“Don’t you know too. Even if everything happens as you said, the possibility that you will escape without any damage as an innocent victim is extremely low.”

Ariadne was taken aback. The queen’s disregard for any political advantages in helping her was beyond Ariadne’s calculations.

“Hah, Your Majesty Queen Hauona. There is no other way out.”

The queen just stared at everyone with her turquoise eyes. The impatient Madame Carla also interjected.

“Your Majesty! We must protect Prince Alfonso from rumors at all costs!”

Madame Carla has been watching Alfonso since he was a child. He was not her biological child but the only son of her lord, and the future king who would guarantee the lord’s future. He must not be damaged.

And Elko, Alfonso’s knight, felt the same way. Elko, who had been quietly listening to the conversation on his knees, stood up in front of Queen Marguerite.

“Your Majesty. Your Highness, the Prince. Please use my conviction. I will overturn everything.”

“Elko!”

Prince Alfonso’s shocked voice echoed in the ‘queen’s reception room’. The prince held back his knight.

“It’s my fault. I’ll take responsibility. I have done nothing to be ashamed of under the sky.”

But the one to restrain her son was indeed Queen Marguerite’s sharp question.

“To prove that you are not ashamed, you have no choice but to talk about the young lady de Mare. Do you have a countermeasure?”

Alfonso couldn’t continue, clenched his fist. He spat out after choosing his words for a while.

“But…… A ruler must protect his people. I cannot push her to hide my flaw instead of protecting.”

It meant that he had no countermeasures. Taking advantage of the situation, Sir Elko spoke.

“Your Highness. Principally, a lord should protect his subjects. However, it is the role of that subject to protect the lord until the lord gains such power.”

This was Sir Elko’s atonement.

A few days ago, Sir Elko, who left to escort the daughter of a cleric at the order of Prince Alfonso, felt as if he had been struck by lightning the moment he saw her.

Elegant posture, sophisticated manner, under the highclass clothing, the neck and limbs stretched like a deer. And an attractive energy that could not take his eyes off. She was the most noble woman he had ever seen, and at the same time the most alive.

But she was his lord’s woman. The lord who saved him from the garbage dump when he ran away from home and worked hard under the martial arts instructor of San Carlo without salary, barely learning swordsmanship by listening.

The same lord who broke through the opposition of other aristocratic children who made his origin a problem and included him in the prince’s direct escort knight.

He tried to rationalize it as an obvious knight’s duty to a noble lady, but it was not convincing. What he harbored was closer to an insuppressible desire than admiration.

Since that day, he spent every night with his eyes open. He couldn’t stand himself succumbing to dirty imagination. So he was grateful for what happened today.

‘Let’s atone to the lord. Let’s atone to her. It would be perfect if I could protect her as atonement.’

Sir Elko glanced at Ariadne with cold eyes, then turned his head back to Alfonso. Except for this one event, Sir Elko never once glanced at Ariadne.

“If Your Highness wants to protect that person, that’s fine too. How you use me is your will.”

But the words that came out of his mouth were cold. Elko continued to plead with Alfonso on his knees.

“I will dress up as a royal palace groom and hinder the suspicious Duke Mireiyu, saying that I killed him without knowing who he was. Then that person will not rise to the top at all.”

Alfonso looked at Elko with a shocked look.

“But……. If that happens, Elko, you……!”

“If I claim that I killed Duke Mireiyu instead of you, it’s the same as me being dead.”

Elko said, looking straight at the shaking Alfonso.

“If we claim that the Prince killed Duke Mireille to save him, there may be a chance for mercy, but it just increases the likelihood, it doesn’t definitively guarantee survival. I have a hard time getting out of this murder, no matter what the motive is. If we’re going to use one life, it’s better to use it for both of you.”

Prince Alfonso tried to dissuade Sir Elco. However, Sir Elco knelt before the prince.

“Since the day you took me from the martial arts master on the outskirts of the castle and brought me to Palazzo Carlo, my life has already been yours. Please use it in this place today.”

Prince Alfonso didn’t get another chance to refuse Sir Elco’s proposal. Because the rough pounding noise from outside and the roar of a middleaged man were heard.

“Alfonso, you son of a bitch, are you here?!”

King Leo III’s angry voice echoed through the corridor. Queen Marguerite exchanged glances with maid Carla in confusion.

“Why would His Majesty be here?”

“He wasn’t scheduled to come originally.”

On top of that, he was specifically looking for Prince Alfonso.