“What?”

I doubted my ears for a moment.

“Did you see something wrong?”

Tien also had a face that she couldn’t understand. Joan frowned.

“No. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“I went to the break room, and there were people gathering so I looked inside to see what was going on, and there, Annie was caught by the knights and was being investigated.”

Joan looked at me and added.

“I just came back to inform the lady, so I don’t know the details. But there were a bunch of people there and someone saw Annie picking up the bracelet. Oh My Lady, where are you going now… ?”

Joan called me with a bewildered face.

But I left the terrace without looking back.

‘You really don’t leave me alone for even a moment.’

I didn’t believe Annie stole Claire’s bracelet. It wasn’t just because I believed in Annie.

When Joan returned with a complex face, I immediately had a gut feeling that something had happened. When I saw Claire with a gloomy expression on her face, the sense of dread I felt was not just an illusion. Indeed, Claire was extremely tenacious.

What kind of foe did she have against Roxana in her previous life?

“Lady, let’s go together.”

Joan and Tien hurriedly followed me. Seeing that the banquet hall was still peaceful, the commotion did not seem to have spread much.

“Where should I go?”

“It’s over there.”

After leaving the banquet hall, I saw a group of people as Joan guided me.They were so busy looking around the room that they didn’t even notice anyone approaching.

“Princess.”

As soon as they saw me, different emotions appeared on the faces of the people present.

Embarrassment, anxiety, curiosity, interest, exhilaration, etc…

I entered the room with a hardened expression on my face. The first thing I saw was Claire’s face. There were people who had gathered to comfort her, who had a confused face. And there was hostility in their gaze upon me. I glanced at them once with a sullen face, then turned my gaze to the front.

“What’s going on?”

“Princess, that is…… .”

The guards in the room froze when they saw me. They exchanged glances at each other with troubled faces.

I saw Annie standing behind them. Annie’s arms were tied with a rope, and seeing that her eyes were red, she seemed to be barely holding back her tears.

“Didn’t you ask what happened? Why did you tie up my maid like that without my permission?”

When I asked again coldly, the guards reluctantly released the rope tied to Annie’s arm.

“I was interrogating the maid for stealing.”

“It’s an interrogation…. Ignoring the procedure like this.”

I looked around once.

Many people have already witnessed this situation, so the spread of the words must have been instantaneous. Surrounded by people, Claire was a pitiful victim no matter who looked at it.

Indeed, I knew nothing about this incident, but the eyes of those who looked at me were full of fear and hatred.

“There’s evidence and witnesses…..”

“While all these people were gathered here and conducting the interrogation, I didn’t hear anything. Does His Majesty know about this?”

At my words, the look on the guards’ faces became very tired.

They had very troubled faces from the moment I entered the room. It must have been because seeing the princess and the next Empress was more important than helping the Baron’s daughter, who was known as the Prince’s lover.

“Of course, if someone has committed a crime, they should be punished. However, we must address this issue. Rather, what is the evidence and witnesses?”

“Someone saw that maid secretly stealing Lady Dana’s bracelet…… ”

One of the guards carefully spoke.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me.”

At that moment, a familiar face popped out from the crowd.

“The nanny.”

I looked at the nanny with my lips raised coldly. Unlike before, she looked very shabby. I hadn’t seen her for a while and she seemed older.

The nanny averted her gaze and sighed softly.

“I saw it. This maid was hiding the bracelet in the fireplace.”

A murmur broke out at once.

People took turns looking at me and Annie with strange eyes.

The nanny’s testimony made the situation even more unfavorable, but not surprising. To be honest, I had a bad feeling from the moment I saw her. That said, I didn’t know that the nanny would do this…….

“Annie, you tell me. Is that true?”

As I was making eye contact with Annie, I suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu.

I’ve been through something similar before. At that time, Annie……

“I swear I’ve never seen anything like a bracelet.”

I knew it.

I sighed inwardly, relieved.

If Annie couldn’t resist the pressure around her and made a false confession, people would think I was the one who ordered her to steal the bracelet.

“Lie. I saw it, too. Since earlier, this maid has been wandering around the break room, snooping around.”

As soon as Annie finished speaking, a young man standing next to Claire added a testimony. Seeing that he was even doing that in front of me, he probably wasn’t the type to cling to power. Either he has a strong sense of justice, or he was blind in love with Claire. There was no change in the fact that neither of them was able to tell the difference between heaven and earth.

“It is my fault. After coming back on an errand, the Lady was away, so I went to look for you, but I didn’t know that such a misunderstanding would arise.”

“I know the Princess cares about Miss Annie, but you don’t have to wear a stigma just to cover up the maid.”

It sounded like he was genuinely worried about me.

Absolutely disgusting. The nanny was Roxana’s closest aide for a long time and was known to have retired with honor externally.

People seemed to wonder who I would side with between the nanny and the maid.

“Now that I see it, the Princess is very generous. You even lied like that to protect the maid who stole. I don’t understand it.”

Many people were present at today’s banquet, but many of the duke’s enemies were also present. The man who threw sarcastic remarks towards me now seemed to be a person of such a family.

“What do you mean she’s lying? Young Master’s words seem to mean that I’m using force to take the side of the maid……Why do I do that for one maid?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps you’re worried that the maid will say useless things during the investigation?”

“My lady is not like that. Please refrain from making baseless assumptions.”

Joan, who could not stand it, warned the man with an angry face. I looked at her with a surprised face, and then turned to the nanny.

In the world, there are people who appreciate and give thanks when they receive grace, but on the other hand, they look at it differently and pay it back ungratefully.

The nanny belonged to the latter.

She had no conscience or shame.

To commit such a thing again with no sign of remorse. She was a very moral person, but she had crossed the line.

That was it. At this point, there was no reason to worry about her face anymore. Already she had betrayed Roxana, and on the contrary, I realized that I had been overly generous.

“There’s evidence here. Lady Dana’s bracelet was found inside the fireplace in the room the maid entered. How are you going to explain that?”

A pair of malevolent eyes turned towards me.

At those words, I looked around and found a bracelet lying on the table. The bracelet had ashes melted on and lost its original shape and was distorted.

“This place is open to anyone, so why is it so specific about my maid? Did you actually see her throw the bracelet into the fireplace?”

“No…..”

“I saw it. Her behavior was suspicious, so I followed her and saw her throw something into the fire. Now that I think about it, I think it was a bracelet. I definitely saw it with my own eyes.”

The nanny came out again.

With her confident voice, the suspicion in the eyes of those who watched Annie grew even stronger.

“Are you saying, after all, there is only the nanny who’s the witness?”

“…”

“If there is anything suspicious, it should be investigated. But I don’t think my maid is the only one who needs to be investigated.”

A look of dissatisfaction appeared on the faces of the people.

They seemed to think that I was using an absurd force to set fire to themselves.

“That’s really coincidental. Last time, the nanny was caught by me while falsely accusing the maid of stealing and was kicked out. In my eyes, it’s very similar to then and now. What do you think?”

At my words, there was a quiet silence in the room as if cold water had been sprinkled on it. The nanny looked at me with her eyes wide open in disbelief. I think it was quite a shock to her that I mentioned it.

“My nanny had deceived me for a long time, but she was given severance pay without any punishment. It’s something that an ordinary noble family would never have imagined.”

Roxana would not have been able to do this to the nanny whom she truly trusted and depended on.

Contrary to how she looked, Roxana had a lot of affection.

“I know the nanny was upset with me about it. But is she so resentful? I mean, on the day of my father’s return banquet, would she ruin the banquet with such a nonsense lie and damage my reputation?”

“Lady, what are you talking about?”

The nanny said with a puzzled face.

Perhaps because there were many eyes, she did not raise her voice like the last time. But, as if it was unfair, she cried. Some were agitated at the sight.

The rest seemed to be getting more and more confused about what the situation was. Claire sat a step away and looked around as if it had nothing to do with her.

‘I guess it has nothing to do with her whoever is taken away anyway.’

It was tolerable for them to gossip with each other in front of me, but seeing Claire, the culprit of everything, caused my stomach to churn. It was then.

“Can I say a word too?”

“Young master Croix?”

I looked at him in surprise as he approached me.

‘Since when has he been here?’

Elvin naturally stood by my side. When he appeared, the atmosphere in the room became as quiet as a mouse had died.

“How did the Young master here….?”

A nobleman approached and talked to Elvin, pretending to be friendly, but he didn’t even look at him. Embarrassed by it, the nobleman blushed, but did not show any signs of anger in front of him.

He just hid himself from the crowd again with an embarrassed face. The eyes of those who looked at Elvin were full of curiosity and fear.

It was a slightly different feeling from the way he looked at me before. Even though they both had a bad reputation, I could tell that Roxana and Elvin, who were friends, were quite different.

“What I saw is a little different. Earlier, while I was resting in the garden on the first floor, the maid handed the bracelet to the lady over there. Unfortunately, it seems that they did not know that there were people around.”

“!”

The person Elvin was pointing to was not Annie, but Claire’s maid. When everyone’s attention turned to her, Claire’s maid opened her eyes wide and was greatly embarrassed. She didn’t know what to do and looked at Elvin for a moment with a very unhappy face. Then she lowered her gaze and wept.

The nanny also had a puzzled expression on her face. She was reckless in front of Roxana, but she didn’t seem to have the courage to do that in front of Elvin.

“I swear I never did that.”

The maid made a small plea in a trembling voice. With a face that looked like she was about to burst into tears.

“My maid was with me all the time. Could it be that the Young master saw something wrong?”

At that moment, Claire spoke in a soft voice.