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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: Cutting Water with a Sword
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These days, Aracilla had been returning home early in the evening.
The black magic investigation was over, so there was no need to stay long at the Magic Tower.
Even though she didn't have much work, her body felt strangely sluggish and tired, so she was about to wash up, have a simple meal, and rest. Someone knocked on her bedroom door.
Audrey, who had gone to check on the visitor, said,
"The Master is here."
"Demian? What for?"
Since their argument in his office, the two of them had been distant.
They grudgingly kept their promise to dine together once a day, but there was so little conversation between them that even the servants were secretly worried.
She had dined with him that morning, so she hadn't expected to see Demian again.
"He says he has something to tell you."
"…Let him in."
Aracilla hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Audrey, opening the door to let Demian in, discreetly withdrew.
Inside the bedroom, with all the servants gone, only Aracilla and Demian remained.
"What is it?"
"……."
"Demian, you said you had something to say."
Aracilla watched Demian, who stood by the door like a statue, completely still.
Demian's lips twitched. Even though he had organized his thoughts before coming, now that he faced her, his mouth wouldn't open easily.
He intended to apologize for calling Aracilla incompetent and to suggest that they reinvestigate Jonny Pattinson's case together.
But seeing Aracilla sitting at her dressing table, staring intently at him, he couldn't figure out where to start.
Aracilla lightly furrowed her brows. Sensing her silent urging, Demian's mouth opened impulsively.
"To the Duchess…"
Apology first? Or request for cooperation first?
"I… I request an apology."
The words tangled in his mind came out jumbled.
Demian, who had suddenly become someone who had brusquely come to demand an apology, was flustered. This wasn't why he had come.
He was about to belatedly correct himself.
"Yes, I'll apologize."
"……?"
"I'm sorry, Demian."
Suddenly, a sincere apology flowed from Aracilla's lips. This only made Demian more bewildered.
She wasn't the type to apologize so meekly, was she…?
However, Aracilla was surprisingly quick to apologize if she admitted her own fault. She just wasn't someone who threw apologies around carelessly.
"You were right. I did think Sir Pattinson was more likely to be at fault because he was a knight."
"……."
"Once I found something unsettling, I wanted to keep investigating, even though there were inconsistencies with Sisley, the accuser's, testimony."
After her conversation with Sisley, she had done a lot of thinking. She reflected on whether she had truly investigated the case without personal bias.
The conclusion was no.
Even setting aside the suspicious aspects of Jonny Pattinson, it was true that she had been more suspicious and regarded him with more doubt because he was a knight.
Of course, that didn't mean she intended to unconditionally condemn Jonny, as Demian had suggested, but it was true that she had somewhat lost her neutrality, so that was Aracilla's fault.
"But my reason for defending Sisley wasn't that. I just didn't like seeing her relentlessly slandered simply for being a woman of the streets, though I wouldn't have minded if it was for lying."
Aracilla calmly concluded, having properly corrected the part Demian had misunderstood.
Since the other party had admitted their fault first, it was easier for Demian to confess his own.
"I apologize as well. It's true I took Jonny's side without thoroughly investigating, simply because he was my subordinate. That's why I dismissed your words as false."
Demian had also been prejudiced against Aracilla because she was a Mage.
Though he hadn't voiced it, he had constantly doubted whether she, as a Mage, could properly conduct an investigation.
"However, I truly did not leak the accuser's identity externally. When I investigated, I found it was Jonny's brother who did it."
Demian also corrected the part Aracilla had misunderstood.
Aracilla's eyes widened in surprise.
"Is that true?"
"Yes, as you said, there is something unsettling about Jonny. Looking at the situation objectively, it's clear now."
Demian finally took a step and approached Aracilla. Aracilla also rose from her chair and faced him.
"I apologize for calling you incompetent. You were investigating properly."
"I'm sorry for calling you vile too. And for being so sure you were the anonymous informant."
As they honestly laid bare their hearts and exchanged sincere apologies, both felt as if a knot deep in their hearts had unraveled.
The prejudice that had hung like a fog between them lifted.
Finally able to look each other straight in the eye, the two clasped hands.
* * *
Jonny Pattinson was uneasy. Even though the black magic accusation case that had driven him to crisis was closed, he couldn't find peace of mind.
It was probably because someone who knew a fatal blemish on his life was still alive and in the capital.
'Sisley.'
It was a name that made his teeth grind just to utter.
When he was first dragged to the Magic Tower, Jonny couldn't recall Sisley. Not even when April 2nd of last year was mentioned by Aracilla, and he tried to rack his brain.
Trapped in the cold underground dungeon of the Magic Tower, after much agonizing over who could have done this, he remembered the ill-fated connection he had buried when he left the border.
Jonny immediately sent a letter to his brother, asking him to visit. Since he hadn't been formally proven guilty, he was relatively free to write letters or receive visitors.
'Brother, please find out about a woman named Sisley who used to work at a bar in a village near the border. She might be the one who did this to me.'
Jonny's brother accepted his request.
Indeed, an investigation revealed that Sisley had come to the capital last month, and someone had witnessed her visiting the Magic Tower.
Jonny, certain that Sisley was the accuser, reported this fact to the newspaper through his brother.
As a result, he was acquitted as he had wished, but the mere fact that Sisley was alive and breathing still made him uneasy.
He felt as though such a situation could repeat itself at any time.
'What if Sisley knows the truth of what happened that day? What if that's why she accused me…'
He couldn't sleep deeply due to his anxiety, and a week after his release, a letter arrived from Sisley.
"Sir Pattinson, you know what crime you committed, don't you?
Your pendant is in my hands.
I will tell everyone what you did at the border."
Reading that letter, Jonny's strength drained, and his legs buckled.
What he feared was not the threat of exposing what happened at the border.
'Sisley had the pendant!'
What was important was that the pendant, which he had desperately tried and failed to retrieve during the withdrawal, was in Sisley's hands.
Jonny's body trembled.
He paced frantically around the room, agonizing over how to handle this.
After an all-nighter, he made a decision.
"Sisley, this incident has made me realize a lot.
Indeed, one cannot live with guilt. Even if you don't say anything, I intend to confess myself.
Before I do, would you meet me one last time?
I want to look at that pendant… and once again repent my wrongdoings and steel my heart."
Perhaps it was because of his sugar-coated words. Soon after, a positive reply arrived from Sisley.
Jonny arranged a very secret meeting with her. The location was a deserted open lot on the outskirts of the capital, and the time was late at night.
And on the appointed day, he went to the open lot, concealing his appearance with a robe. Sisley was already there, waiting for him.
"It's been a while, Sisley."
"…Sir Pattinson, have you been well?"
Sisley, turning at the voice from behind her, asked coldly. Her eyes were filled with hostility and resentment towards Jonny.
Regardless, Jonny, after meticulously checking that no one else was around, threw back the hood of his robe and extended his hand to Sisley.
"My pendant, did you bring it?"
"Is that what's important right now?"
"Of course! I didn't give that to you. Give it back immediately."
In his haste, Jonny abandoned the option of coaxing Sisley and instead pressed her.
Sisley, meeting his bloodshot eyes that had lost all composure, instinctively recoiled. The pendant was hidden in her dress pocket.
"I can't do that."
"—What?"
"I'll return it after you confess your wrongdoings in front of people."
Sisley spoke firmly. The pendant was the only evidence she possessed, so she couldn't possibly hand it over easily.
Especially when there wasn't even a speck of remorse from Jonny Pattinson, as there was now.
However, at the same moment Sisley took a step back.
"Hah, this really…"
Jonny's face twisted menacingly.
He even pulled back the robe from his face. A sword at his waist was revealed.
He rasped his voice menacingly at Sisley, who instinctively backed away.
"Give me the necklace."
"No."
"Then I have no choice."
Without hesitation, he drew his sword and aimed it at Sisley's neck. Sisley, feeling her life threatened by the sharp glint, turned deathly pale and screamed.
"Help! Someone, help me here!"
"It's useless, Sisley. No one walks around here after dark."
A vile smile appeared on Jonny's lips. There was a reason he had chosen this place for their meeting.
"Give me the necklace, and I'll let you live."
"I'll never give it to you. You planned this from the beginning, didn't you?"
"Took you long enough to realize that, you fool."
Sisley bit her lower lip and glared at Jonny.
She felt like such a fool for coming to meet him because of her last lingering attachment, even though she knew his true nature.
"I'll expose everything you did! I'll make it unequivocally clear!"
"Go ahead. Who would believe the words of a woman of the streets!"
Jonny, returning Sisley's scream, quickly worked his mind. It seemed she wouldn't willingly hand over the necklace.
'It'd be better to just search her body right now and find it.'
He had planned to deal with her eventually anyway, but he'd intended to get the pendant back first.
But since she refused to cooperate, he decided it was better to eliminate her here. Having made up his mind, Jonny raised his sword high.
She knew she had to run, but her body was frozen. Sisley tightly closed her eyes.
"Aargh!"
Just then. A loud scream seemed to echo, and when she cautiously opened her eyes, Jonny was flung far away.
"Sisley!"
She turned her head at the familiar voice. Aracilla was running towards her from a distance, calling her name.
Sisley, realizing her life had been saved thanks to her, slowly sank to the ground.
Her face was soon wet with tears, born of terror.
"O-Oh, Lady Aracilla…"
Aracilla, who had approached, silently patted Sisley's trembling back.
Her blue eyes, now cold, gazed at Jonny, who lay sprawled on the ground.
Jonny, having been struck by a surprise magic attack and fallen, looked up at her with a dazed expression.
"D-Duchess, how did you…?"
"While investigating your case, just in case, I had people follow both you, Sir, and Sisley. I received a report that both of you suspiciously left your homes late at night and rushed here."
After collaborating with Demian, Aracilla had tried to dig into the backgrounds of the two, but found it harder than expected to obtain information.
She couldn't find any detailed connections, other than that Sisley had been in the village near the border when the Red Hawk Knights were stationed there.
As she was pondering how to resolve the case, Demian had said,
'Jonny hasn't looked well lately. For someone acquitted, he seems to have a lot of worries. I believe it's because of Lady Sisley.'
'You think Sisley's existence makes Sir Pattinson uneasy?'
'Yes. So, I believe there's a high probability that Jonny will approach Lady Sisley first. How about we assign people to both of them?'
Demian's idea was that they might be able to catch the moment Jonny contacted Sisley.
Aracilla agreed to this, and secret surveillance was placed on the two, which allowed them to catch this truly crucial moment.
"That's, that's absurd…! My investigation is already over! By what authority did you investigate then?!"
Jonny fiercely protested.
Given that the Magic Tower's official investigation had concluded, Aracilla's actions were illegal. It was tantamount to having put people on Jonny and conducting a background investigation without authority.
"I cannot accept this situation—!"
"I authorized it."
Jonny gasped at the familiar voice that settled in his ears.
Feeling his heart plummet, he slowly, stiffly turned his head.
There, Demian, bathed in moonlight, stood with his hands in his pockets.
"What ended was the Magic Tower's investigation, not the internal investigation of the Knights."
"C-Commander…"
Jonny's lips trembled. He could somehow make excuses and muddle the situation with Aracilla, but not with Demian.
Jonny knew all too well how merciless his superior was.
