“This… This is truly unbelievable.”

Riona was pale as a sheet, her tears having dried up.

“Whether it’s believable or not will be revealed through investigation.”

“Count!”

Callian shouted angrily at the count.

“Are you saying you’re going to investigate my mother?”

“The imperial investigation team follows only the imperial orders. We have no personal feelings towards Your Grace.”

“This is merely an incident entangled in private misunderstandings within the family.”

“As connections to subversive forces have been discovered, you know very well that this is no longer an internal family matter, Your Grace.”

Callian flinched at the count’s words.

There was no logical contradiction in what he said.

However, Callian simply could not believe that his mother would do such a thing. Surely someone’s plot…

“Allow me to speak on behalf of mother for a moment.”

Esika’s clear voice was heard.

“Mother probably didn’t know they were subversive forces. She merely gathered some ruffians and instigated them out of ugly jealousy and hatred towards me.”

“…!”

Riona’s eyes shook greatly at Esika’s calm vitriol.

While a casual investigation at the office might overlook it, the thorough imperial investigation team would already have evidence that could prove the fact that money had changed hands between Riona and those people.

So denying any relationship with them would be futile.

“Isn’t that right, mother?”

The wicked serpent was tempting with a poisoned apple.

If she didn’t accept this, it threatened to push her off the cliff.

The promising young nobles behind the count focused on Esika’s words.

“It’s been 3 years since I married into this family, and mother has consistently tormented me. She took away my clothes and sent me to a storage room, had the maids feed me rotten bread and pour ice water on me in winter. She put my name on the ledger and indulged in luxury, framing me for things I didn’t do. She’s the kind of person who’d rather be sick herself than see me comfortable for even a day… She has such a wicked mindset. So mother sending those men was purely out of malice.”

“…!”

The people standing behind the count began to murmur.

Was it a connection to subversive forces that threatened imperial authority, or simply ugly malice from hating a daughter-in-law?

Faced with this dilemma, Esika readily chose the latter and smiled.

“…”

Riona’s tightly clenched fist was trembling.

Callian, who believed all of Riona’s actions to be justified, looked back and forth between Riona and Esika with an expression that said it couldn’t be true.

Riona thought she could hear Esika’s laughter.

Everyone’s gaze was focused on her.

The many imperial investigation team members, as if they had brought their entire force, and even the household maids.

“You should admit it, mother.”

The moment she heard that voice, Riona wanted to tear Esika apart and kill her.

However, she couldn’t simply accept the blade pointed at her by the imperial family.

“…Esika’s words are correct.”

With boiling blood, Riona admitted.

“I simply wanted to kill Esika. I didn’t know those men were related to the Ganeshov incident.”

A moment of silence filled with shock and confusion passed.

“…”

Callian lowered his head.

His tightly clenched fist was trembling.

“…Since the person in question, the duchess, has stated her opinion as such, we will use it in the investigation.”

The count’s businesslike voice was heard.

“However, until the charges are fully clarified, you must faithfully attend the investigation. Madam.”

All members of the imperial investigation team were looking at Riona with unpleasant eyes, as if looking at a vicious witch.

How could she do such an ugly thing?

Trying to kill her daughter-in-law.

Though no one opened their mouths, it seemed like words of condemnation could be heard.

Even if the investigation procedures end, Riona’s evil deed of trying to kill her daughter-in-law has been revealed.

What happened here will leak out like a burst dam.

**

The arrow he shot pierces fiercely through the sky.

As it instantly pierces through the body of an eagle that was snatching away a rabbit, the eagle’s wings stop flapping and it immediately plummets down.

“I’ll go retrieve it!”

The servant immediately ran towards the thickly wooded area.

“Doesn’t the rabbit die too when it falls from such a high place?”

Resban, with his shoulders slightly back, looked at Esika approaching him closely, wearing a plain dress.

Her eyes were blue and her expression was neutral.

She probably doesn’t realize how conspicuous her behavior is, not instinctively shrinking away from him.

This is Resban’s private garden within the imperial palace, a place where only those he permits can enter.

“I didn’t shoot to save the rabbit.”

A low voice escaped from Resban’s red lips.

Whether it was because of his attire that revealed glimpses of his firm chest, or whether it was intentional, Resban’s gaze as he stared at Esika looked particularly languid.

He lowered his head slightly and let his voice flow close to Esika’s ear.

“I shot so it wouldn’t be taken away.”

Even though she knew he was blatantly creepy, Esika felt a chill run down her spine.

So he knew the rabbit would die anyway, but he was upset that an eagle dared to steal his rabbit.

Even though the eagle is also a valuable animal if we’re talking about worth.

After a while, the state of the eagle and rabbit that the servant brought was miserable.

The eagle was pierced through its body and head before it could even realize it, and the rabbit’s legs were broken from the impact of falling with the eagle’s claws deeply embedded in its flesh.

“Throw them away.”

“Wait a moment.”

Resban’s eyebrow twitched slightly at Esika’s intervention.

The servant handed them over to Esika with a half-doubting expression, and when Esika suddenly drew a knife from between her plain-looking skirts, he gasped and widened his eyes.

No one had thought that the duchess would be carrying a blade.

As the knights guarding like shadows quickly took offensive stances at the sound of Esika drawing her blade, Resban slowly raised one hand to suspend their actions.

Esika cleanly cut the rabbit’s windpipe with the blade. The rabbit’s eyes, which had been in agony, became calm in peaceful death.

After that, she put the blade away and handed the two animal corpses back to the servant.

“…”

The corner of Resban’s lips twisted.

Esika looked at Resban with a calm gaze as if nothing had happened.

“It’s better to die than to live in pain, isn’t it?”

“…”

Esika continued speaking to Resban, who was looking at her.

“I came today to thank you for the gift you gave me, Your Highness.”

“That’s quite quick. Almost to the point of disappointment.”

Esika smiled faintly at Resban’s languid reply.

He was certainly twisted. While history books on wars could tell what made this warmonger, that was beside the point.

It was like looking at a leopard or a fierce cat that was a bit upset with her.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been a bit busy.”

There have been so many events at Klaus in the past few days.

Riona was surrounded by the imperial investigation team almost every day to be interrogated, and only returned late at night with the support of maids, unable to move.

And Callian, who used to call for a doctor at the slightest scratch on Riona’s hand, never once visited her.

There were rumors that he was drowning in alcohol due to the disgrace Klaus had suffered, but it was of no interest to Esika.

Seeing the destruction of the mother-son trust and Riona getting thinner day by day was simply enjoyable.

For the first time, at the gathering of influential ladies in high society, a letter came to Esika instead of the elder madam.

As all the truth spread far and wide, her value was being reassessed after enduring three years of irrational torment and vicious rumors.

But the evaluation of high society was also of no interest to Esika.

Esika wanted to completely take over Klaus.

“Um… Have you boarded the Crown Prince’s ship?”

After thinking for a moment, Esika asked Resban.

“Or has the Crown Prince boarded my ship?”

The second question might have been better left unasked.

He wasn’t small enough to board the Esika ship, after all.

But Resban burst into a small laugh as if he found her question amusing.

It’s rare to find someone who can make him laugh like this so often in the imperial palace.

“…”

Esika looked at Resban and opened her mouth.

“Can you tell me honestly? What is it that I should remember?”

I’ve thought about it for a long time.

I tried to recall.

But as if something was blocking it, whenever I thought about the port of Hassetsu, my head would only throb.

Sometimes it made her anxious to simply receive his favor and attention without knowing the clear reason.

“…You said back then,”

Esika’s eyebrows twitched at Resban’s somewhat decadent gaze and the voice flowing from his lips.

“That we would meet again someday.”

He reached out his hand to Esika, who was standing a step in front of him, facing him.

His uninhibited fingers touched Esika’s lips.

“I’ve been waiting for a long time.”

His soft index finger slightly crushed Esika’s lower lip.

Feeling as if that hand might pass through her lips and enter her mouth at any moment, Esika applied a little force, but Resban opened her lips too easily.

The sensation of his index finger lightly touching her lower teeth made her head dizzy.

“Is the me you’re talking about, the me in your dreams? Or is it really me when I was very young?”

“I’ll give you a hint.”

A cool voice flowed into her ears and mind.

“In Hassetsu, you introduced your name like this.”

Her heart was racing at his ferocious gaze that seemed to awaken a lost wildness.

“Young spirit.”