Chapter 51
"...Huh?"
His smile vanished.
Duke Cartes slowly raised his head with a dumbfounded expression.
"W-what are you talking about...?"
"Well, she was a commoner and a servant working under you. It must have been easy to get rid of her, wasn't it?"
The Duke froze where he sat, his eyes darting around.
He looked as though he'd been struck by lightning out of nowhere.
But he soon regained his composure and spoke.
"I-I didn't kill her! I think there's been some kind of misunderstand...."
"Duke Cartes, I can't help you if you lie to me. You have to give a little to get a little. Right?"
Give a little to get a little?
It wounded his pride, but she had a point.
Besides, if he claimed he'd killed a servant because she'd committed some wrongdoing, it wouldn't be such a serious matter, would it?
After all, it was only natural for servants to receive corporal punishment from their masters when they did something wrong.
"I-I'm sorry. No matter what she did, I should have restrained myself...."
"So you killed her?"
"......"
There was no clearer admission than silence.
Riena sounded as though she already knew everything anyway.
So he decided to follow her advice and give her something.
As though he'd made a difficult decision, the Duke nodded and immediately continued.
"I took pity on her and gave her a place to stay, but she had a terrible habit of stealing and even committed other improper acts. I became so furious that I lost control.... But I definitely gave her a chance!"
"Well, I suppose something like that could happen."
Her surprisingly indifferent reaction made him release a long breath of relief.
Wasn't seven an age when emotions usually took precedence over reason?
Even though the victim had been a servant, this was still a murder.
He'd expected Riena to make a much bigger fuss.
But she seemed willing to let the matter pass quietly.
His heart grew considerably lighter.
"Thank you for understanding, Your Highness!"
Riena tilted her head while examining the bundle of documents in her slender hands.
With his forehead almost touching the floor, Cartes narrowed his eyes and stole a glance at the papers she was holding.
That's right. I'm almost there. I only have to get through one more obstacle...!
But one thing continued to bother him.
Those documents she'd been looking at for some time now.
He had no idea what they contained, and the uncertainty made him anxious.
"Now, there's nothing else you're hiding, right?"
"Of course not! Absolutely nothing."
"Really, nothing at all?"
"Of course!"
"Really, really nothing?"
"Yes!"
His booming answer was filled with joy and anticipation.
Who cared about dignity or appearances as long as he could regain his title?
He raised his eyes toward Riena, the corners of his mouth lifting.
He eagerly awaited her answer and her orders.
Riena smiled sweetly.
"Then lock him in the underground dungeon."
"?"
In an instant, the knights surrounding Duke Cartes roughly seized him.
Everything happened so quickly that his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"W-wait! Your Highness! Did I make some kind of mistake?!"
Riena gestured toward Ruth with her chin.
"Apparently, the Duke doesn't know what he did wrong. Could you explain it to him?"
"He committed the crime of lying before Her Highness the Crown Princess of the Empire. This constitutes an insult to the Imperial Family."
Ruth recited the charges in his calm, dignified voice, suppressing his anger.
"You do realize I could have you dragged straight to the execution grounds, don't you? Now, off to the dungeon."
"W-wait a moment! I've never lied!"
"Is thaaat so?"
"Yes! How could I possibly dare lie to Your Highness? There won't be any marriage documents, and I never held a wedding. What noble would marry a servant?"
His appearance was already wretched enough, but the way his voice cracked with every word made him look even more hideous.
It was his final, desperate struggle to survive.
"Marriage fraud. Would that make things a little easier for you to understand?"
His mouth snapped shut in shock.
Of course it did.
He'd never imagined she would coax him along like a child before suddenly striking where it hurt.
Because his opponent was only seven years old.
He struggled to steady his rapid breathing, moistened his dry lips, and spoke in a low voice.
"Evidence... Do you have evidence?"
His unusually firm voice echoed through the office.
He sounded almost stern, as though no amount of intimidation would work on him.
Ruth's pale brow tightened at the Duke's shameless confidence.
"If I have evidence, could I skip the underground dungeon and have your head cut off immediately?"
"Even if you have evidence, it's all a false accusation! Someone must have fabricated it to trap me while I was in a difficult situation!"
"Then I suppose we should bring in a witness."
Before he had a chance to argue, the heavy office door slid open.
Cartes hurriedly twisted around to look toward the entrance.
"I greet Your Highness the Crown Princess."
"Hah!"
When Kanter's nanny entered, the Duke let out an ugly scoff.
"Surely you don't intend to believe that lowborn nanny? She'll do anything for money!"
Riena nodded, then spread her fingers toward the nanny.
"If someone has promised you money, I'll pay you ten times as much. Just tell me the truth."
"I've never accepted money for anything like that...! I serve only my young master. I'd even risk my life for him!"
The nanny didn't so much as blink beneath Cartes's violent glare.
If something like that were enough to frighten her, she wouldn't have come here in the first place.
"Nanny, is Young Lord Kanter really not Duke Cartes's eldest son?"
"Of course he is! What an absurd thing to say! I was there when Madam gave birth to the young lord...!"
"Madam?"
"Yes! Although our lady was born a commoner, she was a generous and kind person. Someone like her...."
The nanny pulled a handkerchief from her clothes and wiped her eyes.
Watching her, Cartes's expression twisted horribly.
He trembled and pointed an accusing finger at her.
"L-lies! I never held a wedding or registered a marriage! If you don't believe me, look up my family records!"
There was only one reason he could speak so confidently.
Just as he said, his official family records were clean, and no wedding had ever taken place.
But he had overlooked something.
"Ruth, take it to the Duke and show him yourself."
The moment Riena finished speaking, Ruth strode forward.
He still had the face of a young man, but the presence surrounding him was overwhelmingly intimidating.
As he approached with that fierce expression, Cartes instinctively shrank back.
"What... is this?"
The Duke frowned and read the unfolded document.
Then he recoiled in shock, his breathing becoming irregular.
"A marriage registration form."
Ruth's voice rang low and clear, stripped of unnecessary words as he struggled to suppress his anger.
After giving that brief explanation, he carried the document back to Riena.
"Your full name is written right here, Duke Cartes. And there's even a clear impression of your thumbprint."
It was an old marriage registration form that had never been submitted to the Imperial Family.
A marriage became legally recognized only after the document passed through the territory's lord and was reported to the Imperial authorities.
But the Duke had shoved his promise to her into an old drawer and left it there.
And the person who had finally found that forgotten promise was Kanter's nanny.
"Th-th-that...."
His lower jaw began clattering like a broken machine.
Eventually, he even started to whimper.
"I-I don't know anything about that. A-anyway! Kanter isn't my son! So... so...."
"Lower your voice while I'm still asking nicely."
Ruth's blue eyes seemed to pierce straight through Cartes.
The Duke's mouth promptly snapped shut.
"How am I supposed to believe you when every time you open your mouth, you lie? Hm?"
"F-fine. It's true that I once discussed marriage with that commoner! But that wicked woman lied to me, so... I had no choice!"
Riena let out a weary sigh and shook her head in disgust.
"Whatever else happened, Kanter isn't my son. So I haven't committed marriage fraud!"
"You're awfully confident. I suppose you must have taken a paternity test, then?"
A heavy silence filled the office.
Several of the knights standing nearby looked back and forth between Cartes and Riena.
The silence tightened around the Duke's throat.
Riena had pointed directly at the rumor people had whispered about for years.
The rumor everyone knew but had carefully avoided discussing openly.
How many women had hovered around Duke Cartes, hoping for nothing more than an opportunity to share a cup of tea with him?
Whenever a banquet was held, Duke Cartes inevitably became the center of attention.
Yet he'd never married and had no children.
Then, out of nowhere, Kanter Cartes had appeared.
The nobles had delighted in speculating about the boy's sudden arrival.
He was the Duke's illegitimate son.
He was an abandoned child the Duke had taken in.
He was an orphan who merely happened to resemble Cartes.
Duke Cartes had never bothered to deny any of the rumors surrounding Kanter.
If anything, he preferred to leave them alone.
He had never once stepped forward to defend the child.
It was his way of taking revenge on Kanter's biological mother, a woman he'd once loved, if only briefly.
Because Cartes believed Kanter wasn't his son.
He believed the boy was the result of an affair.
And the more Kanter suffered, the happier Cartes became.
Simply imagining the boy's mother shedding tears of blood in heaven as she watched her son was enough to make him smile.
He no longer cared even if a paternity test exposed the rumors about his infertility, his greatest weakness.
If anything, it would be a good thing if this incident got Kanter expelled from the line of succession and reduced him to the status of a commoner, or something even lower.
He could simply replace the boy with a more obedient heir.
Having made up his mind, Cartes strained his neck and declared,
"Very well. Let's conduct a paternity test."
Riena and Ruth turned toward him at the same time.
