However, if she just went back like this, there would be no point in disguising herself as an employee of the Radcliffe Company and coming here.

“Do you have a moment, Lady Greykin?”

Lady Greykin, who was about to leave the reception room, slowly turned her head towards Jieselgrante.

Lady Greykin’s eyes widened slightly as she stared at her face.

“That appearance… What happened, Lady Amaterasu?”

Only then did Lady Greykin look Jieselgrante up and down and ask.

“There are some circumstances… Would you mind having a brief conversation with me?”

Lady Greykin stared at Jieselgrante for a moment, as if trying to gauge her intentions, then spoke.

“Prepare some tea for our guest.”

The maid bowed deeply and left the reception room.

There was a slight tension in the reception room.

By now, Lady Greykin’s mind must be filled with various thoughts.

She must be busy trying to figure out why the fool from Amaterasu had disguised herself as a company employee and come to see her.

“Let’s sit down first.”

Lady Greykin offered a seat.

Fortunately, unlike Lady Zimmer, she didn’t seem to harbor much animosity towards Jieselgrante.

As they sat down, Lady Greykin looked Jieselgrante up and down and continued speaking.

“It suits you well. That attire.”

As it didn’t seem to be meant as mockery, Jieselgrante opened her mouth with an awkward smile.

“You’ve lost a lot of weight, my lady.”

“Have I? I think I’m normal. It hasn’t been that long since Her Highness the Princess suffered such a terrible fate, and already…”

Lady Greykin trailed off, as if finding it difficult to continue.

Even without hearing the rest of what she was going to say, Jieselgrante could guess what Lady Greykin had swallowed.

It would have been right to take time to honor and mourn the loss of a precious royal.

But now the nobles were busy calculating whether siding with Crown Prince Joshua or Filippo, the government’s son, would benefit their families more.

It seemed she was keeping up with outside news even while under house arrest in her mansion.

Jieselgrante lowered her gaze slightly and thought.

‘Yes. It’s always been like this.’

Lady Greykin seemed to have a gentle personality at first glance, but she was actually quite strong-willed.

So she wouldn’t easily bend her will on matters she judged to be correct.

For a moment, Jieselgrante felt a bit sorry for suspecting that Lady Greykin might be a traitor acting on the Empress’s orders.

Meeting her in person, she could fully sense that Lady Greykin was genuinely saddened by Princess Trinity’s death.

“…Or am I wrong? Do you think so too, my lady? That it’s right to quickly find a way to survive.”

Lady Greykin said self-deprecatingly with a bitter smile.

Her slightly trembling voice carried a hint of tears.

Jieselgrante quietly waited for her to compose her emotions.

“By the way, I should hear the reason why you came to see me in secret, going so far as to disguise yourself like this.”

After gathering her emotions, Lady Greykin asked the question.

“I want to know the truth about that day.”

Although she didn’t clearly express which day’s truth she wanted to know, Lady Greykin immediately understood and replied.

“What do you intend to do with that knowledge?”

“If there’s anything that’s been misrepresented, I want to correct it. I also want to help someone who’s been falsely accused and is trembling in fear, waiting for the day they’ll lose their head.”

Lady Greykin stared at Jieselgrante with an unreadable expression.

Though Jieselgrante couldn’t tell what she was thinking, it didn’t seem like she would oppose her opinion.

“I had hoped for such a day to come. I didn’t expect someone to actually appear who would do that. If that person’s secrets were all exposed to the world, it would really feel refreshing.”

Lady Greykin smiled slightly.

Although she had referred to ‘that person’, it was possible to guess that she too had some resentment built up against the Empress.

“Have you heard about the trial?”

“Yes.”

“Then shall we go together for now?”

Jieselgrante immediately stood up.

“Where… are we going?”

Lady Greykin asked anxiously as she rose hesitantly from her seat.

“I’m going to protect you in a safe place.”

Jieselgrante briefly explained why this was necessary.

That the reason Baroness Oppenheimer’s trial ended inconclusively was due to an anonymous tip.

That someone who didn’t want the truth to come to light would soon attempt to silence people to contain the situation.

Only then did Lady Greykin stand up from her seat.

“I see. Actually, I knew that my father and someone had made a deal regarding my life.”

“…”

“The deal was that if I just kept my mouth shut until the situation was completely resolved, no, even after that, they would spare my life.”

Jieselgrante nodded and said.

“Count Greykin wasn’t the only one who agreed to that deal. Count Zimmer must have made the same promise to save his daughter. But since someone broke that promise and spoke up, now they’ll seek revenge.”

“…Then was it Lady Zimmer who spoke up? I’ve been staying obediently in the mansion without meeting anyone.”

“I’ll explain later. For now, let’s focus on getting out of the mansion. Where do they move the goods ordered from the Radcliffe Company?”

“It would be the storage room.”

“Let’s go there first.”

The two immediately headed for the storage room.

And they approached a large wooden crate among the items delivered today through the Radcliffe Company.

Jieselgrante opened the lid of the wooden crate and pointed inside, asking.

“Can you get in here?”

Lady Greykin stepped back hesitantly as she looked at the empty wooden crate.

“…You want me to get in there?”

Jieselgrante’s current plan was to make Lady Greykin disappear from the mansion before someone sent by the Empress arrived to deal with her.

If possible, without even the employees of the Greykin family knowing. By riding in the Radcliffe Company’s wagon.

At that time, Lady Zimmer was spending a boring time in the field in front of the villa.

At first, she enjoyed the leisurely pace of staying in a quiet country village, away from her daily routine of being immersed in parties and social gatherings.

Recalling the memories of enjoying rest here once or twice a year on vacation, she had chosen this place for house arrest instead of the count’s mansion.

But this life with no changes was starting to get boring.

Unlike the promise that she could return soon, there was still no news from the imperial capital.

At first, she applied perfume to her hair and body, and wore fancy dresses like when she stayed in the capital.

But there was nothing good about wearing expensive dresses tailored from high-end boutiques in the capital and dressing up.

Walking in the fields only stained the hem of her skirt with grass, and the only people to show her carefully groomed appearance to were the boring maid and stiff guard knight.

Even her brief interest in the news of the Radcliffe Company, which was said to be receiving rave reviews among the nobles recently, was short-lived.

The Radcliffe Company was still only doing business centered on the capital, and she, being away from the capital, couldn’t be a customer of the Radcliffe Company.

There were rumors that they would soon expand their business throughout the empire, but that wasn’t happening now anyway.

Lady Zimmer sighed and looked into the distance.

Hoping that the trial would end soon, that the house arrest would be lifted and she could return to the capital again.

Then something caught the corner of her eye.

“…?”

Lady Zimmer slowly stood up and squinted to focus on that something.

A man in armor was riding a horse towards her.

‘The trial results are finally out!’

Her joy was short-lived.

Realizing that her appearance reflected in the small stream was too shabby, Lady Zimmer hurriedly turned her steps towards the villa.

It seemed better to tidy herself up before meeting the knight who came to deliver the news.

“…Ola?”

Lady Zimmer, who had entered the villa, looked for Ola first.

But Ola was nowhere to be seen in the living room, bedroom, or laundry room.

“If you’re going somewhere, you should at least say you’re leaving before going out. You have no basic manners…”

Lady Zimmer clicked her tongue and shook her head.

And with no other choice, she began to groom herself alone.

There didn’t seem to be enough time to change her dress, so she simply draped a shawl over her shoulders.

And she tidied her hair that had been disheveled by the wind.

After a quick grooming, Lady Zimmer’s head tilted as she left the dressing room.

“…?”

Come to think of it, the sound of horse hooves had stopped for a while now.

Puzzled, she immediately left the villa and looked around.

Neither the horse that should have been tied to a tree nor the knight who was to deliver the trial news could be seen.

“Was it just passing by…”

Muttering to herself as she looked around, Lady Zimmer noticed something catching her eye and approached it.

She picked up a note that seemed to have been thrown into the grass and checked its contents.

“I apologize for not being able to deliver the news face-to-face due to watchful eyes…”

That was all that was briefly written, along with when and where to come out.

At the mention of watchful eyes, Lady Zimmer glanced around.

There didn’t seem to be anyone else nearby besides her, but it couldn’t hurt to be careful.

Especially since Lady Amaterasu had come all the way here not too long ago.