Previously
Emma, acting as Rosaline, meets Arthur Gottfried for a formal marriage interview arranged by the Brows and the Gottfrieds. She observes that Arthur is a peace-loving but somewhat indecisive man who seems to look down on her, yet she successfully uses her acting skills from the Mulberry troupe to pique his curiosity.
This was, of course, merely a one-dimensional speculation.
After all, it wouldn't be easy for a young lady to choose a path that involved killing her entire family and becoming a loner.
And if she had set the fire herself, she likely wouldn't have been able to escape it.
‘I'll keep investigating this as it is…. But I can definitely rule out the coachman as a suspect.’
There was nothing remarkable about the coachman. Most testimonies described him as a diligent, ordinary family man who was quiet and didn't enjoy drinking.
The only part related to him that surprised people was that Rosaline had paid a substantial amount of compensation to the coachman's family and hired his daughter as a maid at the castle.
It seemed Rosaline had indeed changed significantly. In the sense that she no longer threw tantrums, didn't break things, wasn't obsessed with her appearance, and didn't commit foolish acts—meaning she had become a normal person.
There was a reason for the change.
‘She has no one left to lean on.’
Before, her parents would have cleaned up after her no matter what she did.
But now, her life could become precarious just by her servants turning their backs on her.
How ridiculous a twenty-year-old female head of the household must look. So, she was likely trying to win over her subordinates in this way.
Besides that, her relationship with the House of Brow and her upcoming marriage prospects must have also acted as factors.
However, there were still parts that couldn't be explained by those reasons alone.
Overhearing the conversations between the maids who had worked at the castle in the past also provided him with important information.
‘A person's posture or gait isn't easily corrected….’
Seeing that not only the coachman and the Count and Countess Brow but even the long-serving butler called her Rosaline, it was clearly her. So why did his thoughts keep drifting toward her being a different person?
‘My paranoia is acting up again.’
Ash drank his cold coffee with a self-mocking smile.
The reason he had survived two wars and been able to solve major cases in succession after joining the police department was precisely because of this paranoia.
As a child who never received stable affection from his parents, he was always anxious that he might be abandoned, and his heart would pound with unease just by seeing a change in his mother's lipstick color.
Back then, he developed a habit of observing everything carefully and preparing for the worst-case scenario if anything seemed suspicious. That habit didn't disappear even as an adult who had given up on his parents' affection, social recognition, and even personal happiness.
The world seemed to be made of lies, and it was like an instinct for his gaze to be drawn to potential dangers. Now, he even enjoyed it with the sensation of playing a game.
Ash flipped through the case files, chasing away his idle thoughts.
‘The strangest one isn't actually Rosaline Tesis, but Emma Hampton.’
There was nothing clear about her.
She was an outsider who had moved to Tesis about two years ago, but no one knew where she came from, and there were no items or places to confirm her traces. Not even anyone remembered her appearance accurately.
Looking at that alone, one might wonder if she was a ghost, yet everyone vividly remembered her existence itself.
However, Rosaline didn't seem to value Emma that much, as she had coldly fired her after Emma became liable for a large sum of compensation.
If, as Emma claimed, Rosaline had framed her for her own actions, then Rosaline could be said to bear a great deal of responsibility for her death.
‘Something got tangled after the Baron's family came to Herona. I don't know if that's the cause of the fire, but I should investigate as far as I can.’
Ash closed the case file he had been reading.
Then, to cool his seemingly overheated head, he picked up his coffee cup and approached the window. Watching the people passing by blankly often calmed his mind with the thought that the world went on even without his effort.
The coffee the junior female employee had brewed in the morning had become a liquid that was embarrassing to even call coffee anymore, but it didn't matter. He wasn't drinking it to enjoy the aroma or taste.
As he was quietly looking out the window and taking sips of coffee, a familiar woman caught his eye from across the street where the late spring sunlight was pouring down.
‘Rosaline Tesis?’
He wondered if he had misidentified her because he had been thinking about her so much, but no matter how many times he looked, it was Rosaline.
Furthermore, she wasn't alone. A tall, handsome man was beside her.
‘He looks familiar…. Who is he?’
Seeing that they weren't linked arm-in-arm or physically close, they didn't seem to be lovers yet, but they could be seen as being in the stage of getting to know each other.
Information about Rosaline unfurled in Ash's mind.
‘There's a high probability she's meeting with the sons of families that have sent marriage proposals.’
Regardless of what the deceased Baron and his wife's purpose had been, Rosaline Tesis's current purpose for staying in Herona must be marriage.
A chuckle escaped him.
Because, come to think of it, that woman was living quite diligently.
‘Marriage itself probably won't be a problem. A woman with the title of Baroness and a decent face to boot.’
She wasn't so extraordinary as to be called the beauty of the century, but she was at a level where no one could refute that she was pretty.
Rosaline was chattering about something with a smile like a wildflower. The man who heard her story also couldn't help but burst into laughter.
‘It's a bit different from the expression she showed in Tesis, but it doesn't seem like she's pretending to be a demure lady either.’
Ash watched quietly until she and the man went from one end of the street to the opposite end, sipping his cold coffee bit by bit.
By the time their backs had completely disappeared, the taste of the coffee on the tip of his tongue was so repulsive that he furrowed his brow.
Ash set the cup down without regret. Whether the coffee grounds had settled or not, the liquid remaining at the bottom of the cup was dark enough to look pitch black.
A party invitation arrived for me. Not through Count Brow, but to Rosaline Tesis—to me.
The surprising thing wasn't the fact that an invitation had come, but the sender.
I muttered to myself as I looked down at the name ‘Heather Dartmouth’ written on the envelope.
She had a bad history with the real Rosaline, but she hadn't exactly built any beautiful memories with me, the fake Rosaline, either.
So why did she bother to invite me?
‘There's definitely something….’
If there were an option not to go, I wouldn't even be worrying like this.
Mrs. Brow brought it up during a meal.
My voice almost cracked.
Whether she noticed my reluctant expression or not, Mrs. Brow advised me in a subtle tone.
To say that even not attending a party is a disappointment—since I've been accommodating them, these people seem to know no bounds.