Condel didn’t laugh, and all traces of emotion disappeared from his already stoic face. Zich recognized the state he was in. Condel was so, so enraged that he had reached the point of emotionless.
“…Fine,” Condel said. His emotionless voice sounded like it was seeping into the insides of a dark cave.
“It seems like you all are quite suspicious of me, and I can’t do anything about it. What can I do when you have come with such a large number of armored troops? I will follow you all.” Condel appeared like an agreeable suspect who was willing to collaborate, but his next words struck their ears. “However, if you fail to uncover my crimes, you will find yourselves in a very difficult predicament. I wasn’t raised so delicately that I will look over the defamations you made about me so lightly.”
“Defamations? All I did was insult a servant and an ex-aristocratic lady for eloping. I don’t think there’s any need for you to feel enraged as an outsider, Mr. Siede.” Zich resumed his polite mannerism in place of his previous, outright snarky behavior. However, his words were still prickly.
“Your attitude was rude even if you were addressing a third party completely unrelated to the incident. The reason for my enragement is because of that.”
“Ah, is that so? I’m really sorry to hear that, sir.” Of course, not matching what he said, Zich’s face didn’t look sorry at all.
“I don’t need your apologies. I’m going to get compensated fully for this anyways by myself.”
“Are you blackmailing me right now, sir?”
Condel pushed his face closer to Zich’s face. “Don’t act cocky.”
Condel’s wide eyes jittered while the scar on his face twitched like waves. His face alone could have pressured most people. “Although I can’t really do much to the Count behind you because of the difference in classes, I can easily ruin a nobody from who-knows-where like you. Even if you really have an aristocratic background as you said, you would no longer be able to babble that you are an aristocrat since you ran away from home.”
“Like Sia Rubrent, sir?”
Unlike before, there was no change on Condel’s face. It seemed like he had hardened his heart greatly. He replied coldly, “You should pray that I won’t be released soon.”
“You are quite courageous to blackmail somebody right in front of me,” Joachim said, clearly displeased. Coming from an aristocrat, especially someone who held a count position, these words would’ve made most peasants fall to the floor and beg for forgiveness. Yet, Condel was different.
“I’m not sure, sir. Rather than courageous, doesn’t it mean that your authority means that much less significant?” Condel responded.
Joachim’s eyes twitched.
“The shame that fell upon the Dracul family is a famous story throughout the kingdom. If you don’t resolve this case, it’s highly unlikely that you would be able to maintain your connections with the lord of this estate. Isn’t that right, sir? I bet even more so if rumors spread that you arrested an innocent man while insulting him.”
“What is it that you want to say?”
“I’m just worried for you, sir. For the Dracul estate’s future. I also don’t want to see one of the great families of a kingdom fall wastefully.”
“I will figure that out myself.”
“I’m sure you will. I suppose these are useless worries.” Condel pushed his chair aside and walked to the side of his desk carefully. “Did you say that you would arrest me? Then, let’s do that right now. It’s clear you brought a warrant to forcefully investigate me. I hope that you will find what you are looking for at the casino.”
Condel glanced at the people around him coldly and said, “Otherwise, you’ll be in a very uncomfortable position. I assure you of that.”
“Wow, you really are confident,” Zich replied brightly in response to Condel’s threat. “It seems like you are sure that we won’t be able to find anything in this casino.”
“Truthfully, yes. It’s because I’m not the culprit.”
“Really, sir?”
At Condel’s confident answer without an ounce of hesitation, everyone except for Zich felt a bit anxious. Although one would expect Condel to be a bit nervous in front of a big troop that had to find evidence against him, Condel didn’t appear to have any worries. Of course, it wasn’t that people started to think Condel was no longer the culprit now because of his response. Not only did they have a strong trust in Zich, but the strong response that he had shown at the mention of Rubrent’s name had convinced many of them that Condel was really the culprit.
However, getting evidence to prove Condel as the culprit was a completely different matter. Zich explained, “I can think of two reasons why you are acting like this. It must be that there’s really nothing here that can pinpoint you as the culprit, or even if there’s something, you are sure that we would never be able to find it.”
“It’s the former. I’m telling you again, but I’m not the culprit.”
“So, in other words, are you saying that you are not the past servant of the stupid idiotic woman from the Rubrent family who eloped for love?”
“Yes.” Although Zich used harsh expressions to describe Sia Rubrent, Condel’s expression didn’t change at all this time. Zich glanced down at Condel’s hands; Condel didn’t show an obvious response such as shaking and clenching one’s fist so tightly that they bled.
“Thank goodness then, sir.” Zich smiled. At this point, Condel couldn’t help but only feel a chilling sensation instead of comfort from Zich’s smile. “To tell you the truth, sir, it hurt my conscience a bit while spurting out all those insults before.”
Everyone’s eyes—including Lyla’s, Joachim’s, and Zich’s companions’—shot towards the back of Zich’s head simultaneously. Even Elena, who hadn’t joined the group for long, did the same. Although they had gotten used to—no, half-given up on Zich’s behaviors, they couldn’t bear to hear Zich talk about having a conscience. Yet, Zich remained calm. It was difficult to tell whether or not he noticed the way his companions were looking at him, but even if he did, everyone knew he wouldn’t care about it either.
“If you were really the servant I talked about, I would have felt a bit disappointed. After all, how could you have stood by with your mouth shut as you heard insults added to her name if you were really the servant who loved Lady Rubrent enough to elope with her? That couldn’t be love.” Zich approached Condel and hung his arm around Condel’s shoulders.
“Even if I spat out all those insults, I really wanted to believe in the love between the two. Since you say that you are not the culprit, I suppose I don’t need to deny their love now. But if you really are the servant, then that love would be nothing more than foul-smelling waste or a lowly and barbaric matchmaking between animals.”
“…Are you done? Then, why don’t you start arresting me?”
“Why are you in such a hurry? Since you won’t be able to keep the casino open for at least a while, why don’t we take our time and chat a little longer?”
“I have no words to say to a rude person like you. Rather than talking to you, I think it would be better for me to stay in jail.” Condel stared at Joachim and said to him, “Sir, aren’t you responsible for this team? Won’t it be better for you to complete your goal as fast as possible?”
“Mr. Zich, why don’t we end things here?”
With Joachim’s words, Zich removed his hands away from Condel’s shoulder. Joachim called the soldiers from behind the door; they tied up Condel with a special rope and put their arms beneath his armpits. They just needed to transport Condel outside.
Lyla approached Zich and said, “You really went out of your way this time.”
“Did it seem like that?”
“Hans and Snoc also seem a bit sickened by your actions.”
“Really? I thought I did a good job educating those two, but I guess they’re still naïve. I haven’t even properly started yet.” As expected, Zich didn’t seem like he was going to stop torturing Condel with just this amount of torture.
Lyla asked, “Are you really confident about finding evidence against Condel? Since he followed so obediently, it seems like he really did a thorough job hiding any evidence that might point to him as the culprit.”
“Of course.”
Lyla was relieved and thought, ‘He really must have some kind of plan.’
Then she asked, “What’s the evidence? Where did he hide it?”
Lyla had asked with a light heart, but Zich’s reply was shocking. “I don’t know.”
“…What?” Lyla opened her eyes wide. “Y-you told me that you were confident about finding evidence against Condel.”
“Yep.”
“But you don’t know what the evidence is, or where it’s hidden?”
“Yeah.”
Zich continued to give ridiculous answers with ease. Lyla was surprised for only a moment; she soon narrowed her eyes and stared at Zich. “What are you scheming? Quickly tell me.”
Lyla lightly pressed Zich’s stomach with her staff. She lost her patience. There was no reason for Zich to hide the information from her as well, so he replied, “If I don’t know where Condel hid the evidence, I can leave it up to the guy who knows where it is.”
“…A guy who knows where Condel Siede hid his evidence?”
There was a person who immediately popped into her head. ‘Glen Zenard!’ Now that Lyla thought about it, Glen had separated from them early on, saying that he wanted to search the casino with the soldiers.
“And it’s even better if that guy is crazy about gaining achievements for himself.”
At that moment, a loud noise came from the staircase outside Condel’s office. A soldier frantically ran up the staircase. “Sir!”
Joachim replied, “What’s the matter?”
“We found a strange tunnel outside the casino! Sir, it looks like a secret tunnel, and judging by how deep it is, like it’s connected to a place outside!”
People’s gazes naturally turned towards Condel; his face now looked strained. Since Condel barely showed any facial expression, they carefully assessed whether they were mistaken. But that was not it; he definitely looked shocked.
“Oh wow, that’s a really surprising discovery!” Zich gave a loud reaction and approached the soldier. “A secret tunnel found in an ordinary casino. That’s a really interesting discovery. Ah, but of course, this doesn’t mean we’ve found the evidence that points to Condel Siede as the culprit.”
Zich continued with an excited voice, “Yeah! There’s no way Condel Siede is the culprit! If that’s the case, then he’ll become a piece of trash who denies his own lover and makes a mockery of what love should be about! I believe in him! I know that Mr. Siede is not someone like that! But we still can’t leave a suspicious tunnel alone.”
In an exaggerated manner, Zich stood in front of Condel. While looking at Joachim, he said, “Sir, please give us an order to immediately go and search the tunnel.”
Then, Zich looked at Condel. He raised his chin up high, and one corner of his mouth was raised up into a mocking smile. Even if Condel didn’t want to see him, Zich was automatically within Condel’s sight, and Condel’s face twisted like an evil spirit.
Swoosh!
A black substance suddenly came out from behind Condel. Zich, who had been preparing for an attack, swung Windur.
Crassssh! Windur blocked a shadow that had the shape of a large sword.
“It’s an ambush!”
“Protect Count Joachim!”
“Arrest him!”
The soldiers were startled and quickly grabbed their weapons. Zich’s companions also raised their weapons against Condel.
“You’re finally revealing your true self.” Zich licked his lips. He glanced at the black shadow that jumped out from beneath Condel’s feet, and his eyes met Condel’s eyes.
“I’m really just asking this because I’m curious, but how does it feel to have to ignore a person who’s insulting your love? To have to thoroughly deny your feelings? Aren’t people normally unable to suppress things like that? Especially when I’m insulting someone who you risked everything to elope with? Ah, if I think about it like that, I have another question.”
Zich laughed as he asked, “Sia Rubrent. Did you actually love her?”
Griiit!
Condel gritted his teeth.
