A heavy silence filled the room. Everyone had furrowed brows and kept their heads down. The one who broke that silence was Wilfried, who was still being restrained by
"
Named directly, Brother Lamprecht wore an anguished expression, as though he were grinding his back teeth, and slowly shook his head.
"Wilfried, since last autumn, you haven't slipped away from our sight even once. You've been diligently attending your studies and sword practice. I was truly proud of how hard you were working to be worthy as the next Lord. And yet... why would you do something like this..."
Brother Lamprecht's words seemed to speak for everyone who served Wilfried. Every single one of them wore the same expression—frustrated, pained, and utterly at a loss.
"Exactly when, and why, did you do this? Until we understand that, we cannot release you."
"What!?"
Wilfried's eyes went wide, as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Still pinned in place, he could only move his gaze, looking from his Attendant to his escort knight.
"...Is meeting with Grandmother really that serious?"
"Yes."
Rihyarda returned first, followed by Father, the Lord, the Chief Priest, and Brother
Father took one look at Wilfried being restrained by Angelica and at Wilfried's pale-faced Attendant and escort knight, then glanced at me and
"I want to hear exactly what happened. Rozemine, I'm sorry, but I'll need to use this room as is."
"Of course."
"
"Yes, sir!"
The Attendants filed out with solemn expressions alongside Brother Eckhart, while only my escort knights remained behind for the room's protection. Outside the door were
With the Attendants removed, I could see Charlotte left alone, looking deeply anxious as she glanced around. I gave a slight beckoning gesture, motioning for her to come over, and Charlotte nodded faintly before making her way to my side.
Rihyarda efficiently prepared everything on her own, rearranging the seats so the guardians could hold their discussion. Watching the cheerful tea-party setting transform into a venue for serious deliberation, I let out a soft sigh. What was supposed to have been a lovely tea party—what a waste.
"Pardon me."
Just as Rihyarda finished her preparations, Mother arrived, presumably having been handling other duties. Seeing Wilfried still pinned by Angelica, she gave Father an indeterminate smile.
"Princess Rozemine, please sit here. Princess Charlotte, please sit here."
Rihyarda guided us to the round table. The Chief Priest, Father, and Mother took their seats in that order, with me seated beside the Chief Priest and Charlotte beside Mother.
Then, at a slight distance from us, there was a single empty chair. No one had sat down yet in what was presumably Wilfried's seat.
"I came as quickly as I could upon receiving the urgent summons."
"I was called by Lord Oswald—is this the right place?"
It seemed they had summoned everyone, including those off duty. Wilfried's Attendants and escort knights all filed into the room. Every one of them eyes went wide at the sight of Wilfried pressed to the floor, and they swallowed hard upon noticing the Lord and his wife. They then lined up at a short distance from the table and knelt.
"Everyone is present."
Hearing Oswald's voice, Father—who had been staring intently at Wilfried—turned to me.
"Rozemine, would you release Wilfried? I'd like to speak with him."
"Certainly. Angelica."
When I called out, Angelica nodded slightly and released Wilfried at once. She then moved to the front of the door and took up her guard position.
"Wilfried, sit down."
"...Yes, Father."
Wilfried gave a small nod and sat in the chair Rihyarda had pulled out.
For a few excruciating seconds, an agonizing tension and heavy silence reigned. When I clenched the hands resting on my lap, the Chief Priest, seated beside me, spoke.
"Everything has multiple perspectives. All must be laid bare, and only then may a judgment be rendered."
"Know that speaking falsehoods is a sin."
The Lord narrowed his eyes slightly as he said this, surveying the row upon row of Wilfried's Attendants and escort knights. Then his gaze settled on Oswald, who knelt at the front of the assembled Attendants.
"Oswald, I haven't received a single report about Wilfried slipping away for some time now. When exactly did you lose sight of him? Tell me."
"...We never lost sight of Wilfried while on duty. Over this past year, Wilfried has applied himself to his tasks with an extremely serious and sincere attitude. There is no falsehood in that report."
Oswald raised his head and answered, looking straight at Father. In agreement, Wilfried's Attendants nodded along.
"Rather, I have a question of my own. How did Wilfried manage to deceive us?"
"I never deceived anyone, Oswald!"
When Wilfried shouted, Father furrowed his brow slightly and shifted his gaze from the Attendants to Wilfried.
"...If you haven't deceived anyone and haven't done anything wrong, then you should be able to honestly state your own actions. Wilfried, when did you meet with your mother?"
"At the Hunting Tournament, Father."
The instant Wilfried answered clearly, everyone's expression changed—though I couldn't understand why.
"Um, what is the Hunting Tournament? I don't know about it..."
When I tilted my head, the Chief Priest answered for me.
"Rozemine, you wouldn't know since you travel to various places on
It was apparently an event that formed part of the Winter Preparations to build up the castle's stores. Knights, civil officials, and interested Attendants took part in the hunt, competing in their skills while bringing down game. The women and children who weren't knights cheered them on and held outdoor tea parties—an elegant affair.
It was held around the same time as the Harvest Festivals in various regions, so civil officials were busy managing tax goods. It was the nobles who usually stayed in the Noble District—particularly the knights—who got most worked up about it. This might have been the hunting event that
Since it was a competition for knights to show their prowess, the escort knights assigned to high-ranking nobles were reportedly short-staffed. Attendants took their place instead, but because tea parties were held, there were frequent rotations, making things far from normal.
"Weren't you with
"I was with her until a certain point, but then I was invited by classmates I'd met during winter, and we played children's games together."
"Oswald should have been with you at that time. I specifically told him not to take his eyes off you."
Florencia fixed Oswald with a hard stare. It seemed Oswald had looked after Wilfried along with his classmates until a replacement arrived.
"Nothing unusual happened during my shift. After that,
Linhardt, who had been desperately chasing after Wilfried and his classmates as they roughhoused and ran around, apparently tripped over one of the rowdy boys and was injured. While he was getting treatment, the classmates' Attendants agreed to watch Wilfried until it was time for the next shift.
"After Linhardt left for treatment, we played hide-and-seek. We had to get through the tea-party grounds without being spotted by adults. Hiding under tables as we went so we wouldn't be found, we overheard all sorts of noble conversations. They were saying that it was because of Rozemine and
"Who was saying that?"
"Everyone who was there. Men, women—everyone was saying the same thing."
The Chief Priest, who had been writing everything down in his usual rapid hand, muttered softly, "Sounds like they stumbled into an old
To think that during a game of tag or hide-and-seek among children, one would have to worry about something like a conspiracy. If I were Wilfried, I wouldn't have questioned it either and would have played right along. And I certainly wouldn't have suspected that the adults gathered there happened to be old Veronica faction members. With so many people saying the same thing, I'd have believed it too.
...I could have ended up sitting right there too.
Watching Wilfried, I thought this. I spent so much time in the Temple and had no involvement in castle events or social circles—perhaps that was the only reason I hadn't made mistakes until now. If I didn't seriously learn about noble relationships, I would surely make the same kind of error as Wilfried.
"Wilfried, I explained this to you already. I told you that your great-uncle instigated your mother, and your mother used the Lord's seal without authorization to invite nobles from another territory into the city, in violation of the prohibition against letting foreign nobles enter. That for forging official documents by misusing the Lord's seal and for admitting foreign nobles, your mother was charged with a crime. Weren't you listening?"
Father's expression grew stern as he stared at Wilfried. Being asked whether he had trusted the words of outside nobles over his own father's explanation, Wilfried shook his head vigorously.
"I jumped out from under the table and told him I'd heard it from Father. And then... he said that while it was true that Grandmother committed a crime, as Father had said, the reason she was forced to commit that crime was because of Rozemine. He said Ferdinand had orchestrated the conspiracy."
I could understand how Wilfried had become unsettled when so many strangers pressed him with these claims.
If his father's words had been completely denied, he probably would have pushed back. But his father's account had been affirmed, with additional information layered on top. The other version would have slipped right into his mind without resistance.
Moreover, the added information wasn't entirely wrong either. Veronica had committed a crime to sell me off to Viscount Bindelwald, so it wasn't entirely inaccurate to say I was the cause. And the Chief Priest had been scrambling to gather evidence to remove the previous High Priest. When someone who only intended to commit one crime sees even tiny offenses they barely remember coming to light, it would naturally look as though a conspiracy had been at play.
"Then someone there said that if I could ask Grandmother directly, I'd be able to find out which side was telling the truth."
Father closed his eyes tightly.
It was cleverly done. Wilfried, I'd heard, had been raised by his grandmother after being separated from his mother. For Wilfried, his grandmother Veronica—who had raised him—was surely a closer, more important figure than his birth mother Florencia.
If the family member you trusted unconditionally was your grandmother, then naturally you would believe her words.
"Another man said that the place where Grandmother was being held was the White Tower. When I asked where that tower was, a woman said, 'At the very least, why not go and see for yourself where it is?' and told us the location. We went to the tower thinking it was an adventure."
Saying it was an adventure, just going to confirm whether a tower really existed—they encouraged each other as they went, and according to what he'd been told, Wilfried found that the tower really was there. A man stood in front of it and told him, "Only the Lord or his children can open this door."
Thinking it was merely locked, Wilfried watched as others tried to open the door. But when he was asked, "Would you like to try, Wilfried?", he tried opening it himself.
"Others had touched the door and it wouldn't open, but when I tried, it actually opened."
"I see. ...And then you went inside? Who else went in with you?"
Father asked this weakly. It was merely for confirmation. That Wilfried had gone inside was obvious to everyone—otherwise, the claim that he'd "heard it from Grandmother" would make no sense.
"Just me. My classmates were told, 'You cannot enter.' Just as the door wouldn't open for anyone else, they understood that others couldn't enter the tower, so I went in alone. And inside the tower, Grandmother was really there, and she told me the truth."
As he said this, Wilfried glared sharply at me and the Chief Priest. What followed was Wilfried's account, essentially Veronica speaking through him.
"Grandmother is locked away in that terrible place, suffering—it's all because of Rozemine and Ferdinand."
Seeing Wilfried defend Veronica and condemn me and the Chief Priest, Mother closed her eyes tightly with an expression that showed she could barely endure the pain.
"Father, please. Grandmother—"
"Silence! You must not say any more!"
BANG! Father slammed the table with a tremendous sound, cutting off Wilfried's words. Wilfried, clearly not expecting to be interrupted so suddenly, stared at him with wide eyes.
"...Father?"
"Wilfried, it was I who revealed Mother's crimes and rendered the judgment that matched those crimes. Not Rozemine. Not Ferdinand. The Aub of Ehrenfest."
Wilfried, who had been parroting his grandmother's claims that it was my fault and the Chief Priest's fault, looked shocked—as though, even knowing that his grandmother had committed a crime and been imprisoned, he hadn't understood that it was his own father who had passed judgment. Or perhaps, having heard that I and the Chief Priest were to blame, his memory had been rewritten to think that we had been the ones to imprison her.
"To challenge my judgment is to defy the Lord. Would you be branded as part of the anti-Lord faction and oppose me and your mother Florencia?"
Asked this with a stern expression, Wilfried shook his head frantically.
"I have no intention of defying Father or Mother!"
"But if you defend Mother and voice objection to me, that is how others will see you. Don't be so careless. ...I've told you that many times."
"...Careless..."
Wilfried gritted his teeth in frustration and glared at me and the Chief Priest.
Mother rose with a clatter of her chair and walked over to Wilfried. With a sorrowful smile, she gently stroked his cheek.
"Wilfried, you have learned what your grandmother, Lady Veronica, considers the truth. However, there is more than one truth. Just as Ferdinand said at the beginning, everyone has their own perspective and their own truth. In the truth I know, Rozemine is Lady Veronica's victim. It was Lady Veronica who orchestrated a conspiracy and brought chaos to the territory."
"Mother!?"
As though refusing to believe it, Wilfried's eyes went wide and he shook his head over and over. Mother pulled him into an embrace, her voice trembling.
"I had you taken from me right after you were born, by Lady Veronica. She wouldn't even allow me to stroke you like this or hold you in my arms. And on top of that, she made even you commit a crime. That is the truth as I know it."
Wilfried went perfectly still, blinking in confusion as he looked up at Mother, who seemed on the verge of tears.
"...I committed a crime?"
"Yes, you did. The tower where Lady Veronica is held is a place where those of the Lord's family who have committed serious crimes are confined. Entry without the Aub of Ehrenfest's permission is strictly forbidden. Those who trespass face charges of rebellion against the Lord or aiding the escape of a criminal."
"What!? No one there told me any—"
Learning the gravity of the situation, Wilfried's face turned deathly pale.
I felt the blood drain from my own face too. I'd never imagined that something so grand was being used as a prison. I'd thought the tower was merely like a detached palace, and that merely talking face-to-face wouldn't be considered such a grave offense.
This could be a plot by those who lured him to the tower amid the chaos of the Hunting Tournament. ...But it was Wilfried who committed the crime.
Those who whispered rumors, those who revealed the tower's existence—none of them had technically committed a prosecutable crime. They'd been chatting at a tea party. They'd answered when asked. His classmates had simply been playing. They'd merely been on an adventure. Someone had suggested they try the door just to see if the tower was really there, and that was all.
They hadn't dragged Wilfried there by force, nor had they shoved him inside the tower. Not one of them had set foot inside.
The only one who could be charged was Wilfried, and Wilfried alone.
"That can't be—I..."
"I'll be separated from Wilfried again, won't I?"
Florencia murmured this—just when she thought she'd finally gotten him back—and tears spilled from her eyes.
If Wilfried were charged with aiding the escape of a criminal confined by the Lord, the punishment would go far beyond mere disinheritance.
I looked at Father and the Chief Priest.
Father wore the expression of someone desperately searching for a solution, but Wilfried's crime was clear, and he'd already confessed. Protecting him would be difficult.
"...This has become troublesome. This is exactly why I told you to disinherit him at the time."
The Chief Priest, who had been furiously scribbling notes, finally stopped and looked up.
"There are as many truths as there are people. Rozemine, tell Wilfried your truth. There must be things you lost for the sake of Wilfried's grandmother, yes?"
As though startled by the Chief Priest's words, Wilfried looked at me.
"That's wrong. Rozemine orchestrated a conspiracy—"
"That is not my truth, Brother Wilfried."
Without knowing what the Chief Priest was thinking, I told the prepared story—the one set up as my official background. How I'd been hidden and raised in the Temple. How the previous High Priest had mistaken me for a Commoner and spread that among the nobility. How the previous High Priest had asked his sister to bring in foreign nobles, nearly resulting in my being sold off. How my guard knights and Attendants who tried to protect me were injured. How the Lord took me in as his adopted daughter to shield me from foreign nobles who came seeking my Magic Power.
Wilfried, who had known his grandmother committed a crime but apparently hadn't understood how it related to me, looked stunned.
"Th-then what did Rozemine lose?"
Family, I answered silently in my heart, then lowered my gaze.
"...My freedom. Up until then, I had been going out to the lower town, getting help from various workshops for my bookmaking. But I was forbidden from going to the lower town, forbidden from associating with the townspeople, and made to undergo strict training so as not to embarrass the Lord's adopted daughter. The reason I took on the role of High Priest immediately after my
Wilfried bit his lip lightly and nodded.
He really was honest, truly. Even while calling me a conspirator with his mouth, he listened to my words without a shred of resistance.
Mother watched this with a lonely expression, gently stroking Wilfried's hair as she spoke.
"Wilfried, because of Lady Veronica's crimes, Rozemine suffered greatly. Even now, she bears many burdens and struggles. Yet she never once blamed Lady Veronica. When you were on the brink of disinheritance, she did everything in her power to help you, didn't she? Doesn't that become part of your truth?"
As though struck by realization, Wilfried looked at me. And before my eyes, his face flushed red.
"I'm sorry, Rozemine. I was... ungrateful. You did so much for me, and I..."
"It's all right. To me, Lady Veronica is a troublesome person who committed crimes as the previous High Priest wished. I don't know her face or voice, and I only recently learned her name. But to you, Brother Wilfried, she's precious family. It's only natural that you'd trust her over me."
If it came down to Wilfried's word versus Turi's word, I would certainly trust Turi. I'd probably stubbornly defend my family no matter what anyone said. I couldn't be as open to the other side's words as Wilfried had been. In that sense, I thought Wilfried was actually quite admirable.
"Father, will Brother Wilfried be charged? He was clearly manipulated, and while he did enter the tower, he hasn't actually done anything yet..."
Father didn't answer but instead glanced briefly at the Chief Priest. He wore the expression of someone who didn't want to press charges if it could be avoided, but who couldn't let it go unaddressed once it was pointed out.
"It's not as though he did nothing. He swallowed a criminal's words whole, intruded into your room without permission, and hurled insults at us. Would you forgive that?"
"But Brother Wilfried apologized, and I think it's only natural to trust your family. Besides, if I were in Brother Wilfried's position, I think I would have done the same thing..."
My voice trailed off at the end, growing quieter even to my own ears. I knew it was foolish to say I'd forgive him because I'd have done the same thing. But I simply couldn't bring myself to blame him. I knew it was a weakness, but when it came to feelings for family, I had no defenses.
The Chief Priest scowled with extreme distaste, muttering, "You really are too soft," before turning his gaze to Wilfried.
"Wilfried, you have now learned three truths. The truth taught to you by your grandmother, the former Lord's wife. The truth told to you by your father, the Aub of Ehrenfest. And the truth as seen by Rozemine. I want to hear what you think and what you conclude after hearing all three."
Receiving the Chief Priest's gaze, Wilfried lowered his head slightly and placed his hand on his chin, gathering his thoughts.
After pondering for a while, Wilfried slowly raised his head and looked the Chief Priest straight in the eye.
Wilfried took action in his own way.
Next, information is brought.
※A Turi side story has been posted in the activity report's "One Year of Editing — Thank You!" If you'd like, please take a look.