The Hero of Dark Fantasy Possessed a Romance Fantasy (5)
"By the way, who... are you?"
The butler had been curious about him from the start, but hadn't had a chance to ask.
"Ah, I'll explain. Instructor."
As Zeke stepped forward, Selena introduced him to everyone.
"Everyone, this is Zeke Clayman. He saved me when I was in danger after being captured by goblins."
"Ohhh!!"
"He was on his way to take up his post as the new swordsmanship instructor at Ramielli Academy when he rescued me and brought me here."
"Oh my God!!!"
Exclamations poured out from the knights and attendants.
"The Yohaiden are a family that repays kindness twice over. If you wish to stay here, we will make arrangements for you."
"Oh, thank you so much! Truly! To have saved Lady Selena! I will do my best to serve you!"
At Selena's words, the butler stepped forward as a representative and expressed his gratitude.
Then, remembering that Zeke had just intervened in the trial, he asked,
"Um, but Master Zeke.... what brings you here, by any chance?"
Zeke looked at the maid named Siera, whose eyes were narrowed.
'That bitch is going to stab everyone in the back.'
He could smell it.
He couldn't use his Eye of Judgment again yet, but Zeke could be sure even without using it.
Just looking at Siera's face made the back of his neck itch.
It was an instinctual level of intuition.
'Even if I call her out, getting others to believe it is another matter... What should I do....'
Zeke organized his thoughts for a moment.
'Well, that'll do. Consider it payment for lodging.'
"It's just that something sounded a bit off. Anyway, I was also one of the key witnesses who discovered the scene. The coachman who saw it with me has already left for the capital, so I guess I'm the last witness."
"Ah, right.... You were the one who saw what happened while I was unconscious, Instructor."
Selena nodded.
"Yes, Selena. Just one question. When you said you'd repay me before, didn't you say that that woman, Siera, had taken all the money and it was gone?"
"Yes."
"Butler, did you search them?"
Zeke asked the butler.
His intuition clearly told him she was lying, but he needed confirmation.
Just in case, that bald guy really was a bad guy.
"Yes, we did yesterday. But we found nothing."
"Then one of them hid the money. It's highly likely that it was that woman, Siera."
'Yeah, that's right, bitch. You're the one.'
Siera broke out in a cold sweat.
"That's....!"
"Yes, this was actually just a minor confirmation procedure. Honestly, it has nothing to do with the current situation."
Zeke immediately changed the subject, saying it was irrelevant to the case.
But she didn't know.
The moment she didn't immediately deny it, she was already caught in a trap.
'Selena, I told you to watch your back.'
Selena still seemed to have some fondness for her.
So, by revealing the fact that she stole the money, it also had the effect of planting suspicion in Selena's mind about Siera, preventing her from stepping up for her.
'In this kind of people's court atmosphere, you have to lay the groundwork with emotional manipulation.'
"First, I'll state three facts. First, when I first saw the carriage, the horses were already gone."
"Second, there were traces of the horses disappearing at regular intervals, as if someone had ridden them away, not as if they had run away from the goblins on their own."
"Third, I treated Selena and immediately left in the carriage."
Zeke said, folding one finger at a time.
"Do you understand what this means?"
"...."
"You arrived a day early. You rode straight here on horseback."
"Yes! That is the proof of my innocence! As soon as we realized Lady Selena was in danger, we rode straight here to report it!"
"I see. This time, I ask the man. What did Siera say on the way here?"
It was a clever turn of phrase.
Zeke drove the situation as if the incident had happened under Siera's leadership in the first place.
"She.... said she would tell us how we could survive...."
"How? Didn't you think to run away?"
"To be honest, at first, we were going to run away like that.... But Siera said.... that if we ran away now, we would be hunted down by the Knights for the rest of our lives...."
"I see. So even if you reported that bandits had taken Lady Selena, wouldn't you still be unable to do anything?"
Siera, thinking that this couldn't go on, tried to interrupt.
"That's!"
Zeke stared at Siera with an expressionless face.
She flinched.
Her entire body was instantly dyed with a terrible fear, and her mouth wouldn't open.
'What the hell is this man doing, suddenly showing up and...!'
Siera felt like she was going crazy.
She was sure there were no flaws in her plan.
She was flustered when the princess, whom she thought had been dragged away by goblins, reappeared, but she realized that it could make her plan perfect.
Siera was confident that she could frame the naive and foolish Princess Yohaiden.
So she was thinking carefully about what to say and speaking cautiously to sway the atmosphere, but the situation took a strange turn because of that man who suddenly stepped forward.
'What the hell! Who the hell is he?'
The strange pressure he exuded made her mouth shut tight even when she tried to speak.
"Ugh."
Zeke turned his gaze back to the man.
"Tell me. Why did you lie and say she was kidnapped by bandits?"
"Being attacked by goblins and being kidnapped by bandits are different...."
"How are they different?"
"If she was kidnapped, it means the Princess wasn't killed, and there's room for negotiation.... If we say it was the Princess's fault for sneaking out of the academy, that the problem was caused by the Princess...."
Zeke found the bald man in front of him ridiculous.
If he just thought about it for a second, he'd know.
There's no way he could get away with such a clumsy excuse.
Zeke decided to play along for now.
"Hmm, I see. So you were forced to go along with it. Let's assume that the Princess was unfortunately kidnapped by bandits...."
Zeke glanced at Selena.
"You wanted to rescue the Princess, but you were powerless, so you had no choice but to run here and report the danger. Is that it....?"
"Y-yes...."
"If you do that, you won't be hunted down for the rest of your lives? I don't know. Let's move on from that. But why did you, of all people, say she was kidnapped by bandits? There's no reason for it."
"S-Siera promised to give me money if she got away with it...."
As Zeke's gaze focused on the man, the pressure surrounding Siera seemed to ease for a moment.
Siera seized the opportunity and cried out frantically.
"Th-that's a lie!!!"
Zeke sneered inwardly.
"Alright, Siera. This time, I'll give you a chance to explain yourself. You were going to tell the butler separately, weren't you? That it wasn't bandits, but goblins who attacked Selena."
"That's right! I changed my mind because I thought I had to tell him the real danger Lady Selena was in!"
Panicked, Siera affirmed Zeke's words.
'Wow, how can you take the bait so easily?'
"No, you were going to sacrifice them all and get a way to survive on your own."
Zeke smiled.
"You fools. You've all been deceived. Whether it was goblins or bandits, the fact that you abandoned Selena in her time of need doesn't change. Isn't that right, Selena?"
"Yes...."
Selena nodded her head when Zeke suddenly asked her.
Zeke took a step forward to wrap things up.
"Then why did you have to lie to them like that? It must have been to gain the fact that you were the only one who told the truth."
"That's absurd!!!"
Siera shouted, but her voice sounded hollow compared to Zeke's.
Everyone gathered in the courtyard was focused only on Zeke's words.
"When everyone says the Princess was kidnapped by bandits, you're the only one who says she was kidnapped by goblins. And if the Knights just go to the scene of the incident, they'll easily be able to find out that it was a goblin attack."
Zeke took one step at a time towards Siera.
'Eek!'
She twisted her body and tried to back away.
"If you're lucky and Selena is rescued from the goblins, you'll probably even get a big reward. Of course, everyone else will be dead."
Thud!
Siera, still tied up, fell backward.
"Even if the others, who figured out the situation late, say it was your plan, Siera, would they really believe those who already lied about the bandits? I don't think so."
'How did this happen!'
Siera's face turned pale.
Zeke looked at the others who were tied up.
As if asking if they were really going to let this woman go like this.
They stared blankly at Zeke's words, then glared at Siera with bloodshot eyes.
‘It's just a flimsy plan hastily put together. Do you think the bond you hastily forged with money, cheaper than life itself, will protect you?’
"The evidence will now be provided by the others."
Zeke drove the point home.
Siera lay on the ground and rolled her eyes.
The knights clenched their swords, and
The attendants and maids made no effort to hide their contempt and disgust.
And Selena Yohaiden was staring at her with red eyes.
At that moment.
"I'll tell you where Siera hid the money!"
"She said to sacrifice that man and let only us survive!"
"She promised to split the money equally if we let her go!"
"Siera planned everything!"
Zeke nodded.
"Siera. So it's back to the money. Now, the money you didn't deny at first is what's holding you back. Why did you hide it?"
"Th-that's!"
In fact, Zeke's words were not conclusive evidence that Siera was the culprit.
It was just a deduction based on circumstantial evidence.
Zeke was convinced that she was the culprit, but
He couldn't present irrefutable evidence.
However, since it was so close to the truth, Siera would never notice.
'Scientific evidence in a medieval romance fantasy world with carriages? What scientific evidence? The strong make the rules.'
Selena, who had been watching the trial until the end, trembled with an overwhelming sense of betrayal.
She had tried to believe in her until the very end.
Siera had tried to deceive her until the very end.
'Was I too lenient?'
She had thought that she had treated her subordinates with kindness and built trust with them, but
It seemed that was just her own wishful thinking.
She looked at the butler.
His face was contorted like a demon's.
"Alfred."
"Yes...."
"I need to know the truth."
"Yes! It will be done... It will be done!"
"I'll leave it up to you to decide what to do afterward. Just let me know the results."
Alfred glared at Siera, his fists clenched.
As he did so, she desperately realized her fate.
No more struggling, no more pleading would be of any use.
All she could do was accept her fate.
The torture that awaited her, and the slow death that would follow.
She trembled all over.
'H-how did this happen? How did it come to this...?'
Siera took one last look at Zeke.
A slight smile played on his otherwise expressionless face.
"Butler."
"Yes, Lady Selena."
"Assign an attendant to the Instructor."
"We will treat him as a guest of honor."
The butler bowed his head deeply.
Selena looked down for a moment and then sighed deeply.
"Well, I'm tired. I'm going inside to rest. Oh, and don't tell my father about this if he hasn't been contacted yet. It'll just complicate things if he finds out."
"We sent a messenger yesterday, but I'll send a faster one to bring him back."
"That's a relief. I'll write to Father myself."
'He probably knows I'm here, but if I don't tell him I arrived safely, he'll come looking for me out of worry.'
Leaving behind the sound of Siera's cries as she was dragged away to prison by the knights,
Selena headed for the mansion with the help of her attendants.
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I feel like she will somehow get 'corrupted' by mc 🤣🤣
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chapter
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