78 – 78. Broken shackles
“Arrest? Wait, Princess! Is there evidence?!”
“There is a person who testified that the count’s knights carried a female student and ran away. Stop lying even a little bit will help reduce the sentence.”
“That’s funny. Wouldn’t it be enough to deny that I didn’t kidnap my knight as well?”
Even the Count was not one to be taken lightly.
It may be said shameless, but the crimes that actually broke into the count’s residence and used it as a justification for arresting him were kidnapping and attempted murder.
However, since this is only the testimony of another person, the fact that there is no clear evidence is a hindrance.
You can make up any number of words. This is why Junon’s party didn’t ask for help from others.
If there is no clear physical evidence, who can’t make it up in words?
As for eyewitnesses, there are plenty of people willing to testify.
In the end, the victim has to come forward and testify, but the victim is nowhere to be found even after washing his eyes and looking around the Count’s residence.
Therefore, it seemed that there was no evidence that the Count had kidnapped Henna, nor that he committed an attempted murder…
“Okay. Let me show you the proof. Do you know what this is?”
Ophelia held out one of her blue braids as evidence.
“A hair tie…?
It was a very plain blue hair tie that didn’t look too classy.
For a moment, the count tried to say that he was pressurizing with an absurd sound, but then realized what it was and took a hard breath.
“An empty lot leading to the back of a clothing store from the right side of Eighth Avenue Street in Les Brandts. This must be a place you are familiar with, right?”
“…”
“Yes, it must be so. The person who was presumed to be the victim was there, and this is the ribbon that he dropped during the battle.”
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At Ophelia’s additional explanation, the count’s face contorted.
It was a place he thought no one would notice since he had already written his hand.
“An eyewitness to the incident came out from the Leuwen Merchant Merchant, and testified that this hair tie, which was clear evidence, had fallen there. Not only did he deny the allegation, but he even thought about covering it up, so it’s not safe to be stoned by commoners as an aggravated punishment. You won’t be able to, Count.”
Convincing evidence was found for the testimony that only existed in the heart.
Count Kutelli tried to place the blame on others.
There was no longer any place for him to escape.
“I’ve found it, princess! Judging from the ropes and gag, it’s clear he’s been locked up here!”
“Are the rescued people safe?”
“Yes. No one was hurt in the basement thanks to the melee level avant-garde student supporting the collapsed ceiling. The victim did not appear to have been harmed after the abduction.”
“Then we’ll have to take care of this side first. Take every one of them into custody!”
After a while, this shocking incident will spread throughout the principality in an instant.
The shocking story of how Count Kutelli tried to sell his daughter, his illegitimate son, for a betrothal ceremony.
The creepy move of trying to kidnap a knight with a knight because he didn’t listen.
When the process of bringing Sylvia by force did not go as planned, a threatening letter sent after kidnapping her friend Hena to become her.
All the citizens of the principality will be outraged by the cruelty of trying to cover up my crimes even by killing the last hostage, Henna.
However, the work was not finished yet.
“Where… Where are you…?”
“Calm down, Danju. Search still…”
“I’m sorry. I can’t… Take it no more!!”
Here it is. The child she sought so much but she never found.
There is a daughter who was caught in the clutches of high-ranking nobles and cut off from sight.
Since the search was slow, I didn’t hear the word to wait a bit.
“Senior. Are you okay? I didn’t come because he told me not to worry…”
Then I listen to the girl’s voice coming from somewhere and move her gaze.
‘That child…!’
According to the official, the engagement ceremony is being prepared at the count’s residence, and the person presumed to be the fiancée is highly likely to be his daughter, he added.
Then, in front of her eyes, she sees a girl wearing a dress.
The mother who had lost her daughter ran straight to take her in her arms.
“I found it… I finally found it…”
However, the girl immediately escaped from Rwena’s arms, and with her bewildered eyes at a distance,
“Eh… Nu, who are you?”
That’s what she answered.
“That’s right. You might not recognize it. Yes.”
How many years have passed. No matter how good my memory is, the past years are only years. Not being able to recognize it is not surprising.
In that case, just show the proof.
“Can you see it? It’s almost unique, so you still carry it with you. The one you used when you were little…”
Rwenna continued her speech, rolling up her sleeves to reveal the blue braid around her wrist.
“At that time, it looked really good with her hair tied up… But now, it’s pretty even with it untied.”
She showed me the hair tie she wore when she was much younger than now, so she must have understood it by now. Thinking so, Rwena took the girl in front of her into her arms again.
“Eh? I, over there…”
“I’m sorry. You grew up so beautifully and well, but I found you too late.”
“Um… I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“It’s okay if you don’t remember. I won’t let you go from now on.”
“That… I don’t usually wear hair ties…”
“Maybe. I was too young, so it’s okay if I don’t remember. But… But I…”
As a mother, she feels deeply moved just by holding her daughter in her arms and holding her daughter whom she has not seen for over ten years. However, something went wrong with this encounter.
“The daughter you’re looking for must be someone else. It’s not her.”
“…What?”
“Look closely at the hair color. It looks similar but feels lighter, doesn’t it?”
It may look similar at first glance from a distance, but when you see it up close, you will definitely notice the difference. It’s not grayish white, but bright and bright silver hair.
“And that blue hair tie, when you tie your hair, you must have made it into a ribbon. Isn’t it?”
“How to…”
I don’t know how. Before the regression, he was the opponent I tried to defeat, and now he is one of the few friends I go to with at the academy.
“I will take the lead and guide you to the place where your daughter is.”
***
Why did the Lewen Merchant Merchant, who was in charge of this year’s festival, come to the academy in the first place?
It wasn’t because we were simply thinking about delivery.
Before regression. Even though the Lewen Merchant Company was not in charge of the festival, she held on to her position on the outskirts of the capital. From the top to the brink of loss.
It was to find someone. She is a girl of the same age as him. She’s all clues that it has.
The story of a middle-aged woman who said that she was persistently searching for people with few clues was sometimes even talked about by students.
However, despite such efforts, she could not find anyone in the end, and the Lewen Merchant Company completely hid her whereabouts starting from the day when the monsoon rain fell.
This time, it will never go that way.
“…You mean here?”
“Yes.”
This is a hospital. It is a law to write the name of the patient in the hospital room in front of you.
However, it was so far from the name she knew of her daughter that it was natural for Rwena to be embarrassed. She was the name of a man quite different from the one she had been looking for.
Junon was claiming that the two names that didn’t match were the same person.
Still, there was undeniable evidence.
At one time, he had tied a blue hair tie in the form of a ribbon and untied it himself.
The door of the hospital room opens, and the girl, who had been looking at her window after getting up from the bed, shakes her head.
“Junon! It’s okay…”
The girl’s voice, worried about her friend, immediately cuts off, and the eyes of two people with similar grey-white hair cross each other.
The two crossed eyes do not separate from each other.
No one utters a word in this space where not even the sound of breathing can be heard in this scene that is unknown whether it is a dream or real life.
The sound gradually covering this quiet space is the sound of someone’s footsteps entering the patient’s room.
And the sound of the door closing to leave the two alone.
The door closes, and even the footsteps stop.
“I see… You… You… You haven’t changed a thing since you were little…”
“Mom… Mom?”
“Yes. My daughter… Your mother…”
“Really…?”
“Come on, do you want me to read you a book with your knees bent as a pillow like you did when you were little? Or… Should I make a ribbon out of this hair tie you still have and tie it up?”
Now, the silence never came again.
I leaned my back against the wall at the sound leaking out even though the room was full.
Beside me, a junior who has been chasing after me raises his tiptoe and asks quietly.
It was such a question that anyone would ask if they had met the two people in the hospital room. Well, of course, a nod of the head was enough for the answer.
After listening to her answer, Rhenias looked back at her hospital room and grabbed her heart as she clenched her chest.
‘I think so too.’
Just the fact that her mother and daughter, who were torn apart by their vicious actions, met again, is worth it.
In the hospital room, I used to hear a completely different name than the patient’s name.
She was able to figure out why Rwenna hadn’t been able to find it yet.
“…The vicious bastards. Changing the name so they can’t be found.”
She’s like that, even before her return, no matter how many times she was wanted, she couldn’t be found.
She was kidnapped when she was young and her mother couldn’t even find her, so she must have grown up with the name Sylvia Kutelli.
But today. Her true name is revealed, having lived only as a doll for the count for over ten years, and she is finally freed from her shackles.
“Adelecia…That’s your name.”
From now on, I’ll call you Adele, not Sylvia.
***
The fact that the count’s affairs have been resolved also foretells that the time has come to go back to normal.
Getting caught up in this and even giving her help, Senia didn’t think she would ever let go.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t sure that he would help me, but on the contrary, what I had to pay was the problem. I was even more worried about Senia, who is the most strict and gullible in Tembris.
Contrary to expectations, however, Senia left her seat with just this one word.
-‘I’ll leave this as a debt, Junon. Remember it carefully.’
Debt. Not knowing what to ask for, this is the most frustrating thing.
“Senior. Didn’t you owe me too? hehehehe.”
…Come to think of it, there was one more person who helped me.
Rhenias shook his head and said, of course, to serve as a service when I asked him if he wanted to go around with us during the rest of the festival.
Unlike Senia, Rhenias’ goal was simply to reduce her exercise intensity.
Of course, there was no way Junon would listen to that.
“…”
Senia stopped on her way and turned around and glanced at her hospital again, lost in her thoughts.
She was swung around, but the results weren’t too bad.
There is no part that can be said to have been lucky. Even if there was, I poured everything I could.
Junon.
That guy was a strange guy from the first time I saw him.
Doesn’t it rush like a thunderbolt in a battle with no chance of victory, and if it gives in for a moment and goes over, won’t it open its mouth and move its body again, even though the body doesn’t suffer?
At that time, he would run at it without giving up even though he must have felt the thick wall.
It was the same this time, but the results were markedly different from the past, and even though they were caught up in a much more embarrassing task, they even found the answer.
It was said that Ophelia was lucky enough to visit on the way, but could this result be achieved even if someone else came?
Absolutely not, Senia shook her head and texted back. She said that what Michelle told her was nothing but new blood.
“Who would think of infiltrating the county with only three people.”
To compare it to a battle, it was no different than deciding who was in charge of aggro and ambush.
It is different from the unique magic that reads the attack trajectory and identifies the weakness by looking at the solid line of one magical power. Because this is the ability to squeeze the plate.
The tenacity to never give up even in adverse conditions, the ability to quickly grasp the situation and the determination to deal with it, and the mental strength to not let go of either side in the tug of war between reason and emotion were definitely the ones who would take the position of commander.
But noticing this didn’t change anything.
“…They say they don’t like it, so what can they do? It seems they have a story.”
Even though he is a suitable person for the most important position vacated in Thambris, there is no way that he can recruit people who want to distance themselves from Thambris.
Swallowing her regret, Senia turned her steps again.