The Abandoned Empress

Chapter 272: Chapter 272

When the emperor, who was listening to the man’s desperate defense, gestured, Duke Verita, who was staying in the back, stepped forward and said, “Priest Sorel, is he telling the truth? I am asking you if you were deceived by the baron. ”

When he was asked suddenly, Sorel stiffened, rolling his eyes with a complicated expression.

Squinting at the baron quickly, he said, swallowing, “Yes, I just acted as I was asked, and I never knew the baron’s intentions.”

“Can you prove that?”

“Well…”

“If you are making the argument without any hard evidence, I can’t help but regard you as an accomplice, too. ”

“I’ve got it! I’ve got a letter from him, asking me to obtain a rare medicine only available in the Lisa kingdom and import it in the name of the temple because he would be in trouble if the item was caught at the customs office. As he described the item as medicine, I just believed it. I’m serious. If you can give me some time, I can show you the letter!”

“What are you talking about? You son of a bitch, how dare you!”

The baron who was calm all the time shouted at the priest. Due to the baron’s sudden change of attitude, not only the pro-emperor faction, who was watching the trial in a relaxed mood, straightened up and paid attention to the trial.

Duke Verita, looking at the angry baron, pulled out a piece of paper from a pile of documents on the desk and asked, “Are you referring to this letter?”

“Yes, how did you get it?”

The duke said with a smile to the priest who squatted on the floor, “I think you underestimated the intelligence power of the empire. I’ve got some other information about you, but let me take into account the fact that you told the truth.’

I knitted my brows at the duke who looked very happy.

Somehow, I felt that the way he questioned them from the beginning was not like him, and now I understood he chose this kind of questioning method, as if he wanted to create this kind of situation from the beginning.

“That’s enough. Secretary, check the handwriting of the letter against the baron’s.”

Everyone shut up at his cold order. When even the baron who kept shouting at the priest was overpowered by the security knights, there was a tense atmosphere amid the silence in the conference hall.

How much time passed? The secretaries who were done comparing the handwriting styles of the two raised their heads all at once.

When they said the two handwriting styles were the same, the emperor chuckled and said, “Well, I don’t have to ask anymore. Arrest them and put them in jail. As for Priest Sorel, put him on house arrest at Sanktus Vita, given the position of the temple.”

After Baron Enen and the chief of the merchant company were led out, the trial continued.

When everybody was growing tired because of the continuing interrogation, I heard something that stunned me all of a sudden. It was time for the duke to question Earl Lanier, the main culprit who constantly took issue with and disgraced me at every opportunity.

When I hurriedly raised my head, I saw a man with sandy hair walking into the conference hall. When I saw him, I was freed from my drowsiness. Like me, the pro-emperor faction also became alert, straightening up and looking straight at the haggard man.

“Yorne S. Lanier. Born in 927 by the imperial calendar. Lord of the Lanier estate with the title of earl. An Interior Ministry official with the third grade. Is that right?”

“That’s right.”

“As the mastermind of the poison plan against Lady Monique, you used Baron Enen and the temple to import the poison from the Lisa kingdom and carried it to the capital. Then you orchestrated the whole plan to poison Lady Monique by instructing the servant to serve the poisoned drink for her, masquerading in the emperor’s name. Do you admit this? ”

The man looked around for a moment when the duke announced several charges against him.

He briefly looked at Duke Jena, but the duke didn’t do anything, simply turning over a page of the document in front of him nonchalantly.

Earl Lanier said, looking at Duke Jena with his fists clenched, “Yes, that’s right.”

“Oh, you admit it?”

“You already found out all this through your investigation. I don’t want to make any poor excuses anymore.”

I was puzzled when he answered in a calm tone. Why did he admit it so easily? Did he agree with Duke Verita on something in advance, given his cooperative attitude?

“Good. Then, let me ask you one more thing. As everyone knows, there were two kinds of poisons that affected Lady Monique at the time. One was poisoning through regular use, and the one was amplifying the poison accumulated in her body. You have admitted to using the amplification method. Then, who bought off the maid with the 1st Knights Division to poison her on a regular basis? Were you also responsible for that?”

“It’s me who imported the two types of poison, and it’s also me who directed her poisoning, but it’s not me who bought off the maid and had her poison Lady Monique on a regular basis. There are others involved in this plot and the one who orchestrated the whole plan.”

“Who are they?”

At that moment, there was a tense atmosphere in the hall. While everyone waited for Laniers’ next confession, he looked around the noble faction including Duke Jena and others sarcastically, and said, “Earl Holten.”

“Hmm, he was dispatched to the border area last month. And who else?”

“Earl Wrestling.”

“Hey, Earl Lanier, what the heck are you talking about? When did I get involved in this case?”

“Earl Hame.”

“You damned bastard, Lanier! Are you crazy due to long imprisonment? Your Majesty, he is slandering me!”

“And…”

Ignoring the two earls shouting at him angrily, he said, raising his voice a little, “… Marquis Mirwa.”

A cold silence fell in the hall.

Marquis Mirwa? Was he really involved in the poisoning incident?

My head was in the clouds for a moment, but I immediately shook my head to shake off my wild imagination. I was embarrassed by his sudden mention of Marquis Mirwa, but given the various circumstances, I felt what Lanier said was in line with the contents of the materials that the emperor gave me the other day.

As if he felt the same way as I did, Duke Verita, who moistened his throat for a moment, said, putting down the glass, while staring at the early coldly, “Marquis Mirwa? Can you prove he was involved?”

“As he is such a meticulous person, I don’t have any clear evidence, but it’s a fact that he also committed treason.”

At that moment, I saw my father flinching momentarily to hear that. I also saw Duke Lars leaning forward, folding his hands, who remained silent until now. A smile came to Duke Verita’s lips, who pulled up his glasses, and Duke Jena stopped in the middle of lifting his cup to his lips.

What’s wrong? Wait a moment. Did he mention treason?

The moment I looked back at the earl in a hurry, the emperor said with an interesting expression in a break with his bored attitude, “Earl Lanier, how do you know that?”

“What are you talking about, Your Majesty?”

“Have you forgotten what you just said? I am asking you how you can reveal the fact that we all here have never heard before when you have been arrested and jailed until now after the incident took place.”

“I don’t get it…”

“Tut, tut. you still don’t know? You mentioned ‘treason’ a moment ago.”

His face, who replied with a relaxed attitude, hardened at that. As if they realized the gravity of the situation, Earl Hamel and Earl Wrestling, who were looking for a chance to strike back, got cold feet.

Looking at the embarrassed earl, the emperor said, turning up his mouth a bit, “How could you know in advance without plotting treason even when I realized it only recently? Besides, you were strictly prohibited from contacting outsiders.”

“Oh no, Your Majesty! How can I plot treason? I don’t know anything about it. It’s true that I tried to harm Lady Monique, but I have never tried to kill you, Your Majesty!

“You don’t know it? Then, who could have delivered the news to you last night, defying my order to stay home?”

“That’s right. I really didn’t know it, but I came to know it because I heard some news last night. Please believe me!”

Then, the prince coldly asked the earl, who shouted with his face turned white.

“Somebody sent you a message? Defying my order and breaking through the tight security of the imperial palace? Okay, who sent you the message?”