“Then why are you there now?”
“I’m sorry, but… a few days ago, a thief broke into my room.”
The lavender-colored eyes slowly rolled to the side. At the end of her gaze were Lizzy and her maid, Gianna.
As their eyes met, Gianna noticeably flinched. Lizzy remained calm without a single movement, but her complexion was still pale and ghastly.
After all, the evidence had been disposed of long ago, so there was no way for it to be revealed that this was her doing. The only problem was Ariella, who had remained silent until now, suddenly mentioning the theft.
“What? A thief?”
“Yes. On the day of the dinner party at the Count of Lancashire’s, the most recently made hat, along with the jewelry that was in the jewelry box, disappeared. It happened just when I had called away the maid who was managing the jewelry box to do something else.”
“If that happened, why didn’t you report it immediately?”
Ariella, who had been answering without hesitation, hesitated for the first time. Seeing this, David harbored a vain hope that she had exhausted all her prepared words.
However, unfortunately, there was one thing David did not know.
That while Lizzy and David had prepared this play, it was Ariella who was directing it.
“…I am no longer the Princess of Abercorn. I thought it would be better to keep my mouth shut for the sake of my father and Abercorn.”
The report delivered in a thin voice was unbearably mournful. It felt even more pitiful because she had stammered several times before finally uttering it.
Faint sounds of sighs could be heard from various corners.
Once, she had been the only princess, more noble than anyone else, and now she couldn’t even speak up after having her belongings stolen. It was a situation that could only be pitied.
“Father! That’s all a lie! She made a fake and put it in Lizzy’s jewelry box and is lying!”
As the situation seemed to be turning strange, David hurriedly searched for words to attack. However, the effect was not very good.
“…If I wanted to frame Lizzy, I would have put in a genuine piece, not a fake. I would have caught her off guard before she could report that a piece she had never seen before had appeared.”
Ariella looked at David as if he were something pitiful.
“And that fake. It appeared during the day, right? I was in the garden with the maid all afternoon. Sir Adam was with us too.”
“Of course, you would have had another maid do it!”
“Another maid? Who in this mansion would follow my orders? The servants who haven’t brought a meal on time since Lizzy became a princess would dare to join in on framing the genuine for a fake.”
As Ariella glanced around at the servants as if observing them, those who felt guilty flinched.
In fact, some maids had discriminated against Ariella, knowingly or unknowingly, after Lizzy was recognized as the real princess.
It was countless times that they brought food long after mealtime or used water for bathing that had gone cold.
Those who did not openly discriminate merely stood by and watched. Although they felt pity for Ariella, they had no intention of mentioning it to the Duke. They feared they might suffer for it.
Even Rose, the head maid, who had always pretended to care for Ariella, only intervened to stop the visible discrimination, but could not run to the Duke to inform him.
That was her limit, and it was also within the range of what Ariella had expected.
“Profit…! Anyway, it’s clear that you—!”
“Shut up, David! Close your mouth.”
As David, defeated in logic, raised his voice for no reason, the Duke silenced him. Then he turned to Ariella, demanding her to continue.
“Ari, go on. So the reason you put the earrings in that box is because a thief broke in?”
“Yes. I could afford to lose everything else, but… I didn’t want to lose the last birthday gift my father gave me. So I hid it in that box. I thought that if it looked this shabby, even if a thief came again, they wouldn’t touch it. Huh… Fortunately, it turned out as I expected.”
At the end of her sigh, the Duke’s eyebrows furrowed sharply.
“That means. You’re saying a thief broke in again?”
With a fierce voice and a scrutinizing gaze, he looked at Ariella.
She hesitated, once again closing her mouth tightly.
As the servants held their breath, waiting for her answer, Lizzy clenched her fists tightly, glaring at Ariella.
Lizzy’s small head was filled with thoughts on how to resolve this situation.
There was still a way to survive. No matter how much Ariella claimed someone had stolen her belongings, there was no evidence.
“…No. That didn’t happen.”
