Chapter 89: You Should Stop Here, Culprit (2)
To my surprise, it was Roselia who appeared at the doorway.
“Ah… Your Grace. What brings you here…?”
Count Gote stepped back hesitantly.
Unconsciously, the strength drained from the hand that gripped his dagger.
Seizing the moment, the man wrapped in bandages from head to toe snatched the dagger from his hand.
As Count Gote panicked, Roselia smiled gently.
“What brings me here? I came to catch the real culprit behind this incident.”
Clatter, clatter—thud.
“…!”
Before her words even finished, the ceiling and walls opened, and people entered.
Ikart, the guard who had let me in, and even Count Vermon—who was rumored to be on the brink of death—were all there.
Though bandaged around his legs, he did not have his face wrapped like the man under me.
“B… Brother?”
I had heard he was near death.
Count Vermon stood on his own two feet, supported by his attendants.
“How in the world are you here?”
“I should be asking the same. What are you doing there, brother-in-law?”
“W-well—”
“Did you even plan to kill me, bringing a knife along?”
“K-kill?!”
Count Gote’s face drained of color.
It was only then that he noticed the man holding my arm.
The man, whose eyes were unfamiliar though I had assumed him to be Count Vermon, smiled faintly.
“Greetings, Count. We met briefly last night. I am Cayen.”
“Y-you are…?”
Strength drained from his entire body. He murmured in disbelief,
“Could it be… it was all a trap?”
“Yes, exactly. The strange rumors about the Gote family, the servants carrying stacks of documents—it was all planned.”
“…”
Only now did he realize that something had been off the entire time.
That Ikart had so easily let me into the estate, that I had met not a single guard on the way to the infirmary—everything had gone suspiciously smoothly.
‘No… maybe even before that—’
No matter how fast rumors spread, the idea that the Duke’s family plan could reach every corner in just a few hours was impossible.
There hadn’t even been such a rumor to begin with. Someone had deliberately planted it just within the Gote household.
‘Then… what about the one-eyed man disappearing without a trace?’
The guild leader hitting me on the back of the head right after settling accounts… Normally, I would have sensed something suspicious.
I had been so fixated on stopping the Duke’s family that I ignored even minor doubts.
Red-eyed at the thought of losing my property, I had walked straight into a trap.
I had no way of knowing where it all began—but one thing was certain.
“This despicable wretch deliberately set me up…”
He glared at Ikart standing at the doorway.
Come to think of it, he was the origin of all this trouble. Without him, Count Vermon would have died cleanly in the carriage.
The assassins from the guild wouldn’t have failed miserably, and the Vermon family’s business rights wouldn’t have ended up in the Duke’s hands.
Count Gote’s hands trembled violently.
“You seem frustrated at being bested by me.”
But the young duke himself was shameless. He smirked at me with a calm, unconcerned expression.
“Y-yes… this is all your fault.”
“…!”
“Ughhhh!”
Summoning some unknown strength, Count Gote lunged at Roselia.
He dared not attack Ikart, so he went for the seemingly fragile young lady.
It was all over anyway.
He was a criminal who had killed family and tried to steal property, and a scoundrel who slandered his wife.
Now that the Duke’s family was involved, there was no escape from the death penalty.
At this point, taking the young lady as a hostage and escaping was the only way out.
He pulled another dagger from his sleeve.
“I had prepared this just in case, but I didn’t expect to actually need it.”
“Ugh.”
He grabbed Roselia with one arm and pressed the knife to her neck.
When the sharp blade touched her skin, dark red blood welled up. Roselia furrowed her brow.
“U-unless I quickly come up with an escape plan—”
“And if you don’t?”
“W-what?”
But unfortunately for him, Roselia was not defenseless.
“Ugh!”
In an instant, she spun and threw a pendant she had been holding at Count Gote.
It was a self-defense magical tool she had recently obtained from Count Vermon—a pendant that delivered an electric shock.
When the pendant struck his chest, a strong current coursed through his body.
Count Gote screamed and collapsed, and Roselia freed herself in the commotion.
“This bastard.”
Ikart gritted his teeth.
The guard next to him immediately restrained Count Gote and forced him to his knees.
“You will never die peacefully.”
Ikart looked down at him with a cruel glare.
Count Gote was dragged off to prison immediately.
He had caused a scene in front of everyone, and no excuse would allow him to deny his crimes.
It was an impeccably clean, perfect victory.
“Do you believe it now? That the Countess is innocent.”
I said with a cheerful smile, but Ikart grabbed both of my shoulders.
“Smiling now? What if you had gotten seriously hurt? What if you’d been stabbed because of a mistake?”
“There’s the attending physician right in front of us, and even a temple healer. What’s there to worry about? It’s better to deal with things quickly before they get worse—even if it means getting a little hurt—”
“Roselia.”
Ikart cut me off mid-sentence.
His face was colder than ever. It was the same piercing gaze he had the first day we met.
“Don’t risk yourself like that.”
“But—”
“You could’ve been in real danger.”
He scanned the small cut on my neck with his eyes.
It was barely a scratch from the knife, treated immediately by the physician.
More than that, I had acted because I was confident Cayen would step in if things got worse.
This wasn’t a gamble with my life—it was a calculated action.
Yet Ikart was firm.
“To me, your safety matters more than anything. Far more than catching some criminal.”
“…”
He looked at me, close enough that I could feel the space between us.
And I could tell.
His golden eyes, usually so composed, were unsettled.
“You think I worry for nothing? Why do you always put yourself in danger and not let me leave?”
“…”
His hands holding my shoulders trembled slightly.
He let out a deep sigh.
“That’s enough.”
Ikart released me and instructed the physician to take good care of me before leaving the infirmary.
“The whole scheme was Count Gote’s, unable to repay his gambling debts. Targeting the Vermon family’s fortune, he conspired with the assassin guild.”
After leaving the infirmary, Ikart went straight to the Countess of Gote.
He wanted to explain the truth of the incident.
Once the prime suspect, she too was actually a victim.
The Countess calmed her shocked heart with a warm cup of tea.
“So, what happened to the magical tool used in the incident?”
“The assassin guild executed it under Count Gote’s orders. Even the receipts found in your room were their handiwork.”
“…”
“Since Count Gote actively cooperated, leaving fabricated evidence in your room was trivial for them.”
“I see… so my own husband really…”
The Countess felt dizzy.
Her beloved husband’s betrayal—it was almost impossible to believe, even hearing it firsthand.
No, she didn’t want to believe it.
Despite being wrongly accused, she had hoped there would be some misunderstanding, that all would be cleared soon.
She had hoped things would return to the way they were once the truth came out.
But reality was cruel.
“If the heirs of the Vermon family died one by one, Count Gote himself would come under suspicion. To avoid suspicion, he had to make it look like a quarrel among brothers.”
“…”
Even after clearing her name, perhaps ignorance had been bliss.
The Countess’s heart shattered so completely that she felt utterly hollow.
Tears streamed endlessly.
Betrayal? Anger?
She did not know.
Her chest felt empty, and the past seemed meaningless.
The loving husband she had cherished was just a façade.
The happy times slipped through her fingers like sand.
“It will be difficult for you to manage the Vermon estate on your own. Contact me anytime if you need my assistance.”
“…Yes, thank you.”
She did not refuse his help.
Handling Count Gote’s mess would require significant effort and money.
Though Count Vermon had survived his critical state, full recovery would take time.
For the moment, she would have to shoulder this burden alone.
Respecting her wish to quietly collect herself, Ikart left the reception room.
“Roselia?”
However, as he stepped out, Roselia was waiting for him.
Wait, then why did the countess say those suspicious things if she didn’t know her husband was after her brother?