Though the king had asked me to confirm this claim, he was well aware of the truth. He actually even knew that Duke Hillrose was still alive. In fact, everyone here knew about Eleanora. This wouldn’t benefit anyone or change anything—there was no point at all to this action other than spite. I can’t believe a marquess would do something so petty.
I had nothing to hide—or rather, I wasn’t able to hide anything—so I spoke confidently.
“Your Majesty, I am completely innocent of such a thing. I am indeed looking after a woman by the name of Eleanora, who lives in my home, but she is completely unrelated to Eleanora Hillrose. I found her under a bridge.”
That last statement was apparently too much for someone else in the room, and they burst into a laugh. Since this world didn’t have DNA testing, it was obviously going to be the word of the marquess against mine. If this wasn’t resolved today, then we might even have to bring Eleanora herself here so that she could say, “I’m not Eleanora Hillrose.” That would actually be kind of fun.
Man, the marquess is probably going to be really mad. Though all I could see was the shiny surface of the back of his head, he turned around once more, and I was able to see the expression on his face.
“Under a bridge?” he seethed. “Who would believe such a lie? I’ve seen the girl with my own eyes, when Countess Dolkness brought her here two days ago.”
I shrugged. “That’s where I truly found her, so there’s nothing else I can say. I think you are mistaken about the woman you saw two days ago. I saw her every day during my time at the Academy, so I can easily tell her and the woman living with me apart. They’re completely different people.”
Eventually, the king would have to side with one of us. For me, it was a matter of life or death that would determine whether or not I would flee the kingdom with Eleanora. But for the marquess, this was just a petty power move. That was why I believed the king would choose the side that had more to gain—in other words, I was certain that he would side with me.
Still, the king had to be fair when making judgments in disputes between aristocrats. I had added in the little detail that I could tell which was the true Eleanora Hillrose because of our time together at the Academy, and I was pretty sure that the king could use that as a reason to side with me.
I’m, um, sorry I joked around and said I found you under a bridge, Eleanora...
“I see, at the Academy.” The king considered my words. “Does that mean you haven’t seen her since you graduated?”
“It hasn’t even been a year since then,” I pointed out. “We’ve met several times since.”
How shocking. It was weird to think that it had been less than a year since we’d graduated. In that time, I’d become the lord of my territory, been inadvertently involved in Duke Hillrose’s plans, Yumiella 2 had showed up and we’d fought a god, then I crashed into the neighboring kingdom and met Patrick’s older brother... There were so many things that had happened, and it had all somehow taken place in the same short span of several months. Though a lot had happened during my three years at the Academy, the sheer density of post-Academy activities was something else entirely.
Did I see Eleanora while she was still the daughter of a duke...? Yeah, I did. I’d been to the duke’s home as well, so that would serve as enough of a record of us interacting. I hadn’t had any communication with that Eleanora (the duke’s daughter) since all the commotion with the attempted coup. A little after that, the Eleanora from under the bridge started living with me.
It was a total coincidence that I had interacted with both Eleanoras at roughly the same time, which meant that I was technically correct when I said they were different people (from a certain point of view). I was using reasoning that everyone knew was a sham, but I was a tough opponent encased in my armor of stubborn pseudo logic.
Marquess Prynan gritted his teeth and pasted on a courageous smile. “So you only knew her for the three years you spent at the Academy. Perhaps it would be more accurate to ask someone who has known her from a young age all the way up to the point when she went missing—someone who has known both her and her family.”
The marquess turned his attention away from me toward all the radicals standing around me. They were looking from one to another, wondering what they ought to do. Those who noticed me looking at them averted their gazes awkwardly. Yeah, you guys are the type to easily switch sides if there’s something in it for you. Their lack of loyalty was almost refreshing and endearing at this point.
It would be bad if they switched sides, though. Even if I manage to get out of this current situation, if this issue gets drawn out to next month’s meeting, it’d be annoying to have to come to the Royal Capital again to deal with it.
My argument that I could tell them apart because we’d been friends at the Academy had been shot down. I needed to come at this from another angle... As I thought about what kind of rhetoric I could churn out, another voice spoke out, one that didn’t belong to the marquess or the king.
“If we are discussing who has known Eleanora Hillrose the longest, that would be me. I’ve known her since a young age, and we attended the Academy together as well.” In a room containing a majority of older men, a younger man’s voice stood out.