Rion's Reality
Around this time, Rion was investigating Milene’s past. It was far too late, of course, but he clung to that last shred of hope. What if that villainess Milene had truly committed no crimes at all?
Even after becoming part of the Holpert family, he reached out to his old contacts in the slums. Finally, the results came back.
“It was Milene, right?” The man from the slums stared at Rion with his usual uneducated, arrogant attitude. Despite the tone, they went back a long way, so Rion let it pass without reaction.
“Yes. What did you find?”
“Before that, let me ask you something. Wouldn’t you know better than anyone, living in the Holpert house? We had to ask around everywhere, burn through manpower, and dig deep. So why don’t you know?”
“That’s…” Rion could only run his tongue over his dry lips. The truth was, he really knew nothing.
He had looked into Sophia, but beyond that he had deliberately avoided learning anything. About Milene. About his original master.
Cold sweat broke out across Rion’s back. I really didn’t know a single thing about Lady Milene!
It was true. He knew absolutely nothing. How had things come to this?
“Well, you must have your reasons. This is our specialty anyway. We did look into it.”
“Yes.”
“There was nothing.”
“Pardon?”
“I mean it was spotlessly clean. Not a single wrongdoing.”
Not a single wrongdoing? Rion’s mind went blank.
“I-is that true?”
“Yeah. We even swept through the academy like you asked. She never acted strangely there at all.”
“But there were witnesses?”
There had been witnesses. He had seen people testify that they watched Milene torment Sophia while siding with her and badmouthing her. So what was all that?
At Rion’s question the slum man scratched the back of his head.
“Buying witnesses with money isn’t exactly rare even in our world. And nobles who smile to your face while stabbing you in the back? We looked into it through the academy guards and other staff instead.”
The man slid a document across to Rion. Its contents were all about Milene.
This can’t be. How…
The document really contained nothing. Of course some time had passed since the events, enough to erase evidence, but could it truly have been wiped so cleanly? The condemnation had been carried out in a way Milene herself could never have anticipated. There shouldn’t have been time to prepare countermeasures or destroy proof.
Then what about the evidence that had surfaced? What on earth was going on?
“I-is this really accurate?”
“Of course. Would we lie to you? We already checked everything.”
“I see.”
Yes. These men might look like thugs, but they did their jobs properly. People who understood that money ruled the world carried out their tasks well once they were paid. They probably hadn’t needed to interrogate students directly; they would have investigated the people around them and reconstructed Milene’s movements that way.
“Anyway, while we were looking into that side, we ended up investigating a woman named Sophia too.”
“Lady Sophia?”
“Everything’s connected in the end.”
“True.”
After all, this entire affair had begun with the conflict between the two sisters. It was only natural.
“She’s quite the piece of work. She cut off all contact with those so-called witnesses afterward. Behind the scenes she indulged in every luxury and even damaged academy property with her own hands.”
“You could find out even that?”
“You know we have people who specialize in tracing evidence. Once they get inside a space, they can tell exactly what happened there.”
“Then…”
“She’s vicious. She cut herself with a knife. Pinched and struck her own arms hard enough to leave bruises.”
Rion’s face twisted. How was that possible? How could such things happen?
“L-Lady Sophia did that?”
“We also looked into those noble daughters who acted as witnesses. They were fallen aristocrats. After the incident they suddenly paid off their debts and bought expensive dresses with money from unknown sources.”
What that implied was obvious. Sophia had bought them with money. Rion’s expression darkened.
The slum man before him was someone he knew well. There was no chance Milene had approached or recruited him. Therefore the man’s words had to be true. Especially since he was presenting physical evidence.
“You understand what this means. We can’t afford to offend those high nobles, so we won’t make any noise, but that Milene girl… she really was pitiful. Tsk tsk.”
At those final words Rion sank to the ground. Whatever the man said after that, he couldn’t hear it.
Eventually he staggered out of the slums. And then he remembered something. A maid who had been fired not long ago was now working at a restaurant in the royal capital.
#
Marie had been a servant of the Holpert family and Milene’s personal maid. She had worked under Milene for a long time. When every other servant and family member sided with Sophia, shielding her and condemning Milene, Marie alone had insisted on Milene’s innocence until the bitter end.
Such behavior naturally earned the household’s displeasure. Sophia in particular had found Marie’s unwavering loyalty intolerable and eventually fired her.
Like Rion, Marie had originally been a maid taken in by Milene. She had a sick younger sibling, and the position in the Holpert household had been an excellent way to earn money for medicine. After the incident, however, it became nearly impossible to cover those costs.
The only work she had now was earning day-to-day wages at a nearby restaurant.
Where could my lady be?
She worried constantly about the young lady who must have been exiled. That ungrateful wretch Rion still sat comfortably inside the Holpert mansion, attending to that vixen. Lady Milene was the true ducal daughter. From the start, that woman had used her insignificant figure to bewitch men. But that was all in the past now.
Having fallen from the position of maid, there was little Marie could do. All she could manage was to listen for any rumors about Milene from the restaurant’s customers.
While she was lost in such thoughts, someone tossed a thick bundle of money onto the table in front of her.
“What’s this, sir? If you’re paying, you don’t have to throw it in a lump like—”
“Your sibling’s medicine money is short, isn’t it?”
“Rion?”
It was indeed Rion who had come to the shop where Marie worked. His face looked gaunt, but that was none of her concern. She simply glared at him with pure murderous intent.
“You don’t need to glare at me like that. I didn’t come to hurt you. I just wanted to see you.”
“Why would I want to meet a bastard who doesn’t even understand gratitude?”
“It’s been a while, but those words are pretty harsh.”
Rion smiled bitterly.
Marie’s face twisted in disgust. What was this piece of trash saying? Harsh words after all this time?
“If you had even a little brain, you should be thanking me for not beating you senseless right here.”
“Haha. Is that so? Yeah… I suppose you’re right.”
“Even if every single person in the Holpert family sided with that vixen, you should never have done so. She picked a dog bone up from the gutter, fed it, clothed it, and gave it a warm place to sleep. Even if the lady had truly done those things, you should have taken her side. Let’s say she did commit them—do you honestly believe her actions deserved exile? Who the hell are you to decide who the master is? When unverified witnesses suddenly appeared to corner her, you should have stepped forward and investigated yourself.”
Each word stabbed Rion like a knife. Because every single one was true. The woman before him had even resisted the Holpert young master when he tried to pressure her using her sick sibling, and she had been fired for it.
He had been too young. Despite his youth he had acted like an adult, proclaiming himself the voice of justice. And that arrogance had led him to betray his benefactor Milene.
“There’s a saying about never taking in black-haired beasts. It was talking about you. A black-haired mutt—that’s exactly what you are.”
“Ha… yeah.”
“I don’t need your filthy Holpert money. My sibling wouldn’t want to be cured with such dirty cash either. Get lost.”
Marie ordered him out. But the pathetic wretch remained, clearly desperate to say something more.
“Lady Milene is—”
“You still dare speak the word ‘lady’ from that mouth?”
“I’m sorry. I was wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“It was all Sophia’s scheme. Lady Milene committed no crimes whatsoever.”
“You’re saying that now? Closing the barn door after the horse has bolted? Ha.”
Marie was utterly dumbfounded. She almost wished someone would come and restore her sense of disbelief.
As a maid she had only worked inside the mansion and hadn’t fully understood Milene’s situation. At some point Sophia had appeared and reassigned her, Milene’s personal maid, to other duties. Now Marie was convinced it had all been a calculated move.
In short, she had been unable to help Milene, and by the time news reached her it was already too late. Yet the bastard before her could have corrected everything at any moment and was only speaking up now.
“No, even the family head scolded Lady Milene, so I had no choice—”
“Stop lying. From the beginning that so-called family head hated Lady Milene’s mother. Of course he would hate her daughter even more. You knew that perfectly well. You’re nothing but trash who fell for that woman’s smooth tongue.”
“……”
Yes. That was right. He had known. He had simply been taken in by Sophia’s words and never tried to learn the truth about Lady Milene.
“Poor lady.”
“…It seems Lady Milene is doing something now.”
“What would you know about it?”
Had he been stalking her this whole time? Was betraying her not enough—had he been creeping after her in secret?
“Not long ago I saw the lady buying slaves at the slave market.”
The lady?
“How is that possible? You mean she wasn’t sold as a slave—she bought them?”
“Yes. She purchased slaves and then freed them. Ten of them.”
Marie thought it sounded exactly like something her lady would do, but she immediately wondered where the money had come from. Even cheap slaves cost hundreds of thousands of rinos each. Ten of them would require tens of millions at minimum. Where had the lady gotten such funds?
Or perhaps… the lady might have prepared emergency money outside the family in advance. Even that ignorant Sophia had been indulging in secret Holpert funds for her luxuries. So maybe Lady Milene had anticipated this very situation.
“So you looked into it further?”
“No.”
“Then stay quiet. Don’t try to involve yourself with the lady anymore. You have no right to apologize and no right to be forgiven.”
With those final words Marie left the restaurant. Because of her sibling’s illness she had worked all over the capital, so gathering information about people was not difficult for her.
She had already left the Holpert household, but after all the care Lady Milene had shown her, now was the time to repay that kindness.