gaping lord like Master Lucas in the blink of an eye, but I don’t know how much they underestimate you.”

A cunning rebuttal from Juliana and Gerda sealed it off with a swift attack. Apparently, Elma “would never do such a (inhumane) bad thing to her! But not in the context of “She wouldn’t do something so (inefficient)! Apparently, they are going in this direction. Remembering a bit of emptiness, Elma was silent for a moment.

“No, I mean, if you’re such a big fan of mine, how did you get the idea that the marquis was using me?”

“Because you look so smart, but you’re so out of shape! You don’t seem to have any common sense, do you?”

“I thought I’d be accepting of jail time for the most outlandish reasons.”

“Muse. You speak very musical Louden, too.”

I persisted, and this time I was dissed by Irene, Georg, and Denis, who dismissed Elma’s “normal”. Incidentally, Göran has a statement for the day after tomorrow, perhaps because he has an artistic nature. Elma thought about the heartlessness of the world and again chose silence. And then….

“It’s okay, Elma. It’s all right, Elma, I’ll build you a defense team. As the former queen of this country, no, I will use my contacts in Rutland to get you an excellent defense attorney and show your innocence to the world.”

Juliana, whose well-rounded appearance is colored with confidence, nodded vigorously. Following that, everyone present began to give a thumbs up one by one.

“I’m sure I can move you, although it’s not very much, but I can also move a low-class aristocrat with a heart. The bottom line of the low class aristocrats, who are known for their light footwork, let’s show them what they’re made of.”

Leave it to Irene to lobby the young maids.If the ladies glitter and twinkle their eyes.

“I’ve got a lot of stomachs in this castle. I’ll make them all your lawyers. Montaigneurs are on the side of beauty.”

“I’m good to the Order. I’m going to mobilize all the patients you’ve treated.”

The men also beat their chests with confidence.

“By the way, if the Marquis who invited me is the culprit, how will I be paid? If I don’t get paid for my performance, I’m going to sue through my friend’s international lawyer.”

Yoran is the only one who still speaks out of turn – or maybe he’s even more troublesome than the other five, since he has contacts with the international lawyers.

Elma’s face twitched at the appearance of such a large, international and exhaustive legal team that even royalty would not be able to hire them.

Particularly the “large scale” is a problem. It is difficult, even with Elma’s ability, to brainwash, or persuade, this many people in the hours before the inquest takes place. As for his counterpart, he looks like he’s about to summon his own people at this very moment, with his natural energy.

“Such a generous defense, there’s no way to prosecute. You’re not going to jail.”

Quietly handed down the conclusion, Elma looked back at Lucas while paling.

“No, I mean……need a defense. I just want to go home to my—“

“Elma”

Lucas interrupted an unusually upset Elma with a really nice smile.

“You still don’t seem to understand, do you? What will you do?”

Elma breaks out in a cold sweat as she sees that the muscles of the eyelids and cheeks of the second prince, who is smiling on the surface, are slightly tense.

“ What is the sign of this slight expression?”

Anger, no, excitement, no, joy. It feels like all of them, and they all feel slightly different. The only thing I could understand was that I had ignited something like a fuse for him. And somehow, at this moment, Erma was remembering what her mother, Heidemarie, once told her.

— in love, Elma.

She had her perfectly formed lips contorted into a wry smile.

“ –You have to be very careful with love, with favors, with friendships, with good will.Because once you’re entangled in them, you’ll never get away with it.”

“What was it when we were talking about?”

“ Yes, I think it was when we were discussing who was the worst of the

“family” with the name of sin.”

She stared at Gilbert, who was standing some distance away, with a troubled, resigned smile –

“The free world has a vindictive and more troublesome virtue than the seven deadly sins—love, as we call it.”

Lucas came to his senses with a chuckle. Stunned by the words, which matched the ones in his brain exactly, he gingerly bent down and pulled his lips to her ear to whisper a muffled word.

“You don’t think we’re going to let you go so easily?”

Depending on how you hear it, it may seem like you are being seduced. But to Elma, it sounded like a threat or an ultimatum. I was stunned and frozen, and then, as if to break the air, Felix held up one hand and cut him off, “Uh,” he said.

“I’ll get back to it. It is obvious that Miss Elma is not the culprit in this case, and even if she insists on it, she is surrounded by a strong defense team and the indictment is likely to be dropped, so I’ll just ignore her. So, as originally planned, we’re going to target Clemens with an inquiry.”

“When the defendant is already imprinted with the contents of the confession, it is a meaningless hearing.”

But no one in the room – including Clemens himself – objected.

“Yeah”

Only Elma just let her gaze wander, as if she could not accept reality.

Seeing this, Lucas raised one eyebrow, “Speaking of which,” he said.

“The other thing I want to ask you, Elma, which is completely off topic, is. Did you really want to defend this man, no matter how badly you wanted to go back to prison?”

“What do you mean by that?”

When Elma looks at him dubiously, unable to understand the story, Lucas nods his head as well.

Then he squeezed her head and sighed, “You’re not done yet either,” he sighed.

“That’s what happens when you only see people’s faces and the surface of things. You don’t know what this man, the Marquis of Rotner, has done.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’re right. No wonder.”

When Lucas tells him dumbfounded, Felix makes a knowing move.

“What did he do?”

Each of the two princes nodded back at the frowning Elma with a leisurely gesture.

“This is a good opportunity to search the Marquis’s apartment. You’ll find out his history of using the prison as a springboard to make deals with other countries.”

“This man is a major criminal who has been using his position as prime minister and his ability to suggest and send innocent people to jail one after another.”

“A whore who only refused the king’s advances, a hero who refused to be betrothed to the princess and criticized the corrupt politics. There seem to be a number of others, but if your mother is a prostitute of good looks, that means he is–your avenger.”

Eh, her dawn eyes are widened.

Lucas looked at it and lifted the corners of his mouth with a grin.

“The innocent princess, with the help of her friends, will take revenge on her avenger, and only the bad guys will be sent to jail. This is the ‘normal’ thing to do in the free world. –You can even understand that much, can you? “

This time, Elma became pompous.