“Those people were all the earl’s servants who were trapped yesterday?”

“Yes, even though they want to disband them, they are persistently like that. They ask to release the earl…….”

“The earl? You mean the nobleman trapped in that underground dungeon?”

“Yes, the name is Li, Li……, what was it?”

“Earl Lipe?”

“Ah, right! That was the name…, Ah, young lady?!”

The two maids who were whispering in conversation were startled and looked at me.

I did not care and stepped between them to ask again.

“So, all those people outside are from Earl Lipe’s side?”

“Yes, that’s true. But young lady, when did you get there?”

“Ah, don’t mind me!”

I quickly returned to the room, giving a careless reply.

As soon as I closed the door, I collapsed on the floor.

I was almost in a panic state. The situation was going completely wrong.

‘Those people are the employees of Earl Lipe…….’

Now I seemed to know what I had been missing all along.

‘I should have found out why Earl Lipe came to the Duke’s house that day!’

On the first day I met Earl Lipe, he snubbed the Duke without even meeting him.

As if he was a person to be avoided if he had come to meet the Duke.

Like someone who was greatly troubled!

‘At this rate, we will all end up like beggars. As if adopting an orphan wasn’t enough, now a successor.’

‘Master! You must refrain from saying that……! I am distressed that it has come to this!’

‘Oh, so do I need permission to speak with my own mouth? Stop nagging and find where the ledger I mentioned might be hidden!’

‘Oh dear, Master! Please lower your voice……!’

The conversation between Earl Lipe and his servant that I overheard by chance that day came back to me.

The Duke managed his wealth by creating a double ledger for tax evasion.

However, most people had no interest in the Duke’s ledger or the hidden double ledger.

Whether the Duke was evading taxes or not, it was not affecting them, and they would not benefit from causing a fuss about it anyway.

But it would be different for an upright person.

A person of a rigid character could never easily accept that the family they served was evading taxes.

Perhaps Earl Lipe often clashed with the Duke because of such character differences.

Then it would mean that Earl Lipe was the culprit…….

I didn’t doubt that such a person could be the culprit when reading the original, but now it seemed very strange.

A person so upright commits murder?

‘And what about all those people?’

My head was confused.

Even if it was a nobleman who was very kind to them, it was not common for the servants to stand up for him like that.

Especially since it was Crustel Duke’s house.

I knew that the Duke was a villain because of the original work, but even without knowing the original, I would have thought that the Duke was a villain.

‘Probably all the citizens of the empire would think so.’

That’s how bad the Duke’s image already was within the empire.

Especially in this Hesera region, where the influence of the royal family was weak, the Duke was almost lawless.

If it was just an employeremployee relationship, they would not have stood up to the villainous Duke like that.

They would have been quietly out of the way, so as not to get hit by sparks.

Even for an Earl, opposing a great noble like a Duke was a risky business.

It’s one thing to be out of favor with the Duke, but the only knight order with the power to protect them from demon attacks was the Leviche knight order.

It was no exaggeration to say that all the residents living in Hesera had to rely on the protection of the Leviche knight order to survive.

‘Because Earl Lipe usually took care of his employees, they stand up for the Earl like that.’

I recalled how Earl Lipe had taken care of an old servant not long ago.
The elderly servant followed him as if he had been with him for a long time, speaking casually to the Count.

He must have treated his employees well on a daily basis.

Would he have hired an assassin to kill the Duke? Not only the servants, but all the inhabitants could be in danger?

‘No, he never would have.’

Though there was much to gain by killing the Duke, there was also a need for stabilization.

During the unknown period, the powerless inhabitants would undoubtedly be sacrificed.

The knight order known as the Duke’s dogs would be disbanded, and the inhabitants would lose their homes, or even become food for the monsters that multiplied in the meantime.

But even so, there was one thing that bothered him.

The servant who had attended to Count LiFe on the day of the meeting was not the old servant he had seen on the first day, but a young one he was seeing for the first time.

‘That servant did try to hurt me.’

Moreover, he clearly saw the Count’s servant trying to poison the Duke’s tea.

Didn’t Count LiFe even order that servant to take me himself?

‘…Could it have been a calculated act by someone?’

In the original work, there were two culprits. Besides Count LiFe, there was another perpetrator. The Duke caught both in the original work and punished them.