[Kaya's perspective]
Prince Erik's attendant delivered me a letter saying that Prince Erik wanted to meet me.
"Lady Kaya, do you mind following me to somewhere?" Prince Erik asked as he held out his hand.
"Of course! I would gladly follow you anywhere," I said as I took up his hand.
He led me towards what seemed like an auditorium.
...Where is the romantic boat ride or fancy dinner with lamb steak?
"Do you like it here, Lady Kaya?" Prince Erik asked.
"I suppose it is a bit bland...It does have its charm."
"Most of the school balls are hosted here. When the walls are decorated, the auditorium becomes an unimaginably beautiful place. It makes the perfect place for people to gather," Prince Erik said as he took my hand.
A crowd of people from all directions swarmed in and surrounded us.
"...Your Highness?"
"Would you not like an audience to see your crowning moment, or are you too embarrassed in front of all these people?" Prince Erik whispered in my ears.
"N-Not at all...The more people, the better it is is," I said while trying to act coy.
"That's a great quality to have..."
Prince Erik released my hand and took a step back from me. He suddenly dug into his inner breast pocket.
It is a ring! It is definitely a ring! I am getting proposed to!
What he pulled out was a clear plastic bag with a bloody knife...
I gasped.
"Y-Your Highness, what is this?"
"Hm...You tell me. This was found in your room."
That is impossible! I left the dagger at that cabin. There is no way that I could have possibly brought it back with me...
Stay calm, Kaya...
"Haha...Your Highness is surely one to kid."
This era has not developed proper forensics yet...Even in the future, it is not mentioned. These characters are not that complex enough for it to happen.
"We recently recovered the body of Dolton Grass at the bottom of a ravine. Our coroner has determined that the cause of death was from a knife wound rather than from drowning. The weapon here is presumed to be the cause of his death from the blood found on this knife. Dolton is from a bloodline where they have a rare blood type that does not mix well with other blood types, so it was fairly easy to tell that the blood on this weapon also belonged to him."
"That knife cannot be mine," I said with a chuckle.
The person who loses their cool loses...
"Then..." Prince Erik said as he snapped his fingers.
His attendant pulled up my admission sheet.
When I was first accepted to this school, they made us sign our names with marks of our thumbs. I thought it was a rather advanced for a romance novel, so I purposely smudged my thumb print on the first try. After I made sure that no one was looking, I switched out the second sheet with the first one and tossed out the original.
"Heh...I have not seen that since I first came here. That sure brings back memories," I said as I smiled and put my hand to my cheek.
"Pull it down a little further," Prince Erik ordered.
The servant pulled down the scroll and revealed my fingerprint and my signature. I thought I had destroyed that copy, but why was it here?
"That can't be..."
"Have you heard that a person's fingerprints do not change over time? The ridges that makeup a person's fingerprints are first developed in the womb and grow proportionally as the baby grows. Permanent scarring is the only way for a fingerprint to change. In addition, even twins that are regarded as having the closest in genetic makeup have different fingerprints. I thought it was a rather interesting concept, so I asked my friend if I could find out who touches my plates or cups just in case of a poisoning incident...I think my friend is better at explaining the process," Prince Erik said as pointed his hand towards the crowd.
The crowd gave way to a single person with a curvaceous beautiful body and long light pink hair.
I really hate pink...
"What a surprise to see Arielle Maddox here," I said with an empty smile.
"I requested a short leave to attend to family matters and was just recently able to show my face here," she said with a smile to her face. "His Highness consulted a worry with me, so I told him about ways on how to recognize if someone has touched his things."
"It was very intriguing how simple the methods were," Prince Erik said.
"Latent fingerprints are made from the sweat and oil found on a person's fingers. They are invisible to the naked eye. With some basic powder techniques or the use of chemicals, we can increase visibility," Arielle Maddox explained. "The forensic specialist was able to retrieve very good results from the test. It was found that your fingerprints were a match with your admission letter."
My legs gave away. I fell to the floor and sat on my knees.
Accused for murder...
I covered my face with my hands for a moment before I looked up at Prince Erik with tears in my eyes.
"Your Highness! It is all lies! I would never do anything to Dolton Grass. We were never even close to each other," I said as I tried wiping away my fake tears away.
How do I get out of this situation?
"...A motive...I don't have a motive to kill Dolton. You cannot accuse me of a crime without a motive!" I said.
Arielle Maddox held up a small blue bottle.
"There are witnesses that have seen you two together with you one sidedly pushing your feelings onto him. You then used these bottles filled with aphrodisiacs to have your way with Sir Dolton Grass only to still be rejected in the end...Several rejection hurt your pride, so you killed him to save face before you moved onto His Highness," Arielle Maddox said.
"Baseless lies! I had never intentionally approached Prince Erik for immoral reasons. I just happened to love gardening there!"
"...In His Highness' private garden?"
"Private garden?"
I gasped.
In the novel, the protagonist accidentally stumbles into the private garden and meets Prince Erik as he was on a short walk. The protagonist was then given permission to come and go as she wished when he fell for her.
I had not been granted permission to enter the garden as I pleased yet.
"If that was not all, we found Lady Ouchi's tea canister dribbled with the aphrodisiac," Prince Erik's servant said as he held up my canister.
"I had never!" I cried.
"...My attendant told me that there was something suspicious about the tea, so I should not have drank from it. It appears that he was right," Prince Erik said.
Everything is going wrong...
Why? Why? Why?
"It's all because of you!" I screamed as I leapt at her.
I was suddenly pinned down by Prince Erik's servant.
"Stay calm!" the man above me ordered.
My pendant and bracelet fell off my body from the impact.
That woman went and picked them up.
"Don't touch that! Those were gifts!"
"These are from my room...My family does special engravings on the stones that you can see in the sunlight," she said as she held them to the sunlight and revealed a white insignia in the center.
"Those were gifts from Prince Erik..."
"I never sent you anything," Prince Erik said coldly.
I was set up...by these half baked characters...
"...I love you, Prince Erik," I told him.
Prince Erik did not acknowledge my confession. He did not reject me, nor did he accept me...
The torture I feel right now...I want to give them all back to you, Arielle Maddox.
I am not so kind to let karma do its due before me.