Chapter 17

Translator: Nox

Chapter 17

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"Princess!"”

Just then, the door burst open.

Theodore rushed into the room, leading the head of the guard and several knights.

“Are you safe?”

His eyes quickly scanned the surroundings.

Zeke was still huddled on the floor, clutching his head and muttering meaningless words as if sobbing.

“What on earth is going on…?”

Since he seemed to have trouble grasping the situation, Odelia briefly summarized what had just happened.

“The one who has been embezzling the castle’s supplies for ten years was caught in the act of stealing and even tried to commit accidental murder, so I subdued him.”

Taken aback by her rapid-fire explanation, Theodore paused for a moment before blurting out the question that came to mind.

“…Who subdued him…?”

“I did.”

“…Pardon?”

The experienced head butler managed to understand her overly concise words.

However, accepting it was another matter entirely.

Theodore asked with a frozen expression.

“You mean, Princess, you alone… subdued that man…?”

He glanced back and forth between Zeke, who was trembling as if having a seizure, and Odelia.

“It just turned out that way.”

“….”

A strange silence filled the room.

The head of the guard momentarily forgot his duty and faltered, but he quickly regained his senses and began to bind the struggling Zeke.

Even in indescribable pain, Zeke desperately shouted as his entire body was tied up.

“The Princess knows nothing!”

His eyes were filled with the obsession to live and hatred for the unbelievable reality.

“You casually call me an embezzler and a thief, but those are just claims made by outsiders! Who is suspecting whom here?”

Zeke beat his chest and pleaded his innocence.

“I have worked in this castle for ten years. A whole ten years!”

His tone and expression made him seem like someone who had been wrongly accused.

Odelia silently looked down at him, as if seeing right through him.

Zeke’s tone became increasingly erratic, and his voice grew urgent.

“Even though my job was just organizing the warehouse, I always did my best. I don’t know what I supposedly stole, but I came back to finish some organizing I had forgotten during the day…”

“Enough.”

Odelia cut him off sharply.

As if slicing through with a finely honed blade.

The air in the room turned cold with that one word.

“….”

Zeke still thought there was a way out.

Normally, being caught in the act would have meant there was no turning back, but the situation was a bit different now.

The only one who directly witnessed the crime was the Princess, an outsider.

Moreover, the other party was the head butler.

Theodore was weak when it came to sentiment.

Zeke knew that Theodore’s unnecessary adherence to principles was actually to hide his own weakness.

Zeke planned to appeal emotionally.

He could act as much as he needed to.

If he knelt and begged with a wronged face and trembling voice, he could sway the head butler…

But…

Strangely, he couldn’t say a word.

As if his breath was caught in his throat, his usually smooth tongue wouldn’t move.

A spoiled brat who had grown up however she pleased just because she was a bit weak.

The Princess before him was nothing like the image he had recklessly assumed based on rumors.

He felt like a fool who had wielded a sword to try and defeat a mountain.

Zeke swallowed, unable to say anything.

“You can stop with that ridiculous claim that years of service are a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

Finally, she opened her mouth.

Her tone was quiet, but utterly cold.

“The evidence of what you’ve been doing can be found in the ledgers. I figured you’d have a double ledger, so I looked around… and it was there, as expected.”

Odelia opened a drawer in the desk.

Then, she took out a ledger that she had found and prepared in advance and showed it to him.

Zeke’s eyes widened to the point of popping out as she presented the irrefutable evidence.

His face turned pale in an instant.

“H-How did you…!”

“I found it under the loosely fixed floorboard beneath your bed in your quarters.”

Odelia said with a blank expression.

“In novels, they usually hide things in places like that, so I opened it just in case… and it was really there.”

In reality, she knew the location from her past life’s memories.

She lied casually.

Zeke was speechless for a moment, wearing a dazed expression.

Wait a minute.

‘She came into my quarters?’

When on earth?

He had definitely confirmed that the ledger was well hidden just this morning.

So, after that…

“If you compare the handwriting, it will be clear that you wrote it, and if you compare the shipping details in the ledger with the actual inventory, there will be nothing more to investigate.”

Odelia was revealing his true nature piece by piece, but Zeke was no longer listening.

“Y-You broke into my quarters without permission? Who is the thief here! You’re the thief!”

Zeke’s face turned red as he shouted at the top of his lungs.

This was because, in addition to the ledger, the jewels he had stolen from the detached palace were hidden under the floorboard.

Sweat trickled down his forehead.

But Odelia didn’t even blink at Zeke’s outburst.

“Oh dear, I just wanted to get some material evidence. Isn’t it ridiculous for someone who created a double ledger to be angry?”

Odelia didn’t raise her voice or mock him.

Instead, she calmly, but ruthlessly, crushed him with a quiet tone.

Her tone was calm, but Zeke felt as if he was suffocating from the pressure contained within.

If only the double ledger had been discovered, there would have been a way out somehow.

But if the jewels were discovered as well, there was truly no escape.

Skimming off the castle’s supplies and stealing jewelry were different in terms of the weight of the crime.

One was sacrilege, and the other was a serious crime.

But…

‘Why isn’t she mentioning the jewels?’

Is she… just letting it go?

“…!”

At that moment, a thought flashed through Zeke’s mind like lightning.

‘Could it be that she just pocketed them?’

No way.

That can’t be.

Why would Princess Cardel covet jewels!

Aside from being from one of the wealthiest families in the Empire, isn’t she from a ‘heroic family’ that is praised by everyone in the world?

But stealing from a thief!

However, Zeke couldn’t dare to voice that thought.

The moment he brought up the fact that he had stolen the jewels from the detached palace, his wrist would be gone.

Odelia turned her head and looked at the head butler and the head of the guard.

“I don’t think this man’s words are worth listening to anymore. Do you agree?”

“….”

After a moment of silence, Theodore nodded.

“…I have no objection to the Princess’s judgment.”

The head of the guard roughly grabbed Zeke’s arm and pulled him up.

“Get up. You don’t even have the right to speak, yet you’re making a fuss.”

“W-Wait! Please let me talk to the Princess! I think the Princess took something of mine, something precious!”

“What? The Princess, don’t talk nonsense.”

Zeke belatedly started to struggle, but no one listened to him.

In the end, he was dragged out of the door without even being able to finish his last words.