Ch#73
“Lady Rohanson….”
Mrs. Toten called out to me in a choked voice. I felt like bursting into tears too. Mrs. Toten.
Villainesses always end up thrown in prison and executed. That's why I worked so hard to avoid the execution ending, even flirting with Gabriel to keep him on the hook.
I treated the female lead Kanna so well it was like I was handing over my liver and gallbladder. Since Gabriel was completely smitten with me, I let my guard down, thinking I was safe, and got careless.
Right? It's not just tormenting the heroine that lands a villainess in prison. Treason gets you thrown in there too….
But getting framed and arrested on debutante day out of nowhere is too much…. All my past efforts to avoid the execution ending felt utterly futile.
What's the point of currying favor with Gabriel when someone framed me while he was away? By the way, it seems Gabriel's birth secret hasn't been revealed yet, but if they say he killed his own brother, won't Gabriel turn against me too?
“Sir Mugeta, there is testimony that the weapon used to stab His Highness the Crown Prince matches the dagger Lady Rohanson brought in. The imperial grandchildren also say they saw it right beside them.”
Sir Mugeta, the Crown Prince's guard knight, glared at me with bloodshot eyes like he wanted to kill me. It's not the same sword! The one I brought in doesn't even have a blade…!
But since the Crown Prince didn't draw it out, there was no way to prove it. The ones who could testify that it had no blade were Gabriel, the knights who inspected my belongings before entering the banquet hall, and Mrs. Toten. But Gabriel showed no sign of returning, probably still in the middle of treatment.
“Lady Rohanson, is that true?”
“It's true I brought a dagger. But the one I gifted to His Highness was a bladeless ornamental piece, so it must be another dagger that merely looks similar.”
“So you're saying someone prepared an identical dagger to frame you? Or should we say the blood on those clothes is actually wine?”
Yes, that's the truth…. Even I wouldn't believe it. If it's a frame job, the culprit had to predict what I'd gift and prepare two identical daggers.
But I didn't even prepare it myself. The dagger was something the count brought, saying it seemed perfect as a gift for the Crown Prince. I didn't suspect much since the count sourced it, but now the origin seemed suspicious. Did the culprit prepare two daggers and subtly pass one to the count to set things up?
Having put me in this predicament, the count had been pretending ignorance throughout. I never expected anything from him anyway. Didn't I say the count was the type to abandon his daughter and run if something happened? That hit the nail on the head.
“Well, the knight who inspected my belongings before entry will testify.”
“A knight? Just to check, that knight isn't from the Pararos Knights Order, is he? I'm concerned he might give false testimony to protect the lady his superior, Sir Gabriel, favors.”
What do I even
