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The man’s face became contemplative at Ellea’s last words.
“Looking at that expression, it looks like I hit the pinnacle. Then….”
Ellea took one step closer to the man and continued.
“You must have a lot of stories to share.”
The man, who showed an expression of panic, stepped back without knowing it.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what the Princess is talking about. What do you mean I exchanged the horse Lady Heris rode?”
‘You’re going to pretend you don’t know.’
Of course Ellea didn’t expect that the man would confess right away. Now she wondered how long he would pretend he didn’t know. Without knowing that it would increase his guilt.
“Then am I wrong?”
“Why would I do that? What I showed you was the horse that died then. Didn’t the Princess check it out herself today?”
Then, as if trying to prove his innocence, the man rolled up the piece of cloth from one of the corpses and showed the dead horse again.
Ellea looked at the dead horse and smiled absurdly. That was the blind spot she had no choice but to be deceived.
“The experts who came with me did not know how the horses looked like at the time of the competition, and if you brought horses with similar builds and similar colors, I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart, let alone them. You are the last one who saw the bodies.”
“That’s absurd. You’re framing me right now. Then why did the horse suddenly go wild?”
After the man had completely denied his sins, Ellea was willing to show what he had done.
“I found something very interesting in a book about horses.”
“What is that…”
“I heard that there is a herb that is used to strengthen the horse’s muscles but turns poisonous if taken excessively. I’m sure you know it well.”
This was what Terban had just discovered. How this could have put Heris in danger over time.
At Ellea’s words, the man didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to hear his answer anyway.
“There are no symptoms until it’s absorbed into the body, but if the effect appears after a certain period of time, the symptoms are severe. The horse will feel pain and eventually die. During the break, you must have used an excuse and secretly fed it to the horse.”
She said what she had found and walked past the man. Then she started walking through the white cloths there one by one.
“The problem is that you run the risk of getting caught quickly. It is only a matter of time before you become the criminal yourself. That’s why you changed the bodies. Are there any mistakes in what I said?”
Surprised that Ellea had found out that far, the man kept his mouth shut. Then he stuttered to the end, trying to get out of this situation somehow.
“That…Isn’t that the Princess’s guess? Where’s the proof that I switched the horses?”
Ellea, who waited for only those words, smiled. The man seemed unaware that he had dug his own grave.
“Lady Heris sent me a letter, in which by accident she wrote about the appearance of the horse. Heris’s horse had a white dot behind the ear, but the horse I saw this morning certainly didn’t. Don’t you agree?”
It was something Ellea hadn’t thought about at all until Heris sent her a letter. It was then that she knew they had replaced the dead horse so that the cause of the death was not discovered.
As soon as she realized that, she ran to this place immediately. Before the man destroyed the evidence.
At Ellea’s question, the man moved his motionless head to look at the horse carcass he had shown to people in the morning.
There was nothing he could say.
“And the evidence is still with you.”
“What?”
“Because it is not easy to dispose of a carcass of a horse. It’ll still be here somewhere. The real horse that Heris rode!”
As soon as the words were finished, Ellea pulled up the last remaining white cloth.
Below that, a horse that looked similar to the corpse seen in the morning appeared, and there was a white dot on the ear.
After seeing that, Ellea was sure that this situation was over.
“My prediction was right.”
The man must have planned to move it out of the Imperial Palace when no one was watching.
“You’ve already heard it all, so give up. You’d better make a confession before you get a heavier punishment.”
Ellea was now waiting for the man to say something. Now that she knew everything, there was no other way for the man than to give up.
“I……”
While she was waiting patiently for what he had to say, the man looked worried, then suddenly turned around and ran towards the entrance.
‘It’s trouble.’
Knowing that he was going to run away, Ellea immediately moved. But strangely, the man stopped at the door without going out.
Ellea grabbed the man’s shoulder and pulled him away from the door.
“What are you doing now!”
But for some reason, the man just stood still.
“It won’t open.”
“What?”
“The door won’t open.”
Seeing the man’s bewildered expression, Ellea tried to open it herself. As he said, the door didn’t even move.
She pushed with all her might, but to no avail.
“It really doesn’t open.”
It was obviously locked from the outside to prevent it from being opened. As soon as she was locked up with the carcass of the horses, Ellea had an ominous thought.
“Have you now been instructed to dispose of the horse’s body?”
“Yes? Yes. I have to take care of it when the sun starts to set before others find out.”
The man suddenly nodded his head as Ellea’s eyes looked strange.
“No way… .”
At his words, Ellea’s heart became nervous, and she shook the door harder than before. Seeing that, the man asked with anxiety.
“Why are you doing that?”
“You really don’t know? They’re trying to get rid of you along with the dead horse!”
“What?”
“Then you thought they would keep you alive, who knew the whole story? There’s a limit of being stupid.”
“I… ”
As if shocked by Ellea’s words, the man staggered as his legs loosened, and the pungent smell was faint, but he smelled it.
Turning his head there, what he saw was….
“Fire, fire!”
“What?”
Ellea looked at where the man was pointing and saw smoke rising from one corner. A bright red flame flickered inside.
‘I was right, too. They want to completely destroy the evidence with fire.’
This space, made of wood and straw, will soon be engulfed in fire and disappear.
“Save me, save me! There are people locked up here!”
The man knocked on the wall with both hands and shouted, but it was useless.
It was difficult to break the wall that was stronger than expected with only two people, and this warehouse was located away from other buildings.
‘Calm down, I’m sure Bandel will come soon. Until then, I have to endure somehow.’
So, Ellea stopped the man who was wasting his strength.
“Stop it now. Cover your nose and mouth. And we have to stop the fire from spreading as much as possible. First, remove the straw around the flame. Calm down, if you want to get out of here alive.”
The man hurriedly did as she instructed.
Ellea, who covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief, tried to suppress the oxygen by covering the burning area with a white cloth while the man was clearing the straw.
The horse that Heris rode was the evidence that must never catch fire.
‘It has to be protected unconditionally.’
However, the fire did not subside as it burned the wood, and black smoke filled the space, making it difficult to even breathe.
“Now what?”
“Do not give up. Then you will really die.”
At that desperate moment, she heard a voice calling her from outside.
“Princess, are you here?”
This voice…..
“Sir Bandel?”
“Yes!”
“The door does not open from the inside.”
“Then stay away.”
As soon as Ellea had taken a few steps back, the door shook violently several times and then shattered with a bang.
In the meantime, Bandel appeared.
“Come out, Princess.”
Ellea came out and breathed in the fresh air she had been desperately waiting for. The man who followed, sat down on the floor, feeling blessed.
“Ah, I live.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, fortunately. Oh, we have to put out the fire. There is important evidence inside.”
“The knights who came with me went to call people. Oh, here they come.”
Fortunately, the knights and men arrived before the flames climbed up the walls to the roof, and the water they had brought quickly extinguished the fire.
Ellea, who was watching this, breathed a sigh of relief and said to Bandel.
“You came at just the right time, Sir Bandel.”
“Yeah, I’m really glad I wasn’t too late.”
After hearing from Borence that the Princess had asked him to come to the stable, Bandel led a few knights with him and as he approached, he found a faint rising smoke in the darkness.
Bandel knew at once that there was a fire and called for more people.
“Then why is the fire suddenly…”
“I have some work to do before that.”
Saying that, Ellea went up to the man who was sitting down in shock. He was still puzzled by what had just happened.
Ellea finally gave up her desire to hit him and thought that it was really his last chance.
“This is my last warning to you. Now you know what a terrifying thing you’ve done. If you don’t be honest, you could suffer worse than you are now.”
Thinking that Bandel was there and that he could no longer run away, the man knelt first.
“I’m sorry. Please forgive me just once.”
“Then you’re going to admit everything you’ve done?”
“… … It’s true that I swapped the horses, but there is someone else who gave all those instructions.”
The man began to tell the truth in order to live. It was also expected to some extent by Ellea. She was sure there was someone else behind it.
It had nothing to do with him, and he was even threatened with his life just before.
“Who the hell is that?”
But what came out of his mouth was not the person Ellea had expected.
“It was a maid named Marie who worked in the Princess’s palace.”
“Who? Marie?”
“Yes. She gave me money. The maid told me how to do it, and that I had to replace the horse’s body.”
The man pointed at Marie, but Ellea knew immediately that Shanil was behind Marie.
It was clear that Shanil was using Marie so that she didn’t have to get her hands dirty and wouldn’t get caught.
In addition, she used the man to destroy the evidence altogether. She set everything on fire.
‘Shannil’s name won’t come out of this man’s mouth. She knows it herself. That’s why she dared to do this.’
Her original goal was the horse Ellea rode, but perhaps because of the skills Ellea showed in the competition, they decided to harm Heris’s horse instead.
“Please, please forgive me just once. I have no choice but to do it….”
“No, I never intend to forgive you. Don’t you know that it’s just an excuse? Did you say you have no choice? No, you’re just greedy for the money in front of you.”
“If I knew how many people would be in danger, I would not have done such a foolish thing.”
“Don’t make excuses, because this is all your own fault.”
At Ellea’s words, the man kept his mouth shut as if he had nothing to say. She looked at him then turned to Bandel.
“Can I ask you to clean up here? Preserve the evidence.”
“Of course. But Princess…”
“I still have work to do.”
Bandel nodded as if he understood.
“Then I will send the knights to the palace.”
“Thank you.”
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After leaving the man to Bandel, Ellea turned around and left the place.
Although no one saw it, she changed the mood in an instant. As if holding a sword, her eyes were sharp as if it would cut down everything.