“Now that I think about it, even though it’s not really related, the young lady’s name also starts with an R!”

“Ah…”

Riena was at a loss for words for a moment and just moved her lips.

As Amy said, Riena’s initial was indeed R. However, since she had never written that letter, it was completely irrelevant.

“But would it be a bit tricky to name the baby Riena?”

“That’s not it…”

She said she wanted to sleep now and lay down on the bed. Amy tucked her in without any particular suspicion and left the room.

However, even after being left alone, Riena could not fall asleep peacefully. No matter how hard she tried to forget, she could not forget what had happened in Cassel’s room.

The mysterious legend about the goddess’s dagger and the letters exchanged between Cassel and the woman R.

Riena, who was tossing and turning with the blanket pulled over her head, decided to try thinking about something else.

Reflecting on what Amy had misunderstood a little while ago, she definitely needed to sort out her relationship with Cassel properly.

‘What will happen from now on?’

Riena and Cassel’s marriage was made from the beginning as a contract with a strictly set period.

Of course, Cassel had unilaterally tried to help Riena, and the contents written in the contract were also unilaterally advantageous to her, but anyway, there was a set end.

They had agreed to divorce when they unraveled Count Dyke’s death and when Riena could stand on her own.

Of course, that was the content they had discussed when there was no affection for each other. Would that contract still be valid now that their feelings for each other were clear?

They had never talked about it, but Riena expected that her future with Cassel would be different from what they had planned.

Perhaps they could continue to be married like this and build a genuine family. They could rely on each other, have children as Amy imagined, and live well.

Judging by Cassel’s attitude toward her, he seemed to want that too.

‘But…’

The letters kept bothering her.

Was the woman R alive or dead?

Either way, it was worrisome. If she was dead, she would be a rival that could never be surpassed in her lifetime, and if she was alive, Riena might be anxious about whether Cassel would meet her again.

Either way, it seemed that her worries would only disappear if she had a sincere conversation with Cassel.

Just as Riena let out a deep sigh, there was a knock on the bedroom door that Amy had closed when she left. Riena sat up and listened for a moment.

She thought she might have misheard, but there was another careful knock.

‘Did Amy come back?’

The moment she rushed to open the door, the person Riena saw was Cassel. He hesitated for a moment when he saw Riena in her sleepwear.

“Were you sleeping? I guess I woke you up.”

“No. I couldn’t fall asleep, so I was just lying down. Did you just come in?”

Cassel’s hair was damp as if he had just finished showering.

“Yes. I couldn’t have a proper conversation with you all day because I was so busy… I came to see your face for a moment, but I think I came for nothing.”

“Why?”

“I think I woke you up after all.”

“Like I said, I wasn’t sleeping, so it’s fine. Don’t stand there, come in for now.”

When Riena took his hand and pulled him, Cassel hesitated for a moment before coming inside. The two of them usually spent the night in Cassel’s bedroom, so Cassel seemed unfamiliar with coming to Riena’s bedroom.

Riena lay down on the bed first and patted the spot next to her, and Cassel took his place beside her. He made a pillow for her with his firm arm.

Riena thought she would feel troubled when she saw Cassel. But the moment she saw his eyes still full of affection for her, it seemed like it didn’t matter who R was or what had happened.

“Do you have any worries?”

“I just have worries about this and that. It would be stranger to be at ease in this situation, wouldn’t it?”

Cassel pressed his lips to her temple as if to comfort her.

“I’ve roughly grasped who killed your teacher.”

“Really? Already?”

Riena sat up at the completely unexpected words, and Cassel gently laid her back down.

“I’ve been continuously investigating to find those involved. Finally, I found out that a man named Anthony was involved in your teacher’s riding accident. I’ve also obtained his own confession.”

“…Anthony?”

“He said he was a trainee knight who lived in the Dyke household.”

“I think I’ve heard of him. I heard my father praise him for having solid fundamentals.”

Riena’s expression darkened.

“I thought he followed my father very well and was a good person. But why on earth did he…”

“He was struggling with financial difficulties. He had three younger siblings to take care of and his mother was sick, so a lot of money went into her medicine. He seems to have had a deep affection for his family, so he committed such an act.”

Riena trembled with anger. The words “deep affection for his family” didn’t fit at all with agreeing to kill the count.

She muttered as if scoffing.

“I guess he cherished his own family but didn’t know that other people’s families were precious too.”

“His claim is that he didn’t know such a thing would happen to your teacher. The herb used in the riding accident is called desella, and I don’t know if you know, but if a horse consumes too much of it, it becomes extremely agitated. It’s common for a horse to throw off its rider due to this herb.”

“…”

“Anthony fed your teacher’s horse a drug made from this desella herb, and it seems that’s why your teacher fell off.”

“It can’t be.”

Riena covered her mouth with both hands.

“So father didn’t pass away from a simple accident after all.”

Sorrowful tears flowed down the corners of her eyes and temples.

“If only I had more strongly dissuaded father that day, or if he had at least gone to the village after the rain stopped, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“Don’t blame yourself. It’s absolutely not your fault.”

Riena sobbed for a while and then tried to calm down, barely continuing to speak.

“What about mother? Is she really not involved in that accident?”

“According to the investigation, that’s correct. She tried to cover it up, sensing that it wasn’t a simple accident, but it seems she wasn’t directly involved.”

Riena pondered for a moment whether she should be relieved that Countess Dyke did not kill her father.

“Then what happens now? Is Duke Belliard also involved in this, as mother claimed?”

“That’s still under investigation, so it’s not certain, but there are suspicious circumstances. A man named James Cutler, who handed the desella herb to Anthony, seems to be quite close with Johannes Belliard.”

“Then…”

“It means we can’t completely rule out the possibility that Johannes was involved.”

Riena finally couldn’t hold back her welling sadness and anger and sat up again. This time, instead of laying her back down, Cassel sat up with her and checked her condition.

Riena buried her face in her hands.

“I don’t know what’s going on. It’s all so sudden and full of shocking things that my head is dizzy.”

“I understand.”

“For now, can Anthony and this James Cutler person be held accountable for their crimes? Can they be made to pay for what they’ve done?”

Cassel carefully took her hand.

“I will do my best to make sure that happens.”

“But just feeding the horse the desella herb can’t hold them responsible for killing father.”

“You’re right. It’s a bit difficult to link the two with just that alone.”

Cassel, who had been explaining smoothly, closed his mouth. It was because of the conversation he had directly with Anthony during the interrogation earlier.

“I, I admit that I gave the desella herb to the count’s horse, but I didn’t kill the count! The truth is, I took on this request thinking that the count would only get slightly injured!”

“Do you think denying it will make your faults disappear?”

“I’m not denying what I did. It’s just that I’m truly being falsely accused!”

“What’s so unfair?”

“I quietly followed the count when he left. I had to check to the end if the desella herb had taken effect.”

“And?”

“It’s true that the count fell off when the horse thrashed about as if having a fit. But at that time, the count was fine. He was limping a little, but his life was not in any danger at all.”

“Then?”

Anthony cried out with all his heart at Cassel’s indifferent question.

“Someone murdered the count!”

“What’s the basis?”

“When the count didn’t return, the Dyke household sent out a search party. I volunteered to go with the search party. But the count had fallen to the bottom of a ravine and passed away.”

Cassel listened carefully to his words.

“That ravine was a bit far from where the count first fell off.”

“The teacher may have stumbled while moving. That can’t be evidence.”

“There were signs of a struggle!”