ATMM 20

Chapter – 20

“Your Highness the Crown Princess, I greet you. My apologies for the belated greeting.”

Blanche came to her senses belatedly and bowed properly.

When she lowered her head and raised it again, the flustered look from moments ago had completely vanished from her face.

“So Your Highness has come after understanding the meaning of the Chairman’s final words.”

Blanche spoke in a calm voice as she lit the remaining candle.

As the chairman’s office brightened, the shadows deepened at the same time.

“I will gladly accept punishment for leaving confinement and wandering about like this. But I simply could not remain still.”

“Yes, you must have been anxious someone else would find the evidence first.”

“What do you mean by that? I merely wished to clear my false accusation as soon as possible.”

Even after being caught acting suspiciously at the scene, she was brazen enough to speak like this.

I let out a hollow laugh in disbelief and replied.

“You understood at once the meaning of the number 36 that the Chairman mentioned and came here. And you secretly searched for the evidence.”

Thirty-six.

It meant the third shelf from the top of the bookcase in the chairman’s office, the sixth compartment from the left.

I knew because I had heard it directly from the Chairman, but unless one was close to him, it was not an expression easily understood.

“How do you intend to explain that?”

“There seems to be some misunderstanding.”

Blanche turned slightly and grasped the bookshelf.

The candle burned behind her, casting shadows across her face.

“I did not understand his words immediately. I simply kept thinking about them. Then it came to me—the Chairman had a habit of indicating the location of objects with numbers. But—”

“It was too late at night to inform Her Majesty the Empress?”

“…That is correct. It would not do to disturb my sovereign’s peaceful sleep. So I hurried here myself.”

The lies flowing from Blanche’s lips were so natural they were almost pitiable.

No matter what she said, the outcome would not change.

“You’re trying hard to make excuses.”

“Please do not twist my words, Your Highness.”

“Twist?”

How amusing.

I smiled faintly and gestured to the bundle of documents tucked inside my clothes.

“You know better than anyone that this isn’t just a simple stack of papers.”

The fingertips gripping the bookshelf turned white.

Her lowered lashes fluttered slowly.

“You read them?”

Blanche’s voice dropped lower.

I answered as if it were nothing.

“Of course. I did.”

“What did they contain?”

“Well. What’s certain is that the Chairman will not have died unjustly.”

“….”

“Confess. That’s the last opportunity I can offer you.”

Blanche, who had been looking to the side, turned back toward me.

In her eyes, the emotions she could not fully conceal swirled unmistakably.

“It is a trap the Chairman set to frame me. Even if you are the Crown Princess, you cannot oppress an innocent person like this.”

“There’s more than one or two pieces of evidence. Well, if you don’t want to confess, I won’t press you further. When dawn breaks, I’ll simply show these documents to Her Majesty the Empress.”

I pulled the bundle of papers from my bosom and waved them lightly before her.

Blanche clenched and released the hem of her skirt, biting her lower lip.

“Did you not just say they were fabricated?”

“Just a moment ago, you said you came to clear your name with this evidence. Now you claim it’s fabricated.”

“Your Highness.”

“The judgment will be Her Majesty’s to make. Until then, you’ll wait quietly here, Blanche. There is concern you might attempt to destroy more evidence.”

“You will regret this.”

“Dawn will break soon. Just endure a little longer. You’re in confinement anyway—another maid is attending to Her Majesty’s morning service.”

Blanche said nothing more.

Instead, she furrowed her brow and lowered her gaze.

The anxiety that had lingered on her face moments ago was replaced with a strange heat.

“Why did His Highness the Crown Prince not come with you?”

“Ah, His Highness is busy with matters concerning the Chairman.”

“The head maid of Garnet Palace, who always follows behind you, is nowhere to be seen either.”

“She’s waiting outside. We had to stay hidden here—if there were two of us, we might have been discovered.”

“Outside….”

Blanche’s eyes flickered toward the window.

When they slowly returned to me, there was resolve in them.

“Would you care to make a deal with me?”

“A deal?”

“Hand that document over to me. In return, I will ensure your life in the palace becomes much more comfortable.”

I couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.

First denial, and now bribery.

I hadn’t expected to genuinely laugh in this place.

After calming myself, I replied,

“Ah, sorry. I laughed too much. I just heard a dog barking rather boldly somewhere.”

The venerable, loyal Count Kemer’s house—how laughable.

If one shook that family tree, I suspected rotten dust would fall in heaps.

In that regard, they would rival my own family, the House of Cassian.

“Well, dogs bark. That’s what they do, don’t they?”

“…I offered you an opportunity to rise gloriously.”

Blanche quickly abandoned persuasion and turned her head.

Then she ran her fingers along the edge of the candlestick she had lit.

In the flickering flame, her face glowed yellow.

“Your Highness has quite the talent for making people weary.”

The moment I sensed something dangerous and stepped toward her—

Whoosh—bright light cut across my vision.

I instinctively caught the candle she hurled at me, then twisted slightly aside as Blanche lunged toward me.

“Pointless.”

Startled, Blanche’s body pitched forward, and I struck the exposed nape of her neck with the edge of my hand.

“…!”

Without even a cry, her body went limp.

Catching her as she collapsed to the floor, I let out a sigh.

“I’m the one giving you a chance.”

Who was giving whom a chance, really?

It seemed she had intended to snatch the documents from me, flee, and feign ignorance.

Those who bear the Cassian name are trained in basic hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship.

It is necessary to avoid being underestimated in the underworld they dominate.

Of course, the training was never publicly acknowledged, so outsiders would know nothing of it.

That must have been why Blanche had dared to attack me.

‘In times like this… perhaps it’s fortunate I’m a Cassian.’

It was a family I wished to erase and escape from, yet I could not deny that it was helping me now.

I frowned at the bitter taste in my mouth when suddenly the window burst open.

“Rohiriel! Is something wr—was there something?”

Yulion rushed in urgently, about to ask if something was wrong, then changed his question to past tense when he saw the scene.

Blanche had been told Yulion was busy with the Chairman’s affairs and not present, but in truth, he had been waiting in an upstairs room in case of emergency.

He must have come down at the commotion—though it had all happened and ended in an instant.

Yulion’s golden eyes filled with bewilderment as they took in me and Blanche, limp in my arms.

“Nothing serious. Just a little.”

“A little…? What do you mean ‘a little’? How does ‘a little’ result in the head maid lying there like that?”

“Well. She suddenly lunged at me. So in self-defense, just a little….”

As I spoke, Yulion’s expression shifted by the second.

From bewilderment to doubt, from doubt to surprise, from surprise to anger.

‘Is it really something to be that angry about?’

Instead of answering me, Yulion asked another question.

“Rohiriel. What is that in your hand?”

“What? Ah, this.”

It was the candle Blanche had thrown at me.

The candlestick had flown far away, and only the extinguished candle remained in my hand.

“Head Maid Blanche threw this at me. If the fire had spread, what was she thinking?”

I was about to set the candle casually on the table when I froze.

It had been too dark to notice, but I had been holding the candle… upside down.

‘Oh no.’

The flame was out, but melted wax had hardened all over my palm.

I had grabbed the burning candle with my bare hand to extinguish it and ended up covering myself in wax.

I didn’t need to look to know what state my palm must be in.

‘I didn’t feel the pain, so I didn’t realize.’

If I’d known, I would have thrown it away immediately.

Though I’d been taking Apherium daily for the past few days, it was still far from enough for my senses to return fully.

And today, with so much happening, I hadn’t even taken it.

“Rohiriel.”

“Ah, well. I quite like this candle. May I take it back to my palace?”

Ridiculous words spilled from my mouth.

Yulion had already stepped right up to me and was staring down at the hand gripping the candle.