After announcing Diane as the lost daughter, I already knew that some of the vassals had held an unauthorized secret meeting.

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

In the midst of this, a secret letter came from Count Ripe.

The initials written at the end were those of Count Ripe. The myrrh that came with the letter was not sent without reason either. The flower language of myrrh was truth.

The contents of the note were brief, but they immediately understood what the Count was saying. It was about providing information on the attendees of that meeting and the information exchanged within.

They were already gathering information on their side. To deal with the vassals who were suspicious of Diane first. But Count Ripe had approached them first to give them that information.

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

However, Cailius was curious.

Why would the Count, who had been nitpicking at every little thing, now volunteer to do something that would only harm himself? What he was proposing was to act as a double agent.

If caught, it would only tarnish his honor and credibility.

“We’ll look into it, but my lord, I don’t think our information has leaked.”

Philen carefully broached the subject, seeing Cailius’s silent reaction after reading the letter.

“It doesn’t seem like the information has leaked, and I’m wondering if that Count might have noticed something.”

Philen hinted at another possibility. Cailius also believed it wouldn’t be the former, trusting Philen’s thorough nature.

However, the latter possibility wasn’t very convincing either.

The servant Count Ripe brought that day was said to be one received through someone else’s introduction.

The timing was too convenient, wasn’t it? That his usual elderly servant had sprained his ankle, and a new servant appeared.

Count Ripe was someone who didn’t suspect such coincidental situations and the appearance of unfamiliar people.

If he had been perceptive enough to notice the ducal family’s information, he wouldn’t have fallen for such a sloppy trick in the first place.

“Just keep an eye on him for now. Consider it as having gained a disposable chess piece.”

“Well, the Count isn’t the type to easily notice such things anyway.”

Philen shrugged at Cailius’s words.

That oblivious Count probably still didn’t know why he had been locked up in the underground prison.

Thinking this was a good opportunity, they had planned to pin all the crimes on Count Ripe with the evidence they had gathered, but they really didn’t expect the child to cry.

No, more than that, Cailius couldn’t understand why he had decided to release Count Ripe just because Diane had shed tears.

‘…Well, come to think of it, the evidence was lacking too.’

They could have pushed through even with little evidence, but doing so would have created a lot of troublesome work to deal with.

Cailius thought, completely ignoring the fact that all such troublesome work would be handled by Philen, not himself.

‘That’s why we released him. Not just because the child cried.’

* * *

Lying in bed to sleep, I stared at the ceiling with wide-awake eyes.

‘I can’t sleep.’

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

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

This necklace was the one the divine beast had retrieved from the assassin’s possession on the day it had tailed him.

In fact, it had been quite a struggle to take this necklace from the divine beast.

‘Give that to me!’

‘I said I’ll give it back!’

Because it was so stubborn, I had no choice but to give it one of the jewels from my headband that looked similar to a pearl.

Pearls, which can only be found in oysters living deep in the sea, were one of the most difficult gems to obtain.

Moreover, since it was a gem that was easily broken, finely crafted pearls could fetch sky-high prices.

Among the headbands I often wore, there was one decorated with flower-shaped ornaments.

At a glance, it looked like pearls, but I naturally thought they would be cheap cubic zirconia made to resemble pearls.

‘Surely they wouldn’t have given me a headband with real pearls.’

So I carelessly gave it away, but fortunately, the silver snake exchanged it for the pearl necklace taken from the assassin without complaint.

‘Where did that assassin get such a necklace?’

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

The first reason was that it seemed too expensive to be an assassin’s necklace.

Judging by the finely crafted pearl attached to it, it would easily be worth more than 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 accessories.

However, looking at the design of the necklace chain and the intricate design engraved on the pearl, it was clearly made for a woman to use.

‘Well, there’s nothing stopping a man from wearing it.’

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

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

The silver snake had retrieved this from inside the assassin’s clothes. If it had been his own, he would have naturally worn it around his neck, but the assassin didn’t.

He had hidden it deep inside his clothes.

Combining everything, I came up with one possibility.

‘He was holding onto something belonging to the client.’

This was also information I wouldn’t have easily predicted if I hadn’t seen the divine beast’s memory that day.

That day, the assassin didn’t return to a regular mansion but entered a hidden catacomb underground.

That place was known to be used mainly by assassination guilds or information guilds that operate in the shadows.

They accept requests indiscriminately as long as there’s money involved. Since he belonged to such a guild, it wasn’t unreasonable to think he might have stolen a necklace from some wealthy person.

‘Wouldn’t it have belonged to some noble lady or aristocratic young lady?’

As I turned the necklace over, I noticed small initials engraved inside.

‘C.G.S’

Whose initials are these? I tilted my head, pondering.

‘In Hesera, a family that could afford a necklace like this would be at least of count rank.’

Families likely to possess such accessories were not common.

Usually, in the case of assassins who receive such requests, it was a rule to keep the client’s information strictly confidential. However, no matter how much that was the case, there were instances where even among clients, some wanted to eliminate the assassin who had handled their request.

To prevent such cases in advance, some assassins deliberately stole the client’s belongings, and later, if their lives were threatened, they would present those items to save their own lives.

That was also the reason why Elizer in the original work could easily catch the noble who had hired the assassin.

‘This assassin must have been keeping it as insurance too.’

I couldn’t find the culprit with just this on my own anyway. I decided to keep this well-preserved.

‘By the way, it’s a slightly different ending from the original work.’

Unlike the original work where two people were caught, this time the Duke only captured Count Ripe.

‘Moreover, in the original work, Count Ripe had died.’

However, the Duke released Count Ripe, and Count Ripe safely returned home.

‘Thinking about it that way, does it mean there’s a possibility the original work could change?’

It was a hopeful thought. If the original work could be changed, maybe the Duke wouldn’t become a villain either.

‘The Duke hasn’t committed any villainous acts that would follow the original work yet.’

He hadn’t met the male lead yet, nor had he harmed him.

No, come to think of it, the fact that I came to the Duke’s family was different from the original content, wasn’t it?

‘Then maybe I can continue to stay here…’

Soon, as I was thinking of one thing, I dropped my head weakly onto the pillow.

‘No, I don’t know yet.’

The content about the Duke capturing two suspicious vassals as suspects for the poisoning was an event that was briefly dealt with and passed over in the original work.

After some time, the Duke might capture another vassal to punish.

‘Still, it’s fortunate that Count Ripe was released.’

I had to find the real culprit before the Duke caught another innocent vassal.

‘That assassin must have received a request, right?’

If I only knew who made the request, I could quickly find the culprit. It was even harder to find out because asking the silver snake about this wouldn’t yield any results.

‘In the original work, the divine beast was omnipotent!’

The silver snake I saw directly was just a silly, stubborn snake that could speak human language.

‘Surely it’s not lying about being a divine beast?’

Somehow, I found myself deeply pondering this plausible thought. After all, a divine beast that should have gone to find the original protagonist wouldn’t have come to me, right?

But if I asked this outright, it would surely get extremely angry.

‘It already dislikes being called a silver snake, if I ask if it’s really a divine beast, it’ll get even more upset.’

As I was wondering how to probe into this, someone knocked on the door.

Startled, I quickly pushed the necklace under the pillow.

“Come in!”

The one who entered the room was Sophia.

“Young miss, are you still not asleep?”

It seemed she had turned back after seeing the room light on while passing by. I nodded my head while lying down obediently.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Shall I read you a book until you fall asleep?”

I was actually doing something else, but I started doing it because I couldn’t sleep.

If I had been sleepy, I wouldn’t have been pondering about the assassin or the silver snake’s identity in this dark night.

Sophia had a gentle voice. If she quietly read a book to me, it seemed like I might easily fall asleep.

Sophia took out a fairy tale book she often read to me and leaned against the headboard.

“Why can’t you sleep? You need to go to bed early today, after all.”

“So I can grow taller?”

“Yes, that’s right, but…”

Then is there another reason? I looked at Sophia with a puzzled expression.

Sophia just chuckled without giving a proper reason.

“You’ll find out in the morning.”

* * *

The next day, dawn broke.

A carriage that had passed through the shadows stopped nonchalantly in front of the main gate.

The gatekeepers who always guarded the gate thought the carriage had taken a wrong turn.

One of the gatekeepers approached the coachman riding in the carriage, raising one hand familiarly.

“Hey, you can’t park your carriage in front of here. Go somewhere else…”

The coachman, who seemed somewhat surprised at the gatekeeper’s behavior, hurriedly got off the carriage.

At the same time, the carriage window flung open and a head popped out.

“Open up!”

“What’s this noise…”

“It’s me!”

A cheerful voice, ill-fitting with the cold dawn air, was heard.

The gatekeeper who was about to chase away the carriage turned his gaze towards the voice. The gatekeeper’s brow furrowed as he discovered the boy who had popped out of the window.

“…Young master?”

The gatekeeper’s eyes widened as if he had seen something unbelievable.

“Young Master Clemens?”

“What? Did you say Young Master Clemens?”

“Yes! It’s been a while, everyone!”

Despite the early hour, the boy answered without a hint of drowsiness.

It was a welcome guest arriving at the crack of dawn. The duke’s household began its morning earlier than usual.