Caroline, who barely regained her senses, snatched the documents Karina was reading and tore them to shreds.

Still unable to calm her excitement, she panted heavily.

“It’s useless to tear them up. The reports can be made again.”

Karina said nonchalantly.

“These are just a small part. No matter how much we investigate, it seems endless. Truly, I was astounded.”

Caroline’s face turned bright red.

“It’s a lie! Karina fabricated false documents to get me in trouble!”

Despite Caroline’s fierce rebuttal, Karina spoke calmly in an even tone.

“If you keep claiming it’s slander, there are witnesses besides the documents.”

Karina gestured with her eyes to a corner of the venue.

There, the orphanage director and his cronies stood nervously, trembling and cowering.

The orphanage director was someone who usually showed his face everywhere, trying to curry favor.

Some people who recognized his face clicked their tongues, saying they knew it all along.

Others shook their heads.

“If the witnesses aren’t enough, I can bring more. I have all the statements and petitions from people claiming to have been harmed by your actions. Just let me know when you need them.”

Karina said with a slight smile.

Caroline’s fingertips trembled.

“Sister. We need to talk privately.”

“…!”

Caroline jumped at Jeremiah’s words.

“No, why are you doing this? I’m telling you it’s a lie! They’re using my name to get me in trouble! Don’t you believe me?”

Caroline shouted, but Jeremiah’s attitude didn’t change.

“I will investigate the facts myself. Until the investigation is over, you will wait in your room.”

The murmuring of the surrounding people grew louder at Jeremiah’s actions, maintaining a firm attitude despite Caroline’s protests.

“Oh my. It must be true!”

“How could she do such a vicious thing?”

Even those who couldn’t grasp what was true were shocked as they grasped the situation.

“To think the Grand Duchess would orchestrate such a sordid affair.”

“It’s really hard to believe.”

Unable to bear the gazes and whispers of the people, Caroline lashed out.

“Are you saying you’re going to confine me? I’m the Grand Duchess and your only sister!”

Caroline protested in a shrill voice, mentioning her status as Grand Duchess.

But it only had the opposite effect.

“If you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ll be released without any problems. But if this is all true…”

Jeremiah’s eyes shone brightly.

“Even if you are my sister, you won’t be able to avoid punishment for your wrongdoings.”

“…!”

Caroline’s complexion turned as pale as if all the blood had drained from her body.

“Escort my sister to her room.”

At Jeremiah’s words, Caroline was dragged away from that spot.

After the commotion at the charity event, the atmosphere in the Grand Duke’s household was unsettled due to the aftermath.

Immediately after the charity event, Caroline was stripped of all her rights and authority and was forced to move to the annex, as if being driven out.

Caroline was currently under house arrest, unable to take even a single step outside the annex.

Nevertheless, the servants of the Grand Duke’s household held resentment towards Karina, not Caroline who had done wrong.

Caroline was the Grand Duke’s only family member.

Even when nobles did wrong, they often got away with light punishments.

They couldn’t imagine that Caroline, who had enjoyed power in the Grand Duke’s household for so long, would fall from grace so suddenly.

They thought the punishment would end with just a month of house arrest at most.

And the fact that Jeremiah didn’t show great affection towards Karina was another major reason for their attitude.

The fearless maids grumbled among themselves.

“If only the Grand Duchess had just stayed quiet, none of this would have happened.”

“Because she went around meddling unnecessarily, the atmosphere in the mansion has become like walking on thin ice.”

“What is this? We’re the only ones suffering while trying to work. Pointlessly.”

Most of them were those who had sided with Caroline and flattered her.

Signs of unfavorable public opinion towards Karina began to raise its head within the Grand Duke’s household.

Charlotte firmly reined it in.

“Quiet! How dare you speak so carelessly about the Grand Duchess! If it happens one more time, I’ll report every word you’ve said to the Grand Duke!”

“…We’re sorry.”

The scolded maids closed their mouths, but they were puzzled and couldn’t adjust to Charlotte’s suddenly changed attitude.

Charlotte ignored the maids’ doubts and reprimanded them with an even sterner expression.

In fact, when things first broke out at the venue, Charlotte fell into despair.

She fretted, thinking that if an investigation started because of this incident, all the wrongdoings her son had done would be revealed.

It was unlikely that the Grand Duchess, who had already achieved what she wanted, would care about her and her son’s situation now.

Moreover, she had bullied and mistreated her on Caroline’s orders.

Even if the Grand Duchess, who had kept that in mind, pretended not to know, there was nothing she could do.

She might even decide to get rid of her altogether, saying it was for the best.

Her future looked bleak and hopeless.

While she was falling into helplessness, Karina called Charlotte separately.

‘Don’t worry about your son’s matter. I’ve paid off all the loan debts, and I’ve destroyed all the loan contracts that used the Grand Duke’s villa as collateral. I took care of everything before the investigation started, so your son won’t be implicated in this matter.’

‘What…?’

Charlotte’s eyes widened upon hearing her words.

‘You secretly took out the bribery ledger that Caroline was keeping. This is in return for that. I kept my promise.’

Charlotte was dumbfounded that Karina had kept her promise.

‘I told you. I don’t abandon my people.’

Karina said just that with an indifferent expression, without making any additional demands or threats to Charlotte.

That was the end of it.

Charlotte finally realized.

She wanted to serve someone dignified who knew how to embrace their subordinates and keep their word, someone trustworthy.

Not a master who made them anxious, not knowing when they might be abandoned.

Charlotte felt deeply ashamed of herself.

The mistakes she had made in the past flashed through her mind.

The quiet silence felt like a rebuke directed at her, making her break out in a cold sweat.

‘If you’re done, you can leave.’

Charlotte prostrated herself before Karina, who spoke without inflection.

‘Grand Duchess. I’m truly sorry. And thank you so much.’

At that moment, Charlotte made a decision.

To sincerely become her person.

At the same time.

Caroline was trembling with rage.

“You brazen, insolent X!!”

Caroline screamed loud enough to echo through the room.

Crash!

She threw the vase on the table to the floor.

The vase shattered, sending glass shards flying in all directions.

“You dare trap me with your vile schemes?”

Caroline stomped on the fallen flowers repeatedly.

As the flowers were crushed, they stained the carpet messily.

Caroline breathed heavily, panting with a distorted face.

Still not satisfied, she continued to throw whatever objects she could grab – picture frames, water bottles, and more.

Only when the room had become almost a complete mess did Caroline stop her actions.

“Haa, haa, that fox-like wench! Does she think I’ll just sit back and take this?”

Caroline spewed out the anger boiling inside her.

“Genen! That idiot! To spill everything as soon as he was caught, there’s a limit to stupidity!”

The attendant maid confined in the room with Caroline was holding her breath.

She quietly waited on the side for Caroline’s anger to subside.

“Indeed, filthy and vulgar things can’t be helped. Not knowing their place and getting cocky!”

Caroline bit her lip with an expression of disgust.

“I’m different! I’m of noble birth!”

Caroline took great pride in her bloodline.

‘Royal blood flows through my veins! The blood of the legitimate imperial line!’

Caroline’s attitude was greatly influenced by the stories she heard about her great-grandfather when she was young.

The Colsberg Grand Duke of her great-grandfather’s time was originally the firstborn crown prince in the imperial palace.

However, he had no desire for the throne and passed it to his second younger brother.

He then left the imperial palace with a new surname, Colsberg, and the title of Grand Duke.

That was the starting point of the Colsberg family.

If her great-grandfather hadn’t given up the throne, if he had become emperor as the rightful firstborn, she would have been living as an imperial princess of the empire by now.

Although she was now a Grand Duchess, the consciousness that she was originally a high-ranking and special person who inherited the noble blood of the legitimate imperial line was ingrained in her.

“Sigh.”

Caroline, somewhat calmed down, slumped into a chair.

“Something’s wrong.”

Caroline nervously bit her fingertips.

It was a habit from her childhood that was rarely seen as she grew older.

“Jeremiah wouldn’t do this. To take that wench Karina’s side!”

Caroline recalled Jeremiah looking at her with cold eyes while siding with Karina at the event.

“That wench Karina must have used some strange trick. How else could this happen!”

As Caroline spewed her anger again, her close attendant cautiously spoke up.

“Grand Duchess. Please don’t worry too much. There’s still Duke Revals.”

Caroline’s expression brightened as she had been frantically biting her fingertips.

“Right. Revals is completely infatuated with me! He’d do anything at my word, he won’t just sit by and watch this situation.”

A chilling smile appeared on her lips.

“Just wait until I get out of here. I’ll make that presumptuous, insolent thing clearly realize her place soon enough.”

Both a spine-chilling venom and a sticky bloodthirst rose simultaneously in Caroline’s eyes.

“They’re all incompetent fools.”

Jeremiah muttered coldly.

His low voice was filled with sharp anger.

The financial and tax officials of the North gathered before Jeremiah trembled in fear.

Given the North’s geographical characteristics of being constantly exposed to the threat of monster invasions, military power and troops were extremely important.

Jeremiah, as the commander-in-chief of the military, had to lead the knighthood.

Border defense against foreign powers, preparation for monster invasions, subjugation, and so on.

He was so busy that he barely had time to breathe just focusing on military affairs, so he had appointed separate officials to handle the administrative work of the North.

But they had failed to perform their roles properly.

Before Jeremiah lay documents recording the circumstances and evidence of Caroline embezzling money and taking various bribes along with other nobles.

Even a list of businesses Caroline had invested in under the name of the Grand Duke’s family was mixed in.

“How did you manage to keep your positions while handling things so poorly? What have you been doing all this time?”

“Th-that is…”

The financial officer, who had been frozen stiff, barely opened his mouth.

“When… when we checked, much of the content in the documents we kept differed from reality. Many signatures and names of contractors were written by proxies, so it was impossible to discover without going to each site to confirm…”

“Do you call that an explanation?”

Jeremiah spat out the words as if grinding them.

“…”

The financial officer’s face drained of blood at Jeremiah’s words.

Of course, it wasn’t that they didn’t know anything at all.

But even when they found something strange in the documents, they turned a blind eye and approved them not because they were incompetent.

It was Caroline using her position as Grand Duchess to do these things.

They remained silent out of concern for the prestige of the Colsberg Grand Duke’s family rather than Grand Duchess Caroline.

They had been mindful of Jeremiah.

The financial officers felt a bit wronged, but they couldn’t voice such excuses.