“What are you doing?”
Suddenly, the inside of the warehouse brightened, and a woman who had been hiding behind the wall cabinet revealed herself. It was Lady Gray.
She smiled coldly at the priest, whose eyes were wide with shock, and then pushed the wall cabinet she had been leaning against to the side. A hidden space was revealed, and dozens of armed knights jumped out, surrounding the priest.
“…!”
The priest, gripped by terror, let out a silent scream and collapsed where she stood. Lady Gray slowly walked toward her, holding a glowing mana crystal close to her face. Then, in a voice that was gentle yet all the more threatening, she asked,
“What were you doing just now?”
“T-that’s… My n-necklace! I was looking for my necklace…!”
“Is that so? To me, it looked like you were stabbing something into the ointment boxes, not looking for a necklace.”
“…!”
Lady Gray forcibly pried the priest’s hands away from her robe pocket and reached inside. She held up the vial of poison she found in it for all to see and asked again,
“What were you trying to do with this? What kind of poison is in here?”
“No, no! That’s, that’s…! That’s not poison—!”
“Don’t lie. It’s poison, isn’t it? The kind that makes your skin peel and your flesh rot away with just a single drop.”
“…Ugh!”
The priest desperately tried to make excuses, but Lady Gray cut her off sharply. As the priest gasped in shock at having her secret exposed, Lady Gray sneered, lifting one corner of her mouth, and roughly pulled off the priest’s hood.
“…!”
The priest’s hidden face was revealed. It was Lady Helena Strand.
Lady Gray let out a cold laugh as she faced her. Then, she said mockingly, “It seems the public humiliation you suffered at the religious tribunal that day wasn’t enough for you.”
“Ugh… H-how dare you…! A lowly Baroness, you dare to…!”
When Helena shouted fiercely with her eyes wide open, the sneer on Lady Gray’s face deepened.
“Oh, a Marquis’s daughter? Is there such a person here?”
“…!”
“All I see is a low-ranking priest who was caught trying to do something wicked by breaking into the Grand Duchess’s hospital warehouse.”
With those words, Lady Gray grabbed Helena’s wrist with a strong grip and roughly pulled her to her feet. Then, she roughly dragged her out of the warehouse. Helena struggled and thrashed, trying to break free from Lady Gray’s grasp.
“Let go! Let me go right now! Where are you taking me!”
“Are you asking because you don’t know? To the Imperial Tribunal in the capital, of course.”
“…!”
“The moment you arrive, you will be thrown into a prison cell to await trial. You will either lose your title and be exiled with nothing, or be confined to the Nobles’ Tower to receive the poison that His Majesty has decreed, just as all nobles who have committed crimes have.”
“No! I’m, I’m innocent! That wasn’t poison! I swear it wasn’t!”
“You can make those excuses to His Majesty and the noble elders at the tribunal. Though I don’t know if they’ll believe you.”
With those final words, Lady Gray pushed the struggling Helena into a carriage with bars on its windows and locked the door. Helena kicked the carriage door and screamed repeatedly, hoping that the priests who had brought the medicines with her, her accomplices, would hear her voice.
But they had already been subdued by the knights who had come with Lady Gray.
Lady Gray walked over to Wellard, who was commanding the knights, and said,
“Sir Wellard, you will take Helena Strand to the capital immediately. I will follow you after I find all the spies involved in this matter and collect additional evidence and witnesses.”
“Understood, Lady Baroness.”
Wellard replied with a slight bow. The two exchanged smiles as a farewell before turning their backs on each other to fulfill their respective duties.
Upon arriving in the capital, Wellard immediately filed a complaint against Helena Strand on behalf of Ashid and Daniella. The charge was for the crime of poisoning the medicine to be used in the Grand Duchess Alveric’s charity hospital, with the intent to murder the knights and patients. The officials who first received the news did not want to believe Wellard’s accusation. After all, it was an incredibly monstrous crime for a Marquis’s daughter to have committed.
Duke Rodian tried to use the general opinion of the nobles to cover up the matter beforehand. The nobles on the Crown Prince’s side warned Wellard that he could be punished for falsely accusing the Marquis Strand’s family.
However, Wellard did not back down. He consistently insisted that he had secured undeniable witnesses and evidence. He even took a solemn oath on the names of his lord Ashid and the Goddess, saying that he was ready to offer his head if it was proven that he had falsely accused Helena. His master, Grand Duke Ashid Alveric, also actively supported his subordinate’s claim.
The Duke of Lambert and the neutral nobles, persuaded by the Grand Duke’s firm stance, changed their position and decided to hold a trial to judge the matter.
The Emperor sided with the neutral nobles. He secretly thought that there was no way Helena Strand could have committed such an atrocious act.
Thus, the trial of Helena Strand was held, and Wellard and Lady Gray, who appeared as witnesses, revealed everything they had found.
“Lady Helena Strand bribed some priests in the North and disguised herself as a low-ranking priest to gain access to the hospital owned by the Grand Duchess Alveric.”
“She then mixed a deadly poison—lethal with a single drop—into the patients’ ointment. According to the testimony of a bribed priest, she also planned to use black magic to curse the restorative medicine blessed by the priests.”
“And she intended to pin all of her crimes on Grand Duchess Daniella Alveric.”
“This letter and this poison vial are the evidence.”
Faced with the clear evidence, the Emperor was shocked, and the nobles watching the trial fell into chaos. If even one of the accusations were proven true, Lady Helena Strand would not be able to avoid execution.
Helena shrieked desperately.
“No! It’s not me! It wasn’t me!”
“Are you going to keep lying even though your crimes have been so clearly revealed!”
“How shameless!”
“Witch!”
One of the noble elders, who was a judge, shouted sternly at her. The nobles’ condemnation continued. Helena, pale with fright, looked around for Duke Rodian and the Marquis of Cadogan. She believed they would save her from this situation.
However, the Marquis of Cadogan ignored her desperate gaze. Duke Rodian actively changed his stance and argued for her punishment.
“Your Majesty, Lady Strand is a witch! We cannot let someone who has committed such acts live!”
At his words, Helena was filled with despair and rage. Her entire body trembled like a leaf with a surge of betrayal. She couldn’t possibly take the blame for all the crimes and die alone. In a state of resignation, she lost her reason and screamed,
“Yes, I did all of it! But I didn’t do it alone! The people who orchestrated this plot and incited me to carry it out were Duke Rodian and the Marquis of Cadogan!”
“…What?”
The Emperor was so shocked he was speechless, wearing a blank expression. Duke Rodian, pale with shock, jumped to his feet and shouted in an agitated voice,
“That, that witch! Your Majesty, no! That witch’s words are all lies!”
“No, it’s true! I have evidence to back it up!”
Helena retorted. The tribunal fell into a clamor once again. The Emperor, with a pale face, asked Helena,
“Can you present the evidence?”
“Of course. I have the letters I exchanged with the Marquis of Cadogan, David…, while we were planning this.”
“Your Majesty! Do you believe this witch’s baseless words! This witch is trying to frame me and my uncle to lighten her own sentence!”
The Marquis of Cadogan shouted, his face ashen. He looked pathetic and petty.
The Emperor sighed heavily and put a hand to his forehead. The situation was truly terrible and a headache. If Helena’s testimony was true, not only would Duke Rodian and the Marquis of Cadogan be unable to avoid punishment, but the faction supporting Adrian would also be weakened.
The Emperor wanted to avoid that at all costs. He also wanted to ignore the possibility that Helena’s testimony might be true. So, to buy some time, he ordered the noble elders, the judges…
