Chapter 52: Identifying the Suspect

I handed the seasoning container to Rosetta for safekeeping and asked John again.

“But why did this appear in front of me?”

“That… I’m not sure either.”

John bowed his head deeply as his voice trailed off. When my gaze fell on them, the maids’ shoulders trembled. Some were even on the verge of tears.

“It’s, it’s unfair.”

“We, we don’t know anything. We’re not the ones who make the meat seasonings.”

Some maids looked at John with resentful eyes. Receiving those glares, John turned pale and trembled violently. The cheerful and confident demeanor he showed on the battlefield was nowhere to be seen. Nothing could be more important than one’s life.

“This–this can’t be, my lady! Please believe me!”

John prostrated himself even lower, almost burying his nose in the ground. Everyone knew that being confirmed as the Duke’s would-be assassin meant certain death.

‘If we could check fingerprints, we’d know right away. But this world doesn’t have such things.’

Wondering if I had missed anything, I asked the kitchen staff.

“Who has been in and out of the kitchen recently?”

“Um, besides me and the maids… no one.”

John and the maids’ faces darkened considerably. Then suddenly, one maid lifted her head as if remembering something.

“M-my lady!”

“What is it?”

“While no one came to the kitchen, there was someone who helped us.”

“Someone who helped?”

When I asked again, the maid nodded vigorously and pointed at Jude.

“Ge, General Jude! She helped us move the ingredient boxes!”

The desperate maids tried hard to recall the situation and began testifying one after another.

“Ye, yes! We were so grateful when she helped us unload the ingredients and provisions!”

“It was quite a distance to the kitchen, we were saved thanks to her help.”

“Wasn’t it the first time she helped us?”

“Yes, yes.”

The maids’ testimonies matched.

Suddenly pointed out as a suspect, Jude jumped up and glared at them. Then she began to voice her indignation loudly.

“I just helped because it looked heavy. Is that wrong? You think I’ll believe what the kitchen staff says? This is slander!”

The maids fell silent at Jude’s thundering voice. Then Rosetta, who had been quiet until now, spoke up.

“I also saw earlier when unloading from the carriage, General Jude was helping very enthusiastically. Diff. er. ent. ly from usual.”

“Really?”

“I wonder why? Rosetta is very curious about that, my lady.”

“You, you!”

Agitated, Jude tried to step forward. If Ethan hadn’t grabbed her arm, she looked ready to strike Rosetta’s face.

“General Jude, calm down.”

At my voice, her fierce purple eyes turned from Rosetta to me. I met that gaze unflinchingly and said,

“The more you act like this, the more suspicious you become.”

“……!”

Though her expression of biting her lips revealed her frustration, Jude stepped back without saying anything.

One thing was clear: those who had handled the food containers were the maids, the chef, and Jude.

I couldn’t waste much time because of Xavier. My voice came out cracked from my dry mouth.

“Rexton. In an emergency, am I correct to assume the Duke’s authority?”

“Yes, Madam.”

Rexton nodded beside me in response.

So that’s right.

I looked around solemnly and spoke.

“Quiet. I will make a decision as the lady of House Auguste.”

The tent fell silent.

“Until the Duke wakes up, Chef John and the maids will be confined in separate tents with guards.”

I felt sorry for John, but he was also a suspect so it couldn’t be helped.

Our eyes met, but his gaze held no resentment. He just nodded in resignation and quietly offered his arms to the knights who came to bind them.

“My lady, please!”

“Ahhh.”

“Save us!”

The maids’ desperate cries burst out as the knights rushed in and tied their arms tightly with ropes.

“And until suspicions are cleared, General Jude will be confined to a tent with General Wilhelm standing guard.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Wilhelm responded with unusual gravity in his voice. He forcefully restrained the struggling Jude by pressing down on her back and roughly grabbing her arm. Becoming desperate, Jude cried out in a shrill voice.

“Ethan!”

“My lady!”

Ethan called out to me with an expression of disbelief.

He probably meant to ask for leniency. His face seemed to say that Jude couldn’t possibly do such a thing, that she was one of the Duke’s closest confidants who grew up with him.

But I had to make an absolutely cold judgment now. Even if Jude was like family to Xavier, she wasn’t to me. Above all, it was clear that she was the most suspicious suspect.

I looked at Ethan with a cold expression and declared.

“Something will probably turn up if we search their personal tents. Don’t call me like that.”

“Ah…”

Ethan’s arms went limp. Wilhelm untied the rope at his waist and used it to tightly bind Jude’s upper body.

“Wilhelm, you!”

Wilhelm just glared at Jude fiercely, keeping his mouth shut. Seeing that things were roughly settled, I spoke.

“That is all.”

“Let me gooooo!”

Jude’s loud roar echoed roughly through the camp.

Thus ended the identification of suspects, and I hurried with Rexton to the tent where Xavier was.

*

“There should be contact by now!”

Margaret, pacing in her room, repeatedly took out and put back the small magical device in her pocket. It was identical to the one she had given to General Jude.

“Ugh, General Jude–!”

She bit her nails anxiously, sitting down and getting up from the bed multiple times.

But still, the magical device remained silent.

“Did she stupidly fail before even starting, getting caught?”

Beep.

Just then, the magical device made a small sound.

“Oh!”

Margaret quickly took out the device and held it.

[This is the client.]

It was Count Willem’s voice, not General Jude’s.

Margaret composed herself and pressed the device once before answering.

“Yes. Received.”

The device blinked and emitted a small voice.

[How is the progress?]

“Still… no contact.”

[Hurry. That person has high expectations.]

“I’m sorry.”

[If you succeed this time, won’t I put you in the collateral line?]

“I will do my utmost.”

[You’ve been planting the seeds of unrest as ordered?]

“Yes, that’s basic. I executed it as soon as I arrived.”

[Good, well done. Separately from that, I can’t wait long for the first mission, so bring results quickly.]

“Yes, client.”

Beep beep beep–

The communication cut off and the device’s light faded.

Stamping her foot on the floor, Margaret clenched her fists.

If only I could have gone on the journey!

General Jude! You fool!

Margaret was cursing in frustration and anger before coming to her senses.

This isn’t the time.

She needed to plan for the future in case the first mission ordered by the Crown Prince failed.

If things went wrong, staying at the Duke’s residence would be impossible.

‘To survive, I need to dig up at least one scandal about the Duke’s house to hand over to the Count!’

Now was the perfect opportunity with minimal staff left at the mansion while the Duke and Duchess were away. There was little chance of conflict with other senior staff since they worked in different areas from her.

She just had to watch out for the old butler, Albert.

As the person who frequented the Duke’s office the most and had grown up by the Duke’s side for many years, he wouldn’t be easy to deceive.

He was as troublesome as Rosetta.

‘Ah, I need to deal with Rosetta too. Tsk.’

Thinking this, Margaret left her room.

For now, she decided to steadily approach butler Albert until contact came from General Jude.

Margaret began to observe every single move of the butler — when, where, what he did, where he kept the key to the Duke’s office, what his habits were, where he usually visited.

From this moment on, she started watching the butler’s every action.

*

“My lady! You’ve returned quickly!”

When we returned to the tent where Xavier was lying, the healer brightened at seeing us. Xavier’s condition, lying stiffly, didn’t seem much different from before.

“How is the Duke?”

“There’s no change. The medicine I prescribed only slows down the rate at which his strength is declining.”

“I see.”

“I’m sorry, my lady.”

The healer hung his head weakly.

It was a desperate situation.

Xavier was dying.

What could I possibly do?

While Death’s shadow was trying to take Xavier only grew darker by the moment, I, the saintess, couldn’t do anything.

Wait, saintess?

Right, I’m the saintess.

With this cursed golden star on my back, I can heal anything!

The sun showed its face between the clouds. It felt like the thick despair was lifting.

‘I should have done this earlier. How foolish.’

It was the moment despair turned to hope.

I took a deep breath and exhaled heavily.

“I will use holy power.”

“Ah! If my lady treats him, it will be resolved quickly. We worried needlessly!”

Relief colored the healer’s voice. Rexton’s expression also relaxed.

I carefully bent down and kissed Xavier’s lips. The cold sensation was so numbing that tears welled up.

It felt like kissing rubber rather than a person.

A golden light flashed once from my back, and I believed he would soon open his eyes.

“Huh?”

But nothing happened.

“Th-the holy power isn’t working?”

Not understanding, I looked at the healer beside me. The healer also stood there with a dumbfounded expression in surprise.

Rexton too was unusually trembling. But suddenly the healer turned pale and stepped back.

“Ah, ahhh!”

He gasped for breath with his mouth wide open, face turning blue. His face looked as if he’d seen a ghost.

Both Rexton and I stared at him in surprise before turning our gaze to Xavier’s bed. And we froze.

Xavier Auguste.

He had transformed into a cat.