The Villainess Hides Her Wealth - Chapter 97.2

Chapter 97.2

“It’s an outrageous guess. The others agreed that it was a mountain thunderbird…”

Had he been rather calm, he would have been able to think that the Primrose duchy was attacking him in order to take responsibility for this incident.

But Sir Vieira could not do that because he was bewildered that he was suddenly being accused.

“I said this before, but I thought it was weird that bird was a thunderbird!”

“I couldn’t say anything because of the atmosphere, but I thought so too.”

It was difficult to tell the difference between a mountain thunderbird and a mountain toxic bird because of their similar appearance.

“My daughter has eaten meat from a toxic bird by mistake when she was a child, so I know it well. The symptoms of people who have collapsed now are the same as when you are poisoned by a toxic bird!”

The accusations against the Primrose duchy were suddenly directed at Sir Vieira.

With momentum, Duke Primrose and Jiksen pushed the fault towards him.

It was a big deal that he had misdirected his explanation at first. He wasn’t an eloquent speaker in the first place.

“Sir Vieira. Didn’t you think that your ambition to make an achievement could put others at risk?”

“Why did you dangerously insist on that toxic bird when you knew we would be cooking with the prey when the hunting competition was over?”

“You’re being unfair! Why would you cook a mountain thunderbird in the first place…!”

Because it was dangerous, mountain thunderbirds, which were similar to toxic birds, weren’t often used for cooking. He had to make that point, but Vieira’s tongue, which had become hardened with embarrassment, didn’t move.

“You won’t admit your fault until the end! I’m relieved Yuria didn’t eat the bird dish. Didn’t you aim for her because you had a fight earlier?”

Duke Primrose raised his voice even more.

Vieira’s motives seemed clear because he had approached Yuria before the competition.

“How can a common person know if a knight from a duchy of your scale decided to add it to a dish?!”

“If Yuria had eaten that dish, she would have also collapsed!”

Unlike Vieira, who was stuttering and couldn’t get himself together, Jiksen, who was helping Duke Primrose from the side, had an uncharacteristically convincing speech.

“I’m sure…”

Even those who suspected that Duke Primrose was just putting the blame for his mistakes on another person narrowed their eyes.

“You wanted to get along with your ex-fiancée, so were you offended by her rejection?”

“Sir Vieira has caused trouble before. This time, too…”

“Come to think of it, I think Sir Vieira was snooping around the bird dish!”

At this point, everyone was joining in blaming Sir Vieira.

He insisted on his innocence until the end, but it didn’t work at all.

“N-no… I’m trying to talk to Lady Yuria!”

On the contrary, the more he opened his mouth, the fiercer the gazes at him were.

“Why are you doing this to me after holding a competition with such poor preparation!”

“Be careful what you say. Do you know who sorted out this situation?”

Above all, it was Lilika, the daughter of Duke Primrose, who took care of this situation.

“Sir Vieira. Think about it. Do you mean to say she healed the sick people after the Primrose duchy poisoned them?”

“That, that’s…!”

“If Lady Primrose had the power of healing, she would have used it before! Didn’t you see that she was surprised after expressing her power by chance earlier?”

The light emanating from Lilika was real. That was why there was no suspicion about the Primrose family.

“What we just saw was a miracle. Do you think someone who poisoned others would be able to use God’s power?”

“Everyone would be a priest if they could manifest such power at will!”

A while later, the knights returned with the priest they had been waiting for.

They found out why they had been late despite taking Jiksen’s fast horse.

“I firmly apologize!”

After hearing the details, it wasn’t the fault of the knights or the priest.

“A part of the forest leading to the temple has collapsed. The path was blocked in such a way that it was impossible to ride the horse, so we had to take a detour, and got delayed.”

“Was it perhaps… the west side of the forest? I saw Sir Vieira go that way.” Jiksen frowned and continued, “I’m sure quite a few people witnessed him running wild to catch a mountain thunderbird. If he tried to delay us from contacting a priest…”

It would be a tremendous crime if he caused the princess’ death on top of making all the nobles collapse, but there was no clear evidence.

However, it also looked more cunning to say they only had a strong conviction.