After announcing her as the lost daughter of Diane, he already knew that some nobles had held a secret meeting without permission.

The conversations exchanged that day, and even the list of attendees, had already been grasped.

In the midst of this, a secretive letter had come from Count Lipe.

The initials written at the end were Count Lipe’s initials. The poison flower that came with the letter wasn’t sent without reason either. The language of the flower was truth.

Though the contents of the note were brief, they instantly realized what the count was talking about. It was about providing the names of those who attended that meeting and the information exchanged within.

They were already in the process of gathering information on their side. To deal with the nobles who doubted Diane first. But Count Lipe had approached them to give that information first.

Of course, they had no intention of revealing that they already knew that information.

Only, Kaillieus was in doubt.

Why did the Count, who nitpicked everything, now propose to do something that would only harm himself? What he was suggesting was the work of a double spy.

If caught, it was a matter that would only lose his honor and trust.

“We will check, but my lord, our side’s information probably didn’t leak.”

Seeing that Kaillieus had no words after reading the letter, Phyllene carefully floated a suggestion.

“I don’t think the information leaked, and I’m also thinking that maybe the Count noticed it.”

Phyllene subtly hinted at another possibility. Kaillieus also thought so, trusting Phyllene’s thorough personality.

Neither did the latter possibility seem quite reliable.

The servant Count Lipe brought that day was one he said he hired through another’s introduction.

The timing was too perfect, wasn’t it? His constant servant had sprained his leg, and a new servant had appeared.

Count Lipe was not one to be fooled by such a coincidence and the appearance of a stranger.

If he had noticed the Duke’s information, he would not have been caught in such a clumsy affair from the beginning.

“Just watch it. Consider it as having gained a chess piece that can be discarded.”

“Well, the Count is not one to easily notice that kind of thing.”

At Kaillieus’s words, Phyllene shrugged her shoulders too.

That clueless count probably still didn’t know why he was locked in the underground dungeon.

He thought he had succeeded and tried to turn all the evidence he had collected to pin all the crimes on Count Lipe, but he never thought the child would cry.

No, what Kaillieus couldn’t understand more was why he decided to release Count Lipe just because Diane shed tears.

‘…Well, thinking about it, there wasn’t enough evidence.’

He could have pushed it with the little evidence, but that would have created a lot of troublesome matters.

Ignoring that all the handling of those troublesome matters would be done by Phyllene, not himself, Kaillieus thought.

‘So, I released him. It’s not just because the child cried.’

Lying in bed for myself, I looked at the ceiling with drowsy eyes.

‘I can’t sleep.’

Eventually, I turned on the room light again and lay down on the bed.

And I took out a round pearl necklace hidden under the pillow and stared at it quietly.

This necklace was one that Shinsoo brought back from the assassins on the day he followed them.

In fact, I had quite a hard time snatching this necklace from Shinsoo.

‘Give that back!’

‘I’ll return it, okay?’

I had to give one of my hairbands that had a gemstone similar to a pearl because he was so stubborn.

A pearl that could only be obtained from a clam that inhabits deep in the sea was one of the very, very difficult gems to get.

Besides, the pearl, being a fragile gem, was even more expensive if it had intricate craftsmanship.

Among the hairbands I often used, there was one decorated with a flowershaped, intricately crafted pearl.
At first glance, it looked like a pearl, but naturally, I thought it would be a cheap cubic zirconia decorated to resemble a pearl.

‘Surely, he wouldn’t have given me a headband with real pearls on it.’

So I nonchalantly removed it, and fortunately, the Silver Snake exchanged it without a fuss for the pearl necklace he had snatched from the assassin.

‘Where did this necklace come from?’

I didn’t think the necklace belonged to the assassin.

The first reason was that the necklace looked too expensive to belong to an assassin.

The intricately crafted pearls on it could easily surpass the value of a mansion.

The second reason was the design of the necklace.

‘It’s too feminine.’

It wasn’t that men didn’t use pearls in their jewelry.

However, the strand design of the necklace and the delicately carved design on the pearls made it a necklace meant for women.

‘A man could wear it, but still.’

No matter how unique the assassin’s taste was, he didn’t seem like someone who would wear something like this.

‘And if it really was the assassin’s necklace, it would have been around his neck.’