LPSB 24

chapter 24

Marquis Felicita collapsed into the armchair in his study.

As his body sank deep into the cushions, his tangled thoughts seemed to sink into a bottomless swamp as well.

Where did everything go wrong?

He already knew the answer to the question he asked himself.

After losing the wife he loved, the marquis fell into deep despair.

For an entire month after her death, he could barely bring himself to work.

The butler suggested hiring a nanny to care for and educate the young lady, but the marquis refused.

He hated and feared the thought of his little daughter coming to see the nanny as her mother and gradually forgetting her real one.

The only blood relative his wife had left behind in this world—that was Shuen.

Though she had inherited his hair and eye color, her features were the spitting image of her mother’s. Every time he looked at Shuen, he was reminded of his wife’s death, and it tormented him.

Perhaps because of that, the marquis was excessively soft on her.

Anything she wanted to do, he allowed. Anything she wanted to have, he bought.

He knew Shuen was becoming increasingly spoiled and self-centered, but he simply let it happen.

He eventually hired private tutors, but there was no chance of giving her a proper education.

The tutors frequently ran away, unable to endure Shuen’s behavior.

As her father, he knew better than anyone that Shuen’s personality was far from easy.

But this incident had crossed the line by a wide margin.

The necklace had been one of the keepsakes his wife had left for their precious daughter.

The marquis had repeatedly warned her to treasure it carefully and never lose it.

Yet this morning, he received information that his wife’s necklace was scheduled to appear as an item at an auction.

She actually sold that necklace…

The marquis, who had been rubbing his forehead, lifted his head.

“What do you think?”

The butler, who had been standing silently like a shadow, finally spoke.

“I do not believe the young lady was lying.”

At the butler’s cautious words, the marquis blinked several times.

The butler had watched over Shuen since she was a baby.

He was loyal, discreet, and never spoke carelessly.

Yet that very man was taking Shuen’s side.

And this wasn’t even the first time.

The same thing had happened during the tea party incident a few days earlier.

Shuen had supposedly turned the tea party she hosted into complete chaos.

When the Duke of Harrington told him that his daughter had returned home pale as a ghost, the marquis had not been surprised.

He had merely thought, Shuen has caused trouble again.

When he heard that she had even thrown and shattered a teacup this time, he intended to scold her.

He was about to summon her immediately when the butler stopped him.

The reason left the marquis astonished.

“After questioning the maids in detail, it appears she did it while defending Young Master Izhael.”

Shuen had always been terribly selfish.

The idea that the girl who only cared about herself had become angry in order to protect Izhael was difficult to believe.

It would have been more believable if she had been the one bullying him.

Just moments ago, the marquis had been so furious with Shuen that he nearly slapped her.

But when he raised his hand, the butler’s words from that day suddenly came back to him.

“It seems the young lady has changed a little.”

As he hesitated, Shuen, who had her eyes closed, opened them and looked at him.

It was an expression he had never seen on his daughter before.

Shuen had always been a child who could lie and put on an act without changing her expression.

He had expected her to burst into tears, claim she was innocent, and pin the blame on a maid again.

But the moment their eyes met, he realized something was different.

Her blue eyes carried the sadness and fear of a lost child.

Those eyes…

Shuen had only been five years old when she first heard that her mother had gone to heaven.

Back then, the eyes of the little girl clutching desperately at his clothes had looked exactly the same.

“It also seems strange that the young lady sold only that necklace.”

Hearing the butler’s words, the marquis turned his gaze to a framed portrait sitting on one side of the desk.

It was a portrait of young Shuen.

In a low voice, he gave an order.

“Gather all the attendants and servants who stay by Shuen’s side.”

*

I plopped down onto the floor.

A promise was a promise, but now that the tension throughout my body had finally released, I felt completely drained.

Burying my face in my knees, I let out a long sigh.

Let’s think calmly.

I needed to come up with a concrete plan to catch the culprit.

While I was deep in thought, I heard the faint clinking of something nearby.

I slightly raised my head from my knees.

A neatly arranged pair of hands was picking up the rings and jewels scattered all over the floor.

The moment I saw who they belonged to, I froze.

“Izhael…?”

Our eyes met as Izhael picked up the last ring near my feet.

I thought he left with the marquis and the attendants. When did he come back in?

As I stared at him in confusion, he spoke.

“Do you have any idea who it might be?”

“Huh?”

I repeated his words stupidly before hurriedly shutting my mouth.

But no warning bell rang.

Come to think of it, I’m in the middle of a quest right now.

I stared at the floating text in the air.

<<Quest: Bake bread for Izhael>>
<<Time Remaining: 71 hours 45 minutes 18 seconds>>

For once, the quest had a fairly generous time limit.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

At least I would be free from warnings for a while.

After quietly watching me, Izhael elaborated.

“I mean the person who stole the necklace.”

I was so surprised that I forgot even to blink.

“You… believe what I said?”

“Why? Was it a lie?”

Izhael asked indifferently.

“No! It really wasn’t!”

My heart churned violently, like an unexpected wave crashing into a calm sea.

Ever since I woke up in Shuen Felicita’s body, I had thought I was completely alone.

There wasn’t a single person in this mansion willing to listen to Shuen.

This time had been no different.

While the marquis was scolding me, everyone remained silent.

Most of the attendants and servants even looked pleased to see me in trouble.

In the original story, Izhael wouldn’t have cared whether I sold the necklace or was framed for it.

Yet here he was—the only person who believed me.

The only one on my side.

I never expected that person to be Izhael.

The feeling was strange.

Before I realized it, Izhael had gathered all the jewelry scattered across the floor and placed it back into the jewelry box.

He held out the now-filled box to me.

Without thinking, I accepted it.

Perhaps he noticed the confusion in my eyes as I wondered why he was helping me.

Frowning slightly, he said,

“You unintentionally helped me before. Consider this repayment.”

Helped him?

I thought about it carefully, but nothing immediately came to mind.

Ah… does he mean the tea party?

I had yelled at Miss Harrington on his behalf and hidden the fact that he had held a sword to my throat.

But that hardly seemed like something worth calling a debt.

Considering how terribly Shuen had treated him all this time, it was the least I could do.

The pre-corruption Izhael really did seem soft-hearted in some ways.

Feeling oddly guilty, I ran my fingers over the jewelry box.

“So, do you have any suspects?”

When I checked that morning, there had been no signs that the jewelry box itself had been searched through.

The culprit clearly knew exactly where the necklace was.

And they had to be someone who could enter and leave my room without attracting attention.

Combining those two conditions narrowed down the list considerably.

The culprit had to be one of the maids who stayed by my side and attended to me every day.

After hearing my reasoning, Izhael nodded as if he agreed.

“The problem is that we have no evidence to identify which one of them did it.”

There was also another question that bothered me.

Why that necklace of all things?

Shuen’s jewelry box contained many accessories worth far more than that necklace.

There was no way the culprit didn’t know that.

If they were stealing for money, why not take the whole jewelry box?

Why specifically choose that keepsake?

It felt strange for an ordinary theft motivated by greed.

As I pondered the matter, Izhael suddenly said as if he had just remembered something.

“That necklace is scheduled to be auctioned tonight.”

“What? Really?”

“Yes. I happened to overhear it.”

When he said happened to overhear, it looked like the corner of his mouth twitched upward slightly.

It felt like there was more to the story, but now wasn’t the time to dig into that.

Before we could find the culprit, we first had to recover the stolen necklace.

Our eyes met.

As if he had read my thoughts, Izhael continued,

“Then I suppose we should prepare to go out.”