Chapter 4.4

Eventually, under Rubellian’s somewhat worried gaze, I headed to the interrogation room.

It was called an interrogation room, but seeing what was actually an underground dungeon, I frowned, and the imperial knight assigned as my escort spoke up.

“Are you alright, my lady?”

“I’m fine.”

“If you feel uncomfortable at any time, I’ll guide you outside immediately. I’ll protect your safety with my life.”

No, what’s with risking your life?

At my words about going to the interrogation room, the knight who had received the Crown Prince’s orders naturally seemed to think I was going to punish the culprit who hurt my husband, or at least scold him.

But since there was no reason to dispel the misunderstanding, I walked quietly. Eventually, after passing through a long corridor, I arrived in front of an ominously gloomy door.

“Here it is.”

When the door opened, there were more people inside than I had expected.

Along with that came the smell of blood and sweat.

“Sir Robert? And the person next to you is…”

“This is Duchess Florence.”

“The Duchess?”

At the knight’s words, all the knights inside widened their eyes. Looking at the bewilderment settling on their faces, I spoke up.

“So, where is the one who dared to shoot my husband?”

When I asked with a gentle smile, one of the knights gestured with his chin.

“Bring that bastard out.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a somewhat worn door opened. I curled up the corners of my mouth at the man walking out through it—or more precisely, being half-dragged out.

“My lady, please sit here. If you feel uncomfortable at any time, please be sure to tell us.”

I sat primly on the chair. Actually, by habit, one-on-one would be better, but that was impossible given my promise to Rubellian to be as careful as possible. I smiled brightly and nodded.

“Thank you.”

Thud—

Soon the man was seated in front of me like a broken doll. His appearance of avoiding eye contact was unpleasant, but I asked with a smile for now.

“Disappointing?”

I don’t have the refined taste of using honorifics with someone who nearly killed my husband. At my sudden words, the man slowly raised his head. His blank eyes had no life in them. But the strangely cold gaze somehow made me feel dirty.

“It must be disappointing. That you couldn’t kill him.”

“……”

“One shot in the shoulder, one in the leg. Since he was hit while hunting, you must have shot while he was on horseback.”

“……”

“But my husband didn’t die? Must be disappointing.”

The man was silent. He just continued to maintain silence.

Then one of the knights beside me spoke up.

“He’s been keeping his mouth shut since earlier.”

“No suicide attempts?”

“None.”

I thought for a moment. Usually in movies, assassins all try to commit suicide. Either because they fear torture, or to show a kind of will that they won’t speak even if they die.

Moreover, this was an incident where a duke was injured at the imperial hunting grounds. It definitely wasn’t something that would be passed over easily, yet there were no signs of resistance or suicide attempts…

I stared at the man.

A hypothesis that had been circulating in my head kept spinning around.

I looked at the knight and asked.

“Was the horse injured?”

“No. The horse wasn’t hurt.”

“How many shots were fired?”

“Two shots. Exactly both shots hit His Grace…”

At my serious questioning face, the knight also stared at me seriously.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. This somehow seems like the approach was wrong from the start.

I met the man’s eyes again. It was a calm and composed face. Though there were traces of rough handling, there was still no sign of fear.

“You know you’re not going to die.”

A cold voice flowed out to match the cold air. I habitually crossed my arms and legs unconsciously and leaned back comfortably in the chair.

It was a pose ingrained in memory, so comfort rushed over me instantly.

“You came in planning to be caught anyway, didn’t you?”

“……”

“Funny?”

“……”

“Right.”

A smile crossed his eerie face. I smiled along with him.

Look at that? Interesting?

Suddenly, the man spoke.

“Imagination is free, my lady.”

At his heavy voice, I took a long breath.

“Is it so difficult to affirm?”

“I said imagination is free.”

“Then shall I also try putting wings on my imagination?”

The front of my shoe touching the floor collided with the ground. At the tapping sound, the man slightly frowned.

I slowly opened my mouth.

“You weren’t trying to kill Rubellian from the beginning.”

“……”

“You see, if you want to kill someone on horseback, it’s proper etiquette to shoot the horse’s legs first.”

You shoot the legs of a galloping horse to make it stumble. In that situation, whether the horse collapses or the person rolls off, the moving target stops.

Then you can blow away the target’s chest or head. Death is accomplished that way.

At the very least, the horse’s body would have been easier to shoot than Rubellian moving on horseback. Yet this result occurred.

Moreover, the places where Rubellian was injured were his ‘right shoulder’ and ‘leg.’ Parts far from the heart, where instant death was impossible.

I closed my eyes.

From the beginning, this man hadn’t come to kill Rubellian.

If he wasn’t planning to kill him, why go after Rubellian at all, especially when he was just living his life?

I bit my lips tightly. Judging from Rubellian’s expression, he would have known too. That this man hadn’t come to kill him — and that telling me this right then wouldn’t be wise.

I stood up from my seat. I thought I could ask more, but it wasn’t the atmosphere I had expected, so it seemed better to end it. At this point, the person who knew better than anyone about what to do was Rubellian.

I smiled serenely and said to the knight.

“Let’s go now. He doesn’t seem to be answering anyway.”

The knight nodded as if he had expected this. After looking at the man one more time, I moved my feet.

* * *

After coming up from the underground dungeon, I returned to the room where Rubellian was.

There had been a suggestion from the Crown Prince that he should stay at the imperial palace for the time being, following the doctor’s words that it wouldn’t be good for him to move, but both Rubellian and I ignored that suggestion.

Wouldn’t a person’s body heal faster when their mind is comfortable?

So Rubellian, who returned to the ducal mansion, had to be confined to bed by me.

“Rubellian, does it hurt a lot?”

When I looked at him with slightly anxious eyes, Rubellian stared at me.

“It doesn’t hurt.”

I sighed slightly. Still, since it was just grazed, they said he’d recover with just a little rest, so that was fortunate. If he had been properly shot, I probably would have beaten that bastard’s face…

“I’ll thrash him.”

“Huh?”

“Ah, nothing.”

At my rough words, Rubellian paused for a moment, but when I quickly shook my head, he asked with concern.

“Were you very shocked?”

“A little, a lot.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, so why are you apologizing to me? It’s all that bastard’s fault. I should have left at least one scratch on that bastard’s face…!”

When I pouted in regret, Rubellian chuckled.

“So, what are you going to do with that culprit?”

“The imperial family will probably decide.”

“The imperial family?”

“Since it happened on the imperial hunting grounds, I understand the House of Lords supported that decision as well.”

“So that’s why they targeted the imperial hunting grounds.”

Rubellian’s brow furrowed slightly. Soon he slowly turned his head and met my gaze.

“Eve. Pretend you don’t know about this incident.”

“What? Pretend I don’t know what?”

“I mean to just let this incident pass like this.”

Rubellian’s serious face clearly showed signs of trying to appease me.

“So, you’re really saying to pretend not to know?”

“Yes.”

“That the Emperor gave you a warning?”

Suddenly the room filled with silence.

As I watched Rubellian’s face grow darker and darker, I finally let out a long sigh.

Then, Rubellian raised his uninjured arm.

“Eve, come here.”

When I entered the inner part of the bed, pretending to be defeated, Rubellian held me in his arms. He looked down at me burrowing into his embrace, then stroked the back of my head with his large hand.

“The Emperor would have been planning this incident for a long time. From the moment you and I got married.”

“……”

Rubellian’s voice was utterly cold. However, the touch stroking my head was so affectionate that I could only listen quietly.

But my actual feelings weren’t very peaceful.

Because…

“Rubellian.”

I called him quietly.

Actually, I don’t want to ask about this… But I felt like he should know someday, so I eventually had to speak up.

“If someone you trusted betrayed you, what would you think? I mean, someone you thought was at least not an enemy.”

At my carefully whispered question, Rubellian looked down at me. He stared at me as if gauging what I meant, then chuckled.

His smile, which almost resembled a laugh, felt oddly out of place in such a serious moment. I frowned, and Rubellian gently stroked my head.

“Well, I never trusted anyone to begin with.”

“Me too?”

“You’re not part of ‘anyone.'”

“……”

“I’ve never trusted anyone. Even if it was—”

“The Crown Prince?”

Suddenly Rubellian paused. He stared at me intently at that word that came out after hovering around my lips.

Seeing how he wasn’t particularly shocked, as if he had expected it, I understood that my suspicion had some merit.

Of course, to me who knew the original work, it came across as a completely absurd development.

“Eve, why did you propose to the Crown Prince?”

“Because he’s handsome and rich.”

“……”

“There is another reason, but why are you suddenly asking that?”

“No, I was just curious. Why you, who even proposed to the Crown Prince, would point to him as the one behind attacking me. Didn’t you trust the Crown Prince quite a bit? Weren’t you the one who said we absolutely had to bring the Crown Prince to the Empress’s secret meeting last time?”

At his words, I cleared my throat awkwardly, like someone who’d eaten honey and lost their voice.

No, at that time I naturally thought he’d be good since he was the male protagonist. Actually, even now I’m not definitively saying the Crown Prince is a bad guy, but today’s incident is too suspicious to be a coincidence no matter how I think about it.

“Could the Emperor really attack you without the Crown Prince’s cooperation?”

“……”

“…As I thought, right?”

First, for Rubellian to be attacked, he had to enter the imperial hunting grounds. But for the Emperor to know in advance that the two would go hunting, there was no hunting on Rubellian’s schedule today in my memory.

Since the Emperor isn’t idle enough to know all about his son’s sudden appointments, there must have been some agreement between the two.

“The Crown Prince called you and you went, right?”

“Yes.”

“So naturally the Crown Prince would be involved. The Crown Prince isn’t stupid enough to be used as someone else’s chess piece. So naturally… Ah, really. Still, this is too—”

“Eve.”

“No, actually I’m not certain either, but no matter how I think about it, that’s the only possibility.”

Getting annoyed for no reason, I rattled off words then buried myself in his embrace and squeezed my eyes shut.

What kind of melodramatic development is this? It wasn’t like this in the original work. What exactly is the problem? No, there were many problems. First, I transmigrated, I caused trouble, I married Rubellian and acted up…

Hmm, putting aside reflection, even so, the Crown Prince as a person shouldn’t have changed. Can a person suddenly change? Did he suddenly go crazy?

“The Crown Prince is bad.”

I condemned the Crown Prince as a bad person without any hesitation.

Whether the Crown Prince was helplessly used by the Emperor or conspired with the Emperor, just the fact that he called Rubellian and caused all this to happen already made him a bad person in my eyes.

“Nothing’s decided yet. He might really have been used, or it could have been a coincidence.”

“Still, be careful from now on. Don’t let this kind of thing happen again. Got it? Live being wary of everyone in the world.”

“Eve.”

At my words, Rubellian called me. When I slowly raised my head to meet his eyes, he smiled with his eyes slightly crinkled.

Ah, goodness, he’s so handsome—

As I stared blankly at his crimson eyes and inwardly exclaimed in admiration, he kissed my forehead.

“I never trusted anyone from the beginning.”

“That…”

“Not the Emperor, of course, and the Crown Prince is the same. From the beginning, neither of those two were particularly trustworthy people to me.”

I knew that. In the original work too, Rubellian hated the entire imperial family very much. Of course, the Crown Prince had done nothing wrong, but how could human hearts be controlled so easily?

Ugh, am I crazy? Am I rationalizing a villain’s setting right now? No, but when I listen to it, it seems to make sense too. Aaahhh.

I roared internally and waited for Rubellian’s next words.But Rubellian’s expression gradually grew colder, his face hardening like carved stone. The chill that swept over his sculpted features was frightening in its own way.

“Still, I endured it. Thinking that someday I’d be able to punish them, that even if not me, God could do it.”

“There is no God.”

I said firmly. There is no God. Only humans who borrow God’s name.

At my answer, Rubellian curled up the corners of his mouth.

“I know. Still, I wondered if I should try believing in God once for your sake.”

“Don’t do that, just…”

“But thinking about it, I have too much to protect to wait for God.”

At his words, I, who had been grumbling with pouted lips, quickly raised my head.

Ah, wait. This is a conversation going in the direction I want, right?

Somehow getting slightly excited as I looked at him, Rubellian, who smiled gently, kissed me.

“After getting shot today, it hurt terribly.”

“……”

“Too painful for you to experience.”

“……”

I gulped. At his vague words, I furrowed my brows briefly—then he gently kissed my cheek, slowly opened his eyes, and murmured softly.

“So before you get shot, I think I need to aim the gun barrel first.”

At those words that resonated deeply as if flowing from a cave, I stared at him blankly. Just a few days ago, he had said he wouldn’t even dream of rebellion, worrying about me. So certainly for my sake, afraid I might die if the rebellion failed.

But now he was telling me that he would carry out revenge.

“You told me to stay still?”

“Right, stay still. You’re very good at keeping yourself safe from harm, aren’t you?”

“What kind of obvious statement is that! I hate being in pain. You know that, right?”

“I know. You also hate dirty things.”

“Goodness, do you know how many months it took to make you understand that?”

“Right. From now on, I’ll make sure you can’t touch dirty things. I’m going to start fights that I’ll definitely win.”

“Because of me?”

“No, because of us.”

At his satisfying answer, I smiled broadly.

Right, if the opponent provokes, it’s human nature to retaliate.

Whether the Crown Prince sided with the Emperor or not doesn’t matter much. The goal is clear: to overthrow that despicable and cowardly Emperor.

I’ll judge the Crown Prince after that.

Meeting Rubellian’s crimson eyes, I whispered sweetly.

“I’m more amazing than you think.”

“……”

“So feel completely at ease and do everything you want to do. I’ll be behind you.”

I was amazed at myself for such sweet and affectionate words that I couldn’t have imagined coming from my mouth. It wasn’t just me who was surprised—Rubellian also paused for a moment and stared at me. Then he smiled and nodded.

“I will.”

Burying my face in his embrace after he finished speaking, I smiled ominously.

Now, shall we start causing some real trouble?