“This is it. Get in!”
The guard who had shoved Beatrice inside closed the door with a solemn expression.
—Clang!
“The food on the table over there is your meal for today. Stay quiet and don’t cause a stir until the Marquis calls for you.”
With those final words, the guard left the dungeon.
Beatrice let out a short sigh and slowly looked around.
The narrow cell, surrounded by damp stone walls, contained nothing but a table and a hard bed.
Only after being left completely alone in a space where no one else existed—save for the torchlight flickering beyond the iron bars—did the reality of being dragged here truly sink in.
“…Sigh. Seriously, what on earth is happening?”
Beatrice sat down haphazardly on the hard bed, took off her glasses, and rubbed the inner corners of her eyes with her hands.
‘To think I’d be locked in a prison like a criminal! No, honestly, this is just absurd!’
She hadn’t even been locked in a cell before the regression!
Beatrice stared blankly into space for a moment before standing up again. Then, she headed to the table to retrieve the meal the guard had mentioned.
On the table lay a piece of hard bread and some watery soup.
It was a pathetic menu, but Beatrice tore into the bread without a second thought.
‘If I don’t eat anything at a time like this, my brain won’t work.’
This is when experience comes in handy. It was her first time experiencing prison, but it wasn’t her first time experiencing confinement!
While chewing on bread soaked in soup, Beatrice organized the events she had experienced so far in her head.
Going further, she even considered the parts she could deduce from them.
‘First. The Marquisate has frequently had mana eruption or collision phenomena from the past. However, unlike in the past, that phenomenon has begun to inflict harm on the people.’
Of course, she still didn’t know the reason why that was the case.
‘Second. The Marquis and Archduke Alec are currently moving together. And they were installing dolls everywhere to resolve the mana clash problem.’
She still didn’t know the reason why they chose to seal off the territory during that process.
‘And third. Valoa Crawford is destroying the dolls without the knowledge of the Marquis and Archduke Alec.’
Whether this was the Princess’s instruction or her own idea, she didn’t know, but…
In any case!
‘What I need to focus on right now is that Valoa pinned her own wrongdoing on me, and I’m in a very disadvantageous position!’
Since she had left the cloth fragments behind, Clyde and her other companions would surely find her after arriving at the capital of the territory.
And they would step forward to release her from this ridiculous frame-up.
‘But, hmm….’
Beatrice shoved a spoonful of soup into her mouth with a serious expression.
‘I’m currently in a state where I’ve told the Crown Prince and Clyde the blatant lie that I’m “from the Marquisate.” They could argue that I deceived both sides with malicious intent.’
Furthermore, would Archduke Alec accept that the true culprit was Valoa Crawford?
Valoa Edvane Crawford.
Following her stream of consciousness, Beatrice recalled Valoa’s actions once again and pulled a piece of broken Orharcon from her pocket.
It was the one piece remaining after the others were confiscated as evidence.
‘Setting aside who ordered it, I’m curious as to why she did it.’
Thinking most simply, it would obviously be because she wanted to ruin the Marquis’s plans, but the opponent was Valoa.
A representative figure of self-centeredness who prioritized her own feelings and thoughts over others.
‘There’s no reason for her to suddenly rebel against the House of Marquis or Archduke Alec. Even if the Princess made a proposal, the Princess is still pretending to be kind, so she wouldn’t have blatantly offered to give Valoa what she wanted.’
Ah, I don’t know!
Was it because she thought of too many things? It felt as if heat were rising in her head.
‘Clyde is much better at this sort of thing than I am.’
Beatrice wiped up the last of the soup with the final piece of bread, popped it into her mouth, and lightly patted her stomach.
‘Should I sleep for now?’
Though she had moved while riding with the guards, she had stayed up all night.
Her body was aching all over, and her eyes were finally beginning to close.
After neatly tidying up the remains of her meal to one side, Beatrice flopped down onto the hard bed.
“Yawn, I need to find out more… about that illness of unknown cause, too…. Mana clashes are dangerous, but they don’t cause disease, so…”
She muttered her to-do list with her eyes closed, but it wasn’t long.
Before long, Beatrice fell into a deep sleep, breathing softly.
To an outsider, her boldness was such that they might ask how a noble lady, who surely grew up sheltered, could act like this, but well.
Originally, it was the first time that was hard; the second time was manageable!
* * *
“Hey.”
“Zzz……”
“Won’t you wake up already!”
Poke.
At the sensation of a rough hand poking her shoulder, Beatrice’s eyebrows twitched.
“…Ugh.”
Slowly opening her eyes, she stared blankly at the hollow ceiling and the unfamiliar guard.
‘Ah, right. I was caught.’
Beatrice quickly realized her reality and sat up.
The guard, clicking his tongue as he watched her rub her eyes, got straight to the point.
“The Marquis and His Highness the Archduke are calling for you.”
“…Oh.”
“Follow me.”
The sleepiness vanished instantly. Her mind suddenly became clear.
Leaving the dungeon behind the guard, Beatrice passed through a long hallway and several more buildings.
The Downer Marquisate possessed an atmosphere distinctly different from the Hartwell Count House, which dripped with wealth, or the Dalton Ducal House, which had a dignified air.
‘It’s a very practical and clean style.’
Usually, the atmosphere of a noble house reflects the master’s tendencies or principles.
While Beatrice guessed at the Marquis’s personality through the interior of the building, the guard received permission and opened a large door.
Inside a bright, spacious room similar to a meeting hall, the first things that entered her field of vision were the two men in the seats of honor.
A middle-aged man with a muscular frame who exuded a rugged feel, and a silver-haired man who, though one could feel the passage of time, was just as handsome as Clyde.
They were Marquis Downer and Archduke Alec Edvane Crawford.
“Marquis, Your Imperial Highness. This is the culprit I mentioned!”
“You have worked hard.”
The Marquis, after briefly commending the guard, beckoned Beatrice forward with a gesture. Within the air that had turned heavy in an instant, he spoke again.
“So. You’re the one who’s been going around damaging the dolls recently? Given the wide range and the substantial amount of damage, I thought it would be a man bursting with stamina, but it seems that was my prejudice.”
“….”
“Shall we hear your excuse? Why did you do such a thing? Was it committed by several people under someone’s orders, or did you do it alone?”
Beatrice caught her breath at the Marquis’s question, adjusted her glasses, and looked the Marquis straight in the eye.
Another noble participating in the interrogation shouted that she was being rude for a mere criminal, but Beatrice pretended not to hear.
“To state the conclusion first, I am not the culprit.”
“Not the culprit? The guard found you at the scene of the crime and recovered all the evidence, yet it wasn’t you?”
“No. It wasn’t me. I happened to be at that location by chance and was suddenly forced to take the tools.”
“If you’re going to lie, you should at least put some effort into it!”
Archduke Alec took over the conversation from beside the Marquis, who slammed his fist onto the chair as if he couldn’t listen any longer.
“Since you claim you are not the culprit, I cannot help but ask. If it wasn’t you, then who is the true culprit?”
“That is…”
Beatrice hesitated for a moment. She didn’t know if it was wise to point out Valoa as the culprit here and now.
Beatrice, who had been agonizing while looking into Archduke Alec’s eyes, squeezed her eyes shut and came to a conclusion.
“I did not see who it was. A hooded stranger threw the tools at me and fled.”
At Beatrice’s answer, Marquis Downer finally exploded.
Leaping from his seat, he threw the evidence he had received from the guard with fury.
“These dolls were purification tools meant to resolve the crisis that recently arose in the Marquisate! Because you broke the dolls, the people in that area were injured and fell ill again! You dare make such an excuse after touching my people, who are already barely holding on!”
The Marquis’s anger was justified.
To be honest, Beatrice herself thought what she had said sounded like a terrible lie.
‘But if I bring up Valoa now, there’s a high probability that this already complicated case will get even more tangled! Furthermore, why would Valoa break dolls that are purification tools… Wait?’
Wait, purification tools?
A doubt suddenly clouded Beatrice’s eyes as she unconsciously repeated the Count’s words.
‘Dolls containing Orichalcum are decoy devices that direct mana; they don’t have a purification function. But why does the Marquis call these purification tools?’
Beatrice’s brain worked rapidly. Orichalcum, mana, purification, blockade.
At the crucial and exquisite moment when the things she had questioned until now were about to connect…
Creeeeeak—
“Pardon me for a moment.”
Her unreliable yet dependable reinforcement, Clyde, made his appearance.
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