"What I'm talking about is the story of the brooch that was found on you during the search."
"Why is that?! It's mine!"
Marco's voice grew in excitement. As he got up, he fell with a loud sound due to the ropes that tied his hands and feet.
Alfred continued his questioning calmly, as if he had no intention of helping him stand up.
"No way. It is a top-quality blue coral that is difficult for even the most noble people to handle. No matter where you go, it's hard to find something like that. Where on earth did you get it?"
"I picked it up! I picked it up!"
"Furthermore, if the pattern engraved on that object is real, then you have become involved in something more serious than anything you've ever done before."
Marco flinched at the cold words he said while glaring at him as if he was completely pathetic. Judging by the glaring look on his face, it was clear that he had picked it up because he thought it would be valuable, without really knowing anything about it.
"Well, is that thing that great? Then isn't that actually a good thing?"
"It's an heirloom from a noble family. High-ranking nobles are the ones who don't hesitate to kill people to save face."
Alfred asked, looking down at Marco, whose under eyes were black and puffy as if he was bored.
"Do you think they would be happy and thank the driver of a gambling addict for picking up that heirloom? Besides, you weren't planning on returning the item: you were probably thinking about selling it to auction."
Marco gulped and swallowed.
"Well, if you give it back now..."
"Tell me how you got it."
Marco, who was looking at Alfred anxiously, crawled up from his feet and raised his head.
"Surely you won't stay silent when I'm in danger? I can't believe it."
"I think I've already done enough."
"I am Ronanthe's only older brother whom you love so much!"
"..."
"Do not forget. How did Ronanthe die! It was all because of you!"
Alfred closed the door with an unimpressed expression on his face as the voice rang loudly.
Marco seemed to have lost his mind and waved his tied hands as if to loosen them.
After waking up from alcohol, the thirst that filled him and the patience he lacked after gambling for so long shook him.
"She never revealed where the Viscountess was until she died! She said she did her best to protect her daughter. The Viscount said the same thing! I will take care of my old age, even if it means thinking about her sacrifice!"
Perhaps because he was scared, or because he was gambling, his trembling hand grabbed Alfred's trouser leg.
Alfred shook off Marco's hand that was holding his pants as if he was fed up.
"That's why I've endured it so far. By handing over people to pay off your gambling debts."
"But the Viscount didn't tell me to worry about you in a situation that could threaten his wife's safety. You don't want to do that."
Marco pursed his lips with a pale face.
Alfred bent down and made eye contact with him and asked again softly.
"So tell me. Could that brooch belong to Isabella, who lost her memory? Was that the thing she had?"
"Let me answer that."
Alfred turned around at the sound of a voice coming through the open door.
Again and again.
He didn't know how long she'd been listening to the conversation, but Isabella, who had come down to the basement without a sound, was walking towards him.
***
The man, Alfred, looked blankly at me as if I were a ghost who appeared at the right time.
As I always looked at him with wary eyes, I found his current expression quite refreshing.
I opened the door with a smile on my face, walked in, quietly looked down at Marco, and muttered.
"Ronanthe. Ronanthe."
".."
"Now that I think about it. I think. I've heard that name."
A maid who died protecting Flora. the only daughter of the Viscount Mancini family.
[In memory of the righteous Ronanthe.]
That's what was written on the very small memorial stone next to the tombstone of the dead Viscount and his young daughter.
"That woman's brother was Iza."
Only then did I understand why, even though he gambled, drank, squandered his money, and did vain things all day long, Alfred did not let him breathe and covered him up.
Neither the Viscountess nor Alfred owed it to him but to his blood relatives.
"How did you get here?"
"..."
"Rather than that, I wonder if I remember..."
I couldn't have known until now.
He's a very perceptive person, and he deliberately approached me by talking to me.
Alfred frowned, probably thinking he had been deceived.
"There is no need to be so angry. Because the accident was real. You saw me hurt. You must have heard what the congressman was saying."
"So, when did your memories come back?"
"It came back very slowly."
Although this was a bit mixed with lies.
To some extent, it was for his and the Viscountess's pride.
No one would be happy to hear that they were playing around with a script that was planned from the beginning.
However, if it is said that I was unable to speak due to unavoidable circumstances combined with an appropriate accident and coincidence, then it means that I was taking into account the other party's reputation and my situation appropriately.
As evidence, Alfred's eyebrows straightened slightly.
"You don't have to look at it like that. I was also confused in one way or another."
"My memory came back, but the most important thing to me was gone, right? It's not clear who took it. I had to know when I lost it and whose arms it was in."
"That brooch..."
Alfred looked at my face as if searching for some trace.
I knew what his gaze meant, so I smiled and gave him the answer he wanted.
"That brooch is an heirloom of the Count of Brium's family. It is passed down only to the head of the family from generation to generation."
"Isn't that the item that was lost when the current head of the family was attacked?"
"It wasn't just things that were lost. At that time, he lost his beloved daughter and his beloved wife."
If he truly loved them, he wouldn't have cut them out of his life like that.
The tragedy of the current Count Brium was very famous.
When he came to the Count's family with his only remaining newborn son, his appearance was so miserable that it was even rumored that he had committed the grave sin of losing an heirloom.
"You, no. I mean, the Young Lady..."
"Isabella Brium. I am the eldest daughter of the Count Brium family. As you can see, that item is the only thing that proves my identity."
Alfred's face hardened.
It seemed as if the sound of his head spinning tightly could be heard all the way from here.
Marco, who was on his knees praying to his dead sister's lover, still had a blank expression on his face as he could not follow the flow of the story.
Then, when he realized that I was claiming to be the owner of the brooch. He opened my mouth in shock.
"I picked that item up! My, I..."
"You shut your mouth!"
Alfred's slash sharply tore through the space.
Surprised, Marco closed his mouth and hung his body in despair.
"Are you saying that the accident was an accident?"
"To be exact, I was on my way to visit the Viscountess. However, I had no intention of losing my memory in an accident. Wouldn't that be a bit troublesome?"
Alfred's eyes narrowed at the word I said while shrugging my shoulders.
As he was trying to understand the truth of what I was saying, I added a few stories that made sense.
Once you have a skeleton, it will be easy to add flesh to it.
"I was thinking of asking the Viscountess to be a witness to my identity."
"If you want to reinstate your status, shouldn't you just go to the Count? In the first place, he was your..."
Alfred, who had been talking while looking at me as if he couldn't understand, stopped.
Then he looked at me with puzzled eyes and asked.
"Could it be that the Count did not want to acknowledge you?"
"We separated when I was very young. My mother lost her life wandering in a foreign land, and I was fortunate enough to become the adopted daughter of a wealthy family in the principality."
"..."
"Then, quite by chance, I came across my mother's belongings and learned that they were heirlooms of the Count of Brium's family. I found out about what happened to me and my family through the newspaper."
Alfred's face was still stiff, but he didn't seem to doubt my words.
I continued speaking, watching his reaction.
"So I happily wrote to my father. I was young so my memories were not clear, but now I know who I am.. I will take the heirlooms with me to my father."
At this point, Alfred would also be able to guess why I had no choice but to come to the Viscountess and why I wanted to have my status 'guaranteed' by another nobleman by leaving my biological father behind. His voice lowered.
"Did the Count reject you?"
"To be exact, he only took the heirloom and attempted assassination to kill me."
"..."
"That's when I realized. That my mother and I may not have been separated from my father by accident. If the accident at that time was staged to eliminate us."
I, who was lucky enough to survive, must have been a thorn in his eye.
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