Chapter 80
Kaiden was lying quietly on the bed with a face devoid of any color. His face had become very emaciated. I clung to the bedside and brushed his face with my trembling hand.
The previous grand duke asked in a calm voice.
“How is Kaiden’s condition?”
“The marquisate’s resident physician is taking care of him, but… his condition hasn’t been good since he first arrived here.”
At the marquis’s answer, I gritted my teeth and glared at the demon king.
The root cause of all this, that bastard of the world who tries to kill innocent people. Just because he’s the demon king, does that mean he can do anything?
I wanted to pour out all sorts of colorful insults and profanity at him, but I barely held back. The advance team’s top priority was, after all, dialogue and negotiation.
Holding back my tears, I opened my mouth.
“I want to heal His Grace the Grand Duke with holy power.”
People’s gazes turned toward the saintess Stella. The demon king muttered while looking at her.
“A follower of Nyx, I see. I hate Nyx. He doesn’t tell me anything and only remains silent. I know that’s how he is, but it’s still infuriating. So I want to kill him.”
That crazy bastard!
I felt anxious. I knew the terrifying side of him that I had experienced in the imperial capital.
If the demon king got upset, he could kill not only Stella but everyone here. My heart pounded uneasily.
“But for now, I still have the mind to show mercy.”
He gave me a chance, as if bestowing a favor.
“If you first provide proof that you are my daughter, I will allow the treatment.”
It was starting now.
My eyes met Durante’s. Durante approached with a stiff face and stood beside me.
I slowly opened my mouth.
“Durante, who lived in the same slum district as me, he is the witness.”
The demon king quietly stared at us, as if telling us to continue.
This time, Durante opened his mouth.
“I, I have taken care of young Lady Merien when she was little. At that time, she looked about 3 or 4 years old, and since I was 15, I remember it. From then on, Lady Merien’s wrist had that bracelet.”
It was truly simple.
All that was needed was testimony from someone else who had seen me wearing the germanium bracelet since I was young. Whether the demon king would believe it right away was unknown.
The demon king looked at Durante with languid eyes. Durante was shrinking greatly, his body trembling thinly. The demon king showed no aggression at all, yet his mere presence overwhelmed him.
The demon king slowly opened his mouth.
“What was her appearance like when you first found her?”
“I don’t know that well. An older woman was already taking care of Lady Merien. Since I was working, I don’t know how each child came in.”
“That woman?”
“She died.”
The demon king was silent for a moment. I felt nervous. Durante and I had coordinated our story by mixing lies and truth. Except for the bracelet part, everything so far was true.
The demon king asked again.
“What was the child’s clothing like at that time?”
“Lady Merien’s clothing was worn out in various places, but it is said that it originally looked like very luxurious clothes.”
This was a lie.
It is said that from the beginning, I was wearing large, shabby clothes that didn’t fit my size.
But if I were the demon king’s daughter, we guessed she would have worn expensive clothes. So we tailored the story to fit the demon king and added a bit of embellishment.
“3 or 4 years old, you said.”
“Yes. She looked about that age.”
“Our Roselyn was lost at 2 years old.”
Durante was momentarily flustered but maintained his composure.
“Well… children of that age grow quickly even in just one day, and judging from the worn clothes, I think she might have stayed somewhere else before entering the slum.”
“Is that so?”
The demon king thought for a moment and then turned his head toward me.
“Did you wear the bracelet every day?”
Now it was my turn. I said the answer I had prepared in advance.
“No. After I started seriously holding a sword, it was cumbersome to have something dangling on my wrist, so there were many times I took it off.”
If I said I wore it every day here, there would have to be more than one or two people who saw that appearance. But by setting up the excuse that I often took it off, it might reduce suspicion later.
“Then why were you wearing it at that time?”
He was referring to when the demon king discovered the bracelet on my wrist in the imperial capital.
‘Because I had been wearing it for only two days before that.’
“I forgot to take it off.”
At my brazen answer that differed from the truth, he narrowed his eyes and looked at me. My spine chilled under that scrutinizing gaze.
Cold sweat ran down my back, but I did not avoid those eyes. Well, what could he do? I said I forgot.
“Did you change the string?”
He asked while lifting the bracelet. I was momentarily flustered. Change the string?
The bracelet had a simple design with a silver string and one black gem attached.
Common sense would dictate that after 20 years, it would wear out or fray, so changing the bracelet string would be right. But I quickly caught the intent of this question.
“No. It was still fine.”
I answered as ‘I didn’t change it.’
Silence fell in the room. The demon king showed no particular reaction. That lack of reaction was proof that it was the correct answer.
After all, it was an accessory given by the demon king to the person he loved, so it probably wasn’t an ordinary string.
Having escaped the cunning leading question, I inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. The demon king looked at me for a moment and then turned his head toward the marquis.
“Marquis. Bring the witness you found.”
What…?
I looked at the marquis with surprised eyes. Marquis Fernandi nodded and gestured to the servant at the door. The servant naturally went outside. It seemed like something already prepared.
I looked at the previous grand duke in confusion, but he was equally confused and only shook his head.
“Let’s sit and wait.”
The demon king naturally sat on the sofa in the middle of the room. The marquis sat next to him, and the previous grand duke sat across from them. Everyone was so natural that I wondered if I was the only one flustered by this situation.
“Sit down.”
The demon king commanded me.
I hesitated and sat next to the previous grand duke.
There was enough space, but Stella, finding it awkward, sat on the chair next to the bed where Kaiden was lying. It was quite far from the sofa. Durante naturally stood near the door with his hands behind his back.
The demon king said nothing in particular to Durante or Stella. He was only sending his gaze to me.
[I’m scared….]
Bled, also scared, slyly hid over my shoulder.
But who on earth is this witness the marquis found…? Perhaps the clerks from the Asili jewelry store? They were already bought by Lucas. If someone changed their mind….
All sorts of anxious thoughts swirled in my head.
Waiting with a feeling as if my blood was drying up, the door opened. I looked in surprise, and a maid was pushing in a tea tray.
“Drink.”
The demon king urged me to drink the tea poured by the maid.
Suppressing the impulse to splash the tea on him, I barely took a sip. In the room, only the sound of drinking tea could be heard, and no one opened their mouth to speak.
How many minutes passed?
“Marquis. I have brought that person.”
“Bring him in.”
For a moment, noisy sounds came from outside the door. It sounded like the person called the witness was shouting loudly in resistance and struggling. But that voice was strangely familiar.
No way….
My stomach churned uncomfortably, and goosebumps began to rise on my arms.
As soon as I saw the figure entering through the open door, I tightly closed both eyes.
“L-Let go of this! What are you doing to a law-abiding imperial citizen!”
Why is the one-armed knight here? Clearly, the emperor had sentenced him to death and imprisoned him, but the execution hadn’t happened yet. How did he escape from prison?
My head spun.
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