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Rany, who was detained under the Crown Prince order, unexpectedly appeared along with Mago.
Well, to be precise, it must have been Mago who came to visit the location she was detained in.
When our eyes met, Rany erased her apathetic expression and flashed a smile toward me.
Not knowing the reason for that, Mago couldn’t hide her confused expression.
The new figure that suddenly appeared in the situation she regarded close to her goal looked to be enough to break her composure.
“She’s innocent? Is there any evidence that can prove that?”
When Bertin’s eyes landed on Dmitry, he flinched.
Dmitry’s eyes were lowered, as though he felt guilty about something.
“I’ve heard the testimony he gave previously. However, his testimony is only about the incident that happened three years ago. I think it has no relation to the matter of this time.”
The Crown Prince nodded light at the words that were spoken out calmly by the soft voice.
Bertin’s statement was right.
Just because she had been indicted for the same case three years ago, there was no guarantee that this incident too was Rany’s doing.
There was no sense of the atmosphere being excessively swept away as evidence and testimonies poured out.
When I glanced outside, I saw numerous eyes filled with curiosity glued tightly to the door.
That’s really irritating.
It was then at the moment I thought of it.
The noisy sound beyond the door suddenly stopped.
A familiar voice rang across the quiet room.
“Excuse me. I think it’s best for this conversation to not be leaked.”
Hearing Zen’s firm words, the Crown Prince raised up his brows as if that was unexpected.
His face was questioning why he did it now when he had been silent from earlier.
A sour voice agreed.
“I see. If something like this gets leaked outside, it must be easy to get misinformed by made-up stories.”
Mago’s eyes looking at Zen got more desperate.
She tried hard to meet Zen’s eyes as if Zen was her savior.
“Go on, Sir Gramia.”
“First, there’s something I have to explain about the incident three years ago. It is true that there was a talk about a goods transaction between Young Master Beyond and Young Lady Rocke.”
To be exact, Rany offered him to sell counterfeit goods with an intention to swindle him.
“However, there was a bit of misunderstanding between the two people. Young Master Beyond thought that Young Lady Rocke was selling sacred items owned by the Temple, but Young Lady Rocke meant to sell replicas for display, not the sacred items, just ones modeled after them.”
Dmitry’s gaze, which had never been directed this way since earlier, reached Rany for the first time.
He looked confused with Bertin’s statement.
If the truth and fiction were mixed up cleverly, even the person involved would be confused.
“No. I’m certain that I got introduced to the stolen goods from Young Lady Rocke—”
“Your Imperial Highness, here is a written permission from the bishop who was in charge of the Temple at that time. The Temple admired the faithfulness of Young Lady Rocke, wanting to create sacred objects for displays to promote the care of the goddess, so we allowed her to examine our sacred objects.”
Of course, they never expected that Rany would run away with that sacred object.
Listening to a completely new story born from the tip of Bertin’s tongue, I glanced at Zen.
He didn’t make even the slightest movement as if he had known about this script in advance.
He was really different from Rany, who couldn’t hide her face.
“Although there were summons, the trial was quickly canceled. There were no such two people who stood the trial, so we thought all the misunderstanding had been cleared . . .”
Slurring the words, Bertin smiled wide and then finished his words.
“We didn’t know that Young Master Beyond kept misunderstanding. It would have been better if he told us from the start. We the Temple are also troubled from the sudden bring up of the past event that has no relation with this case.”
The moment the Temple was brought up, Dmitry’s shoulders fidgeted.
“That’s what I’m saying.”
Rany stared intently at Dmitry and smiled mockingly.
“If only you had talked about it from the start . . .”
I would beat you up myself.
Those were probably the omitted words.
When the frightened Dmitry began to tremble with a pale face, the other people began to get restless as well.
Mago clenched her teeth and then refuted desperately.
“Is . . . n’t that thing that has no relation to the current matter? Just because the mistake from the past was misunderstood, the current case is . . .”
The mumbled words had a point.
I didn’t miss the words that she said unconsciously because she was flustered and responded.
“That’s right. Just like what Young Lady Mago said, the current case and the past trouble have no correlation.”
“. . .”
“But you talked as if these two cases have a relationship, Young Lady.”
It was true that Rany tried to go through with fraud, but it was only an attempt, she never handed over the stolen goods.
Making misconceptions about that as if she did a crime was obviously intended.
“Because the witness quickly came, as though he had been waiting to do so, I decided to do a small investigation.”
There was no need to go to the situation where the goods were smuggled.
Using a simple-minded person like Dmitry was her mistake.
“The student council had been prepared to expedite this case for fear that this would become too noisy.”