The One who Fired the Gun
Before he could give a reply, Francesca refuted her own question herself.
“……….sorry, I phrased it wrong. I’m sure Leonardo you never actually lied about anything in regards to this matter, I’m sure.”
“Ohh?”
“The exact wording you used was, [Marquis Savini requested you to completely erase Graziano from his surroundings], correct? And I fully believe, that was indeed what he had asked you to do.”
The Savini family’s carriage left the forest, and approached closer to the Dance hall. Other guests seemed to have noticed that too as things seemed to get a bit more lively over there.
“Oh my, Marquis Savini is finally here!”
To come and greet the Marquis, the guests began to come outside from the various doors and into the garden. As all this happened, Francesca didn’t avert her gaze even one bit from Leonardo.
“And you made it seem like you accepted this request, and were investigating his movements. I’m sure that was no lie either. But—-…….”
It was then.
“!!!”
A sudden fierce gust of wind blew, and the hem of her dress fluttered. But that wind didn’t just blow here outside, it reached the insides of the hall of as well.
“Uwah, it’s all gone dark!!”
“Hey, the lights went out suddenly!! What a crazy gust of wind, hurry up and light these up again……..!”
The insides of the hall went dark, but Francesca and Leonardo who were already outside didn’t lose their visibility.
“Leonardo!”
“Yeah.”
Just as Leonardo broke out into a dash, Francesca too ran straight towards the carriage. These two had already accustomed their eyes to the darkness due to being outside in the garden.
And one more, there was one other person that took a very different action.
That person, reached inside their clothes and pulled something out, and then knelt down on the ground and took aim with that thing.
(A gun……!!)
From the carriage of the Savini family’s head, a tall man stepped outside. The moment the person aiming the gun seemed like they were ready to pull the trigger, Francesca quickly shouted their name.
“——……..ISABELLA-SAN!!!”
A loud gunshot echoed in the air.
As soon as the prostitute Isabella fired her gun, the tall man crumpled to the floor. The brooch on his chest, the mark of the Marquis Savini, glittered from the moonlight.
“……..ara ara, Francesca-chan.”
With the gun in her hand, Isabella turned to look at Francesca with cold eyes.
“You don’t seem very surprised that I just shot someone eh?”
“……….tsk.”
The other guests and prostitutes were in an uproar hearing the sudden sound of a gunshot.
“What the hell was that sound just now!? No way, did Marquis Savini get shot!!?”
“kyaaaaaa, someone!!? Someone call a doctor please! Hurry up!!”
“Who shot him!? They must be nearby, find them!!”
“Shit, it’s so dark, I can’t see anything……..!! Hurry and run from here, or we might get killed too!!”
Amongst the horrible chaos and screams, Francesca stared at Isabella.
“——-I had your past investigated as well, Isabella-san.”
The day Leonardo went down with a fever, she had written down the info she wanted Graziano to investigate and handed it to him in a piece of paper. The reason why she had Isabella investigated was because there were a few things that had started to stand out inside Francesca’s head.
“I just had this strange feeling, you see. The day I got attacked, why did you appear so suddenly out of nowhere in that place?”
When she said that, Isabella’s beautiful eyes narrowed.
“Isabella-san, you said you followed the tracks in the mud to get there. But the truth is, the path there is very stiff and solid, and there won’t be any tracks that’d be too easy to follow……..”
That’s why Ricardo’s boots remained so clean when he went to visit the area of the ambush the next day to investigate.
And Francesca had fallen down the cliff before the rain had started to fall. If the path was so solid that it didn’t muddy someone’s shoes even after heavy rain, there was no chance that it would have any kind of tracks remaining when it was still clear weather outside.
When Francesca realized that, she went with Ricardo to confirm it with her own eyes as well. That’s why it was only until evening that she returned back to their villa, but it also her to confirm her suspicion and turn it into belief.
“Even though I was attacked so far away from the path where I was supposed to be travelling on. Isabella-san somehow managed to track me down and appeared there so easily. I had been thinking about this from the moment I fell down that cliff to be honest.”
“Francesca, I don’t think you need to so politely explain all that to her, don’t you think?”
Grabbing Francesca by her shoulders and covering her to protect her, Leonardo laughed as he spoke.
“[I was so scared while running across the forest, it took me a lot of time to finally call for help!] was of course also a lie. Not that I trusted or believed you from the very beginning but, when I think how Francesca had to suffer from the chilly rain because of your little trickery, it does make me loathe you a lot more.”
“Oh how cruel. Are you saying the head of the Aldini family would never believe the words of a lady?”
“Well, then explain why these evil men that were supposedly chasing you, never came back to kill you again?”
“!”
Hearing Leonardo’s question, Isabella went silent.
“Because they never had any reason to kill you. After all, the men that attacked Francesca were never your enemies in the first place.”