“Your Honor, I object!”
Count Leroy raised his hand.
“Wait. Rilke Yorick, speak.”
“This is also my oversight.”
Rilke’s eyes glistened with tears.
“I was originally close with Deina. Deina also cherished me like a younger sibling.”
Rilke shed tears, saying how devastated Deina had been. Sympathetic sighs flowed from the gallery.
Deina was just clasping her hands tightly together. She still had her head bowed. Because of the direction she was sitting, only her back would be visible from the spectator seats. The elderly judge was watching her face intently.
“But then Deina’s belly suddenly started to swell…”
The story of how I rejected and ignored Deina unfolded from Rilke’s lips.
“Poor Deina instantly became the mother of an illegitimate child and had to go down to a provincial estate. Since she was like a sister to me, I did what I could to ensure she could recuperate well.”
“Honorable Judge.”
The Yorick side’s counsel spoke up.
“As you’ve heard, House Meyer recklessly impregnated poor Miss Deina simply because she was Prince Rilke’s maid. They didn’t even take responsibility. I think this is terribly inhumane treatment.”
“Miss Deina. Are those claims all correct?”
Yes. She whispered as if about to fade away after a long pause.
“Joachim Meyer, do you acknowledge the charges?”
“I do not acknowledge them.”
Count Leroy answered instead. He seemed enraged, stirring slightly in his seat before standing up.
“I request a witness.”
And our side’s witness entered.
The spectators looked bewildered.
The witness sat on the right side. I would see the back view in knight’s uniform, while Deina would see the left profile. But Deina was still staring fixedly only at the narrow table.
Count Leroy asked the new witness.
“Witness, what is your relationship with Miss Deina over there?”
“I’m her pitiful lover, and the child’s father.”
Stefan answered.
My cousin’s face, which I was seeing for the first time in months, had become quite gaunt. Like Deina.
As soon as Stefan finished speaking, a buzzing murmur swept through the gallery. Even the judge, who hadn’t shown surprise once until now, furrowed his brow before calming the crowd, saying, “Quiet, quiet!”
“Counsel, continue the interrogation.”
And there wasn’t much to interrogate. Stefan concisely explained why he was the child’s father, and added that he was full of love and guilt toward Deina.
“To think that kid was lovesick.”
Mikhail clicked his tongue beside me.
“He was languishing all summer long, and back then I thought he’d squandered everything at some big gambling den.”
I had thought so too.
“This time I’ll ask Miss Deina.”
Count Leroy took a step closer to her.
“Whatever circumstances you have, we can protect you.”
“Your Honor. The Meyer side’s counsel is currently making irrelevant statements.”
“Sustained.”
“My apologies. In any case, Miss Deina. Right now, a man with sincere eyes is claiming he’s the child’s father. We all know there is no reason whatsoever for this upstanding man to claim someone else’s child as his own.”
We actually had trouble persuading the hesitant Stefan.
“I ask you. Who is the real father?”
For the first time, Deina raised her head.
She had been shrinking so much that it was a bigger movement than expected, and even the people in the gallery seemed to realize that Deina had only just raised her head.
Trembling time passed.
“The child’s father… is this person.”
Along with the gallery’s gasp, a sigh of relief also burst from my lips.
‘Please save me!’
‘Stefan… Stefan!’
Those two words she had desperately, secretly conveyed to me in her confused state.
While obsessively clinging to me, she had anxiously whispered Stefan’s name between words. I had interpreted her attempt as saying she could find courage if only Stefan were brought to her.
That’s why I had been certain, but hearing the testimony from her lips made my shoulders relax considerably.
“And Prince Joachim and the child in my womb have absolutely no connection.”
“What! That day!”
Rilke jumped up.
At that moment, Deina burst into tears. Rilke looked speechless.
“I had a huge debt!”
Deina shouted, barely swallowing her sobs.
“A debt my father incurred… That person, Prince Rilke, said he would forgive my debt if I spent the night with Lord Joachim. He also said that if I did well, I could become Lord Joachim’s wife… But before that, I had never once felt that Lord Joachim desired me, and while he is male, he is also an omega.”
“Male omegas sometimes lust after women too!”
“Counsel, be quiet. Witness, continue speaking.”
The assistant judge personally brought Deina a handkerchief.
“Thank you. In any case, when I said it would be impossible, he said he had good medicine. That day, he personally took me to Lord Joachim.”
She struggled to speak properly while swallowing tears.
Unlike the earlier situation where Rilke testified instead and she only answered, this was different. It was specific. She testified in detail about how Rilke had drugged one teacup and told her to make sure to place it on my side, and even how Rilke himself had taken an antidote beforehand just in case. She even testified about being threatened that she’d be immediately handed over to a loan shark.
“What, Deina, what are you saying! Why… suddenly…”
Rilke shook her head in disbelief with trembling eyes. I could see tears welling up in those blue eyes.
“Rilke Yorick. Obtain permission to speak.”
“Your Honor… I’m just so shocked and sad…”
The judge warned to refrain from emotional statements and to seek help from counsel if courtroom speech was difficult.
Permission to speak was given back to Deina.
“Lord Joachim simply held me and slept. He seemed to have sensed my situation somehow, and he tried to help me so I wouldn’t fall into trouble.”
Deina shed tears again, saying she felt terrible for putting someone who helped her in a difficult situation and even making her commit perjury. Rilke looked at her crying in dismay.
“There’s something to note here.”
Count Leroy began his argument with his back to the sobbing Deina. It looked callous but also more dramatic.
“Why did Prince Rilke Yorick deliberately send Deina in ‘that day’?”
“What do you mean, Count Leroy?”
The opposing counsel, who had been silent, spoke sharply. The Count ignored those words.
“What House Meyer will accuse next coincidentally connects remarkably with this case. This shows just how meticulously Prince Rilke Yorick plotted his scheme, and I believe it will directly answer why he plunged an innocent person into misfortune with such selfish intentions.”
“Counsel. Refrain from commentary.”
Count Leroy smiled coldly, unconcerned.
“I hereby accuse Rilke Yorick of the crime of insulting the Imperial Family.”
Ha, Rilke on the opposite side laughed as if incredulous.
I recalled the conversation I had with that kid right before the trial.
‘Really, during Prince Benedict’s rut. You attended to him?’
‘Yeah. It was really good.’
I had wanted to anger Rilke, and that goal seemed to have been achieved. As I was turning my back on that silent kid, Rilke spoke.
‘You’re not going to make that ridiculous claim now that you saved Prince Benedict, are you?’
Rilke approached me.
‘Like you did with Saren, are you going to testify that I can’t enter water?’
Close up, Rilke thrust those blue eyes at me.
‘What I… because of you, had to do…!’
‘Did you practice swimming?’
I asked.
Rilke was uncharacteristically very worked up. Enough to drop that boring formality.
Rilke seemed to think he had prepared perfectly, whether by dragging a bathtub into court or jumping into the Roen River accompanied by a judge.
Back to the courtroom.
Across from me, I could see Rilke taking deep breaths as if he had to enter water immediately. But Rilke didn’t need to.
“Rilke Yorick pretended to have saved a member of the Imperial Family when he didn’t do it. He was treated as the Imperial Family’s benefactor.”
Rilke was composed, as if this part of the Count’s argument was expected.
“This is a written testimony personally written by His Highness Prince Benedict Roman Augentier.”
But next, a subtle crack appeared on his face.
The assistant judge received the testimony and delivered it to the judge. The judge, who confirmed to everyone that it was Benedict’s seal, read it. The shape of the judge’s white eyebrows became peculiar, and Count Leroy turned to look at Rilke.
“I’ll now ask Rilke Yorick. Prince Yorick. I heard that day was when a masquerade ball was held at the great mansion. Is that correct?”
“…Yes.”
Rilke answered. Count Leroy asked while carefully observing that kid’s stiff expression.
“His Highness saw what kind of mask the person who saved him was wearing. What mask were you wearing that day, Prince?”
“-I was.”
Rilke blinked for a moment. That kid straightened his back and answered.
“I was wearing a black mask.”
“Exactly what mask? Please tell us in detail.”
Rilke’s back straightened even more.
“Black, somewhat rough… monk-like decoration. It was a hood that covered the whole face.”
Then a voice saying “Prince Rilke was?” was heard from the gallery.
