It was for an extremely brief moment. Condel’s expression returned to his usually old and indifferent demeanor instantly. Yet, there were people in this room who could catch that split second of change.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know. Is she an aristocrat from somewhere?” Condel said bluntly. Yet, Zich wasn’t someone who would let go of his prey once they showed weakness. He had to bite into his prey’s weakness and shred them apart.
“She is a lady from the Viscount Rubrent family in the neighboring Cronon Kingdom.”
“I see. Why did you mention her name?”
“Just please listen to us first,” Zich said while smiling leisurely as if he was telling Condel to slow down. “Surprisingly, this lady had eloped with a servant from her family. I was really surprised when I heard that. I thought those things only happened in fairytales. What do you think about Mr. Siede?”
“…It is definitely not a common occurrence.”
“Right, sir? I wonder what in the world that servant guy was thinking. Love between different classes—it sounds sweet when you hear it, but the reality is completely different.” Zich sighed like a parent who didn’t know what to do with their child’s immature thoughts. “I bet the clashes they had from being raised in different environments were no small matters. Can a lady who had lived a luxurious life as an aristocrat suddenly adjust to the life at the bottom? I’m sure she never did any work with her hands or carried anything heavier than a teacup. She would have never been able to live the same life as the servant she ran away with. Really, it would have been fortunate if she didn’t end up in the slums.”
Zich exaggerated as if he was describing the main character of a great tragedy. “Can bringing a person you love to such a trashy situation really be called love? If you think so, that servant guy is a real piece of trash. If I compare him to mice in the sewers, it would be an insult to the mice.”
“I see, sir,” Condel nodded. As if the facial expression from before had been a trick of the eye, Condel appeared indifferent. He responded like he was listening to insults towards a third-party completely unrelated to him.
‘…He doesn’t have a response.’ Lyla tilted her head.
She thought Zich began to pour out insults towards the servant to agitate Condel. Thus, Condel might have reaffirmed his will to stay calm. Yet, Condel’s response was way too undisturbed, almost bland. Was Condel able to perfectly control his emotions? However, when Lyla saw the expression on Zich’s face, she clicked her tongue. She couldn’t see his face completely since he was standing in front of her, but she was able to see a bit of the side of his face as she stood next to him.
‘The edge of his mouth is turned upwards.’ She didn’t know what Zich was thinking, but she knew it wouldn’t benefit Condel.
“If I think about it, sir…” Zich spoke again.
Condel sighed. “I don’t even know why you are suddenly telling me all these things…”
“That lady Sia Rubrent is also a really funny person,” Zich continued.
Condel closed his mouth.
“What a childish person she was,” Zich suddenly began to slander Sia Rubrent. “I can’t believe she fell in love with a servant. She’s someone who lacks the dignity of a noble.”
“…”
“Well, there are immature noble ladies like that from time to time, but she took it a step further. I mean, she eloped with a servant.” Zich was still smiling and his voice was gentle, but the words he spat out were chilling. His eyes clearly shot towards Condel. “It’s really absurd. What the hell was she thinking? Did she think that she was some tragic main character of a fairy tale? I don’t even have to guess what kind of treatment Viscount Rubrent got from his surroundings after what happened. Did she think she could live a happy life after tarnishing her family’s honor and throwing away the grace her parents showed her by raising her?”
Zich’s posture was crooked. His jaws were raised up while his legs were crossed and his arms were swinging.
“Was she thinking along the lines of, ‘I am going to get freedom for my true love!’ If she was right in front of me, I would have told her to regain her senses.”
Condel said, “…Didn’t you say that she was a noble lady? It seems you are approaching dangerous territory. From what I know, you’re not a noble.”
Zich smirked. “You must have done a thorough investigation to know my status.”
“I told you before, sir. I didn’t want to end up taking the blame, just because of my connections in the underworld.”
“The underworld…” Zich said suspiciously, but he didn’t dive into the matter any deeper. “Thank you for your concern, but it’s all right. I also have a noble background although I left my family. Furthermore, didn’t Lady Sia Rubrent also run away of her own will? Then, she is a peasant now. I don’t think I will be punished for my words then.” Zich shrugged. Then, he added with a smirk, “Also, I don’t think my words would leave this room anyways.”
Joachim nodded inside his mind when he heard Zich’s words. ‘I guess this is why he asked to make the troops wait outside the door.’
After Zich suggested that there was no need for soldiers to rush in to arrest one person, all the troops provided by the city waited outside for orders. The only ones in the room were just Joachim and Zich and his companions. Even if Zich’s words became a problem later on, they were all people who would take his side.
‘He really is through.’ Joachim was impressed again, and Zich continued talking.
Zich took one step forward. “Why would I want people to misunderstand that I am siding with a stupid, ignorant, rock-brain woman who can’t differentiate between reality and fiction? I can’t let that happen. No, no, not all. Come to think of it, that empty-brained woman deserves so much more criticism than that servant.”
Zich took another step forward. Even though Zich was slowly coming closer to him, Condel didn’t move at all; he directly met Zich’s eyes.
“Do you also think that way, Mr. Siede? That woman probably died while reminiscing about her past life. We can bet on this. While not being able to eat properly or wear proper clothes, she probably rolled around in the dirt and pathetically died while reminiscing about her past. Before she died, don’t you think she thought something like this?”
Zich stopped in front of the desk. While staring directly at Condel’s eyes, he said, “Ah, I’ve been dreaming a false dream! How foolish I was. I miss my warm house. I want to eat the delicious food I ate in the past. And she probably thought this.”
Zich laughed very brightly. “I should have never trusted that lowly servant and followed him.”
Crunch!
They heard something crash. Hans immediately stepped forward and shielded his companions. Snoc surrounded himself with mithril, and Lyla and Elena took out their staff. Joachim also prepared for the worst by preparing to cut his wrist. However, nothing happened.
Zich slightly lowered his eyes and looked at Condel’s hand. Condel’s hands were half bent and pushed into the desk. Zich saw that pieces of wood stuck out between Condel’s fingers. Zich moved his eyes back to Condel’s face. His face was still expressionless.
“Wow, you’re stronger than you look, Mr. Siede. What happened to your desk is really unfortunate. It looked extremely expensive.”
“…”
“But why did you get so agitated? Perhaps, were you filled with sadness while thinking of Ms. Rubrent’s last moments? Ah, you shouldn’t have.”
Zich waved his hands. “That trashy woman is not even worth our pity. It’s just a waste of a nice desk.”
“…” Condel didn’t say anything. Instead, his fingers pushed deeper into the desk. Zich watched this sight with pleasure. Lyla could slightly see his emotions from the side of his face, and she shook her head. ‘His personality is really rotten.’
Lyla was confident that Zich was merely playing with Siede right now. Even though Lyla wondered if she should even call it ‘playing around,’ she was sure that Zich was still furious about the culprit’s ambush against Joachim and Evelyn. ‘He really gritted his teeth when talking about it.’
If their predictions were correct, Condel Siede was the servant who eloped with Sia Rubrent. And he loved her to the extent where he attacked only lovers to ease his pain of losing her. Then, if someone poured insults towards his ardent love—
‘He’s clearly getting affected.’ Even though Sia Rubrent should have been a perfect stranger to him, Condel was clearly unable to suppress his fury. With this, their suspicions towards him turned into certainty.
‘I don’t think most people would be able to do what Zich is doing right now.’ What Lyla was most surprised about was that this whole situation was merely a result of Zich’s desire to torture others.
“Oh my, it seems like you got a little heated.” Zich softly put his hand over Condel’s hand, which was pushed into the desk. “You shouldn’t get so agitated like this.” Zich’s voice was full of mockery; it was a type of voice that would make even someone not involved in this matter burn up in murderous rage.
With this voice, Zich continued, “You should have tried your best to suppress it. If you get angry and show your strength like this, aren’t you basically telling everyone that you’re the culprit?”
Zich’s suppressed laughter struck against Condel’s eardrums.
“Hey, endure it. We don’t have any kind of amazing evidence either. As you said, all we know is that your dead younger sister and a monster had the same appearance. It really could have all been a coincidence. As I told you, we’re not certain that you’re the culprit yet. Isn’t that why you’re just standing still here? You can’t get angry already.”
People were surprised that Zich would say this to a possible suspect. Joachim, who had been quietly watching Zich so far, stepped forward to intervene. Lyla stopped Joachim from saying anything. Lyla’s promise to help Zich with his plans if he didn’t walk the path of the Demon Lord was still progressing.
‘It’s not like Zich would let his prey escape.’ Lyla was certain of this.
“If we don’t find sufficient evidence of your involvement in the kidnapping cases in this casino, we won’t be able to detain you for long. Didn’t you give money to all sorts of places to get as many people on your side as possible? Even though they won’t be able to prove your innocence, they would at least make sure we won’t be able to torture you or detain you for long without evidence. I’m very familiar with the tactics of guys like you.”
Zich moved his hands away from Condel’s. “So, just endure it for a bit. No matter how much I insult, shame, and destroy Sia Rubrent’s name, you can’t show your anger at all. Just think about your position; you’re not supposed to be related to her at all. Don’t you think it’s suspicious if you show so much agitation when I’m insulting someone not related to you?”
Zich used his two thumbs to push the corners of his mouth up. Zich’s mouth drew up in an awkward line, like a ridiculous clown. “You don’t want us to be suspicious right? Then, smile. Right now.”
