Clyde Dalton told Beatrice Hartwell a single lie.
A lie that if anything happened while they were apart, they should meet at the designated spot.
At the time, he had assumed a situation where they would naturally be separated, acting as if nothing was wrong…
“…My stomach……”
“Your stomach?”
“My stomach hurts so much……”
“…Ah, I see… um, I see.”
As long as he knew Valoa was in the same space as Beatrice, Clyde had no intention of leaving her side.
Watching Valoa’s pathetic scheme, Clyde, hidden in the darkness, quietly twisted one corner of his mouth.
‘Ha. As if.’
Valoa Edvane Crawford did not stray from his expectations one bit.
From the way she was so self-centered that she didn’t hesitate to pull a suspicious and clumsy stunt, to the malice with which she would easily harm others for the sake of her own desires—it was all exactly as he thought.
As he watched the two, a question Beatrice had asked him not long ago suddenly surfaced in his mind.
‘Clyde, did Valoa do something to you?’
‘Suddenly?’
‘You loathe her and shudder whenever you see her. Like you’re looking at some disgusting insect.’
‘….’
‘Look at that face. There really was something, wasn’t there? What was it? Did she tell you to become her husband if you wanted to save your life? Or did she treat you like a pet?’
…If it had been something like that, it wouldn’t have had much of an impact.
The scene from that day still surfaced in Clyde’s dreams like a nightmare.
The events of that day, when he had revealed himself to buy time after sending his comrades, including the Crown Prince, to safety.
Valoa had looked down at him with a shiftless posture and said:
‘Clyde Dalton, I’ll make you a simple offer. I don’t care if it’s a lie, so tell me yourself that you’ll become mine. Then, those people you so dearly—’
At that moment, Beatrice’s voice, filled with strain, snapped him out of his reverie.
“…I’ll! I’ll call a servant on my way and tell them to help you immediately!”
Watching her immediately distance herself from Valoa and head toward the meeting spot as they had discussed, his taut nerves relaxed slightly.
The fact that her footsteps were extremely hurried despite her attempt to act natural seemed to play a part.
It was as if he could see Beatrice’s disgusted expression before his eyes just by looking at her back.
With a much calmer heart, Clyde kept a close eye on Valoa, who was standing alone in the hallway.
After contemplating something deeply with an expression that looked like she might throw a fit at any second, she slowly began to move. Naturally, her direction was the very place he and Beatrice had decided upon.
‘It’s not even surprising.’
Beatrice didn’t seem to notice, but Clyde had repeatedly leaked information regarding their promised meeting place at the ballroom while reminding her of the promise.
It was partly because having many eyes would be more advantageous for them, and also to limit the location where Valoa could commit her evil deeds.
To be more precise, it was to ensure that Beatrice would be perfectly safe from her malice.
‘For that very purpose, I even attached His Highness the Crown Prince to her side like a protective charm….’
—Whoosh!
‘It was a very good thing I did.’
The moment Valoa saw the silhouettes of a man and a woman behind the old tree, she broke an oil lamp nearby and set it on fire.
Openly committing arson at a large banquet where many nobles were gathered was a truly fearless and irrational act, but Clyde was not surprised.
‘Predictable.’
The Valoa he knew was a brazen person who, separate from her cunning and malicious mindset, didn’t care about anything complex other than her own mood.
“…What does an insignificant thing like this even matter. Even if I am pointed out as the culprit, what are they going to do if I just say the fire broke out by mistake.”
“….”
“Besides, will they even die from a fire this small? At most, they’ll lose the faces they loved so much.”
Right, like this.
Clyde watched Valoa, who was smiling cruelly with the corners of her mouth curled up, and spoke in a low voice.
“Right. I believed that someone like you wouldn’t hesitate to commit such irrational and cruel acts.”
At the voice heard from right beside her, Valoa reflexively turned her head, her eyes showing a rare hint of panic.
“…Clyde Dalton? Why are you here…”
“Strange, isn’t it? Why am I here, instead of being the victim of the fire you started alongside Beatrice? You clearly set the fire after seeing two people behind the old tree.”
“….”
“Isn’t that right, Lady Valoa Edvane Crawford?”
“…How? How did you recognize me?”
Astonishment filled Valoa’s eyes. However, Clyde had no intention of kindly solving her mystery.
“That shouldn’t be what’s important right now. Rather, shouldn’t you check to see who got caught up in your outrage instead of me?”
Valoa, frowning at Clyde’s words, hurriedly turned her gaze toward the old tree.
Beyond the flames that were gradually growing in size, she saw two round faces of different heights peeking out from beside the tree.
And one of them had silver hair that no Imperial citizen could fail to recognize.
“Crowell Edvane…”
She staggered for a moment as her lips instinctively parted to utter the familiar name.
Before she could even understand why things had flowed this way, Valoa quickly turned and ran out of the garden.
For once, a red warning light had gone off in her head.
Of course, it was a futile effort.
Before Valoa could even escape the scene, the guards who had been hiding and protecting the Crown Prince quickly suppressed her.
Valoa, being handled roughly for the first time in her life, froze for a moment as she failed to grasp the situation, then vomited out the rage boiling from within.
“How dare you! Let go of these hands this instant! Just who do you think you’re doing this to…!”
“Regardless of who you are, the fact that you are the culprit who tried to harm His Highness the Crown Prince does not change.”
“Culprit…? Who, me? Stop talking nonsense. I never touched the Crown Prince, so why am I the culprit? I clearly……!”
“You clearly intended to kill me and my wife. To be honest, I think it’s only natural for you to be caught for that alone, but since you don’t seem to accept that reason, shall I recite the Imperial Law for you?”
Imperial Law, Article 3, Section 1.
“For the sake of Imperial security and stable national operation, any direct or indirect threat to the safety of the Emperor, the Empress, or the heir to the throne, the Crown Prince, shall be regarded as treason.”
“….”
Parrying Valoa’s struggle on behalf of the guards, he crushed the charred grass under his foot with a rather cold gaze.
“Lady. You have just committed treason. Do you understand?”
“Treason, haha! Me, treason? Ahahaha!”
“….”
“Ha! You rat-like thing, luring me in from the start and then, what, treason? You’re going to frame me as a traitor?”
Valoa Crawford burst into laughter like a madwoman, then repeatedly flew into a rage as she succumbed to her emotions.
“Your Highness, you should keep more distance……”
“It’s fine. Clyde, are you alright?”
“Clyde!”
From Crown Prince Crowell and Beatrice, who were behind the old tree, to the people who had noticed something strange in the garden and begun to gather.
“What is it? Didn’t you just hear something?”
“I thought I smelled something burning from that direction.”
“Uh… over there, doesn’t it look like someone’s been caught? Who is it?”
As the voices of the people grew close enough to be heard clearly, Valoa twisted her red lips and shouted loudly for all to hear.
“I’ll say it again! It’s true I targeted Beatrice Hartwell and Clyde Dalton. They bullied me first, so I wanted to teach them a lesson. But how is it my fault that the Crown Prince just happened to be in the place where I was targeting them!”
Brazenly lifting her head, she glared fiercely at Beatrice and Crowell and spat out reckless words.
“And if you’re going to be like that, isn’t it weirder that those two are together? What kind of work would a married woman have to do alone with the Crown Prince in a secluded spot?”
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