The atmosphere at home was strange.

Helena was sitting in her room’s reception room, feeling uneasy and embroidering. But her heart was racing, and she couldn’t concentrate on her embroidery.

She threw her embroidery frame aside and tried to go outside, but the knight guarding the door stopped her.

“The Duke has ordered that you must not leave.”

The knight repeated the same words with a stern expression.

Helena returned to her room, unable to scold him as usual, and bit her thumbnail.

‘What on earth has happened? Did Ariana die? But would that cause such a fuss?’

Yesterday, Rachel told her not to leave her room, so she had stayed inside, but she hadn’t expected to be kept inside for so long.

At that moment, the maid Luizy, whom she had sent out to find out what was happening, returned with a tray of tea and cookies. Helena rushed over and grabbed Luizy’s arm.

“What on earth is going on?”

“A man has died, Miss. A man died in the pergola…….”

“What? It wasn’t Ariana who died?”

“Yes, but…… that’s not the problem, the murderer is Miss Victoria.”

“What?”

At the unexpected words, Helena staggered and collapsed onto the sofa.

Luizy whispered softly to the blinking Helena.

“It seems that Miss Victoria’s belongings were found next to the man’s corpse. The investigators came and took Miss Victoria away.”

“They, they took her away? Victoria?”

“Yes, Miss. What shall we do?”

Although Helena didn’t particularly like Victoria, she was still her sister, and the news that she had been arrested made her heart heavy.

“The investigators…… How dare the investigators take Victoria away? She is the youngest daughter of our Bronte family.”

“I know. But the Chief of Investigation came personally. The Duke tried to stop him, but the Chief shouted at the Duke, mentioning His Majesty the Emperor…….”

Helena felt dazed.

Just a few weeks ago, the Bronte family had been peaceful.

Everyone looked up to the Duke of Bronte, the Duke’s two daughters were loved, and the two duchesses received unreserved praise at every big and small party.

But something had started to crack since the garden party, and now something unimaginable had happened.

The youngest daughter of the Bronte family had been arrested as a murder suspect.

‘Why?’

Helena couldn’t understand.

‘Why is this happening?’

+++

Victoria had been locked up in the aristocratic prison for several days.

The aristocratic prison was a solitary cell with a bed, chair, table, and other necessities, but to Victoria, who had lived her whole life in the Duke’s mansion, it felt worse than a bathroom.

The hard bedding, the musty smell from the old wood, the small window that let in little sunlight, the rough floor, the dirty ceiling.

Victoria was choked by things she had never experienced before.

Mature, grownup, praised, but that was only within the Duke’s mansion. While her strong parents and family supported her, she could be a much more grownup third daughter than her peers.

But the moment she left the mansion, Victoria became an ordinary child.

The investigators treated Victoria politely, but Victoria was just scared. A wrong answer could mean being imprisoned for life, and she sobbed and cried under the pressure.

“It seems the third daughter of the Duke of Bronte, who was said to be mature and intelligent, was just a rumor.”

“That’s right. Crying like that…….”

She couldn’t rebut the murmurs of the investigators. She just hunched her small shoulders and bowed her head. The distinguished third daughter of Bronte was gone.

The memory of suddenly handing that handkerchief to Ariana last night came back to her, and she told the Chief of Investigation, but after investigating the nobles who attended the party and returning, the Chief’s expression was even darker.
Nobles were all chattering, “The second princess is so pitiable…….”, “Her arms and neck were bruised. Did you see?”, “I couldn’t properly see anything else because of watching the second princess……. Even so, does it make sense that she wouldn’t dress her own daughter properly?” and so on.

Unaware of the facts, Victoria insisted that she handed the handkerchief to Ariana at the party, but to the ears of the chief investigator who had heard the inside story, it sounded only like an attempt to frame the poor second princess.

“The man is a person called Riga, and it seems he fell after being stabbed in the heart with a dagger, and his neck was broken. We found the dagger that pierced Riga’s chest in the forest. Have you ever seen this dagger?”

The chief investigator took out the dagger, wrapped in white cloth. The blade still had blood on it.

Victoria, recognizing what the dark red mark was, shuddered.

“I, I’ve never seen it. But…… but Ariana might have…….”

Bang[Dash]!

The chief investigator, in his anger, slammed both hands down on the table.

“Again! Again! Ariana again! How many times have I told you? The second princess was washing laundry with a maid all morning. Do you understand? It’s not as simple as talking your way out of blaming someone else!”