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Side Story 2-12

Side Story 2-12: Flashback (12)

After ten days of carriage travel, Killian and I arrived at the Ludwig mansion.

But unlike our expectations of a warm long-awaited reunion, the mansion was in disarray.

"Killian! Edith!"

Only the Duchess greeted us, and she looked worried despite seeing her long-awaited grandson.

It was natural.

With the Imperial Knights occupying the mansion and searching every room, it was only natural.

"Mother, what's going on?" Killian asked.

"...... I don't know what's going on either, Killian." She finally let out the tears she had been holding back. "Lizé...... has been taken away, accused of disgracing the imperial family."

"What do you mean?"

"Did you know that Marquis Theroux lost his youngest son five years ago?"

"If you are referring to the Marquis Theroux's youngest son, isn't he raised on an estate from a young age because of his weak body?"

The Duchess shook her head. "That's what everyone thought, but it turns out he was actually kidnapped and kept secret for one reason or another, until Lizé...... found him and brought him back."

"Then why not reward her, and why is she being accused of disgracing the imperial family?"

"Sob...... because the child was a fake."

"What?"

My eyes widen as if I had been punched in the back of the head, as well as Killian.

"No, I mean, how on earth could that be......?"

"Because the child Lizé brought in knows things that you wouldn't know unless you were the Marquis Theroux's son, and they were all told to him by Lizé."

"What?"

"How did Lizé know that...... so now your father and brother have been taken to the Imperial Palace, and the imperial knights are searching the mansion."

This was enough to send the duchy reeling.

Then, something clicked in my mind.

'Now that I think about it, the last episode of the original story was about finding the missing child, wasn't it? And that child is a relative of the imperial family. Could it be that Lizé forced that episode to happen?'

The last episode of "I Refuse Your Obsession," which I had forgotten for a while, came to mind.

However, since most of the flow of the original story had already been broken, there was no way the story could go on as it was.

I realized it when I read Renon's diary about Lizé's meeting with the Crown Prince.

In the original story, Lizé's status changed drastically after the Crown Prince who met her introduced her to his confidants.

This time, however, the Crown Prince did not do so as in the original story, and Lizé was even scolded by Duke Ludwig for it.

'That's enough to know that the original story has already crumbled, yet she can't let go of her obsession with it?'

I grabbed the back of my neck.

'You idiot, you should have thought of the suspicion you'd attract if it failed!'

She had the audacity to bring in a fake child, knowing all about what the imperial family kept secret.

The imperial family would naturally assume she was behind the kidnapping.