The End Of The Special Contract Marriage - Chapter 53

The knight’s face, which had flinched greatly, slowly turned red. He seemed to hate being called stupid even though he had just uttered a stupid remark.

“Lexy Litterson is not an appropriate analogy for this case. You seem to be bad at grasping the situation, so watch your words at least.”

“Your words are too harsh, Madam!”

“Then straighten your posture and conduct the investigation properly. I didn’t call you here as a joke.”

Arasila stared at him with a chilly gaze. She could overlook his rude behavior once or twice, but had no intention of putting up with it for long.

Pressured, the knight hesitantly straightened his crooked sitting posture.

Now that he seemed to have the right mindset for being questioned, Arasila threw out her third question.

“Do you know what Inspector Pattinson was doing on April 2nd of last year?”

“Um, at that time……”

The knight rolled his eyes back and forth, searching his mind. A vague memory came back to him.

“…Ah! The captain gave us about a day off, so we all drank together.”

“Inspector Pattinson too?”

“Yes.”

“Until what time did you drink?”

“I don’t remember exactly….. But Johnny left around 10 o’clock. I remember because he told me he was leaving first.”

It was the moment a useful testimony came out. Arasila leaned forward, pricking up her ears.

“Did he go alone? Wasn’t there a colleague who went with him?”

“Yes, there was no one. That guy Johnny really dislikes entertainment, so he always left first by himself every time.”

This would put Johnny Pattinson’s alibi back into a mystery.

When asked if there was anything strange about Johnny Pattinson around that time, the knight scratched his head and shook his head.

The subsequent interrogation only produced the same answers as before.

Hopper’s testimony was Arasila’s greatest achievement from the witness investigation.

Meanwhile, the knights who finished the investigation headed to the captain’s office.

Seeing them flocking in and standing with their hands behind their backs, Demian touched his temples. Anyone could see that they had come to protest because they were dissatisfied.

“What’s the matter?”

“Captain, we received unfair treatment at the Magic Tower today.”

“Tell me in detail.”

Then the knights vied to denounce how they were investigated as witnesses by the Magic Tower.

“She spoke and acted in a high-handed manner as if she were our superior.”

“She called me in for questioning and then just kept hurling insults at me as a knight.”

“They have already branded Johnny as a criminal internally, and mocked us for believing in Johnny!”

The knights’ words were not lies. They had really experienced such things, and there was a reason for it.

Arasila could not interrogate all the knights herself, so she divided the work with other mages of the Magic Tower.

While she and her junior Rudy conducted the interrogation normally, the problem was that about half of the other mages did not.

“Is that true?”

“Yes, it’s the truth without a shred of falsehood!”

“Captain, we must immediately take over Johnny’s case! Those mages are rotten!”

The knights burst out indignantly and actively insisted. Demian first sent them back to calm them down.

It was obvious that agreeing with an excited counterpart would only create more excitement.

After his subordinates left and the office became quiet, Demian thought alone. Anger was slowly boiling up inside him.

‘They said they would investigate properly.’

He cooperated because they said they would do well if he didn’t interfere, but now that this happened, he naturally became suspicious of Arasila.

Anyway, it was true that she mismanaged the witness investigation, so he felt that way even more.

‘Is she working properly? This is why mages are….’

He clicked his tongue briefly and brushed back his hair. His smooth forehead was very wrinkled.

The fact that Johnny Pattinson was accused of using black magic became known to the outside as time passed.

Regarding this fact, the reactions of the mage group and the knight group were clearly divided.

“That knight must have been falsely accused. Why would a knight dabble in magic?”

“Cursing someone ominously with black magic is something only mages would do, and if he were a knight, he would have challenged them to a fair duel.”

Of course, the knights took the knight’s side.

“Tsk, how pathetic to touch black magic in desperation. You should have come to the Magic Tower and begged us to teach you magic instead.”

“See, in the end, they also resort to using magic when they’re in a hurry? It’s proof that magic is superior to swords.”

The mages showed the opposite reaction.

Still, there were some who occasionally took a neutral stance, but they disappeared before long.

It was because an incident occurred that ignited the precarious atmosphere.

That incident was none other than a brawl that broke out between knights of the Crimson Hawk Order and mages belonging to the Magic Tower who happened to visit the same restaurant.

Fortunately, the fight ended before any deaths occurred, but there were one or two severe injuries on both sides.

And with this conflict as an opportunity, the ‘Johnny Pattinson Black Magic Accusation Case’ spread into a conflict between mages and knights as a whole.

The relationship between the two groups rapidly cooled.

Originally, they couldn’t say their relationship was good even with empty words, but it became much worse.

Now everyone was paying attention to how the Magic Tower’s investigation would turn out. Whether Johnny Pattinson was guilty or not guilty would determine the contrasting joys and sorrows of the two groups.

Amid this agitated situation, something happened that made Arasila, the person in charge of the case, even more troubled.

“Uh, Senior. I found out who the anonymous accuser is.”

The identity of the accuser that Sally had worked hard to track down turned out to be…

“It’s a woman named Sisl who works on 4th Street.”

A street woman.

4th Street was a street where all kinds of taverns were gathered. To put it nicely, that’s what it was, but it was easy to guess the occupation of people working there.

Just looking at Sally’s attitude as she spoke while looking around was enough to make it obvious.

‘There are already many people who can’t believe it because it’s an anonymous accusation, and if her identity is revealed, it will be a mess.’

Arasila sighed, making a wry smile.

People generally tended to have a hard time trusting the words of those deeply involved in entertainment.

Moreover, Johnny Pattinson was famous among his colleagues for not liking entertainment. If the accuser’s identity was revealed, he might become innocent.

Everyone would clearly choose the knight with a better reputation over the street woman.

“Keep the accuser’s identity strictly confidential. Don’t tell anyone other than us.”

“Yes, Senior!”

Sally and Rudy nodded solemnly.

“And I’ll go meet that person named Sisl and come back.”

“You’re going in person, Senior?”

“Yes, I’m going tomorrow.”

Arasila heard the name Sisl for the first time. But she wanted to know how she knew her and sent the accusation letter.

In addition, she was also curious about how a street woman ended up accusing a knight who disliked entertainment.

However, she was a little concerned about whether to tell Demian about this.

She had promised to be transparent, but she was worried about his reaction when he found out the accuser’s identity.

‘It will be troublesome if he interferes.’

She pondered until she arrived home, and eventually decided to keep her promise. It was because she didn’t know what kind of fault he might find in the future if she didn’t tell him now.

“Are you saying a street woman accused Johnny?”

Demian narrowed his brows upon hearing the accuser’s identity. Arasila quickly raised her hand at his clearly displeased reaction.

“Stop, don’t say anything more than that.”

“……….”

“I will proceed with the investigation regardless of the accuser’s occupation. So don’t make unnecessary remarks.”

Demian’s lips twitched. He seemed to have intended to make a lot of unnecessary remarks.

“You’re the only one who knows about this, Demian. I kept my promise, so you keep yours too. Understood?”

“…I understand.”

Although dissatisfaction was all over his expression and voice, Arasila was satisfied that he answered.

She believed that a knight who sang about faith and fidelity would not break his promise.

The next day, Arasila headed to 4th Street.

The street at noon was abnormally quiet. It was natural since this space became lively at night after the sun went down.

She entered a worn-out wooden building and went to the room at the far left end of the second floor and knocked on the door.

As she kept knocking until the other person came out, soon a sound was heard from inside. Before long, a woman exhausted with fatigue opened the door and came out.

“Who are you?”

“Hi, Sisl.”

Arasila greeted with a bright smile. Perhaps recognizing her right away, Sisl flinched.

Blocking her from reflexively closing the door, Arasila spoke in a gentle tone.

“I know you sent an anonymous accusation letter addressed to me. Shall we go inside and talk for a bit?”

Sisl’s eyes shook greatly. She stood still without moving, trembling the hand that locked the doorknob, looking like she didn’t know what to do.

Arasila leisurely waited for her to make a wise decision.

Fortunately, after hesitating, Sisl opened the door more to let Arasila come inside.

The room was desolate with nothing but a bed, closet, and bedside table. Like someone who was about to move, it looked like the room of a person who would leave here soon.

Sisl asked anxiously, looking at Arasila who was thoroughly examining the room.

“How did you find out about this place?”

“If you wrote the letter with your left hand, you should have written the guest book the same way with your left hand. So your original handwriting wouldn’t be left.”

“……….”

The Magic Tower required all visitors to record their names in the guest book.

Sisl left the accusation letter in front of Arasila’s lab and wrote a pseudonym with her real handwriting in the guest book.

When the guard suddenly told her to write it, she was flustered and used her familiar hand.

“…Did you find me with just the handwriting?”

“No, that tattoo also played a part. The Magic Tower has a lot of people, so there are also many eyes watching.”

Arasila pointed with her chin to the flower tattoo drawn on Sisl’s wrist.

She had carefully covered her face, but carelessly took out her hand when using the pen. At that moment, someone passing by happened to see her and remembered the flower-shaped tattoo on her wrist and informed Sally.

With just those two pieces of information, Sally had tenaciously pursued Sisl and revealed her identity.

“Why did you send me an accusation letter?”

At Arasila’s straightforward question, Sisl took a deep breath and answered.

“You seemed to be the most trustworthy person, Arasila.”

“How do you know me?”

“I recently saw an article about you winning the hunting competition.”

Sisl rummaged through the bedside table drawer and took out several newspaper articles about Arasila.

“I thought if you were such a capable female mage, you would surely be different from other men or knights, so I could trust and entrust this to you.”

Arasila leaned against the window frame and looked at Sisl.

Perhaps because of her lifestyle of mainly working at night and sleeping during the day, her face was covered in fatigue.

“How did you know that Inspector Pattinson used black magic?”

“I saw it myself.”

“What is your relationship with the inspector that you would see that?”

“He was a regular at the store where I worked.”

Arasila was secretly surprised by those words.

It was because the knight who was said to be close to him had said that he was so sincere that he had a fiancée and would not join drinking gatherings with women to the extent of disliking entertainment.

But such a man was a regular at Sisl’s store?

It contradicted the reputation around him.

“I heard Inspector Pattinson dislikes entertainment.”

When she directly relayed what she had heard, a sneer flashed across Sisl’s mouth along with a snort. It was an instinctive reaction that was not calculated.

“Well, he did keep his visits to our store strictly secret.”

“Then there would be no one who knows or has witnessed you meeting Inspector Pattinson?”

Caught off guard by the sharp question, Sisl flinched. Seeing that she couldn’t refute it, it seemed there really was no one who knew about the relationship between the two.

Chewing her lips, Sisl suddenly opened her mouth as if she remembered something.

“…I have proof that we know each other.”