The courtroom burst into commotion at the fearless public confession by the wife and defense attorney. Especially those who had come to witness the trial, enchanted by the love story of me and Grand Duke Richard, let out dreamy sighs without fail. Seeing the reaction I’d hoped for, the corners of my lips curled up slightly. In this place, we needed to look like a couple experiencing the love of the century.
“……”
At the same time, the Grand Duke’s lips parted slightly. It might have seemed like a minor change to others, but having stared at his face every day in that cramped visitation room lately, I caught it right away.
‘Looks like that really shocked him.’
He seemed truly startled by my confession. Honestly, he’d probably move his facial muscles less even if he were being sentenced to death by the judge right this second. Hearing an unplanned public confession—of course it rattled him. Not that he was the only one in this courtroom shaken.
“Are… are you mocking this sacred court with such absurd nonsense?”
The Chief of Police’s face turned bright red, having expected a confession and instead hearing a declaration of love. He shouted furiously. I gave him a brazen look.
“Mocking this sacred court? Please. Is there anything more sacred in this world than love?”
“Counsel, if you continue speaking on matters irrelevant to this case, I will have you removed from this courtroom.”
The judge banged his gavel with a thunderous scold. Of course, as would become clear later, there is no such thing as a statement by the defense that’s truly irrelevant in court. I simply smiled sweetly.
“Not at all! Now, I’ll begin my defense, Your Honor.”
Alright, there are two ways to secure a not guilty verdict for your client.
- Prove they’re innocent.
- Render the prosecution’s evidence completely worthless.
Number one is obviously best, but rarely easy. It’s simple to prove someone did something, but proving they didn’t requires a solid alibi. And since the Grand Duke was apprehended at the scene, there was no alibi.
So the method I had to choose was number two: obliterate every testimony and piece of evidence the Police Bureau had presented.
“I move to cross-examine the witness.”
I decided to tackle the testimony first. There had been inconsistencies in his statements according to the newspaper articles and investigation records.
When I spun around and looked at the gardener witness, his throat bobbed nervously.
“Can you describe for us the gardens of Baron Hayden’s estate where you work?”
“Uh… well… we planted large trees and smaller ones alternately, and placed statues of mythical figures at new junctures.”
“What time was it when you claim to have seen the victim?”
“Between 10 and 11 at night, I believe. That’s when I make my patrol rounds.”
“Are there oil lamps installed in the garden?”
“No. If an oil lamp fell, it could start a fire, so none were installed.”
Satisfied by these expected answers, I smiled faintly and continued questioning.
“So it was very dark—perfect conditions for a crime.”
“Y-yes… it was.”
At my question, which seemed to allude to the crime again, quiet murmurs rose in the gallery. The Chief of Police curled one corner of his mouth into a sneer, as if he thought I’d finally slipped up. I ignored him and pressed on.
“You said you saw the defendant standing in the dark garden with a dagger? So clearly this was before he stabbed the victim.”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
The witness hesitated slightly, seeming confused by my question that actually highlighted the Grand Duke’s alleged crime even more. In a voice as soft as possible, I continued with my prepared line of questioning.
“Is patrolling part of your duties as a gardener?”
“It is. We take turns on a schedule.”
“And what does that involve? I’m afraid I don’t really know what a patrol entails.”
Now sighs emerged from all around the gallery. I also heard grumbles like, ‘Some lawyer—asking pointless questions,’ and ‘Is she really dimwitted?’ The gardener also seemed to think these questions were unrelated to the case, frowning slightly before answering.
“We check to see if there are any hazards in the garden, or if there might be an intruder.”
“And if there were hazards or an intruder, what would you do?”
“We’d remove the hazard ourselves, or if it was too much, alert someone else in the household.”
As I continued asking about garden maintenance, uninterested sighs echoed throughout the courtroom.
“Counsel. If you wish to satisfy your personal curiosities unrelated to this case, please do so elsewhere. I remind you again, I have the authority to remove you from this courtroom.”
Finally, even the judge seemed to reach his limit and warned me directly. I nodded and turned my gaze back to the witness.
“You testified that you clearly saw the defendant standing there holding a dagger.”
“That’s right. I feel like I’ve already answered that several times.”
The gardener, who had been answering smoothly up to now, was starting to get annoyed. The Chief of Police’s expression was similar. From where he sat observing the trial, Victor’s face had already long since darkened with disappointment in my defense.
“Very well.”
At last, all the prep work was done. Time to turn up the pressure . My eyes snapped wide open as I stared at the gardener.
“What action did you take when you saw the defendant that night?”
“A-action… what do you mean…?”
At my suddenly sharp tone, the gardener flinched and trembled. He seemed to cautiously try to figure out the point of my question, so I spelled it out, revisiting his earlier testimony.
“A man holding a knife is undeniably a hazard. Also an intruder. By your own account, if you saw someone like that on patrol, wouldn’t you have dealt with it immediately or at least alerted someone else?”
A chill silence swept through the courtroom for a moment. Everyone seemed taken aback by the abrupt shift in tone. I didn’t miss that moment and shot an even stronger question at the witness.
“But there’s no record anywhere of you making such a report. Why is that?”
“Well, at the time… there was… nothing wrong in the garden. The baron wasn’t even collapsed yet…”
I cut off the gardener’s flustered excuse with a sharp snap of my fingers.
“There was nothing wrong. Exactly. That must be it.”
“P-pardon?”
“You didn’t see a man holding a knife at all.”
“……!”
At my firm declaration, the gallery buzzed and Police Bureau agents began murmuring. The Chief of Police shot to his feet.
“The counsel is dismissing the witness’s testimony without any basis!”
“I didn’t say it was perjury. I’m simply correcting a mistake.”
I answered crisply, looking him straight in the eye.
According to the reports, the gardener was the one who allegedly saw the Grand Duke before the murder, while it was the maid who found the fallen victim and the Grand Duke beside him.
‘Why didn’t the gardener raise the alarm?’
That had been a point of unease since the start of the investigation. And I’d come to a conclusion: this was a case of mistaken memory.
Unless you’re someone with photographic memory like me, memory is easily corrupted. Information you learn after the fact can unconsciously create false memories. That’s exactly why investigators present a witness with photos of several similar-looking people to pick from—so as not to feed them the suspect’s face directly.
“When I reviewed the witness’s statements, at first he said he wasn’t sure. Then he thought it might’ve been a stranger. Only after the story made the papers and after several Police Bureau interrogations did he finally state that he saw the Grand Duke holding a dagger.”
Sure enough, the gardener’s testimony had grown more specific over time, increasingly singling out Grand Duke Richard. As the investigation progressed and the Grand Duke became the prime suspect, the gardener’s mind had unconsciously imposed his face onto a hazy memory. This tendency was even more pronounced in the very young or the elderly—and the gardener was certainly old enough.
“I-I didn’t lie!”
The gardener cried out, his voice trembling. I calmly tried to soothe him.
“I’m not saying your testimony was a lie. Just that there was an error in your memory.”
“Th-that’s impossible!”
Got him. I smiled faintly.
“Then can you describe what the defendant was wearing that day? The color of his clothes, his hairstyle?”
“It was too dark to see clearly, but… the face, I’m sure it was His Highness…”
“It’s hard to understand how you could see nothing else at all, yet recognize his face so clearly.”
I didn’t expect the witness to admit his mistake easily. So I gave a slight smile and pulled out the prepared document. This was more than just conjecture—there was solid scientific evidence behind this memory mistake.
“These are the witness’s medical records, obtained from the clinic he’s been visiting.”
For this, I’d personally gone to the clinic the gardener frequented every day. Honestly, I’d only managed to get the records by helping the practitioner figure out how to collect a debt he was owed. Unluckily for him, I was an expert in getting money from deadbeats in my past life.
“The witness’s vision has deteriorated significantly. Especially in low light, he has trouble distinguishing objects. Everyone here saw how he struggled to read the oath just moments ago.”
At my words, the spectators began whispering. They’d all seen him stumble over the oath. Even the judge, after checking the documents, wore a stiff expression. I softened my tone to coax the witness once more.
“You mentioned the garden was decorated with statues of figures from mythology, right? Most of them holding something. In the dark, it’s easy to mistake one for a person.”
“……”
The gardener’s face filled with confusion. I seized the moment to drive it home with one last pointed question.
“Are you truly sure you saw the defendant that night?”
“…I… I’m not sure.”
At his answer, the Chief of Police’s face contorted. The judge also looked flustered, clearly not expecting the testimony to collapse. I turned to the judge to firmly restate the point.
“Your Honor. It seems the witness’s key testimony no longer stands.”
“B-but the dagger is irrefutable evidence…!”
The Chief of Police’s voice quivered as he forced out a rebuttal, trying to hide his panic. I shot him a leisurely look. Now it was time to present the counter-evidence and smash that dagger.
“Ah, yes. The dagger the defendant supposedly lost. Well, I found that very dagger he lost.”
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