The Sixth Plan. To Know Thy Enemy. (9)
The edges were slightly burnt, but there had been no problems in reading the contents and the seal still remained clear. The seal had belonged to Count Petrika, whom I knew very well indeed.
“Please do understand the slight soot. There are also letters with much more decisive content. A letter from him which instructed me on what to do as well as the plan to kill Amanda right after I’m done with my mission.”
My fingertips instantly trembled. It really was Count Petrika. He and this shameless woman had killed my baby just because they could communicate so easily with nothing more than just a letter to each other. I set the letter down on the table with my trembling hands and Charlotte sat down before sipping her tea once again. As if she was actually savoring my shock—ever so slowly.
Charlotte took back her evidence once again within ten minutes after I was gone and put it in her drawer. It was unlikely that she had any gimmicks drawn out in her furniture. All the furniture here had belonged to the Duchy and her maids, especially the head maid, had been aware of all the empty spaces that were hidden in the furniture.
Where was it—where did she even put it?
I was concerned about the traces of fire on that letter. The smell of fire that scorched something had recently lingered in the room. However, the marks that were left on that letter seemed to have been engraved back in the past.
What was it like when my father received the Count’s letter before? As I reflected on the memories from years ago, I turned away from Charlotte. Then, I stood against her and saw the fireplace.
‘If I think back about the Count—’
My father had torn the Count’s order in half and tossed it into the fireplace. In such great haste, the paper burned at an instant and vanished without leaving a single trace at all. When I came back to see her before, Charlotte had already finished her bath and she was just staring blankly at the fireplace.
She took one step and another towards the fireplace.
“Now, is it? Now that you know there is real evidence, please let me go.”
“Ah.”
The fire in the fireplace was much smaller than before. And the black shawl that Charlotte had dropped while running towards me previously was clumped together in a corner. I was sure that the shawl would have a burnt smell.
“Of course, Charlotte.”
I quickly walked up towards her and smiled. I could see a sense of fear that was filling up Charlotte’s pools of eyes at my smile. As I reached out to her, she quickly pulled back and gave way. However, instead of grabbing the teapot and lurching it in her face, I poured it over the fireplace. There was not much tea left, but the flame could not stand the damp liquid and extinguished helplessly.
Acrid smoke rose thickly at once in return. I suppressed a cough and put my hand into it. Only the entrance to the fireplace, which had been burning all the time, was very hot and deep inside it surprisingly felt as cold as ice. And the rustling paper was soon caught in hand.
My prediction was clearly right. Count Petrika was a man who would make his subordinates under him burn the letters right after they received them. There was no way that he would have left any evidence only for Charlotte herself.
“There’s no way he would have allowed you to have the order along with the seal of Count Petrika’s identity. I’m sure the subordinate who gave this to you had told you to burn it right in front of them.”
I carefully pulled out several sheets of paper that soon appeared, which were folded neatly as expected, but with some obvious traces of burns. I shook off the ashes before I cautiously lifted them up.
“The Count’s men must have left after you threw the letters into the fire with enough time had passed for the letters to burn. They didn’t even know that there was no fire behind this fireplace.”
“Uh—how!”
Charlotte jumped up and the teacup immediately overturned. Thump—the rolled teacup fell onto the floor and broke before some tea was spilled.
“Immediately after you were taken, the Duchess Dowager had scoured all over this room and found absolutely nothing. Even then, the fire in this fireplace would still be burning and no one would have looked into a burning fireplace. Then, when I went outside and came back, the flames seemed rather smaller than before. Did you turn it down in order to get this evidence out? But there’s no way that you, who had been a Count’s daughter, could actually light a fire properly.”
The black shawl that was clumped together in the corner had probably been used when the firewood had to be put out for a while and was soon left there. As I shook the paper as if to dust the ashes off, Charlotte’s gaze persistently followed after the movements of the paper. It was clear from her reaction that these papers were truly the proof of that.
I didn’t really know the reason why Charlotte’s fireplace only burned in the front and there was an unreachable space at the back and I never understood what Charlotte had done to make it so, but that wasn’t the whole point.
Charlotte rushed over to snatch the letters from me and I instantly cried out while avoiding her.
“Gellerhard!”
Adorned in a knight’s uniform, Gellerhard jumped in at once. He then asked me while easily overpowering Charlotte.
“Mandy, are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
I opened the letter as I answered his questions faintly. Eup, eup! I raised my head at the sound and Gellerhard was already putting a gag over Charlotte’s mouth in order to keep her from screaming. With a quick scan, it was really just as Charlotte had said earlier.
“This evidence is correct. Gellerhard. Count Petrika—the Count had our baby killed.”
“Ughh!”
Gellerhard clenched his teeth tightly and Charlotte struggled in agony as if his grip was straining her. I threw a quick glance at the door. Gellerhard had entered with a bang, but luckily, the door was all closed now.
“Gellerhard, please don’t leave any marks on Charlotte’s body.”
“……”
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