Chapter 44

 “I know.”

 “The queen’s ornament will be found in your room’s drawer or among your belongings.”

 “I expected that too.”

 “Even if you had touched the queen’s belongings, that woman won’t be able to touch you.”

 “I have never touched Her Highness the Queen’s ornaments!”

 “I know.”

 Ella glared at him, breathing heavily. She couldn’t contain her anger at the thought that even Larque didn’t believe her. Even if it was just a hypothetical situation, she hated being labeled a thief. She hadn’t done it, and there was no reason for her to do such a thing, so she couldn’t understand why she had to be treated this way.

 “You have no reason to touch the queen’s ornaments.”

 “……”

 “After all, I have offered you jewels more valuable than those at your feet.”

 The man smiled wryly. A sensual smile hung on his high nose bridge and the elegant red lips beneath it. Ella blushed at the strange smile that he usually only showed in bed. It was a clear and obvious fact that didn’t need to be revisited. The ornaments he gave her were of the highest quality beyond imagination, ones that even the queen couldn’t purchase, and they were top-grade even to her untrained eye.

 The Duke occasionally bought jade, lapis lazuli, pearls, and colorful diamonds of good quality and presented them to Ella. When he was in a good mood or a bad mood. He would weave red roses, yellow marigolds, and wildflowers like cosmos and cornflowers from the field and hand them to her along with a jewelry box.

 Ella received the jewelry box and thought about his mood. When tributes were offered from the territory, he would pick the most saturated and elaborately processed ones and gift them along with wildflowers. Although he sometimes gave gifts to appease her anger, there were also things given to confess his uncontrollable affection.

 When there was no more room to organize the accumulating ornaments, Anna created a separate room just for her ornaments. Among the abundant jewels, she cherished only a few, so it wouldn’t have mattered if she disposed of them, but everything Larque gave her was precious.

 She wouldn’t have thought to compare under normal circumstances, but as Larque said, the ornaments he had piled at his bedchamber maid’s feet were more numerous and of higher quality than those in the queen’s palace. Ella truly had no reason to covet the queen’s ornaments. Since her house was full of similar things, unless she had a compulsion to steal, there was no reason to covet them.

 “What will happen to me?”

 Ella looked at Larque with a somewhat tired face. The man, who had been playing with his lover’s long hair, lowered his head and whispered softly.

 “You’ll go back home.”

 *** 

 When the day broke, a servant from the queen’s palace searched one of the rooms in the eastern part of the main palace. It was one of the servant quarters assigned to Ella when Larque received a separate palace as a guest, but in reality, it was a room where Ella had never stayed. Everything flowed as expected. The queen’s ornament, a necklace, was found among Ella’s belongings, and Ella was escorted and stood before the king and queen.

 The necklace was a precious item bestowed by Kiyergo, the queen’s father and the king of Treden, to celebrate the marriage of Princess Guinevere more than a decade ago. The colored diamond necklace with a light amber hue, just like her eyes, was a precious item among precious items that no noblewoman could easily purchase.

 The queen was more flushed than any other day. Her porcelain-white face was filled with heat, but more noticeable were the red bruise marks on her neck. Ella narrowed her eyes as she looked at the red marks on her neck.

 If the marks were visible to her eyes, they would also be visible to the king or other servants. Especially the king standing beside her. He couldn’t have missed seeing them. However, the king merely hardened his expression coldly, pretending not to see those marks.

 “As you’ve seen, the queen’s precious item was found among your belongings.”

 “This slave has never seen such a precious item.”

 “Then how did it come to be found among your belongings?”

 “This slave is foolish and doesn’t know the reason. However, before Your Majesty, I declare my innocence. This slave has never stayed in the room where the precious item was found.”

 “That’s the first I’m hearing of this.”

 The king’s face was indifferent. The actual interrogation that followed was also weak. Questions that were merely procedural. It seemed like he wouldn’t be particularly surprised no matter how Ella answered. But this was before the king. Ella answered calmly.

 “It’s difficult to say…… As a bedchamber maid, to fulfill my duties, I stayed in my master’s bedroom, Your Majesty.”

 “Is this true? Duke.”

 The king’s purple eyes turned toward Larque. Ella carefully observed him. The man in his neat formal attire was as lofty and sharp as a standing blade. Indeed, his presence overwhelmed the audience. Somehow, her throat felt parched.

 Like a juror who only occupied a seat in an unrelated trial. His heavy gaze was dry and cool. Ella tensed slightly at the smooth face from which no thought or emotion could be read.

 “It is true.”

 The king smiled faintly. The Duke didn’t move despite catching that smile. She had said it was difficult to say, but a knight embracing a servant girl in bed was not a significant matter. Alexander wanted to end this boring game quickly. He glanced at Guinevere. He was seated, and she was standing on his left side, watching the situation. Alexander murmured softly toward her.

 “Queen. The Duke’s bedchamber maid says she has never stayed in that room.”

 “I apologize, Your Majesty. The precious item from Treden was found not in the room but among the bedchamber maid’s belongings. She is certainly not innocent.”

 Ella bit her lip. Although she had never used the room, Ella personally managed the belongings brought from the Duke’s mansion. But, but those belongings weren’t only handled by her. Moreover, there was actually someone else who used that room.

 “Do you have something to say?”

 “Yes.”

 As she was moving her lips, the king asked. Ella found a girl trembling violently among the audience surrounding her. Sir Arthur’s young servant girl. Her name was Lea, wasn’t it? Ella looked at the girl who had used her room instead. When their eyes met, the child trembled as if having a seizure and made a crying face.

 Ella sighed. Lea was an unrelated child. Since Sir Arthur had been knighted not long ago and was young, Lea couldn’t be assigned a bedroom alone. Ella had casually given up her room to the child who had complained to her master that it was difficult to sleep among the maids.

 “I am wronged, Your Majesty. This slave is foolish and an unfortunate incident has occurred, but to be accused of theft just because I managed my own belongings……”

 “However, the queen’s precious item was found among your belongings. You must explain this. In a way that satisfies me. Defense comes after that.”

 The king was quite cold. Ella firmly closed her lips and then looked at Lea again. Lea was trembling, looking like she might faint. Ella turned her gaze away and looked forward again.

 “During the few days this slave stayed at the royal palace, I slept in His Highness the Duke’s bedroom. However, the room assigned to this slave when entering the royal palace was not empty.”

 “Are you saying someone secretly used your room?”

 “No, Your Majesty. I gave the room to Sir Arthur’s young servant girl, who was recently knighted by Your Majesty and is the son of Count Trotters. As I didn’t separately report this to the royal palace maids, it might be difficult to verify, but if you call the person involved and check, you can confirm that this slave has not lied.”

 The king’s gaze was sharp. His romantic purple eyes instantly turned into an ice-cold sheet of ice. Was it because she violated the royal palace’s rules? Ella gulped. Her throat stung, and she pressed her fingers firmly between her collarbones. Her two legs standing on the floor seemed to lose strength. But she tried not to back down. The king no longer smiled. He ordered in a stern voice to bring Sir Arthur’s young servant girl. The child who had been trembling in the audience was led by royal knights to stand before the king.

 “Look at the Duke’s bedchamber maid. Do you know each other?”

 “Yes, yes!”

 Lea, who had been dragged out, already had a face stained with tears. Even her manner of answering “yes” sounded similar to a sniffling noise. With eyes half-dazed, Lea glanced at the king and then turned her head to look at where her master was.

 Arthur, who was Larque’s subordinate and had recently been knighted, was Lea’s master. Ella believed that Lea would be safe from the queen’s reach as she was a person of the future Count Trotters. Count Trotters, a great landlord of the east and a high official of the central government, was a very conservative and fierce figure who openly checked the power of the queen, who was a princess of Treden. As a queen without any particular backing in Kylaq, she had reason to fear Count Trotters. Ella looked at the queen. The woman still had a cool face, as if calm. Unlike herself who was agitated, she was as composed as if wearing a mask.

 “Is this true?”

 “Y-Yes, it is.”