“If you hadn’t leaked this document, why would Count Rigelhoff select only the items listed in this document and pre-order? My, I made you touch fake documents out of concern for this!”

So, they didn’t believe her from the start, so they sorted out the fake documents, and she dutifully fell into their trap and leaked these fake documents to Count Rigelhoff. Once again, it was absurd. Because she never leaked this document. She even replied to the Count’s letter asking her to come to her senses and leak the documents.

“I never leaked these documents.”

“Haha! You are so great too. So how do you think this happened? How did the documents that only you can see end up in the Rigelhoff family?”

“It’s not a document that only I could see, Your Excellency Duke.”

“What?”

The middle of the chest became clear. Just like Edith did in the original work, it seemed that she would be futile in front of them. But… But what else could she do other than protest?

“As Your Excellency said earlier, both the Duchess and Rise were able to see this document. There must be someone else who could see this document.”

“They are all members of my family.”

“I am also a member of this family. My name on paper is no longer Edith Rigelhoff. And it is the Duke himself, and no one else, who has put his seal on the document as a witness for the groom he may know.”

“Are you trying to play with me now?”

“What is Miss Rize’s name? Is she Lise Ludwig?”

Her provocative question seemed to freeze the air in the office.

“Now… Are you trying to blame Lise for your mistakes?”

“Who saw that I leaked that document? Count Rigelhoff knew the contents of the document I was looking at. Does this fact alone make me a criminal?”

She felt like crying. These people were just fooling her. No, maybe some stupid spy?

“I’ll say it again, the Duchess knows that I was looking at those documents, and Miss Rize knows too. And I know that too. Didn’t I know that I would be the first to be suspected if something like this happened?”

For the first time, the Duke’s mouth fell shut. Yeah, he thought she was an idiot for not caring that much.

“If you didn’t trust me at all, you shouldn’t have entrusted me with such a task!”

And yet, she knew why they entrusted it to her.

“But… It would have been possible to put pressure on the Rigelhoff family only if you caught the pod that leaked the documents. Right?”

Actually, it was like that in the original. Edith did not know that it was a fake document and steals inside information about the Ludwig family and sends it to her father. Of course, since the false information was sent, the Ludwig family did not suffer any damage, and the Rigelhoff family ended up buying a bunch of useless things. But she didn’t do that. So how the hell did that document reach the Rigelhoff family?

Angry, she mentioned Lise’s name, but in fact, Lise had no reason to do such a thing.

‘As expected, can’t I go against the flow of the original?’

She felt as if her uneasy guesses were getting stronger. And it was devastating.

‘No matter what I do, I can’t avoid ending up with Killian cutting my throat?’

If it was something like this, it would be better not to do it. It would have been better if her life ended with just falling down the stairs! Even if she tried to hold back, the tears flowed without stopping. Even if she cried, she would only get a bruise for dragging on unluckily, like an idiot…

“Hmm. Is it really something you didn’t do?”

Surprisingly, the Duke asked in a much softer voice. And she just nodded.

“If you’re sure I did it, just hit me in the neck. Didn’t I tell you earlier? I will risk my honor and my life.”

She was so angry that she didn’t even have the strength to scream. She really just wanted to slit her throat cleanly.

“You’re talking about a pierced mouth.”

Suddenly, Killian intervened. He looked at her with contempt and was gnashing his teeth. Then Cliff spoke to the Duke in a calm voice.

“Father. Wouldn’t it be nice to do some more research first? Of course… We’ll have to block the suspect from going outside, though.”

The Duke nodded heavily as if he was reluctant to accuse her of being the culprit.

“Edith is on probation for the time being. If you really are innocent, wait for the truth to come out.”

And she was ‘taken’ to her room that way. Killian, who took her in person, had Anna and the knight wait outside before closing the door. And he pushed her against the wall without letting go of her forearms that were tightly gripped.

“Are you crazy?”

“I wish I could go crazy.”

“You must be kidding!”

He glared at her like he was going to eat her.

“Do you know what Duke Axel Ludwig’s nickname was on the battlefield? It was a ‘guillotine without warning’. Are you saying to slit your throat in front of such a person?”

What a grandiose nickname, but what did that matter now? She frowned, but Killian clenched his molars as if he was barely holding back his anger.

“I know very well that you have guts. But don’t say that you’re going to die. Because running away with death is cowardly.”

“Therefore… You were more annoyed that I told him to cut my throat, aren’t you?”

“If you commit a crime, you have to pay for it. Otherwise, the truth will come out.”

He must have thought she would commit suicide to protect Count Rigelhoff’s safety. She couldn’t help but laugh out loud now. It felt like she was talking to a wall.

“Well. As much as you don’t trust me, I don’t trust you anymore. I feel like they’re going to somehow frame me as the culprit.”

“What?”

“It is. You are the ones who put the fake document into my hands, you are the one who notified me that the Rigelhoffs had acted on the document, and you are the ones who investigate and pass judgment on it. I just have to be confined in this room and accept your verdict.”

The arrogant man who believed that the Duke of Ludwig was flawless frowned as if in displeasure. But he wasn’t a stupid man, so his head seemed to be spinning enough to change his situation. He just looked down at her with his molars clenched together, then he barely opened his mouth to mutter.

“I promise, on my honor, that I will never be biased in my investigation. In between, I’ll let you know how it goes.”

She didn’t know how he felt. In fact, she wasn’t really interested in it right now.

“Follow your heart. Ah, but there is something about not being biased, right?”

As he looked at her with a frown, shesaid with a feeling of self-destruction.

“Even if Lise and I are on the suspect line at the same time, are you confident that you won’t be biased?”

His mouth was tightly shut.

She pulled her forearm out of his loose hand.

“That’s what it means to be impartial, Killian. That’s why I don’t trust you.”

He tried to say something, but she didn’t want to hear anything.

“I am tired. Go back.”

Leaving those words alone, she walked into the dressing room without ever looking back at him.

* * *

“Is running away with death really cowardly? Do you know what it feels like to be the one who even thought of that?”

Locked in the room, she was reproducing her anger while thinking over what Killian had said. 

Killian seems to be mistaken that she tried to protect her family’s honor by dying, but she just wanted to assert her innocence in a situation where no one believed her.

“He is just a mean guy. Is it all good if you are good looking? Is it all good if you have a good body and are sexy? Tsk. Thinking of you makes me want to see you again! Damn you!”

She really hated this world where faces were so beautiful. She wanted to hate Killian, but when she thought of his face and body, she really couldn’t hate him.

‘Can’t I get married for 3 years based on looks? No. Even after 15 years of marriage, my husband will look good. Even if we fight, my anger melts away when I see his face. I never thought the day would come when I would understand the story on the Internet that said, “Looking men are the best”.’

But in this situation where the handsome husband had no intention of appeasing her, it was understandable to feel angry and upset.

“Ha… I don’t mind being pointed at as cowardly, so I want to die too. If that’s what I want, why should I live so painfully?”

She slammed the pillow to vent her anger, then sighed deeply and wiped her face with both hands. This life was also very irritating, but her previous life was more like a dog-life than a person-life. Her housework was always stressful, her brother who comes to take money from her whenever I forget, her sick body, her ex-boyfriends who were cheating on her or ignoring his promises, her acquaintances who took it easy on her and hit her in the back… During the 28 years she lived in that world, she wondered if she ever thought of dying.

But she had one memory from her previous life that had kept her from suicidal thoughts. It was at the time when she was sharing a hospital room with leukemia patients of her age.

* * *

“Hey, heh… ugh…”

The day she found out that her brother’s bone marrow matched hers, she lay on her side on the bed alone and cried endlessly. It wasn’t because she was happy.

“Oh no! That’s fucking sick! Just say goodbye!”

It was because she kept thinking of her brother’s voice telling her to die without hesitation in front of her.

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