Chapter 145……………………………………
When Priscilla finally revealed her true self, Lloyd let out a hollow laugh at her foolishness.
He could almost understand how she must have felt all those times she mocked him, sneering that everything he did was nothing but useless flailing. For the first time, he even felt a sense of superiority—an awareness that he stood above her.
The thought that this was an emotion he should never feel toward his own mother made Lloyd smile bitterly as he pointed to Sebastian at the witness stand.
“Aren’t there witnesses?”
Sebastian avoided Lloyd’s gaze, his expression clearly uncomfortable.
Still, Sebastian was a card that could be played. Priscilla let out a scornful chuckle.
“Sebastian can hardly be called a witness, my dear. You simply threatened him into giving false testimony.”
“Is that true, Sebastian?”
“……No. Everything I testified to is the truth.”
Like a guilty man, Sebastian couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes and kept his head bowed.
Lloyd still held a weakness over him—one that could never truly be resolved.
Earlier, Sebastian had looked as though he were being threatened by Lloyd. Now, however, it seemed as if he were being threatened by Priscilla instead.
There was no subtle trembling, no awkward movement. He looked like someone speaking up with courage despite fearing the consequences from Priscilla.
Prejudice was a frightening thing.
The audience had already branded Priscilla as suspicious, so even in a situation identical to before, she now looked like nothing but a criminal.
Priscilla’s face twisted more and more by the second.
Now was the time for Lloyd to strike back.
From inside his clothes, Lloyd took out something he had long hesitated to reveal.
He hadn’t wanted to take it out if he could help it.
What lay inside this box was the trauma of his childhood—and the piece of evidence he least wanted anyone else to see.
But for Isla, for his family, and for the child he once was—
Lloyd gently brushed his fingers over the surface of the box, then lifted his head and spoke to the judge.
“Your Honor. It may be late, but I would like to submit one decisive piece of evidence.”
The courtroom stirred at Lloyd’s words.
There was something like that?
Then why didn’t you submit it earlier?!
Everyone except the defense looked at Lloyd with the same thought in mind.
Until now, this trial had seemed to lack clear evidence on either side.
That was why Priscilla had been able to act so confidently. Now, as Lloyd spoke of submitting evidence, the corners of her mouth twitched wildly, as if she were barely holding back a scream.
In contrast, the judge—looking brighter than he had at any point since the trial began—called out eagerly.
“Please submit it at once! Hurry!”
The box Lloyd produced was carried to the judge by a knight.
It was neither large nor small.
Wondering just how decisive the evidence inside might be, the judge opened the box with the anticipation of unwrapping a gift—
“…What is this?”
The judge’s reaction, upon seeing the contents, was strangely ambiguous. He looked at Lloyd with an expression that suggested this was hardly what one would call decisive evidence.
Inside the box were accessories that looked old and poorly maintained, carelessly piled together.
The judge’s reaction was only natural.
Ignoring Priscilla’s glare that seemed to ask What on earth did you hand over?, Lloyd answered calmly.
“They’re items collected from the thighs of assassins.”
“W-What did you say?”
“They were all sent to me by my mother.”
As he spoke, Lloyd fixed his gaze on Priscilla.
The moment he heard that, the judge’s expression changed completely. Fear filled his face as he examined each item in the box one by one.
The judge had heard rumors before.
Assassins who catered primarily to nobles—ones who carried items symbolizing their clients to confirm mutual trust.
He just hadn’t expected those items to be kept on their thighs.
The evidence he had been handling moments ago now felt deeply unsettling.
Then that means all of this…
Five single earrings—including a small sapphire earring—six rings, eight necklaces, and four brooches.
Were these bloodstains the assassins’?
If Priscilla truly had commissioned those assassins, then these accessories were proof that she was the culprit.
With trembling hands, the judge lifted a locket necklace and opened it.
Inside was a portrait of Priscilla.
Priscilla’s initials were engraved on the pendant and on the inner bands of the rings.
The earrings—each missing its pair—had no initials engraved.
But still—
“Aren’t those exactly the earrings Lady Priscilla used to wear all the time…?”
“I thought Lady Priscilla only wore custom-made pieces from her usual jeweler…”
Priscilla hated wearing the same things as others.
That was why she always commissioned one-of-a-kind accessories from a jeweler she frequented—and she still did so to this day.
Even those who didn’t know Priscilla’s face knew that her jewelry was unique in all the world.
Disdain filled the nobles’ eyes.
They were thinking the same thing as the judge.
That Priscilla had definitely sent assassins after Lloyd.
Some of the higher-ranking nobles, realizing that Priscilla had even dispatched the Kahel Assassin Guild against Lloyd, muttered to themselves that it was something no human should do.
There was no way Priscilla herself wouldn’t recognize her own belongings when even the crowd did.
The judge spoke to her in a solemn voice.
“Lady Priscilla. These are unmistakably yours. I have seen them before.”
Priscilla bit her lip, struggling to suppress a scream.
Why are they there?!
As those wretched spectators said, Priscilla’s accessories were one of a kind.
That was why she had ordered Sebastian to dispose of them properly.
Except for the crude earrings Lloyd had bought himself, she had personally confirmed that all the rest were retrieved and destroyed.
So why—why were they now in the judge’s hands?
No longer able to mind her surroundings, Priscilla shouted sharply at Sebastian.
“Sebastian, what is the meaning of this?!”
“Y-Young Master…”
Sebastian, just as confused, could only stare blankly at Lloyd, muttering incoherently instead of answering Priscilla.
Lloyd had always wondered.
After dealing with the assassins, why did Sebastian visit his room every single time?
Was it for his son’s sake? Out of concern for him?
Lloyd had wished that were the reason.
But because he knew it wasn’t—because he had known for a long time yet pretended not to—he had never been able to ask.
The reason Sebastian always came to clean Lloyd’s room was—
“You came every time to take care of this, didn’t you?”
Sebastian couldn’t say a word.
Because it was true.
Whenever Lloyd finished washing and returned, the previously messy room was spotless, as if nothing had happened.
There were no bodies, no evidence Lloyd himself had dug up.
Sebastian had certainly collected the items, and Priscilla had disposed of them.
But how they were disposed of was the crucial point.
“You should have disposed of them properly.”
At Lloyd’s bitter mockery, Priscilla looked as if she’d been struck.
When one needs to dispose of jewels, they aren’t simply thrown into the trash like garbage.
Especially not by someone who wants to erase their very existence from the world.
The moment Lloyd decided the trial was necessary, he went straight to the jeweler Priscilla frequented.
The small sapphire earring—the only piece of evidence he had at the time—was too common in design and lacked Priscilla’s initials, making it insufficient as proof. He needed something decisive.
Of course, he hadn’t asked the jeweler to recreate all those pieces in just a few days.
That would have been impossible.
He simply thought it through.
Priscilla must have paid the jeweler handsomely to ensure the pieces were dealt with completely.
But a master craftsman is a master craftsman for a reason.
No jeweler—especially one who had spent months, even years, creating masterpieces to suit Priscilla’s exacting tastes—would destroy them with his own hands.
The pieces bore Priscilla’s initials, and their designs were well known, making them impossible to sell.
So the jeweler chose to hide them instead.
Which was only natural—for a craftsman who was also a collector.
Lloyd had merely bought the jewels the jeweler had hidden away.
It hadn’t been easy—he’d only managed it after threatening to summon the jeweler as a witness and ruin his reputation, even when the man resisted with a knife at his own throat.
On top of that, since the jewels had already been cleaned of blood and well maintained, Lloyd had gone through the trouble of staining them again and making them look as though they’d been left neglected for a long time.
Having grasped the full situation, Priscilla’s fists trembled uncontrollably.
She wanted to call the evidence fabricated—but she knew better than anyone that it wouldn’t change the outcome.
Above all, with the judge already firmly on Lloyd’s side, there was nothing more she could do.
Is this what helplessness feels like?
As Priscilla hung her head low, the judge’s gavel struck with a heavy sound.
“Given that sufficient evidence has been presented, I will now deliver the verdict.”
