Jonny froze. It was the moment when the true secret he desperately wanted to hide was revealed.

“Rose didn’t commit suicide. She died because of this necklace that you engraved with a suicide spell using black magic.”

At those words, Siseul gasped. She had cherished that pendant necklace, thinking it was Rose’s last memento and the only evidence that could prove their relationship.

But to think that it was actually the murder weapon that killed Rose…

“No, no… No… I never did that. I didn’t do it.”

Jonny, who was panicking and shaking his head while backing away, tripped over his feet and fell disgracefully.

He crawled on his knees and approached Demian. Then, sitting at his feet, he shook his head like crazy.

“C-Commander! No! No, I never did such a thing. That necklace is fake! Siseul made it up to frame me…!”

“How much more are you going to disappoint me, Jonny Pattinson?”

Demian cruelly shook off Jonny’s hands that were clinging to his pant leg and looked down at him with a contemptuous gaze.

“You did the worst thing a knight should never do. Do you know what that is?”

Jonny hesitated and shook his head. Demian reached out and grabbed his shoulder as if to crush it.

“You betrayed your loyalty.”

“…”

“The woman who loved you, the colleagues who trusted you, and me too. You betrayed them all.”

Transparent tears welled up in Jonny’s eyes. He twisted his face like a child and sobbed.

“I had no choice. If Reina found out I cheated, she would surely break off our engagement… Even if I tried to break up on good terms, Rose said she didn’t like it and threatened to go to Reina and expose everything!”

Jonny didn’t intend to kill Rose from the beginning either. It was true that he met Rose because he liked her. Her pretty looks and cute personality appealed to him.

However, he had no intention of taking genuine responsibility for Rose. He only thought of her as a short-term relationship to enjoy while staying at the border.

He met Rose to alleviate his temporary loneliness.

If only she had quietly backed off, he wouldn’t have done this.

His engagement to Reina, the eldest daughter of Count Hobbes, was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that he absolutely could not miss as the second son of Marquis Pattinson.

But when Rose tried to ruin it, Jonny also went crazy.

The anxiety that he might lose his promising future as a knight if he made a mistake further stimulated him.

While desperately thinking of a way to silence Rose, one day a colleague told him this story.

“I heard this from a friend who works at the imperial government office a few years ago. Back then, a nobleman suddenly committed suicide. But his family made a fuss, saying there was no way and demanding an investigation. Having no choice, they dispatched someone to dig a little deeper, and it turned out it wasn’t really a suicide.”

“Then?”

“There’s a type of black magic curse that makes the target commit suicide, and someone who had a grudge against that nobleman made him kill himself with it.”

“Wow, amazing. There was no sign at all that he was under the influence of magic?”

“Yeah, it implants a suggestion in the target to kill themselves, so there was no trace at all.”

That was the first time Jonny became interested in black magic.

He was too afraid to eliminate Rose directly, worried that the Red Falcon Knights might investigate it as a murder case.

If it was suicide, not homicide, no one would pay attention. Rose didn’t even have a family to make a fuss like the nobleman in the story.

Siseul, whom she considered like a younger sibling, was also a lowly commoner like her, so she wouldn’t be able to easily step forward.

Moreover, if she died by magic, the chances of suspecting him, a knight, would be low.

Having made the cruel decision, Jonny discreetly met a black magician after making inquiries, and gifted Rose the pendant imbued with black magic.

And when she died a few hours later, he sent someone to stage the surroundings to make it look like a suicide.

However, his mistake was failing to retrieve the decisive evidence because Rose hid her diary and necklace under Siseul’s bed right before she died.

Rose, who was mentally driven to the edge in an instant by black magic, left those items to Siseul, her only family, with the intention of leaving a will and keepsake before committing suicide.

The pendant that he couldn’t find despite ransacking the house disguised as a thief had finally come back like this.

“After deceiving and betraying Rose first, what are you so indignant about? If I were her, I’d go find your fiancée and tell her not to marry a piece of trash like you too.”

Arasila looked at Jonny, who was crying with an aggrieved face, with disgust.

Then Siseul, who was sitting on the floor, staggered to her feet and approached him. Jonny flinched and looked up at Siseul.

“You had no choice because Rose elder sister blackmailed you…?”

Siseul’s voice trembled as she asked that. She knew Rose’s personality well.

Rose, who was foolishly kind and tenderhearted, blackmailing Jonny like that was not because she truly wanted to harm him in any way.

It was probably a plea not to abandon her, a last desperate hope to make him understand her hurt feelings and hear a sincere apology.

But Jonny Pattinson threw all of this away and ended his relationship with Rose in the worst way possible.

“Have you ever thought about why elder sister did that? No, have you ever… even once, apologized to her?”

“…”

Jonny couldn’t say anything.

Suddenly, the day he first fought with Rose came to mind. When she confronted him after finding out he had a fiancée, he said,

“I had no choice either. How could I honestly tell you I had a fiancée when you love me so much? Please try to understand me, Rose.”

He always tried to make excuses and brush everything off by saying he had no choice.

Perhaps Rose realized that the man she loved was actually such a cowardly fellow, so she hid the pendant and diary under Siseul’s bed, not her own.

Cowardly people would do anything to avoid problems.

“If you had just apologized, elder sister would have backed off. If you had just said you were sorry, foolishly kind elder sister would have given up on you and kept her mouth shut…”

This tragedy occurred because of Jonny, who was afraid that admitting his faults would leave a stain on his life.

Siseul collapsed on the floor and wailed. The sound was as if her soul was being torn to shreds in agony.

Jonny couldn’t face Siseul directly and turned his head. Demian’s shoes entered his field of vision.

“Jonny Pattinson, you are permanently expelled from the Red Falcon Knights. Know that your knighthood will also be revoked.”

“…!”

“From now on, you will never be able to become a knight wherever you go. You probably won’t be able to live properly either. The shadow of your sins will follow and bind you for the rest of your life.”

Demian’s voice, cold as ice and heavy, rang out like a death sentence. Jonny dropped his head with a dumbfounded face.

His future, dreams, and life were shattered into pieces by his own foolish actions, leaving no one to blame.

If only he had sincerely apologized and begged forgiveness from Rose back then, it wouldn’t have turned out like this…

Jonny, regretting everything too late, shed genuine tears. It was a belated reflection, much too late.

Through an internal investigation by the Red Falcon Knights, it was revealed that Jonny Pattinson had killed someone using black magic.

This news splendidly adorned the morning newspapers of the Cetrone Empire.

While announcing the detailed circumstances of the incident, the Knights officially revealed that Arasila’s assistance played a significant role.

The group of knights, who were on a roll when concluding Jonny Pattinson’s case at the Magic Tower, quickly fell silent.

Moreover, the fact that it wasn’t even uncovered by the Knights themselves, but Arasila’s cooperation played a big part, made them even more speechless.

However, that didn’t mean the magicians became elated either.

They also had nothing to say since they ended up handing the case back to the Knights to resolve after the Magic Tower concluded it without properly investigating just based on the identity of the accuser.

It was really embarrassing, but the Magic Tower belatedly received the case back from the Knights.

After all, incidents related to black magic had to be ultimately managed and judged by them.

An uncomfortable and awkward silence hung over the meeting to discuss Jonny Pattinson’s punishment.

When Arasila entered the conference room, that atmosphere noticeably intensified. Of course, Arasila didn’t really care and went to sit in her seat.

“Ahem, hem! Arasila, I heard you cooperated with the Red Falcon Knights to solve this case.”

Fernando, one of the senior magicians who had been reading the mood, cleared his throat and spoke first.

Of course, it wasn’t with good intentions, but because he still found this incident and her distasteful and wanted to make a bitter remark or two.

“You must have worked really hard, but wasn’t it a bit much to cooperate without the Magic Tower’s permission? Didn’t the Magic Tower end up looking more foolish because you helped the Knights?”

Arasila looked at Fernando with an extremely serene face.

When their eyes met, Fernando flinched slightly. Honestly, he knew he was nitpicking for no reason, so he felt guilty.

“I realized something from this incident.”

“…?”

“There are no humans more unsightly in this world than those who cannot admit their own faults.”

“…!”

Fernando’s face turned bright red. Since she didn’t clearly state the subject, some magicians whose feet were stepped on also turned red.

“You keep blaming me to the end because you don’t want to admit your own mistakes. Does that make you feel a bit more at ease?”

“Even so, your words are a bit…!”

The agitated Fernando tried to find fault this time based on her manner of speech and respect towards elders.

“That’s enough. Don’t embarrass yourself any further.”

Philip’s gentle yet firm voice echoed through the conference room.

“If we had listened to Arasila’s opinion and trusted her, this wouldn’t have happened. We brought this upon ourselves. We should be the ones apologizing to Arasila.”

At his words, some still looked dissatisfied, but some had a somewhat reflective expression.

Arasila slowly looked around at them and fixed her gaze on Fernando.

“Sir Fernando. Did you not hear the Tower Master’s words?”

At the indirect point that he wasn’t apologizing to her, Fernando wrinkled his brows.

Why should he apologize to this impudent wench?

However…

“I also want to apologize, Arasila. I’m sorry.”

As another senior magician readily apologized to Arasila, the atmosphere naturally flowed towards apologizing.

Realizing that if he resisted here, he would only look strange, Fernando eventually gritted his teeth and apologized.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Pardon? For what? If you don’t tell me specifically, I don’t know what you’re apologizing for.”

Arasila deliberately smiled brightly and said. She let the simple apologies from the other magicians slide, but singling him out like this made Fernando so furious he could die.

He wanted to lash out in anger, but he couldn’t because of Philip sitting at the head of the table, keeping an eye on him.

“For not believing you… For ignoring your opinion… I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright, Sir Fernando. That can happen. Just don’t do it next time.”

This smooth reply made Fernando’s blood pressure rise even higher, but he just tightly shut his mouth and turned his head away.

With the time for apologies over, the discussion on Jonny Pattinson’s punishment officially began.

“The crime of murder using black magic is usually heavier than ordinary murder. He must be executed.”

“But Jonny Pattinson is a noble, and the victim is a commoner. Giving the same punishment as the crime is excessive.”

“Personally, I think it’s best to send him to Luzon Island. Then he can decide for himself whether to live or die.”

“Legally, even lightly using black magic is a serious crime, and he even committed murder with it, so it’s only right to strip him of his noble status.”

Various opinions poured out. The customs of viewing black magic and murder as serious crimes clashed with the tendency to treat crimes committed by nobles against commoners relatively lightly.

Philip drew a conclusion that appropriately reflected the opinions of the executives as follows:

“Cut off both of Jonny Pattinson’s hands and tongue so he can never use black magic again, reduce him to slave status, and send him to Luzon Island for life.”

Luzon Island, nicknamed the “Island of Hell,” was a place where only vicious criminals were gathered.

The terrain was rough and the weather was bad, making it difficult to live, and people had to do hard labor for at least 12 hours a day, so they frequently died.

Even if he avoided the death penalty, it didn’t mean Jonny Pattinson’s remaining life was guaranteed.

The judgment handed down by the Magic Tower was announced after being approved by the emperor.

Jonny Pattinson immediately lost his hands and tongue and was exiled to Luzon Island. However, the emperor did not permit the demotion of his status, so he was still a noble.

But that wasn’t necessarily a good thing, as the majority of the criminals gathered on Luzon Island were commoners, so they had a strong resentment towards nobles.

He was likely to face harassment as soon as he arrived there for being a noble. His status wouldn’t hold much power there, so there would be no one to help him.

It was a fitting end for Jonny, who tried to lightly kill and cover up killing someone just for being a noble.

As the accusation turned out to be true, Siseul was spared from any significant punishment. However, it wasn’t something she could simply be happy about either.

After all, she found out that Rose, whom she thought had taken her own life, was actually murdered by the man she believed to be her lover…

Mentally and physically exhausted, Siseul decided to leave the capital. But she had no intention of returning to her hometown. She just planned to wander wherever her feet took her.

On the day Jonny Pattinson was dragged to Luzon Island, Siseul also packed her belongings and left the house.

Then, she ran straight into Arasila, who had come to see her for some business.

Blue eyes scanned Siseul up and down as she held her luggage bag.

“Looks like you’re leaving now.”

“Yes, there’s no reason for me to stay here any longer.”

Siseul calmly replied, fidgeting her fingers before carefully opening her mouth again.

“I’m sorry for lying to you, lady Arasila.”

“It’s alright, it turned out to be true that Sir Pattinson used black magic.”

“No, not about that…”

Arasila promptly answered, but Siseul shook her head.

In fact, there were words left unsaid to her.

She had wanted to meet Arasila before leaving and tell her something. Since they probably wouldn’t meet again, this was the last chance.