Ariadne, still angry, kicked the glass pieces again.

Revenge was supposed to be enjoyable.

Suddenly, Ariadne realized that her cheeks were hot. It was tears.

She was not sad about Lucrezia’s death. It was because she realized that nothing changes even with her death.

After staying in the northern basement for a long time, Ariadne returned late. Back in her place, she ordered Sanca to take care of Lucrezia’s body.

Sanca, who had dealt with Lucrezia’s body and returned, finally heard from Ariadne what had happened in the northern basement.

“What? What did you say?!”

“Your ears are going to fall off, Sanca.”

“No, Miss! Did ‘Miss Rosy’ really admit with her own mouth that Epolito, no, damn Epolito was a bastard?!”

“Yes.”

Ariadne, who had erased any signs of crying and returned to her quarters with a pale face, began to take off her earrings, necklace, and other jewelry one by one and put them on the side table while resting, seemingly tired, on the sofa.

Sanca, who had been too shocked to attend to Ariadne’s body, was startled when Ariadne began to remove her jewelry herself and quickly helped her undress.

“Why are you so surprised? We both heard Maletta’s confession.”

“No, I didn’t think it would be true!”

While diligently brushing Ariadne’s abundant hair with a finely crafted wooden comb, Sanca continued the conversation.

“Maletta, whatever she said, was a child who could pick up and serve. In fact, at that time, she must have said anything to catch your eye.”

“That’s true.”

“Oh, it’s such a waste!”

Sanca stomped her foot.

“You shouldn’t have gone down alone! If you had brought a witness! Even if you had left the esteemed Cardinal de Mare outside the basement door to eavesdrop, damn Epolito would have been finished!”

Ariadne answered tiredly.

“How many times in life do things go so conveniently and easily.”

She ran her fingers through the hair that Sanca was brushing.

“My father, Cardinal de Mare, is a much more… emotional person than you think. If he heard me cornering ‘Miss Rosy,’ he would have run in barefoot.”

Sanca answered gloomily.

“That’s true…”

“It’s not just the esteemed Cardinal. If I had my trustworthy person waiting outside the door, there would be no credibility in the testimony, and if I had a somewhat neutral person like a butler standing there, they wouldn’t have been able to respond to the sudden situation.”

The love of the archbishop’s wife lasted for about 20 years until Ariadne appeared and sequentially disclosed Lucrezia’s sins to the world.

Thanks to that, the family was at a loss as to which line to take until the moment of Lucrezia’s death.

It would be a disaster if Miss Ariadne tried to kill Lady Lucrezia four hours earlier than you ordered, and ran upstairs.

“I didn’t kill Lucrezia before the time my father told me to. I think there’s more than a half chance that the guy will be fickle tomorrow morning.”

“Really? After all that fuss? Do you know how hard it was to persuade Mr. Scampa and the representatives of the local cooperative! Miss, you can’t mean that!”

“Shall we bet?”

“Okay! I will win this.”

“What are we betting?”

“Um……. If I lose, I’ll give you my favorite cookie!”

Sancha was addicted to the sugar cookies from ‘La Montagne Bakery’. It was an expensive luxury product that was hard to eat frequently even with Sancha’s increased salary.

“Wow, you’re betting a lot?”

“I’m going to win anyway.”

Ariadne answered with a giggle.

“If you really win, I’ll give you the pearl hairpin that I recently had made.”

Sancha’s eyes widened.

“Miss, wasn’t that what you had made to wear at the next mass with a dress from Collezioni? Can you give that to me?”

Ariadne replied with a grin.

“I bet because there’s no chance I’ll have to give it.”

“Miss! Aren’t you too confident?”

“You’ll see.”

Ariadne wore a smirk on her lips. She knew her father very well.

Sancha began to carefully comb the hair that Ariadne had ruffled with her fingers.

“Doesn’t your heart flutter at the thought of receiving jewelry worth over 15 ducats?”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Ah, it’s too bad. We only know the rumor that Epolito is of different seed!”

Ariadne looked up at Sancha.

“Who said that we should only know and pass it on? I never miss a card that comes into my hands.”

“Really?”

“Where in the world is there a case without evidence? Let’s take some time and look for it. Didn’t you hear the story of Lucrezia coming into the de Mare family with a full belly when we were investigating this time? I think something will come out if we look closely at the Rosci family.”

“They are relatives of Epolito…… Will they willingly tell us?”

“If they’re sober, they’ll never do it. But if we look closely, there will be some cracks somewhere. Time is on our side.”

Ariadne lifted her head with a look of conviction.

The archbishop de Mare usually woke up when the first rooster crowed in the morning. However, he woke up long after the sun had risen, as he had only fallen asleep at dawn after tossing and turning all night.