Chapter 36
Rain drizzled steadily, and the knights’ mud caked boots left smeared, filthy footprints across the once-pristine carpet.
“Excuse me! Captain!”
“You’d do well to keep your mouth shut, young lord of House Eport.”
The captain spat on the ground, his eyes brimming with contempt. Roem’s face hardened in humiliation, and just as he was about to speak again, a booming voice rang out from upstairs.
“It’s not in the count’s room!”
“It’s not in the countess’s room either!”
Soon, reports followed from the study and the drawing room—nothing had been found. The captain strode toward Count Eport.
Then, without warning, he drove his boot straight into the count’s chest.
“—!”
Bound in ropes, the count was sent sprawling backward. Adelaide, horrified by the sudden violence, let out a scream.
“What do you think you’re doing?! What has my father done wrong?!”
Ignoring Roem’s protest, the captain pressed his foot harder into the count’s chest.
“Count, must you see everyone here dragged to their deaths before you come to your senses?”
A pained groan escaped the count’s lips.
“Where is it?”
“I—I don’t know what you’re talking about—”
“The signet ring you stole.”
A signet ring? The accusation came out of nowhere. None of the Eport family understood what he meant.
But the captain merely ground his teeth, looking at them as if they were disgustingly transparent.
“The Crown Prince’s signet ring. Where is it?”
The moment those words fell, the count’s face turned deathly pale. Taking his reaction as a confession, the captain’s expression grew even more vicious.
“So it was you who took it.”
Normally, when something went missing in a noble household, suspicion would fall on the servants. But servants stole items that were easy—gold coins, loose gemstones, things without clear origins.
A signet ring?
Even if made of platinum, it lacked the flashy value of jeweled ornaments. And more importantly—it belonged to a guest.
No servant would dare touch such an item.
If it had been stolen, it had to be someone who knew its true worth.
“So the privileges we’ve granted you weren’t enough, it seems. To think you’d dare steal the Crown Prince’s signet ring.”
“Why—why would I ever do such a thing?!”
The count shouted between ragged coughs.
“I’ve heard that a few weeks ago, you met with Fabian Nachtmann.”
The captain’s eyes narrowed. The count continued coughing, pain flaring through his chest with every breath.
“If you mean when I acted as an escort for the grand duke’s heir on behalf of the House of Nobles, then all we did was share tea—cough—!”
At this year’s assembly of the House of Nobles, Fabian Nachtmann had attended as a proxy in place of the elderly Grand Duke Deard.
On the day he arrived in the capital, both the Speaker and Vice Speaker were away at the palace. As the secretary, the count had no choice but to receive Fabian himself.
“Just tea? More than enough time to hatch a scheme.”
“What are you implying?! What could my father possibly be plotting with the grand duke’s heir?! What do we stand to gain from that?!”
Roem could no longer hold back his anger.
The captain’s tone made it sound as though the Eport family had conspired in treason with Fabian. His gaze then shifted—to Adelaide, trembling beside Roem.
“Well… perhaps your father wasn’t satisfied with the favor of the future emperor. Maybe he aimed higher, perhaps to become his father-in-law.”
A cruel smile tugged at his lips.
“Ah. Or was it that your defective daughter needed a dowry? Perhaps that’s why you needed the Crown Prince’s signet ring, Count?”
“Take that back. Now. If that ring doesn’t turn up, you will be held accountable for these words.”
Roem’s voice trembled with fury. A Crown Prince’s signet ring, there was no way such a thing could be in their house.
Unless, someone had planted it.
The captain ignored him again. After all, it was the Crown Prince himself who had sent him here.
Unless the Crown Prince had gone mad, there was no reason he would falsely accuse a family he had long favored.
And just as the captain believed, a frantic shout came from upstairs.
“We found it!”
The ring had been found.
It should have been impossible. Roem’s face drained of all color, turning pale as a corpse.
Heavy boots thundered down the stairs.
And the moment Adelaide saw the ring in the knight’s hand, her body swayed from shock.
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