The Minister of Justice gave a warning to him as he was about to shout.
The Duke grumbled roughly and barely managed to shut his mouth. I could understand his feelings.
For my youngest daughter, who had just been beheaded by the Crown Prince, to suddenly confess that she had feelings of affection for him...
I would be driven mad too.
"Y-Your Highness, the Crown Prince, and the Duchess...!"
The ripple caused by my one sentence was tremendous.
The silent conference room instantly became noisy.
In the midst of the chaos, I met another pair of blue eyes, frozen in shock.
Derrick was staring at me intently, his fists tightly clenched.
'He looks like he’s about to jump up and grab me by the collar...'
A black mark began to flicker ominously above his head.
The overwhelming aura emanating from him made my spine shiver.
It was indeed dangerous if it dropped below '22%'.
Without realizing it, I kept glancing at the mark above his head.
"Silence! Everyone, control yourselves!"
Bang, bang, the Minister of Justice struck the gavel to calm the noisy room.
"Duchess Ecart, please continue your testimony."
"...However, not long ago, I broke up with His Highness."
I nodded and resumed my out-of-body narration.
As if it wasn’t me, but someone else I was talking about.
"Come to think of it, I remember seeing something like that at the pre-hunt ball..."
A few people tilted their heads, as if they had just remembered something.
'I’m glad I spoke up loudly then.'
The most important thing was the huge scandal between the Crown Prince and the Duchess.
I hurriedly returned to the main point.
"Right after the bear hunt, I encountered assassins who were trying to harm His Highness."
"Y-You mean...!"
"While being chased by the assassins, His Highness was injured by their attack and, overwhelmed, fell off a cliff with me."
The nobles were thrown into confusion and shock by the Duke of Gabo's completely different account.
I pressed on, turning to the Duke of Gabo and asking:
"I clearly never fired my crossbow at anyone other than the bear and the assassins, so I don’t understand why anyone would claim to have been knocked out by my crossbow."
"L-Lies! I, I... We clearly saw the Duchess...!"
The Duke of Gabo stuttered suspiciously.
The Marquis Ellen quickly interjected with a stern face.
"But if the Duchess's account is true, there are some strange aspects, aren’t there?"
"What do you mean?"
"The Crown Prince is now in a coma of unknown cause. The royal physician said that his external injuries were minor, suggesting there might be another reason."
"Yes, but so what?"
I responded with a rather indifferent tone, despite having claimed to be the Crown Prince's lover.
"If, as the Duchess claims, His Highness was injured by the assassins and fell off the cliff, he should have been immobile until the search party found him."
"..."
"But the Crown Prince and the Duchess had walked to the edge of the forest by the next day. He collapsed shortly after. It’s as if..."
The Marquis Ellen let his words trail off meaningfully.
'It’s as if you deliberately lured him away to poison him.'
I could roughly guess what he left unsaid.
The Marquis Ellen seemed to firmly believe there was no evidence of assassination.
'Actually, he’s right.'
If the Crown Prince had collapsed and we hadn’t found the ancient magic map, we wouldn’t have been able to escape the cave.
Just as the room was filled with a suffocating silence,
"Hey, Marquis Ellen!"
Suddenly, the Duke slammed his fist on the armrest and roared.
"You’ve gone too far just watching. Who are you accusing! Are you saying my daughter tried to harm the Crown Prince, or what?!"
"It’s not necessarily a unilateral action by your daughter."
"Such insolence...!"
"Your words are harsh, Your Excellency. I am merely raising a reasonable suspicion."
The Marquis Ellen sneered at the furious Duke and then turned back to me.
"Duchess Ecart, tell us. Why did His Highness lose consciousness?"
"Perhaps he was poisoned."
I replied with a blank expression.
The Marquis Ellen’s face changed dramatically, not expecting such a direct answer.
"H-How can you be so sure, Duchess? It sounds like you used poison on His Highness!"
"Who knows. We might find out by investigating the evidence I took from the assassins."
"W-What?!"
The Marquis, who had maintained a composed attitude, suddenly stood up.
"There was evidence...?"
"Is the Duchess’s account of being attacked by assassins true?"
The room erupted with excitement, a level far beyond anything seen so far.
"L-Lies! All lies...!"
Meanwhile, the Viscount Gabo, oblivious to the situation, tried to sway the crowd.
"Your Honor. The dagger used by the assassin who tried to harm His Highness... as evidence..."
Just as I was about to pull out the dagger from my loose bindings,
Suddenly, my vision brightened.
〈SYSTEM〉 ~Main Quest: Try Being the Queen of the Hunt~
[Third. Identify the Assassin] Do you wish to proceed with this quest?
(Reward: +7% Affection from all male protagonists, +70 Reputation)
[Accept / Decline]
Reading the system window, my eyes sparkled.
'+7% affection from all male protagonists...!'
It was one of the most generous rewards among the damn quests I had done so far.
〈SYSTEM〉 As this is a main quest, it will be automatically accepted in 5 seconds.
〈SYSTEM〉 5
I hit [Accept] before even a second had passed.
There was no reason to decline, given the generous reward and the relatively easy difficulty compared to the other damn quests I had done.
At the same time, the text in the box changed.
〈SYSTEM〉 Find the owner of the [Assassin's Emblem] obtained as a reward from the [Second. Protect the Crown Prince from the Assassin] quest.
[Options]
1. Marquis Ellen
2. Viscount Gabo
3. Baron Tulet
4. Count Kellin
I was secretly surprised by the sudden multiple-choice question, as I had assumed 1 would be the correct answer.
The emblem on the dagger matched the one I had seen on the Ellen family crest.
But this damn game wouldn’t be so simple.
"Duchess Ecart. Please continue what you were about to say."
The judge called out to me, a bit late.
He seemed somewhat exhausted from silencing the noisy nobles.
Fortunately, he didn’t find it strange that I had paused mid-sentence.
I quickly recalled the appearance of the dagger in my possession.
The fool who used a dagger with the Ellen family crest and tied a silk thread decoration to it as an assassination tool.
Moreover, the color of the silk thread was a familiar blue.
It wasn’t hard to deduce the correct answer.
'3!'
I quickly selected one of the options.
The one who persistently tried to stab the Crown Prince to death until the end was none other than Count Kellin, Kellin’s fiancé.
〈SYSTEM〉 Correct! Now, reveal the [Assassin] faction!
As the new text appeared, I opened my mouth.
"I submit the dagger used by the assassin who stabbed His Highness as evidence."
I confidently pulled out the dagger, which I had hesitated to take out due to the system window.
"How do you know that’s the assassin’s dagger!"
"The emblem of the Ellen family is engraved on the lower part of the blade."
"W-What?!"
I held the dagger forward so that the emblem was clearly visible to the Minister of Justice and the high-ranking nobles seated at the head table.
The Marquis Ellen’s mouth dropped open.
"Moreover, if we trace the owner of this silk thread, we can uncover the entire faction that commissioned the assassination."
I gently shook the handle of the dagger as I finished speaking.
The blue silk decoration at the end of it swayed with my gesture.
"T-That... Kellin Lady boasted about making this decoration not long ago... Oh my."
Lady Dorthea, recognizing the silk thread, inadvertently spoke and then quickly covered her mouth with both hands.
But it was already too late.
"It’s a frame-up!"
"It’s a frame-up!"
The Marquis Ellen and Lady Kellin almost simultaneously shouted 'frame-up' as if playing a game.
"How could you not know that the Duchess overpowered and took it from Baron Tulet and his companions!"
"I witnessed the Duchess hunting the bear myself."