"…Yes?” Mary asked in a daze, and Mia turned around abruptly.
“Do as you wish, Your Majesty. I won’t care anymore.”
Her red eyes and teary face showed her sobbing wasn’t fake, but her voice remained firm.
“I thought Mary was innocent. But to hear she was involved in gambling and running a brothel… It’s not my place to get involved anymore.”
Adilot, holding his sword, looked at Mia once, at Mary once, and then back at Mia.
“You won’t stop me?”
“No.”
“L-Lady!”
A panicked Mary raised her voice. Mia simply shook her head with a tender gaze.
“Mary, thank you for everything… Live well… Oh, no. You’re going to die, aren’t you…”
“H-How could you do this to me, Lady!? After all I’ve done for you!!”
“Poor thing… Being in prison has really gotten to her…”
Mia covered her mouth with her fist and made a sad face.
“Mary, taking care of me was your job, wasn’t it…? You shouldn’t say it like that, sob…”
“Do you know how many servants didn’t even do that? I was the only one who comforted you!”
“Mary, I wasn’t going to say this, but…”
Mia spoke with sad eyes.
“Before I lost my memory… The budget ledgers didn’t quite match the expenditure records, you know…?”
Mary flinched noticeably.
“T-T-They did? I-I wasn’t aware of…”
“Mary… Could it be that you didn’t want me to regain my memory because you were embezzling something?”
“…I don’t know anything about that!”
Mary’s scream echoed through the prison. Mia quietly closed her eyes.
“I already have all the evidence, Mary… I was just asking to confirm…”
At that moment, Adilot almost laughed. Mary, realizing she had been played, flushed with anger before forcing her expression back into control.
“I’m sorry for that, Lady. But I haven’t done anything wrong since you woke up!”
“Not because I woke up, but because I started thoroughly checking the ledgers, right?”
“Lady… I admit I made mistakes! Really! Please give me another chance…”
But Mia shook her head sadly.
“Mary, if you were going to do something bad, you should’ve been prepared to pay the price for it…”
“I-I’m so unfairly blamed! It was all the Count’s fault for seducing me!”
“And you just went along with it…? Did you really think you’d get away with it? No, you couldn’t be that dumb… right?”
Overcome with frustration, Mary pointed an accusing finger at Adilot.
“But they say he enjoys killing people for fun!”
At that moment, Mia’s expression suddenly changed, and she shouted strongly for the first time.
“That’s impossible!”
Mary flinched at her intense reaction.
“Adil would never do something like that!”
