I discovered a small space at the bottom of the door.

It was the right size for hiding valuables.

"From your perspective, does Ralph seem like the criminal?"

"Well..."

The guide spoke again, watching for my reaction.

"He was a timid fellow. He wasn’t the type to commit such a heinous act."

"So there’s a chance Ralph isn’t the criminal."

"The criminal is a demon that took over Ralph’s body! There’s no doubt that an impure and evil spawn of Satan possessed his flesh and committed such an act!"

Oh, really?

I sent the guide outside for a moment.

While he was carrying on about spawn of Satan, several of the men gave him a tour of the inside of the stream.

I reached into the hidden space and found a small box. The topaz brooch I’d given Hilda had also been kept in a box like this. When I opened it, there was a small, jewel-encrusted hair ornament.

What was this? With only this, I couldn’t tell what it signified.

It might be a precious item that had belonged to the family’s matriarch.

I pocketed it, of course. I could use it as a hairpin for Maria.

I searched further but didn’t find anything else.

It was a shame the Searcher Scouter couldn’t track old traces.

"There must be a hunter family in this forest too?"

"Ah, yes. There’s a family called Heinjäger."

The guide, his senses jolted back by the cold water, was bowing and scraping.

Jäger means hunter, and Hein has the same meaning as Heim. So the surname Heinjäger was formed. The guide led me and the order to the hunters’ cabin, which was quite far away.

The horrors of the Schwarz Wolf incident at the hunter’s cabin came to mind. By now, those bastards had been thoroughly tortured by the Judicial Department, had confessed information about their client, and been beheaded.

"We are sorry for the tragedy that befell the forest keepers, but we know nothing about it."

"Is that really so? I’m not just the order’s commander but also the Lord of Feuzen. I know the relationship between forest keepers and hunters. Since they live together in the same forest, they inevitably form close ties."

"I’m sorry, but our family and the forest keepers are on poor terms."

"That’s true. That’s why they live this far apart."

The guide added the explanation. I’d thought it strange that the cabin was so far from the forest keepers’ home. I kept pressing the hunters, but they genuinely didn’t know anything.

I checked their mindsets through the Scouter, and they all answered truthfully.

I was about to leave without much progress when the hunter’s daughter caught my eye.

Hmm? Wasn’t this the woman from the village?

She’d stuck in my memory because she had been so unusually anxious.

"You. Have you seen Ralph?"

"...N-no."

Her mindset was deceit.

Bingo! I didn’t know why she was hiding it, but I’d caught her.

And pressing liars like this was my specialty.

"You’re lying to me right now. I value chivalry and don’t want to torture a defenseless woman. Speak honestly. Don’t make me give the order to have you tortured."

"Commander! My daughter knows nothing!"

The hunter desperately shielded his daughter. When I gave Viktor a glance, he was reluctant, but he ordered his men to subdue all the hunters. It happened so suddenly that they couldn’t even resist.

The atmosphere had turned hostile in an instant, and the hunter’s daughter was trembling as if she might pass out at any moment. Her pale skin and cold sweat showed how desperate she was. But she still wouldn’t open her mouth.

"If you don’t intend to speak, well, fine."

I didn’t want to go this far.

I drew my cavalry sword and pressed it to the hunter’s neck.

The blue, sharp edge looked ready to cut through his neck in an instant.

It had been freshly sharpened by Hans, making it even keener.

"I’m in no position to casually kill villagers of a royal demesne, but since you’re clearly shielding a family murderer, I can execute you on the spot under my judicial authority. Is the man you’re protecting more precious to you than your own family?"

"I-I’ll talk! Please, let my father go!"

She should have spoken sooner.

At my glance, Viktor and the men released the hunters.

The guide was frozen stiff at my unexpectedly hardline attitude.

But the hunters seemed even more shocked by the fact that their daughter knew something than by the threat itself. They’d clearly said they were on bad terms with the forest keeper family.

"Surely you—you didn’t! That bastard! Are you out of your damn mind!"

"He absolutely did not kill his family! Believe me, Father!"

"You foolish girl, do you mean to bring ruin on our entire family!"

So furious he could barely contain himself, the hunter tried to strike his daughter.

But the other members and family held him back and barely managed to pry him off.

"Sir! Please, save Ralph! He would never have done such a thing! On the night of that tragedy, he was actually with me! Sob, sob!"

"Y-you wretched girl, you went and—! I told you not to see him!"

Whack!

I understood the angry father’s feelings, but he kept trying to interfere, so I struck him hard with the pommel. Leaving the slumped hunter behind, I led his daughter out of the cabin.

The reason I acted this way was that the hunter’s daughter was telling the truth. That meant Ralph wasn’t a family murderer. Had I stumbled into something unexpected?

"If, as you testify, he’s truly innocent, I’ll help him. Don’t worry—just guide me."

"Please clear Ralph’s name! I beg you, sir! If you ask for my body, I’ll offer it!"

She was saying something dangerous.

She must love that young man Ralph dearly.

The two families were on bad terms, but their eldest children loved each other—an ironic situation. With the tragedy and devastation of the massacre, there wasn’t a shred of romance to it, but it still reminded me of Romeo and Juliet.

The place the hunter’s daughter led us to was a cave.

The cave had a narrow entrance, but the interior seemed spacious. Hiding in a place like this, no one would find him. But the risk of being attacked by bears or wolves was also quite high.

"Huh?!"

The young man who had been chopping firewood outside the cave was startled out of his wits when he saw us.

He looked around quickly, clearly searching for an escape route.

"Surely you’re not going to abandon your woman and run, are you?"

At my words, the young man, who had been about to flee, came to a sudden halt.

The hunter’s daughter desperately tried to convince him.

"Ralph! Don’t run! This man will prove your innocence!"

Hearing his lover’s words, Ralph hesitantly approached me. In that moment, the order surrounded him. The young man named Ralph did not appear to have committed such a horrible crime.

His disposition was honesty (good).

I trusted this disposition the most. Most of my retainers shared this kind of disposition.

"I swear to God, I never killed my family!"

Ralph desperately asserted his innocence. On that day, he’d been making love with his lover, and when he returned home, he’d found the tragedy. What he truly wanted was to find the killer who had murdered his family.

I went over the case carefully.

The unusual point was that the victims had been brutally tortured to death.

Now that I thought about it, that detail was strange.

Torture, unless inflicted by a severe sadist, is generally performed to extract something. But what could a humble forest keeper family possibly have that was worth extracting?

"Be-before Grandmother passed away, she told me to find her keepsake!"

"Did you find the keepsake?"

"N-no! I was too out of my mind..."

Far from retrieving the keepsake, he’d been so terrified that he’d fled to his lover and had been hiding in the cave ever since. As if a man like this could commit murder. Just as his disposition of honesty (good) suggested, he was incapable of doing wrong.

Then I remembered the hairpin I’d found in the forest keeper’s cabin.

"Is this the keepsake, by any chance?"

"That—that looks right! But how did you—?"

"I searched your home without permission and found it. Sorry about that."

Hmm? Hold on—there was something else here.

I hadn’t noticed when I first took out the hairpin, but on closer inspection, there was a small piece of cloth inside the box. I took it out, and it was a handkerchief. Letters were embroidered on it in cross-stitch.

"Rudolf Ritter von Karlstadt, to Lydia?"

It was a romantic token that looked like a gift to a beloved lover. But I’d never heard the surname Karlstadt. With the Ritter title, he was clearly a duchy knight.

But Fiel seemed to recognize that name.

"Commander, is that really what’s written?"

"Look. The embroidery says so. Do you know that knight?"

"That’s strange. As far as I know, Karlstadt is the family of the royal palace gatekeepers. Why would it be here?"

What? Royal palace gatekeepers?