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Chapter 19: Who is the real culprit

Chapter 19: Who is the real culprit

Aldric felt his chest tighten the moment he recognized the two people stepping out of the darkness.

Duke Cassian Avarenne walked in front, his black cloak swaying faintly with each step. Duchess Mirelle followed close beside him, but from the instant she appeared, her eyes had not left Leviana lying on the ground or the blood-covered Lathel shielding her from the front.

Aldric didn’t know when they had arrived.

Nor how much they had heard.

In a single brief moment, every word he had just spoken flashed through his mind. The talk of supporting characters, storylines, Lathel’s death, the entire narrative he had prepared to cast himself as Leviana’s savior.

Aldric’s heart hammered.

A feeling of panic he absolutely despised rose inside him.

But he forced it down quickly.

’Calm down.’

’They may not have heard anything.’

Even if they caught a few sentences, Cassian and Mirelle wouldn’t understand what "supporting character" or "storyline" meant. Those terms didn’t belong to this world.

As long as he held his story together, everything could still be salvaged.

Aldric took a deep breath, and the tension on his face quickly shifted into the reasonable concern of someone who had just been through danger.

"Duke Cassian, Duchess Mirelle..."

He forced a strained smile.

"You’ve arrived at just the right time."

Cassian didn’t answer.

He only looked.

That gaze made Aldric more uncomfortable than any interrogation could.

The two burly men standing behind him also unconsciously retreated half a step. They knew how powerful the Duke before them was, and they understood even better the consequences if everything that had just happened had been witnessed in full.

Cassian slowly looked from the burning room on the second floor down to the shattered glass on the ground, then stopped on Lathel.

His left leg was deformed.

Two fingers on his right hand were bent at an unnatural angle.

Blood covered nearly half his body, from his arms and shoulders to the tears in his clothing. And yet, despite having almost no strength left, Lathel was still using his body to block the space between Aldric and Leviana.

Mirelle looked at the scene, her face going white.

Cassian finally spoke.

"What are you doing?"

A simple question.

Yet Aldric felt the back of his neck go cold.

He answered at once: "I’m saving Leviana."

Mirelle looked at him.

Then at Lathel.

Aldric knew the picture before them was far too damning, so he gave the two of them no time to think.

"I just discovered Leviana’s room was on fire and rushed over immediately. When I arrived, Lathel had already carried her out through the window. At first I thought he was rescuing her, but then I realized he was the one who started the fire."

Lathel heard Aldric’s voice.

But the words had begun to blur.

The relentless pain from his broken leg and his hand was draining all warmth from his body, even though the fire behind him still raged.

He tried to lift his head.

Aldric continued.

"He was trying to take Leviana away. I stopped him, and he immediately resisted. My two men were only helping restrain him."

Mirelle looked at Lathel’s hand.

"Restrain?"

Her voice was very quiet.

"Restrain a person by snapping two of his fingers?"

Aldric faltered for a beat.

Just one beat.

Then he immediately shook his head.

"My lady, it was extremely chaotic. He was wounded, his mind had lost control, and I only wanted to make him stop."

"His fingers broke on their own?"

Mirelle asked.

One of the two subordinates behind Aldric bowed his head low.

Aldric felt anger beginning to rise.

Why was she only looking at Lathel?

Why wasn’t she looking at his injuries?

He had also just been badly wounded by Catrina.

His chest was still bandaged.

His shoulder still ached.

And yet from the moment Cassian and Mirelle appeared, neither had asked him a single question.

All eyes were on the mute lying on the ground.

Aldric clenched his fist and fought to keep his voice level.

"I admit I used more force than I should have. But if I hadn’t stopped him, who knows what else he might have done to Leviana?"

Cassian took one step forward.

BOOM!

No spell was cast.

The mana that escaped his body alone was enough to make the air across the courtyard feel crushing.

The two men behind Aldric instantly changed color, forced into stumbling retreat.

Aldric also felt a sharp pain in his chest.

He stepped back half a pace on instinct.

The moment he realized he had just been cowed by Cassian’s aura, his face burned with humiliation.

Cassian looked at him coldly.

"Do you think I’m blind?"

Aldric clenched his jaw.

"I’m telling the truth."

"Or do you think I’m stupid?"

Cassian pointed at Lathel.

"The man on the ground has a broken leg, is covered in blood, and his hand has been destroyed. And yet when we arrived, he was still trying to crawl back in front of my daughter."

His gaze shifted to the two men behind Aldric.

"Meanwhile, the three of you are standing perfectly fine."

Aldric spoke up at once: "Because he’s the one who caused all of this!"

His voice was louder now.

Cassian didn’t react.

That composure only made Aldric lose patience faster.

"You’re only seeing the final result. You don’t know what happened before!"

"Then explain."

Cassian said.

Aldric took a deep breath.

Finally, the part he had prepared for.

"Lathel is jealous of me."

A silence fell.

Aldric looked at Leviana’s parents and began assembling the pieces of his story.

"The betrothal originally belonged to me. After Leviana fell into her coma, the family temporarily had Lathel take my place. He’s been by her side for three years, and perhaps he’s truly come to think of Leviana as his."

Mirelle frowned.

Seeing that, Aldric spoke even faster.

"Now Leviana is awake. Everyone knows the betrothal will eventually have to be reconsidered. Lathel understands that, so he’s afraid."

He pointed at the man lying on the ground.

"What do you think someone like him has left?"

Lathel stirred faintly.

Cassian’s eyes narrowed at once.

Aldric didn’t even notice what he had just said was too much.

"No bloodline."

"No strength."

"No status."

"He can’t even speak."

Contempt he could no longer fully conceal had begun to creep into Aldric’s voice.

"Leviana is probably the only thing that makes him feel he still has any value. Once she returns to me, he’ll go back to being someone with nothing."

Mirelle looked at him, her eyes growing colder by the second.

Aldric kept going.

"He couldn’t bear it, so he started the fire. Then he pretended to rescue Leviana, carrying her away as if to escape. If he’d succeeded, he could have become her savior and kept her at the same time."

By this point, Aldric even felt the story he’d constructed was remarkably sound.

He slowly regained his confidence.

"I arrived just in time and stopped him."

Cassian stared at him in silence.

Aldric let his lips curl slightly.

"This is the truth."

A long moment later, Cassian asked:

"Do you have proof?"

The smile on Aldric’s face stiffened slightly.

"He was inside the room when the fire broke out."

"Leviana was there too."

"He was the only one still conscious."

"Then prove he started the fire."

Aldric didn’t answer right away.

Cassian looked at him.

"You don’t have any?"

Aldric snapped.

"Then do you have proof I did it?"

The words came out faster than he intended.

The courtyard went silent.

Aldric realized immediately that his tone was wrong, but it was too late to take it back.

Cassian looked at him for several more seconds.

"I never said you started the fire."

Aldric went rigid.

"..."

"Yet you rushed to ask whether I had evidence that you did."

Mirelle slowly turned her gaze as well.

For the first time, Aldric felt he had made a real mistake.

He explained at once: "Because your attitude from the very start has been as though you suspect me."

"I suspect everyone."

Cassian answered.

"Unlike you, I don’t need to choose a culprit before the investigation even begins."

Aldric felt the blood rush to his head.

This attitude again.

From Catrina.

To Garran.

Now Cassian.

Every one of them looked at him as though something was wrong with him.

While all that Lathel had to do was lie on the ground bleeding and everyone immediately pitied him.

’Why?’

The more Aldric thought, the less he understood.

He was the one with talent.

He was the one with a limitless future.

He knew of fortuitous encounters that the people before him couldn’t imagine in their entire lives.

One day, even Dukes like Cassian would have no choice but to bow their heads before him.

So why were they siding with an Extra right now?

Someone who was supposed to have died without anyone remembering his name?

The warped jealousy rapidly twisted into fury.

’A mute.’

’He’s just a mute!’

Aldric looked at Lathel, the killing intent inside him nearly impossible to contain.

If he had died the way the storyline dictated, none of these problems would exist.

All he needed to do was die.

Why did a supporting character keep clinging to his story?

Cassian suddenly spoke:

"I’ve already had people investigate Lathel."

Aldric froze.

Cassian continued: "Over the past three years, the person caring for Leviana has been him. Medicine, food, cleaning her body, recording her condition, staying up through the night when something was abnormal... most of it was done by Lathel alone."

"That was just a task the family assigned to him."

Aldric argued back at once.

"What’s worth mentioning about that?"

Mirelle looked at him.

Aldric spoke again: "He was raised in our family since he was small. Doing a bit of work to repay what he’s received is only natural, isn’t it?"

Cassian fell silent.

His expression changed visibly.

Aldric still didn’t notice.

"You can’t just assume he’s a good person because he served as Leviana’s caretaker for a few years. People of low standing are often the most likely to cling to the first thing that makes them feel they have value."

"Enough."

Mirelle’s voice cut through.

Aldric turned.

The face of a woman who had always maintained the decorum of a noblewoman was now terrifyingly cold.

"I don’t know who started the fire."

She looked at him.

"But from your words alone, I already understand what Lathel is to you."

Aldric gritted his teeth.

"I’m only stating facts."

"No."

Mirelle shook her head.

"You’re trying to turn another person’s misery into grounds for accusing him."

Aldric wanted to say more.

But Cassian had already stepped forward.

That overwhelming pressure erupted once again.

"I will be taking both Leviana and Lathel with me."

Aldric’s face changed.

"You can’t!"

Cassian looked at him.

"I’m informing you, not asking your opinion."

Mana began gathering in the Duke’s palm.

Aldric immediately sensed the danger.

He was badly wounded.

The Void Step Talisman was gone.

If Cassian truly attacked—

Right then, a deep voice rang out from the direction of the estate.

"Duke Cassian."

"Have you perhaps forgotten whose house you’re standing in?"

Aldric spun around.

The moment he saw the man striding rapidly toward them with a retinue of guards behind him, more than half the tension inside him vanished.

"Father!"

The corner of Aldric’s mouth nearly curved upward before he could stop it.

Finally.

The person who would believe him had arrived.