I used to think the sooner you explained yourself, the better.
If you had been wronged, you should speak up immediately.
If there were witnesses, you should bring them forward at once.
If a record was wrong, you should tear it up on the spot.
That was common sense to ordinary people.
And in noble society, that common sense kills people.
The faster an explanation comes, the more it looks like an excuse.
The faster witnesses appear, the more it looks like collusion.
The moment you tear up a record, the incorrect record does not disappear. It becomes a record you tried to hide.
So I deferred my response in front of the ledger.
`Reader: Leon Cart`
My name was still there.
Handwriting I had not written.
A room I had not entered.
A clothing pattern I had not seen.
And a record I had not yet officially explained.
At the end of the corridor, Arsene Berhardt was watching me.
He was not smiling.
Arsene without a smile looked far more like an aristocrat than Arsene with one.
"Deferring your response, is it?"
he said.
"It seems even Professor Cart knows how to make good use of today’s principles."
"Yes."
I answered briefly.
Eveline clenched her teeth.
Liana clasped both hands together.
Seria was studying the ledger’s wording.
Adela was looking at my signature.
Clarisse held her record board, but her pen had paused for a moment.
A paused pen.
For someone in charge of records, that alone was a danger signal.
I spoke first.
"I would like to request assistance."
Clarisse immediately raised her head.
"The parties involved and the scope."
Scope.
I had lost count of how many times I had heard that word today.
But without that word, help immediately became control.
I looked at the four girls.
"The parties involved are Lady Eveline Rosette, Miss Liana Bell, Lady Seria Blanc, and Lady Adela Carmion."
Adela raised an eyebrow ever so slightly.
Apparently, she had not expected to be included.
"The scope is not for them to speak on my behalf about my innocence, but for each of them to verify the contradictions in the ledger’s record."
Silence.
Eveline was the first to react.
"So don’t say that you didn’t do it. Say that the record itself is strange?"
"Yes."
"Fine. I can do that."
Clarisse wrote it down.
"Leon Cart requests assistance with limited scope. Speaking on his behalf regarding innocence prohibited; verification of record contradictions requested."
Arsene quietly said,
"Interesting."
Don’t be interested.
Seriously.
Eveline glared at the ledger.
"First. At 11:22, Professor was in the Central Corridor. I saw him, Liana saw him, and Seria saw him too."
She immediately stopped speaking.
Then, gritting her teeth, she corrected herself.
"No. The three of us have a stake in this, so our testimony would have little value."
Good.
Eveline had said that herself.
"There were plenty of people there at the time. His Highness the Prince, Assistant Clarisse, Martin Gray, Gerard Bastin, Melissa Round, Ellen Vile, and the candidates in the corridor. If you call them forward, you can verify that Professor could not have been in the etiquette training room."
Clarisse wrote.
"Lady Eveline Rosette presents the possibility of verifying an alibi in a public location with numerous witnesses. Acknowledges the limited value of testimony from interested parties."
Eveline did not look at me.
She looked at the ledger.
That was good.
She was not protecting me. She was attacking the record.
Liana spoke next.
"I saw the same time as well. But my testimony should not be brought forward first right now."
Arsene asked,
"Your reason?"
Liana took a moment to steady her breathing.
"This record is connected to the clue about the disguised Cathedral Wing sleeve that was aimed at me. If I defend Professor first, it will look as though he and I are protecting each other."
The corridor fell silent at those words.
Liana continued.
"So I will not hide my testimony, but I will place it later in the order. First, we need to verify the locations of candidates who have no connection to me."
Clarisse wrote.
"Miss Liana Bell acknowledges her personal interest in her testimony. Proposes prioritizing independent testimony."
Good.
Liana had not diminished her own words.
She had decided where those words belonged.
A system window appeared.
`[Liana Bell: Successfully adjusted the position of her testimony]`
`[Shielding Resistance Rate increased]`
`[Avoided the private-protection frame]`
Seria pointed to the ledger’s purpose field.
"I will examine the wording."
Adela said softly,
"As expected, Lady Blanc is useful when it comes to stabbing at sentences rather than people."
The corner of Seria’s mouth moved.
"I’ll take that as a compliment. For now."
They were both dangerous.
If the two of them were put together, high society might collapse.
But right now, they were helpful.
Seria spoke.
"The purpose field. `Verification of materials related to the Preliminary Candidate Dialogue Principles.` That was not an official title at 11:22."
Clarisse’s pen stopped.
Seria continued.
"After the three lines were posted in the Central Corridor, His Highness Kaiden made a public inquiry, and Assistant Clarisse recorded it as `Preliminary Candidate Dialogue Principles — Temporary Observation Standards.` The name had not been finalized before then."
Only then did I realize it too.
Right.
What had been posted on the notice board were three lines, and the name had become fixed afterward.
The forger knew that title and inserted it into an earlier ledger.
They had written a future name into the past.
Clarisse checked her own record board.
"The official title was recorded at 11:36."
Seria nodded.
"Therefore, its inclusion in a ledger entry from 11:22 is a chronological contradiction."
Clarisse wrote.
"Lady Seria Blanc verifies a chronological contradiction in the purpose wording. It predates the official title’s record by fourteen minutes."
Arsene’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Even he would find this difficult to refute.
Adela looked at the signature field.
"I will examine the signature."
Eveline asked,
"You can tell from handwriting too?"
"Clothing and handwriting are similar. Both preserve how a person uses their body."
Adela asked me,
"Professor, are you right-handed?"
"Yes."
"Do you press hard with your pen?"
"I tend to conserve ink because I hate wasting money."
Adela looked at me for a moment.
"You truly have a great many structural problems."
"Return to the subject of the signature."
"Yes."
Adela pointed at the ledger.
"This signature resembles yours in outward appearance. But the stroke endings were pressed deeply. In particular, the downward stroke of the final `t` caught in the paper. Rather than the natural handwriting of a right-handed person, it is evidence that someone copied the writing while looking at it and applied force at the end."
Clarisse asked,
"Possibility of forgery?"
"High. However, it was someone who had seen Professor’s handwriting at least once. This is not a signature written entirely from imagination."
That was unpleasant, but important.
Someone had seen my handwriting before.
On documents, notices, or contracts.
Close enough to copy my name.
Adela added,
"And the ink is different."
Clarisse examined the ledger closely.
"It is the blue-black ink used for archive ledgers."
"Yes. The ink Professor normally uses is thinner and has a brownish tint. Cheap ink, most likely."
"You may omit that assessment."
"It is a factual observation."
Seria finally laughed softly.
Eveline looked like she was holding it in.
Liana looked uncertain whether she was allowed to laugh.
Clarisse wrote.
"Lady Adela Carmion verifies differences in signature pressure and ink. Possibility of forgery high."
The words of the four girls piled up over the record.
Eveline: location.
Liana: order of testimony.
Seria: timing of the wording.
Adela: signature and ink.
Not one of them had been the first to say, "Professor Leon is innocent."
And yet, the record was gradually pushing away the blade that had been tilted toward me.
A system window appeared.
`[Limited-scope assistance request successful]`
`[Private classroom frame temporarily weakened]`
`[First collaboration among four villainess candidates triggered]`
`[Caution]`
`[Collaboration stability is low.]`
Of course it was low.
These were four people who had only just met.
One could ruin someone with a sword, one with sacrifice, one with sentences, and one with clothing.
It would have been stranger if their stability were high.
Arsene spoke slowly.
"An interesting rebuttal. The possibility of Professor Cart’s direct involvement has decreased."
He immediately continued.
"However, the fact remains that four candidates moved at the same time for Professor Cart’s sake."
Just as expected.
I nodded inwardly.
That was what he was aiming for.
Not my innocence.
The image of people moving around me.
That image alone would revive the private-classroom frame.
Just as I was about to answer, Liana raised her hand.
"May I speak?"
Clarisse said,
"You may."
Liana looked at Arsene.
"We did not act for Professor Cart. We verified the contradictions in the ledger. If I have just overlooked that distinction, please record it."
Good.
Liana was not defending herself. She was defending the structure.
Eveline spoke as well.
"It’s true that I’m angry because Professor looks like he’s being treated unfairly."
Everyone looked at Eveline.
Eveline did not shy away.
"But what I said was that we should verify where he was at that time. Record my anger separately from fact-checking."
Clarisse wrote.
"Lady Eveline Rosette acknowledges emotional motivation. Requests that it be separated from factual verification."
Seria said,
"I did not say the purpose wording was strange because I like Professor. I said it because the sentence was disgracefully inept."
"Lady Seria."
I called softly.
Seria corrected herself at once.
"Revising my expression. It was because the sentence was chronologically inaccurate."
Clarisse wrote.
"Lady Seria Blanc immediately corrects excessive wording."
Adela spoke last.
"I do not yet have favorable feelings toward Professor. Nor do I like his coat. Therefore, my signature analysis has relatively little personal interest behind it."
"You can leave the coat out now."
"It is evidence that my personal interest is low."
This time, Eveline openly laughed.
Liana laughed very softly too.
Seria pressed the back of her hand to her mouth.
Arsene did not smile.
Instead, Kaiden did.
"Interesting."
Everyone looked toward the end of the corridor.
Prince Kaiden Astrea stepped out from behind a pillar.
Since when had he been there?
I really wanted to ask.
But I did not.
He was not the sort of person who would answer if asked.
Kaiden looked at the ledger.
"All four of you struck at the same ledger for entirely different reasons. Yet none of you said the same thing."
He looked at me.
"Leon Cart. Is this the classroom you wanted?"
I did not answer immediately.
What I wanted was quiet private tutoring.
In a room without a nameplate, not four at once but one at a time, doing nothing more than avoiding their ruin routes.
But now, in front of the storage room behind the Central Corridor, with the prince, the eldest son of a marquis’s house, and an archives assistant watching, four villainess candidates were analyzing a forged ledger.
It was not what I had wanted.
But it had become necessary.
I said,
"Regardless of what I wanted, this is the necessary method right now."
Kaiden smiled as if satisfied.
"A good answer. Though less entertaining."
I wished he would stop using entertainment as the standard for governing the nation.
Clarisse examined the ledger again.
"Forgery has been provisionally confirmed. However, we must verify how the wording was actually entered into the ledger."
Adela asked,
"Are there signs of alteration?"
Clarisse inspected the spine of the ledger.
Archive ledgers had thin sealing threads placed between their pages.
If someone replaced a page or wrote in it afterward, the pressure marks on the sealing threads changed slightly.
Ordinary candidates would not know that.
I had not known either.
Adela seemed to know.
Clarisse’s hand stopped.
Again.
Too many hands had stopped today.
Kaiden asked,
"What did you find?"
Clarisse looked at the inner margin of the ledger.
There was a tiny red dot there.
It was said to be the trace left by an archive seal whenever someone with revision authority opened the ledger.
Clarisse’s voice was the same as usual.
But slightly lower.
"A revision seal was used."
Arsene asked,
"Who has that authority?"
Clarisse did not answer.
Kaiden’s eyes narrowed.
From that silence alone, I felt as though I knew the answer.
And I was right.
Clarisse slowly said,
"It is the authority seal of Clarisse Rain, assistant of the Archives Office."
Silence.
This time, everyone looked at Clarisse.
Clarisse’s expression did not change.
She was looking at the seal trace bearing her own name.
Just as I had looked at my name moments ago.
A system window appeared.
`[New forgery trace: Clarisse Rain’s authority seal]`
`[Archives Office credibility crisis]`
`[The foundation of the Preliminary Candidate Dialogue Principles is shaking.]`
Ah.
The opponent had not merely used my name.
They had used the name of the person keeping the records as well.
If records shook, the principles shook too.
If the principles shook, those with power would speak again.
The aristocrats would speak, the noble houses would speak, and rumors would speak.
Clarisse quietly picked up her pen.
"I record the following. The authority seal of Clarisse Rain, assistant of the Archives Office, was used in this suspected forgery of an archive ledger. As I have become an interested party, I defer any sole judgment from this point forward."
She paused for a brief moment.
"An outside observer is required."
Kaiden’s smile disappeared.
Arsene said nothing either.
I looked at the ledger.
My name.
Clarisse’s seal.
The paper aimed at Liana.
The victim who had called for Seria.
The clothing pattern Adela had read.
Explanations come last.
If that saying was right, then it was not yet time for us to explain ourselves.
There was only one thing to do first.
Find someone who could record the record again.
And that was the hardest part.
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