“…Jar?”
The moment I heard that voice, I had already guessed. Still, I couldn’t stop myself from whipping my head around.
The laughter that had been playing on Julia’s lips froze instantly.
“Jar, you have to understand! I-I only snapped at Edelweiss because she wouldn’t let me go unless I said what she wanted to hear…!”
Julia blurted out desperately.
Without realizing it, I loosened my grip on her collar.
‘This kid… since when has he been in the backyard?’
I clearly remembered him leaving earlier, saying he was going to read after following Marquis Persis.
‘I never saw him come back.’
I was a little dumbfounded, but right now… wasn’t he clearly on my side?
I turned back to Julia.
“Now that I’ve let you go, are you going to flip your story like turning over your palm?”
“……!”
Julia’s face flushed bright red. Being accused of lying in front of Jar was no different than being branded one outright. Her expression twisted, a mix of humiliation and fury.
Grinding her teeth, she spat out:
“Do you have proof? Proof that I deliberately lured the maid away, that Ilran shot the rabbit doll with an arrow at my order—where’s your evidence?”
“…Edelweiss never said Ilran shot the arrow.”
“……!”
At Jar’s calm interjection, Julia’s face flared even hotter, this time uncontrollably.
He stepped right up beside me now.
“And as for evidence—we already have it.”
“Wh-what? Where? Where is the evidence—!”
Snap.
The sharp crack of fingers echoed by my ear. It felt strange—close and intimate, yet at the same time rippling outward like a distant echo.
Before I could even locate the source, Jar pointed with a radiant smile.
Not at Julia’s face, but at her arm.
“That bracelet you’re wearing right now. Isn’t that the one you claimed to have lost?”
“……!!!”
Julia’s flushed face went pale in an instant.
Following his gaze, I saw it too—an unfamiliar bracelet glinting on her wrist.
Her eyes went wide, filled with shock and disbelief, as if even she couldn’t understand how it had appeared there.
“Th-this… this is…!”
“It is, isn’t it?”
“Y-yes, but… but—!”
Jar turned his head toward the maids instead, his voice as mild as ever.
“When we went searching earlier, was Julia wearing that bracelet then?”
“…I don’t think so.”
“Then did she find it while she was with you?”
“That’s definitely not the case…!”
Which meant only one thing. Julia had hidden it somewhere and brought it out just now.
“N-no! The bracelet was just an excuse! I only said that because I wanted to meet you…!”
Her lips trembled as her voice cracked, tears welling in her eyes.
But Jar remained firm. That faint smile of his felt sharper than any blade.
“Either way, you crafted an excuse to drag the maids off. You knew Ilran had shot when you never saw it happen. And then, to a frightened Titania—you compared her to a dog.”
“……!”
My body shuddered involuntarily at the weight he put on that single word.
Thank heavens Beaty was still covering Tani’s ears.
But what startled me most of all was what came next.
Jar, who had let his words trail off so naturally, now turned his head with perfect composure—toward one spot.
And when I followed his gaze, my breath caught.
“Now then,” Jar said evenly. “With matters laid out this way… what do you think, Lord Knightley?”
