"Ah, he's here."
How many minutes had passed?
Ian's exhausted body dragged himself back to Iris's bedroom.
Riley, who had been sitting in a leisurely manner until now, stood up to greet him, as if he had been waiting for a while.
"How was it?"
"..."
Riley asked Ian who looked as if he could not believe what had happened.
As if he was out of his mind, Ian could not muster a reply.
Both Iris and Sera who did not know what the boy was asking about, could only tilt their heads with puzzled looks on their faces.
"Ian-nim, where have you been? You left so quickly after returning with Young Master."
"Ian, are you alright? You don't look too well."
"Well, that's..."
How should he explain?
Ian continued to open and close his mouth repeatedly, until he finally managed to make a sound.
"...It was Lady Orelly."
"Pardon?"
"What?"
"It was all Lady Orelly's doing."
Ian covered his frowning face with his hands and continued to explain.
He did so while mentioning to himself that he simply could not believe what he had just seen.
"The 'poison' which was put inside Lady Iris's soup..."
"Huh?"
"...?"
There was only one conclusion one could arrive at after hearing this and the words that were cut off from before.
Lady Orelly…she was the one who had poisoned Lady Iris’ dinner!
"..."
Ian, who had said those words.
Iris, who had heard those words.
Both stood as silent as statues.
This was a matter that would turn the mansion upside down.
"... It can't be, right?"
"Lady Iris..."
"Ian, surely...Lady Orelly would never."
Iris who was tucked inside her bed firmly held onto the edge of the blanket.
Even if she had often received scoldings from Lady Orelly, as a woman who shared the same husband, Iris believed she would be the last person to be responsible for it, and thus she pressured Ian once more.
"Mother, it's alright."
Riley held onto his mother's shoulder.
She calmed down, stopped questioning Ian and bit her lip.
"Ian."
Riley called his butler.
"..."
Ian nodded with his jaws clenched at the call of his master.
The serious face he was making was to show nothing he had said was false.
"Impossible."
Iris' shoulders dropped at the shocking news.
At the same time, Sera's jaw dropped.
Lady Orelly's jealousy and hatred toward Lady Iris was something all the maids in the mansion knew... but they never expected that it was significant enough to attempt an assassination.
"What about Father?"
Riley asked Ian with a calm attitude, as if he had expected it.
Since he was the first one to find out the truth himself.