I Became The Male Lead’s Female Friend – Chapter 139

Author: Nikss

On the day of the funeral, it was raining like a hailstorm.

The people were all dressed in black and had their heads bowed solemnly.

Some of them were in tears, as if they were genuinely sad, while others were stunned, as if in shock.

Still, others wore grim expressions as if nothing had happened. Like Rudrick, who was standing right next to me.

I sneak a glance at him and think to myself.

‘What in the world…’

After hearing the shocking news from Sir Ruth, the party came to a screeching halt.

The party was never going to get back on track after the host’s hasty departure.

The guests chatted amongst themselves, but before long, one by one, they began to leave.

The party, which was supposed to last all night, had to end sooner than expected, and Rudrick didn’t show up until the servants had cleaned up.

As someone who had worked so hard to organize the party, I was devastated, but I couldn’t focus on the party at the time.

The news hit me harder than I expected.

‘So he’s alive.’

Of course, I had expected it, since there had been no news of the Duke of Bouser’s death.

But I didn’t expect him to die in such a futile way.

Ever since I was a kid, he felt like the ultimate villain, like no matter how you tried to take him down, he would never break, and he would stay and haunt us until the end…

‘Is it really that easy?’

When we heard one day that the Duke had become disabled, it still felt like, ‘This is just the beginning.’

I hoped he’d suffered enough to get his share of the people who’d suffered because of him, and then die. It was too easy, too hollow an ending.

At first, I glanced at Rudrick, wondering if he thought so too.

But he was still expressionless.

He was staring at his father’s coffin with such a dry gaze, such a seemingly indifferent expression, that I suddenly wanted to ask him.

‘What are you thinking about right now?’

But I couldn’t bring myself to ask him, and I just swallowed quietly to myself.

The funeral was now entering its final stages.

The coffin containing the Duke’s body was soon wrapped in a cloth embroidered with the emblem of the House of Bouser.

The priest who had come to perform the funeral prayed over it, sprinkling holy water upon it, and soon the mourners began to place white flowers upon it, one after the other.

I, followed by Rudrick and some vassals, picked up a flower and placed it on the coffin, saying a private prayer.

‘May he be fully punished there.’

I hoped he would not close his eyes in peace until the end.

And I was somewhat granted my wish.

“Killed?”

Rudrick had just told me something I hadn’t expected to hear.

Somehow, he seemed strangely uninterested in the Duke’s death, preoccupied elsewhere.

“That’s the way we see it, for now.”

At first glance, the Duke appeared to have died of natural causes.

From what I could see from a distance, there was nothing wrong with the Duke’s body.

He was thinner than before but otherwise intact, and his eyes were closed so quietly that you could almost mistake him for sleeping.

But who the hell could have killed him?

“Was there any sign of it at all?”

“No such thing. There was no mess around the body, and there weren’t enough wounds on the body to indicate a murder.”

“Then…”

“It looks like he was poisoned consistently.”

I repeated, frowning, “Poisoned?”

“Yes.”

Sir Ruth briefly explained what had happened so far.

The first person to discover the Duke’s death was the maid who attended to him in the first place, so naturally, suspicion would fall on her.

However, no matter how much she was questioned, the maid seemed to know nothing, and she only said something like this.

“The only thing I’ve heard is that the former Duke is frail and has been ordered to take medicine every hour.”

“Who?”

“…”

After a moment’s silence, Rudrick answered tersely for Sir Ruth.

“The Head Maid.”

…Madame Fedwick?

“So now we’re pretty sure she’s the culprit…”

“Now, wait a minute! But isn’t she a long-time Bouser devotee from the past? And she was with me until the party…”

“Didn’t you know?”

“What?”

Sir Ruth replied, looking at me with a wistful look in his eyes.

“After that day, she disappeared.”

I stared at him blankly.

Yes, to be honest, to be completely honest, I hadn’t suspected her at all.

I immediately thought of her, especially when I first heard that the flowers were poisoned.

After all, she was the only one who chose the flowers with me, and the only one who ordered them herself.

But what kept me from doubting her was her devotion to the Duke.

She was more than willing to do anything to brighten up the gloomy atmosphere of the Duke’s residence, even coming to me directly to ask for them.

‘Wait a minute.’

Come to think of it, hadn’t she suggested this party in the first place?

I felt goosebumps rise on my forearms for some reason. By this time, Sir Ruth had continued to speak.

“Actually, the death of the former Duke is not a big deal.”

“It’s not a problem?”

“It’s not a big deal if he dies. The real problem is…”

Rudrick said, his face darkening somehow.

“The Ring of Family Head is missing.”

“The Ring of Duke Bouser?”

Sir Ruth clarified for me, not knowing the exact circumstances.

The ring passed down from generation to generation only to Bouser’s family, was said to be as important in the North as it was in Bouser.

“You do realize that the Dark Forest itself is sealed, don’t you?”

“Yes. The founding kings and heroes knew of the dangers of the forest and placed a seal on it…”

“And the medium of that seal is the ring.”

I gaped, open-mouthed.

“What, the ring?”

“So, if you’re a Bouser vassal, you’re supposed to keep the ring on your person at all times, and it’s proof of your position.”

“Uh, but…”

Rudrick looked at me questioningly, but as far as I could recall, he didn’t seem to be wearing or carrying a ring.

Then, as if to confirm my memory, he shook his head.

“I didn’t have it.”

“Then you don’t mean to tell me that the former Duke…”

“It is customary for the head of a family to hand the ring to his heir upon his succession. However, Your Highness received the succession from another source, and above all, His Excellency has been unwilling to hand over the ring since he was a young duke…”

So the Duke had been holding it for him until now.

If he hadn’t received the ring when he was a young duke, Rudrick would have gone to war anyway.

Besides, he had just returned to the north, and with all the work he had to do, he wouldn’t have had time to think about the ring.

I nodded in understanding, but then a thought occurred to me and I asked.

“So, what if the seal is broken…?”

It was Lord Ruth who answered my question with a grim expression on his face.

“The magic of the forest, which the seal has barely suppressed, will spread out in an instant. The entire continent’s magic field will be disturbed, not just the northern part, and that will cause many problems, but the biggest one is…”

“…”

“There might be a surge in the number of demonic beasts all over the continent, and it’ll be even harder if there are more advanced ones.”

I could fully understand the seriousness of his words.

Once the magic field was disrupted, there was no telling what would happen to the magical tools used in everyday life.

Even more so, if demonic beasts appeared all over the place, it would definitely wreak havoc on the empire.

The situation would be even worse if a high-level demon appeared.

Wasn’t it because of the sudden appearance of high-level demons that the Bouser Knights had suffered a crisis in the first place?

“I should have been keeping a closer eye on the annex, but I got distracted, and they stole the ring…”

Sir Ruth’s self-pitying muttering made me feel a toxic phrase enter my ears: ‘distracted by’, that could be…

‘Because of the party?’

It felt like a slap in the back of the head.

All this time I had been under the mistaken impression that Mrs. Fedwick valued the Bouser, and I thought she had come to see me because she wanted to change the dismal ducal one. But it wasn’t that.

She had deliberately approached me with an ulterior motive from the beginning.

‘To use me to get people’s attention.’

Even if people didn’t pay attention to the annex, there would be at least one or two people, like Sir Ruth, who would have their eyes on the Duke, and she wouldn’t be able to move freely.

That’s when she saw me.

A mysterious princess from the capital was causing a stir, so she decided to throw a party to distract attention.

In retrospect, I had already gotten the hint before that.

Once, when Cecil noticed that the candlesticks were switched, I asked her out of curiosity.

— ‘How did you notice that the candlesticks were different?’

She shook her head but answered meekly.

— ‘The maid of honor sent me out to inspect the reception once more.’

I thought at the time, ‘The Madame is being very careful,’ but it was not so; she had deliberately induced Cecil to discover this suspicion.

To recognize it, to bring it to me.

And then it was the same thing.

Why she’d ordered Beth to crash the party, why she’d let her do it when it was obvious she wasn’t skilled at it, why she’d been so grateful to me.

And her last words.

— ‘It’s all because of Princess’s hard work.’

Of course, she did, because my ranting about catching the culprit made it easier for her to accomplish her goal.

“…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

Rudrick asked, puzzled, but I couldn’t bring myself to look up; after all, I was one of the reasons this incident had happened.

If I hadn’t been so preoccupied with catching the culprit in front of me that I hadn’t made such a big fuss, the others might have gotten the wrong idea.

No, I wish I hadn’t thought of throwing the party in the first place…

“Why?”

I stammered, the question sounding colder than usual.

“I made a big fuss about catching the culprit…”

“Then maybe she tried to distract us by disrupting the party with poisoned flowers.”

“I should have just, I shouldn’t have thrown the party at all. I was greedy…”

“That’s fine, as long as we can find another one.”

“…”

“Dahlia.”

At the muffled call, I looked up, and there was Rudrick, looking stern.

“They’ve been preparing for this longer than you realize. With or without you, it would have happened anyway.”

“I…”