"Well, then again." In my opinion, it was kind of weird to call myself a nutcase, so I corrected it right away.

"Drinking water from the handle of the cup... You must be someone who has a unique taste?"

Of course, I seemed to be slightly unique.

The growth process was poor, but the family history was also not ordinary.

A father who maintained a poker face outside, but was emotional inside the house.

A mother who had an excellent business mind in the dressing room, but her hobby was yelling when she got off work.

I was not sure about the ranking of swordsmanship, but my younger brother was definitely number one when it came to saying words that turn people inside out.

'I'm probably the best out of all of them when it comes to being normal.'

I made a brief conclusion.

'This is all because of the carriage, since I've never been alone in a romantic place like that with a man.'

Having been easily swayed by the environment and living as a villain, I recognized my adaptability.

'It would have been similar if I was with another handsome guy, not lan.'

Unfortunately, I had never been involved with another man.

I had already considered Robert out of the question. I casually thought about my light enlightenment. While I was thinking about it, Ian walked without hesitation, as if familiar with the imperial palace.

After all, he was the son of a high-ranking aristocrat, so it , was obvious that he would have to enter the palace quite a lot.

I went as Ian led me without thinking, and we finally reached a splendid door.

One of the bells rang to announce that we had come, and the heavy door opened gently.

"Here you are. Sit down."

Robert was leaning against the window in the room and welcomed us.

We sat down as Robert recommended.

"I wanted to create a place to truly thank you for your help."

Robert at the imperial palace had a different impression.

When faced in a place other than the imperial palace, he was sly and comfortable, but here he was rather rigid.

As soon as we sat down, the servants began to line up all kinds of tea foods.

"Take it easy."

Robert personally picked up a sweet and recommended it to me.

"You are kind, Prince, thank you." I took it and took a bite and was completely relieved. It wasn't much different from father's tea foods. The tension was relieved rapidly as I felt that the imperial palace was not a different world. Maybe it was because Ian's escort was over. Robert, who was watching me eat, ordered the attendants.

"Everyone get out. I want to talk comfortably with my friends."

"But, Prince..."

"Miss Annabelle is uncomfortable, so she can't eat." Robert was slightly annoyed, and I gently laid down the sweet even though I was eating well. I only had a bite, but I thought I shouldn't eat it due to the atmosphere.

"Still, it is dangerous to be in the same space with outsiders."

It was Ian who answered those words. "How ridiculous." Ian stared at the servant coldy with his red eyes, and it was the first time I knew he could make such an expression.

No matter how much 1 had been an uproar to him, he always had an indifferent and annoyed expression, but now the brutality was indescribable.

"If I make a really dangerous decision, what do you think will change just because you're here?"

I completely took my hand off of the sweet before I took another bite out of enjoyment.

In the meantime, I realized that Ian had been generous with me.

Because even though I rushed to kill him and used the meanest tricks, he was never like that with me.

Rather, he used to turn around coldly, saying, 'just let it go' to the people who were running after me.

Ever since I first met the 14-year-old boy...

While I was reminiscing for a moment, Robert added coldly, looking at the servants.

"Scram. Neither Ian nor Annabelle are used to this kind of atmosphere."

Eventually, the servants exchanged anxious glances with each other, and then they all left.

The heavy door closed again, leaving only the three of us in the room. At that moment, Robert sighed and smiled broadly. "The imperial palace is annoying because it has too many ears. Annabelle, you can eat comfortably now."

"Seeing that they don't even listen to the prince, they must be from the crown prince or the queen's side. When Ian spoke low, Robert nodded bitterly.

'You pressured them with words instead of actions.' It was a wise way. I was going to eat the sweet comfortably again, but Ian handed me another sweet.

"Eat comfortably now."

'I haven't finished what Robert gave me yet, so why a new one...'

I couldn't guess the reason, but it seemed that there was an imperial court etiquette not to eat what I was eating before.

Robert leaned forward and opened his mouth seriously.

"If it's too long, we can be suspected again, so let's talk quickly."

Neither Ian nor I nodded.

As expected, Robert could not have called us to the imperial palace simply to thank us.

"Miss Annabelle, your brother... Er, Reid, about the debt of not being able to kill him..."

"Yes, I didn't forget."

I answered coldly. It would've been good for him to pay off the huge debt quickly.

"So I did a background investigation of the woman, Lanella Ocide."

"Oh my." My heart began to pound. It was such a big gift that I didn't think of.

Lanella Ocide, the doctor's assistant at that public hospital who switched me as a baby.

The woman who grew up with my parents in the orphanage and had a crush on my father.

An accomplice who left the capital after sharing the money Caitlyn received from Marquis Abedes. And as time went by, she crept back to the capital and shamelessly ordered mother's clothes. Robert seemed to have decided to find the woman after hearing all my stories spread throughout the capital. Even if it was impossible at Rainfield, Robert, who had a tight investigation organization, was likely to find her. "Where is she? Did you find her?" My voice trembled a little.

I couldn't forget her either. My parents asked around, but they said they couldn't hear from her at all.

They even heard that she sold her house right away at a bargain price.

I only found out after hearing the news of my biological examination, so there was already enough time for her to hide.

"Where is she?"

This time, I would definitely hold the woman with my own hands and have her kneel in front of my parents. Thinking about it, I was so tense up to my fingertips. "Did you really find her?" Ian also asked calmly.

"I looked into it a little bit at the Wades, but it's like she completely disappeared."

"...You helped?" When I was surprised and asked, Ian answered with a dry cough.

"With the Rainfields... Well, our families are close."

"You're such a good person. It's nice for Aaron too." I was very impressed, but I thought Ian was a person who could do that.

There was already a sense of justice, and he was not a person who would not know the tragedy that happened to the family of his deputy.

By the way, if it was hard to find a trace even after getting the Wades involved, it must have been really difficult.

"I couldn't find her. She hid perfectly. And..." Robert added sharply.

"That's rather a clue. If neither the Wades nor I can find her, she's already not a normal person." "

She's not an ordinary person?" Robert nodded heavily at my bewildered question.

"She could be in a much more vicious and organized place. I found out that the mansion on the 21st Avenue that she owned was...quite expensive. It's not a place where you can buy from the money you shared with Caitlyn from the Marquis of Abedes."

"I know. But my mother said...she had a big business success in the South. Maybe she used that money too in the capital?"

"Right." Robert spread the map on the table. Among them, he spoke while pointing to the southern region of Caronda.

"I found it hard to believe that Lanella Ocide stayed there for a long time. And it's an area I've been keeping an eye on because it's a strange place for money to flow."

Caronda was a place where there was nothing particularly special.

It was far from the capital and it was located between small mountain ranges, so transportation was inconvenient.

There were no elements that were particularly productive, such as lakes or rivers, plains or mines.

"The cash flow here suddenly started to overflow from the past few years. There is no reason for that."

As a prince who works hard for the throne, he also had good abilities.

"And there's something in common where the money started circulating in this strange way." Robert explained seriously.

"The fact that it is related to a crime that should not be revealed to the world, the possibility that black magic was employed to completely conceal it, and..." When the word black magic appeared, Ian and my expression became even more serious.

"There is a high probability that my brother, Prince Carlon, is behind the political fund."