If You Devour Poison / Doku Wo Kurawaba Sara Made Chapter 18: A Diary and A Letter

The heir of Prime Minister Anderheim, Sigurd Isys Asbal, the Imperial Knight directly under the orders of the Crown Prince, was not his son.
Sigurd’s mother, Yurikano Nana Lisette, was a refined beauty with lustrous black hair and the fiancée of Jolga Von Oswein. Their engagement had been decided by their parents. Their territories neighboured each other, and they were close in age and had been close friends from childhood. They were waiting for the two to become adults and it was certain that the two would get married.
The one who interfered in the two’s relationship was Anderheim, who saw Yurikano at a ball for the first time. Anderheim took over his father’s seat as the Prime Minister at the young age of twenty. The incident took place about a year after that. All this while, the king and the eminent people of the court urged him to quickly take in a nobleman’s daughter as his wife, for the sake of high society. Although he thought of it as troublesome, Anderheim still attended the ball. There, the one who caught his eye, waltzing joyfully as she was escorted by her fiancée Jolga, was Yurikano.
Both Jolga and Yurikano were seventeen then. The two youths were deeply in love with each other, and their future seemed bright. Already known to be the most promising rookie amongst the knights, Jolga had a strong sense of justice. His political stand was exactly opposite that of Anderheim.
Anderheim’s actions were swift.
Not even a month had passed since the ball when a letter came to the Osweins from the Lisettes, requesting an annulment of the engagement. The Osweins were surprised and asked the reason for the engagement annulment. The Lisettes were vague and dodged the questions, saying it was ‘An internal matter’. While Jolga and Yurikano were at a loss, this time it was the young Prime Minister Anderheim whose engagement to the daughter of the Lisettes was announced by none other than the Royal Family.
Yurikano was in despair, and Jolga, indignant. The Osweins tried everything they could, but the one behind the scenes was the Prime Minister from the Asbal House, who had the Royal Family as his allies. In the unlikely event of them rejecting the offer, not just the Lisettes, even the Osweins would be implicated. Persuaded by her family, Yurikano decided to marry Anderheim.
And on the night before the wedding.
Jolga and Yurikano, spent a night of passion, vowing to make it but a passing dream.
After her marriage to Anderheim, Yurikano did not show her face in high society and thus never saw Jolga again.
Shortly after, Yurikano gave birth to her eldest son Sigurd at the age of eighteen. Not even a year had passed before she was struck by an illness and departed the world.
Anderheim took in his second wife after a year of mourning and when Sigurd was three, his sister Julieta was born.
At that time, when the children had their first social debut at the Asbal House, the nobles that scrambled for a look all had expressions of astonishment.
Although she was just an infant, Julieta had golden hair and jade eyes unique to the Asbal family. On the other hand, Sigurd, with his black hair and hazel eyes, looked gallant. Most importantly, despite being so young, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the talented and newly appointed young Vice Commander of the Royal Knights, with his hazel eyes— Jolga Von Oswein.
When Jolga was nineteen, he married a viscount’s daughter he was introduced to, and at twenty, his eldest son, Lutora was born. Barely a year had passed since then.
Rumors flew through the kingdom as if it were the truth, deeply troubling Lutora’s mother and Anderheim’s second wife, who had just given birth to Julieta. Perhaps it was due to their anxiety that they passed away when their children were still young.
Now, this was the truth that would come to light in the hidden capture target Jolga’s route. After he cuckolded Anderheim with his so-called tryst with Yurikano the night before her marriage, he had never met Yurikano again. Jolga did not know that the one Yurikano gave birth to was his own son, till Sigurd’s debut at three.
By the way, there was no proof that Sigurd is Jolga’s son.
He no doubt resembled Jolga, but it could be passed off as coincidence. There was no DNA testing in this world, but there were magic systems that could detect bloodlines. The lock in the basement that only opened when the people with the same blood opened them was an example. If it was used, it would make it evident that Sigurd and Anderheim were not related by blood. But, that would not prove that he was Jolga’s son.
That was where the proof that appeared in the Jolga route, the secret diary left by Yurikano, would come to use.
Yurikano had very kindly written of her dalliance with Jolga on the eve of her wedding and how Anderheim was too busy to visit the bridal chamber on their wedding night. Counting backward from the day her morning sickness began, she realized that she was pregnant with Jolga’s child. She felt disgusted, and the fact that she had invited Anderheim to her room and was held by him in that way to protect her child… she spelled it out quite clearly in her writing.
Originally in the game, the diary was hidden behind an oil painting hung on the wall of the room of the mistress of the house— Julieta’s room. The one who first found it was Julieta, and her father Prime Minister Anderheim used it as proof to blackmail Jolga and schemed to make him betray the Crown Prince in exchange for hiding his immorality. The heroine used the mansion’s master key that Thomas stole to sneak into Julieta’s room. While Julieta was dozing on the bed, she stole the diary. Or that’s how the story went. At the end of the Jolga route, Jolga was preparing to surrender himself to the court of inquiry to make up for the sin of adultery he had committed when the heroine approached him and uttered nonsense like, “it is fine even if you spend the rest of your life in regret, so please live with me,” and burned the diary in front of Jolga. This was their happy end.
{Now we continue in first-person narration from Anderheim’s point of view}

As for the diary, I quickly collected it from behind the picture frame and altered the contents just the slightest bit. This time I did not take the ancient Dragon Kharis’ help and only took out a few pages from the diary and bound it again. The part that I took out was the one that detailed Yurikano inviting Anderheim to the bedroom. With just this, I could frame up a [Certain Fact].
Furthermore, as I diligently sorted the documents in the office with Thomas by my side, I spread out the contents left on top of the desk. Most of them were trivial messages and invitations to banquets from nobles and some sealed letters. But I picked up one that stood out, with my fingertips and lightly muttered “So it was here.”

“…”

While I sensed Thomas trying to avoid glancing at me as hard as he could, while trying to ascertain my actions at the same time, I quietly stacked the letter up with the other documents and bundled them up together.

“Thomas.”
“Yes, Master.”

Seeing Thomas’s approach, I handed the stack of letters over to him, and nonchalantly requested him to burn them along with the unnecessary documents.

“Understood.”
“Good, I’ll leave it to you then.”

Saying so, I left. Thomas was left alone in the basement.
I had to leave him alone. He needs time to confirm.

“Master, a messenger has arrived from the Royal castle.”

As I prepared to go to the courtyard where Sigurd and Julieta were, a maid in uniform spoke. Waiting behind her was a messenger holding a sealed letter in his hand.

“Lord Anderheim Yucht Asbal. His Excellency the Prime Minister and the Knight Commander request an audience with you.”
“Oh? Leaving aside the Prime Minister, has the Knight Commander returned from his expedition so soon?”

I asked as I ascertained the contents of the sealed letter I received. The messenger, who wore a justaucorps over his hose, gave a wry smile and while hiding his face under his feather cap, he spoke in a tiny voice.

“I heard that the Crown Prince’s fiancée, Lady Nasha, was quite eager to meet His Highness soon and pleaded with him. Before they even dealt with the aftermath of the suppression they had to return to the royal castle together.”
“Hah, they seem quite free.”
“I’ve heard that her training isn’t going well either. I wonder what will happen.”
“Well, it has nothing to do with me now. Please tell the Prime Minister and the Knight commander that I have received the message,”
“Understood.”

Seeing off the messenger as he returned to the royal castle, I once again headed towards the courtyard where Julieta and Sigurd were.

“Father!”
“Father.”

Julieta smiled as she sat on the garden chair as Sigurd awkwardly guarded her from the back with his head hung low. Having spent nearly two months in each other’s company, this pair of brother and sister who had lived apart, finally opened up to each other a little.
The sweets on the white plates laid on the table were the cake that Julieta proudly boasted of lately having “made it myself.”

“Both of you. The Prime Minister and the Knight commander will arrive at the mansion in a few days.”
“Morino and the Knight Commander?”
“Is that so? Should I also help out in some way?”
“No, it’s fine. The one they want to talk to is me.”
“…”
“Sigurd. When the two come, please be with Julieta in the courtyard.”
“Father?”
“It won’t be anything pleasing to the ears, after all.”

Sigurd was thus admonished.
Certainly what he would eavesdrop upon would be far worse than what he had anticipated.
Little did he know how it would shatter his world.