CHAPTER 15
It was the allowance box Jena gave me before, which contained five gold.
I told her I spent it on a necklace, but in truth I never even touched it.
I suddenly remembered Jena’s reaction when I gave her the necklace: she was genuinely happy, then suddenly looked down, worried about my pocket.
So on impulse I lied that I’d bought it with my allowance.
“…It was nothing more than a cheap necklace to me anyway.”
I sighed through my otherwise composed mouth.
Although the necklace actually cost one hundred gold, it meant little to Aizen.
He could easily give that much to fool a spy.
I shoved the two boxes into a drawer, slammed it shut, and told myself I’d soon forget about them since they were out of sight.
But that wasn’t the case.
The thing in the drawer nagged at me throughout the investigation.
When I checked Rene’s schedule and Jena’s in detail, and Greta’s claim made Jena’s guilt seem unlikely, it bothered me even more.
Eventually, unable to stand it, Aizen opened the drawer and took out the gift box.
Inside were small gold-and-silver cufflinks and a letter.
As expected, it was a trivial present, but Aizen, as if under a spell, unfolded the letter and immediately regretted it after reading the first line.
“Damn, this will only make things worse…” he thought.
The letter read:
“To my husband,
You bought a fine necklace for me, and I’m sorry I could only give you this.
I know everyone carries extra burdens because I lost my memory.
I’ll work hard to do the things I’m supposed to do again.
I’m always grateful.
Sincerely, Jena”
Aizen grimaced and thought, “This woman has an uncanny talent for making people uncomfortable.”
He closed his eyes tightly, opened them, then toyed with the cufflinks before calling Greta in with a decided air.
“What is it?” she asked.
“How is she doing?” he asked.
“I haven’t seen her face, so I can’t say precisely,” Greta replied.
“Has she been complaining or acting weak?” Aizen asked.
“Yes, but given her situation, it’s inevitable she’s struggling.”
“I see.”
Aizen frowned as if a small stone had settled in his chest.
Then Greta left him with, “She’s still waiting for the duke to come.”
Waiting for me…?
Against his will, Aizen pictured a gaunt, curled-up Jena who would be hurt if he didn’t come.
Even though she wasn’t proven innocent yet and it would be right to leave things be, he felt strangely anxious and kept telling himself, “None of my business, none of my business…”
Holding the cufflinks, he paced by the window and stared at a button in his palm.
He thought, “What if she sulks and halts her work on the cure because I didn’t visit?”
That would be a real problem.
He thought up a reasonable excuse to visit and set off immediately.
When he opened the locked door from outside, the Jena who greeted him was not gaunt from worry but comfortably dozing, cheeks puffed from stuffing bread in her mouth.
Aizen felt absurdly deflated, thinking he’d intruded on someone enjoying a meal.
While smoothing his face in disbelief, Jena, still chewing, sprang up and ran to him.
“Husband, why are you so late?! I waited so long!” she exclaimed, her plump lower lip jutting out.
Aizen looked down at Jena standing before him and replied slowly, “…I’m sorry. I was busy. But it seems my wife has been doing better than I thought.”
“What are you talking about? I’m so bored from being confined to the room! I even had indigestion yesterday.”
“What did you eat yesterday?” he asked.
“Stew, a sandwich, an egg tart, an omelet, and pudding.”
“That sounds like overeating.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Ah, right.”
A brief silence followed as Aizen collected his thoughts and then began to speak.
“Wait, my dear. No—”
Jena cut him off with wide eyes and protested.
“That never happened. It’s true. I can prove it.”
She brought over a sheet of paper from the table, looking resolute.
Aizen set aside what he had been about to say and listened; he was a little curious how someone who had been confined could prove anything.
But the paper Jena handed him sparked some interest in his eyes.
***
Honestly, I’ve been wrongly accused before.
In high school, a classmate’s wallet was stolen and everyone suspected me.
The reason was simple: I was poor and an orphan.
From that, I learned two things: don’t cower, and protect myself.
Though I was being held and constrained this time, I carried out my own investigation to clear my name.
“I examined the fake medicine my mother took.”
“It turned out to be made with Absyntium, a rare northern herb.”
When Laura overturned the counterfeit medicine container, a few pills rolled to the floor and I pocketed them without thinking.
So I studied the medicine while confined to my room.
“Absyntium grows in warm climates, so it can’t be cultivated here. It must have been imported, so there should be purchase records somewhere.”
“Tracing that would lead to the real culprit.”
“Yes, but I already have an inkling who it is.”
Aizen raised an eyebrow as he skimmed the notes on the medicine, asking for an explanation.
“It was odd that she had a seizure after just one wrong dose despite not skipping medication for days.”
“She had taken her morning dose properly, so the symptoms appeared within only half a day.”
“That’s too fast.”
“Absyntium has properties that stimulate nerves and can trigger convulsions in epilepsy patients.”
“So that means—”
“Yes. Whoever made this medicine knew about my mother’s condition and deliberately used Absyntium.”
Aizen’s expression sharpened like a beast that’s spotted its prey.
“I heard only one person knew about my mother’s illness.”
“I thought the same.”
The person my mother secretly relied on, and the one who accused me—the family physician, Laura—appeared in both our minds.
“Of course, without clear evidence we can’t be sure Laura did it, but does that make my claim more believable?”
So I’m saying I didn’t do it.
Aizen looked at me without saying a word.
At that point I felt a little hurt; if even my husband doubted me when my parents already didn’t trust me, what could I do?
I crossed my arms and protested in a composed, logical way that betrayed my disappointment.
“How can you not believe me too? To you, I’m just a pretty, cute, kind, and clever wife.”
“I never said that,” he replied.
“Well, anyway!”
I glared up at him with all my might.
He half-smiled in a way that made me want to scold him for thinking he was so handsome.
Before I could jab at his face, Aizen spoke.
“I meant from the start that I don’t think you’re the culprit.”
“…Really?”
His detailed answer, which made it clear he wasn’t flattering me, eased my arms from their defensive position.
“At around ten in the morning, you were studying in your room—that’s what the maids who cleaned the room testified to—and at noon you came down for lunch before leaving with Greta into town, so you couldn’t have secretly gone into my mother’s room.”
Even the kitchen staff confirmed you went down to the dining hall before noon.
“And you went out with Greta right after lunch, so you couldn’t have sneaked into my mother’s room to swap the medicine.”
Relief washed over me at the thought that there was a way to prove my innocence.
I almost felt hurt again and muttered from the sofa, “Why does no one trust me? Did I do something awful before I lost my memory?”
“They’re not the kind to trust easily,” Aizen said.
“Could you talk to my mother and tell her I didn’t do it?” I pleaded, grabbing his sleeve.
Aizen looked momentarily troubled but then sighed and said, “I can’t see her right now.”
“What? Why?” I asked.
“She’s been in seclusion since that day. Even my father refuses to see her.”
He rubbed his temple with a complicated expression, deep sorrow in his amethyst eyes.
“Hiding her illness like that… I can understand why she might have done it.”
Hearing his tender, frustrated voice, I pictured my mother who had collapsed with a seizure and afterward couldn’t look people in the eye.
“Hmm… I have some idea what she might have felt.”
I patted his broad shoulder and spoke carefully.
“What do you think she felt?” he asked, turning to look at me.
“I don’t want to say without evidence, but once we catch the culprit I’ll talk to my mother.”
“My wife?” he asked.
“Yes!” I said.
Aizen looked unconvinced but accepted it reluctantly.
We decided to focus on catching the culprit for now.
Aizen traced the purchaser of Absyntium as I suggested.
In the meantime, I investigated who could have entered my room or left something there.
A few days later, we shared the information we’d each found.
“One of the maids said she saw Paul coming down from the third floor while I was out. The strange thing is he’d taken the day off that day.”
Greta’s questioning of the maids produced valuable testimony since many people bore grudges against Paul for previously accusing a maid over the necklace incident.
“They even excluded Paul from duties related to me after that incident.”
“I don’t see any reason for him to be on the third floor, so it’s suspicious.”
If Laura made the fake medicine and Paul brought the real medicine to my room, it would be a perfect combination.
Aizen nodded and frowned, clearly thinking along the same lines.
“About a week ago, I found a customer at the herb shop who bought Absyntium while wearing clothes similar to Laura’s. But they used a false name and no one saw their face clearly.”
“That reduces the strength of that testimony.”
“Yes, we’ll need more time to pin down the charge.”
“No, we must separate Laura from my mother as soon as possible.”
I insisted, and Aizen looked a little startled, but I didn’t relent because I had a reason.
I grabbed his large hand and looked at him with bright eyes.
“I have a clever idea, husband.”
Shall I try the trick I used back in high school again?
