At my question, Grand Duke Richard's expression hardened. He rubbed his temples before answering.
“During the banquet, Baron Hayden sent a servant with a note asking me to meet him in the garden. He said he had something important to tell me.”
“That note could have helped prove your innocence. Why didn't you submit it to the Police Bureau?”
A quiet sigh escaped through the Grand Duke's teeth.
“He instructed me not to tell anyone about it and to burn the note as soon as I'd read it. Such precautions aren't particularly unusual among nobles, so I thought nothing of it and burned it.”
Burning a note after reading it might be common practice, but whoever had sent that message had conveniently arranged for the evidence to be destroyed.
Something about that bothered me. I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.
“Are you certain the note really came from the Baron?”
“I believed it did. There were several unresolved matters between us.”
Devon Hayden, Vivian's father, had originally been a poor commoner who worked as a blacksmith. After his daughter married the Crown Prince, he'd received the title of Baron and secured trading rights with foreign countries.
The problem was that the Baron's merchant company occasionally imported prohibited goods.
The Imperial Army's 107th Regiment, which served under the Grand Duke, was also responsible for overseeing the border regions. Apparently, that responsibility had brought the regiment into conflict with the Baron's merchants on several occasions.
There were far too many suspicious details to ignore.
I turned to the Grand Duke.
“Did you investigate the servant who delivered the note?”
“Unfortunately, he died in an accident on his way home that very night.”
“This is getting more suspicious by the minute.”
I raised an eyebrow.
Both the evidence and the witness that could explain why the Grand Duke had been lured to the murder scene had conveniently disappeared.
Could that really be a coincidence?
I couldn't rule out the possibility that someone had sent separate notes to the Baron and the Grand Duke, summoned them both to the garden, murdered the Baron, and framed the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke let out a low sigh.
“I know what you're thinking. But there are no clues left.”
“…….”
I sank into thought.
Perhaps interpreting my silence as disappointment, the Grand Duke continued in a consoling tone.
“You've already done more than enough. Why not give up? We can put an end to this ridiculous charade as well.”
“No. It's too early to give up. We can still narrow down the suspects based on the circumstances.”
I firmly rejected his second attempt to suggest a divorce and bring our Contract to an end.
“The Baron was stabbed, but there were no signs of a struggle. There was no evidence that he'd been dragged anywhere, either. That means he had no idea he was about to be killed until someone attacked him by surprise.”
“And?”
“I heard that entry to the estate was strictly controlled because of the banquet that day. In that case, the person the Baron intended to meet must have been someone attending the banquet—and someone he knew well enough to meet privately in the garden.”
“That still leaves dozens of people. Are you proposing we investigate every last one of them?”
“Of course not!”
I shook my head.
“I told you before that motive is important in a murder investigation. We need to start with people who had a motive.”
“A motive…”
“Someone who wanted the Baron gone. Or perhaps…”
“Perhaps?”
At his question, I looked him straight in the eye.
“Someone who wanted you gone, Your Grace.”
The Baron was the one who'd actually been murdered, but the killer had deliberately tried to eliminate the Grand Duke by making him take the blame.
And perhaps the person who most wanted the death of the man portrayed as the Hidden Villain in this novel was none other than—
The male lead.
Remembering Crown Prince Lawrence's contorted expression in the courtroom, I slowly tilted my head.
******
The following morning.
A peculiar atmosphere hung over the servants at the Grand Duke's residence.
The reason was the rather suggestive conversation that had come from the Grand Duchess's bedroom late the previous night.
“You're going to thrust it in just like that?”
“I'm already prepared. Isn't this size sufficient?”
“The club… it's too… big and hard…”
That had been followed by the creaking of a bed and the violent sound of fabric tearing.
The servants patrolling the residence on night watch confessed that, although they knew they shouldn't, they had found themselves stopping dead outside the bedroom door.
The other servants held their breath, waiting eagerly for the rest of their vivid account.
“I should have started from behind in the first place.”
“W-wait. You'll tear it! S-stop! You're using too much force!”
The sound of heavy breathing had escaped through the tightly shut door.
And according to the witnesses, the couple's breathless exertions had continued for a very long time afterward.
The listening servants flushed with excitement.
“I heard the maid who went to tidy Her Highness's bedroom at dawn nearly fainted from shock.”
“Why? Why?”
“Apparently, last night was so intense that the sheets and pillows were torn to shreds! There wasn't a single thing left intact.”
“Good heavens…! I knew His Grace was a fearsome man, but still…”
“I heard Her Highness used to be a commoner… Do you suppose she knows some extraordinary technique? How else could she have gotten that icy Grand Duke so worked up?”
Before long, the servants' speculation about Elena had become downright outrageous.
It was a sharp, commanding voice that finally scattered them.
“What do you all think you're doing? Their Highnesses will be coming downstairs any moment now! Get back to your duties this instant!”
It was Mrs. Verona.
As she scolded the gossiping servants, there was something noticeably different about her expression compared to the day before.
She looked positively resolute.
A short while later, the very couple responsible for that morning's commotion appeared, walking arm in arm with smiles on their faces.
At the sight of their seemingly boundless affection, every servant swallowed nervously.
******
I'd been having a rather difficult morning.
The problem was that Grand Duke Richard was moving like a tin robot with absolutely no intelligence.
“Try to relax your face,” I whispered quickly.
Ever since I'd linked my arm through his, he'd been so stiff that every movement looked mechanical.
“I'm doing my best.”
“I thought you were good at anything involving physical coordination.”
“Of course I am. I graduated at the top of my class from the military academy. On the battlefield, I could cut down dozens of enemies in a single exchange and take an enemy commander's head—”
“Ah. Yes. How impressive.”
I offered a thoroughly unenthusiastic response to his rambling account of his military exploits.
Good at physical coordination, my foot.
He'd been moving his arms and legs on the same side of his body together for the past several minutes.
Apparently stung by my reaction, he could only furrow his brow in frustration.
“Come on, now. You need to smile. A nice, big smile.”
Keeping my brightest professional smile firmly in place, I scolded him through clenched teeth without moving my lips.
After considerable effort, the Grand Duke managed to arrange something vaguely resembling a smile on his face.
When we finally came downstairs, the servants stood in neat rows and bowed respectfully.
“Did Your Highnesses sleep well last night?”
“Yes, of course we—Aah!”
I abruptly stopped walking and clutched my lower back with a cry.
Every pair of eyes immediately swung toward me.
I quickly smiled at them.
“It's nothing. I just strained my back a little in bed last night.”
At those words, the servants exchanged strangely furtive glances.
Gulp.
Someone swallowed so loudly I could hear it.
I wrinkled my nose slightly.
What's so remarkable about having a sore back?
I'd hurt myself the previous night while reenacting the murder with the Grand Duke.
The arrangement had been simple.
I held up a pillow in place of the victim, and the Grand Duke stabbed it with a wooden club.
We'd deliberately chosen a club with as blunt an end as possible to avoid injuries, but absorbing the force of an attack from a man trained for war was no easy feat.
Eventually, we'd even tried tying the pillow to my back and having him stab it from behind.
That had finally pushed my poor back beyond its limits.
And naturally, the pillows had ended up completely shredded.
The Grand Duke clicked his tongue softly and muttered,
“Tsk. If you're that frail, how do you expect to keep up with me in the future?”
“It was my first time! I'll do better from now on.”
I whispered back indignantly, annoyed that he seemed to be blaming me.
For some reason, that prompted a sudden outbreak of coughing among the servants.
Everyone seems to have a terrible cough. Is this the season when there's a lot of fine dust in the air here, too?
Tilting my head in puzzlement, I made my way to the Grand Duke's office.
******
“My name is Albert Dovier.”
The slender, middle-aged man wearing a monocle introduced himself as the butler who had managed the Grand Duke's residence for many years. He also served as administrator of the grand duchy.
While the Grand Duke stepped away to speak with Victor, who had arrived unexpectedly, Albert handed me a single sheet of paper.
“I've prepared a summary of the matters I thought Your Highness might be interested in.”
I narrowed my eyes at the thick stack of documents sitting on the Grand Duke's desk.
Why does the Grand Duke get a report that thick while I only get one lousy page?
I glanced through the report Albert had handed me.
It contained a list of allowances allocated to the Grand Duchess, including expenses for clothing, social gatherings, and maintaining her standing in society.
After reviewing the contents, I asked curiously,
“Hmm. Are these the only items in the residence's budget?”
“Well… there are other budget categories, of course, but I've selected the ones I thought would be of particular interest to Your Highness.”
His reply was polite but businesslike.
I shook my head lightly.
“Actually, that's not quite what I'm interested in. I'd like to know about the overall financial condition of the Grand Duke's residence.”
After nearly destroying my back reenacting the murder the previous night, I'd begun to wonder whether I'd end up dead myself before we ever caught the killer.
I'd even considered whether it might be better to take whatever hidden assets the Grand Duke's residence had left and terminate the Contract.
“If you insist, Your Highness, perhaps you'd like to examine the territorial reports. Although… you may find them somewhat difficult to understand.”
His reluctant reply carried an unmistakable undertone of distrust toward a Grand Duchess of common birth who insisted on examining documents she probably wouldn't even comprehend.
I slowly leaned back against the sofa and crossed my legs.
“How far back do your territorial records go?”
“I've kept them since I first took up this position, so we have twenty years' worth.”
“Then bring me all twenty years of reports.”
“Pardon?”
Albert craned his neck toward me, looking as though I'd just said something utterly absurd.
I smiled pleasantly and held out my hand.
“Right now.”