Cesare boldly strode into the center of the crowd. He inadvertently became the main instigator in revealing the identity of the secret meeting participant, as he approached the wife of the noble couple who first discovered the truth. He grabbed and took the Collegione bracelet she had been holding.

“This is my bracelet. Please give it back.”

Against Cesare’s force, the noble lady lost her bracelet. She looked at Cesare in disbelief.

“This is a woman’s bracelet. How could it be yours?”

Cesare replied with a faint smile.

“I bought it for a woman, but since she didn’t accept it, it ended up being mine.”

Cesare, having snatched the green topaz bracelet from the noble lady, held it up high in the air for all to see.

“Everyone! This bracelet belongs to Count Cesare.”

The light of the moon and the torch simultaneously illuminated the red ruby, revealing the green gem with a missing tooth that shone intermittently.

“The mask, necklace, and bracelet of Lady de Mare were all made as a set.”

Cesare grinned.

“Certainly, there’s enough evidence for you all to think this bracelet is hers. After all, the three were originally a set.”

He subtly reassured the audience with a message, ‘you did nothing wrong,’ as he tried to align with their sentiments.

Public anger itself is a powerful force, one that tends to ignore anyone’s words. It was important to start with a friendly relationship.

“How did I know? I was the one who gave the mask to the second Lady de Mare as a gift.”

Cesare stood right next to Ariadne and took off his own mask.

He removed his mask and held it high above so everyone could see the inside of the mask.

“Do you see? The inside of this mask?”

The Fleurdelis pattern on Cesare’s mask was almost invisible from the outside due to its small and densely patterned design.

However, on the inside of the mask, there was a large Fleurdelis pattern exactly like Ariadne’s. Even the color combination of the embedded red ruby and green topaz was the same.

Standing right next to each other, the patterns of the two masks looked strikingly similar.

“I wanted to complete the set for her at the ball by giving her the bracelet that was made with the mask. It was a surprise gift. But…”

Cesare theatrically dropped his gaze.

“How haughty! The lady, who somehow accepted the mask as a gift, refused to accept it as soon as she found out that the mask was part of a set with mine.”

He savored the attention from the crowd, shrugged his shoulders, and continued.

“She said she would return the mask after the ball since she couldn’t go without a mask at the masquerade, she couldn’t accept the bracelet, she didn’t want to be misunderstood by being together at our ball, and she told me not to come within 5 Piedi (about 2.5 meters) of her. She was so cold and sharp!”

Cesare dramatically shook his head.

“But if you give up because you’re discouraged, you’re not a man! I threw a Hail Mary to the lady.”

He paused for a moment before continuing.

“Marry me.”

Someone in the audience screamed uncontrollably.

Cesare winked at the direction of the scream, saluting his fan. After providing fan service, he returned his attention to the audience and shook his head tragically.

“But she rejected me cleanly! She told me not to dream.”

Cesare raised his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender.

“And to make matters worse, Prince Alfonso de Carlo saw the whole embarrassing scene.”

Cesare slapped Alfonso’s shoulder with a sorrowful smile.

“Watching from the bushes, just like a rat.”

Alfonso grinned through clenched teeth at Cesare. He whispered quietly to Count Cesare through his gritted teeth.

“That ratlike thing was what you did.”

“Let me have some fun too, your Highness. That’s no way to treat your savior.”

Cesare chuckled softly.

“Smile, show your teeth.”

Prince Alfonso clenched his fist but could not bring himself to swing it. Cesare left Alfonso, who was caught off guard, and cheerfully returned to his place to continue the performance for the audience.

“His Highness made a noise in the bush, and our noble lady found His Highness. And then she asked for help because a strange man was threatening her. The lady in trouble left me alone after receiving the escort of His Highness.”

The crowd began to buzz again.

“What? So it’s true that she was with the Prince?”

Cesare did not miss the audience’s murmurs.

“The fact that the lady was not with Prince Alfonso ‘all’ the time at the ball is true. Because she was with me at the beginning. But I escorted her from the very early stage. Her alibi is flawless.”

“Then why is the bracelet here?”

Count Cesare had a reasonable explanation for everything.

“I was so angry that I went to join my troublemaker friends, and they were all gambling in a small room hidden in a corner of the palace. There, that gentleman too.”

Cesare pointed at Count Campa, who was lying on the floor covered with a cloak and snoring. There was no one else to accompany Count Campa in the monastery.