I opened my eyes at the touch of a hand stroking my face.
Benedict was before my eyes like a vision.
“Today… I found it.”
He embraced me, still half-asleep.
The crisp autumn night air reached my nose, along with Benedict’s uniquely pleasant body scent flowing gently.
“Thanks to you. I’m really happy.”
He said something I couldn’t understand. In a dazed state, not knowing if it was a dream or not, I answered congratulations.
Then I heard laughter clearly. Only then did I realize he was truly before my eyes.
“Benedict?”
It had really been days since I’d heard his voice like this.
“What’s this? Something I haven’t seen before was hanging here.”
Clink, a clear wind chime sound was heard.
In Benedict’s hand was a small bell with a cute fish attached.
“I wanted to know when you were coming…”
But he murmured that he seemed not to have heard it.
That small, pretty bell was a gift Lucia had sent. I had wanted to hear the sound of Benedict coming, so I attached a string and hung it in front of the secret passage.
I didn’t know the reason, but Benedict, who had become quite busy, was only stopping by very briefly. I would see him by my side in my sleep or wake to the signs of him getting up in the morning and only see his face. We’d never had a proper conversation. If he hadn’t spoken to me like this now, it would have been the same again.
“I—”
Maybe he’d been disappointed in me since that time.
“What should I do since I said I loved you?”
But I asked about something more worrying than that.
Placing the small bell beside my hand, Benedict answered.
“That’s why I worked harder.”
He smiled, saying I didn’t need to worry about the Regent Duke.
I could see his handsome, clear face. The faint moonlight made his naturally tousled hair shine, making it even more dreamlike.
“Go to sleep now.”
“…I can’t sleep.”
“You look tired.”
He asked softly if the trial preparations were finished.
“Count Leroy has become quite kind…”
The count becoming friendly was thanks to Benedict.
“—I wrote that. Probably at tomorrow’s trial— …Joachim?”
He called my name gently.
I answered. He kindly asked if I was sleeping. I said I wasn’t. I saw Benedict’s back as he hung the bell again. I definitely did, but…
It was daylight. I woke up first.
We were peacefully facing each other. Under the thin autumn sunlight, Benedict was asleep. His hair was more disheveled in the morning. I thought it was lovely.
I quietly lay down beside him and waited for him to wake up.
Time passed,
I held my breath watching his eyes open. There was magic in those deep eyes blinking little by little.
I kissed him first. On his straight forehead and gently angled chin, Benedict looked a little surprised, then smiled pleasantly. I kissed once more on his gently smiling eyes, on his prominent nose bridge. He, who had been lying still and watching, suddenly pulled me close. He drew me under his chin and playfully pressed down on my head, then returned ticklish kisses all over.
It was the morning of the trial.
* * *
Before the courtroom, I stood side by side with Count Leroy.
“Where’s Mikhail?”
“He said he’d come later.”
“Remember this. This may seem like a light trial where only honor is at stake, but it’s not.”
Since the other side could do the same, we had been thoroughly preparing and practicing until now.
“Let’s prove it! How this trial that began circumstantially can reach a shocking conclusion!”
Benedict’s words that the count unnecessarily got worked up before trials to relieve tension were true. I tried to laugh carelessly but hardened my lips.
We’d prepared a lot, but I was worried about how Rilke would come out. We tried to prepare for every possibility, but I was still nervous.
Count Leroy turned around and raised his hand high. Ignoring my tight chest, I smacked my palm against his palm, and together we headed to the waiting room in front of the courtroom.
The legal assistant brought over a pile of documents. I checked the list one by one and did a final inspection with Count Leroy.
“The first one would be better. As if I knew nothing at all. —What’s wrong?”
I thought the count was surprised by my shamelessness, but he was surprised by someone even more shameless than me.
“Joachim. Talk to me for a bit.”
Rilke had come.
We agreed to talk in the corridor. I set the condition that our party should be visible.
When we reached a dead end, Rilke turned around sharply. Dressed more carefully than ever, that kid shot out rude words as soon as our eyes met.
“What do you mean?”
I didn’t understand and asked back.
Still staring at me like I was something filthy, Rilke lowered his voice and interrogated me.
“You… what did you mean when you said you loved His Highness Benedict?”
Rilke was asking about what happened at the great mansion.
“I meant it literally.”
I said calmly. Because that was the right answer.
Rilke’s lips twisted.
“The Regent— no, Father said something strange. You, in summer… what happened?”
‘Didn’t you send me Joachim Meyer?’
The Regent had said that, he said.
“Really, during His Highness Benedict’s rut. Did you serve him?”
Looking at Rilke asking like that, I thought that kid didn’t know what the Regent Duke did to the omegas who spent the night with Benedict.
“You, did you?”
Rilke pressed.
“Did you really?”
No, looking at those burning eyes, I thought that kid would choose that path even if he knew everything.
So I half-lied. I wanted to make Rilke angry.
“Yeah. It was really good.”
Rilke stared piercingly at me with a cold gaze.
As if the people in the courtroom had noticed that stare, I could hear murmuring voices. I didn’t avoid that kid’s gaze.
Rilke’s eyes, which had been glaring at me, soon widened.
“After being outside the house for so long, why is moving around so unpleasant.”
That kid was looking at Mikhail entering perfectly fine. I had been continuously watching that kid’s expression, so I could clearly see the change in expression.
Mikhail, with the black spots completely gone and looking clean, also spotted Rilke. He sat down beside me grumbling.
“Look at that shameless thing. He left home and his appearance became even more radiant.”
Leading a group of nobles, the Regent Duke also entered soon after. I also carefully observed his complexion, but the Regent only made a disgusting lip shape at me when our eyes met and showed no interest in Mikhail beside me.
“Everyone in the gallery, please be seated.”
The court clerk called out. Soon a judge dressed in black robes entered, and a moment of respect followed as he introduced an elderly gentleman.
“We will begin the trial.”
The judge declared.
The courtroom maintained an architectural style from a hundred years ago. Shiny brown wooden decorative columns filled the spaces between off-white walls, and the upper level and stairs made by carving entire large rocks gave a solid and imposing impression. Behind them, two large vertical windows meaning to reveal the truth were obliquely receiving sunlight.
Under the shadow of the left window, the Yorick family’s attorney took his seat first.
“The Yorick family that filed the lawsuit. Please speak first.”
The opposing attorney was a middle-aged man with a sharp impression and thin lips. That attorney was also an experienced judge from the legal nobility.
“As you know, today’s occasion is to expose what kind of unseemly incident Prince Rilke Yorick experienced, and how disgraceful the acts committed by House Meyer were. Right here, House Meyer is different from what is known… No, it’s not even different from what’s known.”
The Yorick side’s attorney sneered with a serious face.
“That bastard.”
Mikhail whispered beside me.
“Our family has no flaws! And yet to say such things, isn’t he implying right now when House Meyer will be demoted to a count family?”
I felt that way too.
“That’s defamation!”
If he’d actually said it in words, it would have been, but the other side only gave off that feeling. That’s why Mikhail was even more infuriated.
“Your Honor, the opposing attorney is mentioning things unrelated to the case.”
Count Leroy stepped in appropriately. The judge nodded and told him to restrain himself. Thinking that was enough, the opposing attorney finished his introduction.
“Today I intend to reveal the true face of House Meyer. That is all.”
“Let’s see whose true face is worse.” Mikhail kept muttering beside me. “What’s certain is that both that person and that Yorick bastard look really terrible when they take off their wigs,” and I was a bit shocked.
“It was a wig?”
“You didn’t know?”
Mikhail boasted while sweeping up his thick blond hair.
Until just before, I didn’t want to look that way because I remembered Duke Yorick’s lip shape, but now I couldn’t look that way because I felt like I’d burst out laughing.
Meanwhile, the first witness requested by the Yorick family side entered.
“We request Deina, who was a maid of House Meyer, as a witness.”
“I swear… not to commit perjury.”
I heard a tongue-clicking sound beside me. Since I couldn’t keep hiding it from Mikhail, I had ended up telling him about Deina yesterday.
Deina was still thin but in better shape than before.
“This spring. Rilke Yorick, then Prince Rilke Meyer, witnessed an astounding incident.”
The Yorick family’s attorney began his argument. Deina was staring piercingly down at only the small witness table.
“Prince Rilke Yorick. If it’s not rude, would you please speak directly?”
“Yes. Hyung Mikhail said that Joachim needed a maid to look after him. Out of goodwill, I brought Deina, one of my maids, to Joachim.”
Deina’s eyes didn’t budge.
“But Deina didn’t return, and I thought she had simply gone to her own bedroom. But when I went to Joachim’s quarters the next day, the two were lying together.”
Murmuring swept past.
Rilke’s reference testimony continued. My pheromones were everywhere, Deina was in her underwear, I was also undressed. Those kinds of words. The judge, who had seen all kinds of cases, had an ‘I see’ face.
“Just in case, I asked Deina that day… and she said she was forced.”
