The Duke's Eccentric Lady

Fleeting Night

"What do you mean, 'indicate', Sir Rousseau?" Fiona asked after she ushered the knight to sit together with her by the table in her room. "If the Royal Knights had established that I am innocent, then why, pray tell, am I still under arrest?"

Leon looked around as if he was deathly afraid someone would hear them. Yet, the only people in the room inside with them are Mrs. Schwarz and Margot.

"I would like to clarify some things first," Leon answered her. "Lady Coventry, over the investigations, you repeatedly claimed that the last memory you had was following Lady Davenport and Lord Anderton in the ballroom, correct? You said that your memory is blurry afterwards."

"That is correct. I cannot remember anything until I suddenly woke up next to Lady Davenport's body."

"Several witnesses had said that you grabbed a glass of wine at the beginning of the ball, and they claimed they never saw you put it down. Is this statement correct?"

Fiona held her chin with her fingers as she jogged her memories about it.

"Yes, that is true," She confirmed. "I had been drinking a glass of wine since the very beginning, but I sipped it little by little because I don't want to be overly drunk. Eventually, rubbing the handle of the glass comforted my nerves, so I never put it down. I held it even when I followed Lady Davenport."

The black-haired woman raised an eyebrow over the question. "What does this have to do with anything, Sir Rousseau?"

Leon cleared his throat as he prepared to completely explain everything to Fiona.

"My Lady, at the crime scene of the murder, we found two glasses of wine. One had been shattered to the floor, this shattered glass had been confirmed to be of Viscountess Klein's, one of the ladies who found Lady Davenport's body. She claimed that she became startled by the view that she lost grip on her glass."

Of course, the shattering glass was one of the things that woke Fiona up after she transmigrated.

"But for the other one, no one had claimed to hold it, as none entered the salon before. This particular glass of wine was half empty and standing on the table nearby you and Lady Davenport. I took witnesses' statements that said it probably didn't belong to Lady Davenport. No one saw her holding a glass of wine, and when offered one, she declined. She said she wanted to be completely sober for the night."

"So you thought it must have been mine," Fiona added.

"Yes, exactly. I remembered your statements where you said that there is a blank in your memories. Then I recall something. My Lady, do you know something called the Fleeting Night?"

Fiona shook her head, no matter how much she tried to recall, she can't remember that name at all. To her, it sounded like the title of a dirty and raunchy novel, but even in her past life, she never read something like that before.

"No, I don't know. What is that? Some kind of a book?" Fiona asked. She turned to glance at the two maids standing in her room. "Have one of you heard about this?"

Both Mrs. Schwarz and Margot shook their heads.

Leon stared at her intensely before he continued. As if he was searching for any traces of deception from her expression. When he found none, the knight breathed in relief.

"No, it is not a book," the auburn knight continued. "Far from it. It is the name of a potion. I can understand why none of you don't know about it. The potion was deemed illegal after its invention and you can only buy it through shady means, like the black market, for example.

"Only a few know about this. The thing that makes it illegal is the fact that this potion's side effect can make the drinker become deeply unconscious and lose several minutes of the memories they had prior to drinking."

Fiona fell silent. She understands what Leon is trying to say now. "Sir Rousseau, are you saying that someone spiked my drink with this potion in the salon?" She inquired, her voice was almost a whisper.

"Yes, and I believe that the one who did is the true culprit of this case."

The black-haired woman was exasperated. Even in her previous life, she was lucky enough to never get roofied when drinking in bars and pubs. And yet, the first day she arrived in this new life, someone drugged her. The whole memory-erasing potion was confusing to her logic, but it explains why her memory was blank.

"I have concrete evidence to support that," Leon added. "After I had such suspicions, I brought a friend of mine who is studying in the Magic Tower. You see, mages and sorcerers there had methods to trace different kinds of potions by analyzing the ingredients."

Ah, like the toxicology screen test that coroners and doctors analyzed in her previous life.

"My friend confirmed that there are traces of the Fleeting Night in your wine and on the rim of the glass."

Fiona slumped in her chair as she took in the revelations. She sighed, relieved that this proves she didn't kill Lady Davenport. Now that the emptiness of her memory had been resolved, she tried to combine it with the things she noticed herself during the investigations.

"Then why haven't I heard anything about my release?" Fiona inquired.

Leon looked uncomfortable after that question, but in the end, he replied, "... My Lady, I tried to bring it up to Captain Gunther. But instead of pursuing this new lead, he pushed it off. He brushed aside all of my reasoning and said they were irrelevant to the investigations. That is when I realized that the Captain hadn't completely conducted the investigation thoroughly."

"... Are you saying…?"

"Yes, the investigation was probably made to implicate you as the murderer all along."

The two maids who accompanied them gasped in surprise. Margot especially looked horrified hearing that. Fiona herself was speechless and could only gape in shock. It felt like there was a lump in her throat.

She wanted to cry. From reading all of the books about the kingdom's judicial system, she can conclude that the justice system in the Rhois Kingdom isn't as advanced as in her original country. Multiple factions can forge evidence and present it to court without giving her a chance to defend herself. If this goes bad, she can even be sentenced to death for her crime.

"W-what should I do…?" Fiona trembled as she said that, biting the lower part of her lips. "I-if the investigation is rigged from the start, then I have no hope…"

Leon pitied the woman trembling in front of him. It was obvious that she was close to tears, her gaze was enveloped in terror and fear. To calm her down, the knight carefully brought something from the satchel hanging from his belt.

"My Lady, maybe not all hope is lost. I brought you this," Leon soothed her as he laid down the item on the table. It was covered in a white handkerchief, so he carefully peeled the cloth off and revealed the item inside. It was the glass that he had been talking about. "The moment I realized that Lady Davenport's investigation would be conducted unfairly, I quickly took this into my possession. That way, no one can get rid of it."

"Oh, Sir Rousseau…" Fiona murmured in awe as she gazed at the glass.

"Don't worry, even though I couldn't bring the liquid as well, there are ample traces of the potion if you wanted to prove it."

"But what should I do with this? The knights are still arresting me. I am sure they are just waiting for the time to completely move me into the dungeons."

Leon pondered about it for a moment before he asked, "My Lady, do you know about Duke Chester du Grahams?"

Fiona tried to recall that name. "I've heard of his name, yes. But I do not know him that well."

"He is someone who is dubbed as the 'Duke of Crime'. The Duke takes great interest in solving crimes that were committed by or against members of high society. He was the one who was investigating your case before Captain Gunther volunteered to take over due to the amount of cases he was working. Yet, now I doubted that the Captain was keeping him informed and updated."

The Duke of Crime. Of course, the name Chester du Grahams didn't ring too many bells earlier, but the title "Duke of Crime" does. It was the blond gentleman with a deep voice and sharp gaze that she encountered at the night of the incident.

"Ah, him… Yes, I remember him completely now," she murmured.

"My Lady, if you can plead to him with the new evidence, I am sure he will retake the case back," Leon told her.

"That is a fine suggestion. But there is one problem, Sir Rousseau. I am still trapped here, in my family's estate."

"My Lady, I think I have a solution for that," Margot chimed in. "We could switch clothes. Servants are still allowed to go in and out of the mansion, after all. Our height is about the same and the knights didn't take much interest in the servants. If you wear a maid's dress, I am sure Sir Rousseau can sneak you out of the mansion. Meanwhile, I shall be staying in the bedroom to create an illusion that you are still here."

Fiona and Mrs. Schwarz looked absolutely distressed over her suggestion.

"Margot! Child, you can be thrown to the dungeons once the knights realized that the Lady is gone and you were deceiving them!" Mrs. Schwarz cried out in concern.

"Mrs. Schwarz is correct," Fiona added. "I am not going to put you in danger, Margot. They may not treat you the same way they treated me just because you are a commoner! We will think of another way out."

"But there is no other way, My Lady!" Margot exclaimed. Her gaze was full of determination. "If we wait too long, who knows if tomorrow they will finalize you as the culprit? You have to get to Duke Grahams as soon as possible!"

Leon chimed in, "As much as I am concerned with this plan, Miss Margot is right. I cannot think of another plan aside from having you disguise as a maid and plant a decoy in your room."

Fiona glanced at Margot and Leon interchangeably, then at Mrs. Schwarz as if she was asking for another opinion. She doesn't like this at all. Sacrificing another person's safe-being for hers?

She knows Margot has a sense of loyalty to her due to their status as a lady and her servant. But it still gnawed on her conscience. If can, Fiona wants all of them to be safe.

In the end, Mrs. Schwarz let out a sigh, "It is the most plausible plan at the moment indeed, as much as it pains me to say this. My Lady, if we linger too long, I am afraid they will eventually drag you away and silence you in any way they can."

Fiona bit the tip of her thumb nail. Mrs. Schwarz is right, they can deploy ways to shut her mouth and cover it up as if it was an accident. Her status as the late Count Coventry's daughter can only protect her for so little, and time is running out. Her chest suffocated at the thought of dying again.

She needed to plead her innocence to this Duke of Crime as soon as possible.

The black-haired woman breathed out and finally said, "All right, let us commence this plan."

Fiona and Margot went inside the bathroom to change. Fiona wore the maid dress while Margot wore the white sleeping gown. Afterward, Mrs. Schwarz helped tuck all of Fiona's hair into a white frill cap so her black hair would be concealed. She also painted a bit of dark face paint on the Lady's face to imitate Margot's freckles.

The four then discussed the escape plan while stuffing several of Fiona's clothes into a basket, disguising them as dirty laundry that needed to be carried away.

Leon informed Fiona he would be following right behind her while she made her way to the laundry room in the back of a mansion. The backdoor that servants often used was located there and Mrs. Schwarz had given her key to Fiona so she could use it. Leon would then give her a map showing the way to the Grahams' estates. She should then run through the back door and conceal herself in her path under the veil of night.

As she lifted the laundry basket, Fiona gave Mrs. Schwarz and Margot one last glance.

"Please be safe, Margot," Fiona whispered to the younger maid. "And Mrs. Schwarz, please take care of my mother. Don't let those knights harass her."

"Don't worry, My Lady. I will guard the Countess."

"You be safe as well, My Lady," Margot said.

The last thing Fiona saw as she was being escorted out of the room by Leon is Margot who climbed up her bed and Mrs. Schwarz who covered the young maid in covers from top to bottom.

'Goddess Rho, God Isaiah, or whatever deity is listening up there… Please let me arrive safely at Duke Grahams' estate.'