I Raised A Black Dragon - Chapter 59 part 2

“Well, things got a little annoying.”

Kyle looked at her again for a while and seemed to finally decide that she was dry. Kyle then directed Noah to sit in a chair opposite of him.

The laughter from when Kyle was playing and joking with her disappeared, it was replaced with a slightly nervous expression, and Kyle then handed Noah a statement. It belonged to Lenia.

“Lenia Valtayer refused to confess, it’s no wonder she never opened her mouth when she was on the ship. She remained totally ignorant.”

“There was a stand-in in Tezeva for Lenia. Did you take care of it already?”

“I think so. Valtayer’s mansion was seized and searched first, but he only replied that Lady Valtayer had been gone for a month. I asked the person who reported to me and he said that he mistook Lady Valtayer for a maid. The quality of the picture that I took as a proof is unclear for some reason…”

Kyle appeared frustrated and spoke harshly. Noah understood. Kyle must have been able to change his attitude like that because he had handled Tezeva’s stand-in somehow.

Noah thought that but was then shocked at Kyle’s next words.

“And the most crucial thing is, the woman who was supposed to be Lenia Valtayer or her supposed stand-in, never entered the imperial palace on that day of the egg’s disappearance.”

“What?”

“The defensive barriers surrounding the Imperial Palace automatically recognize and record the identities of those entering and leaving. We investigated everyone who entered the imperial castle that day, but there was no record of Lenia Valtayer.”

“You mean she manipulated it?”

“I’m not sure. However, we can’t detain her right now as there is no clear evidence. There is no evidence to persuade His Majesty and the Minister.”

As long as there is no evidence of Lenia lying, Noah would be the one regarded as the egg thief. She even admitted to the crime when she was interrogated. 

“The ministers ordered us to detain you as soon as we took the statement from Lenia Valtayer. It would not be possible for you to be cleared of the charges at this point.”

“What should I do? Do I really have to destroy this place and escape with Muel and end up as a fugitive?”

“That’s extreme. Why do you keep resembling Muel?”

‘Uh, do I?’ As Noah opened her mouth to try to reply, Kyle continued,

“No matter how much I want to, unless the truth is revealed, I cannot release you, Miss Noah. Of course, you can’t be locked in an underground prison, because they’re afraid of the dragon’s retaliation, but you won’t be able to leave the Bureau for months. So, the fastest way you can get out of here is to admit to the charges, go to trial, and get a decent sentence.”

“Ah.”

It wasn’t until then that Noah realized why Kyle had to get a false statement from her.

Kyle swung his pen around and spoke.

“The trial is probably just a formality. If you cooperate well, Laurent will have another magical revival in 500 years, so it would be a waste to lose that chance, and now our ‘pretty’ baby dragon is making a mess in the Imperial Castle…” (PR: He said “our” let me just pretend he’s calling Muel their child)

‘Nice, Muel.’ She almost wanted to find and grab Muel and kiss him right away. Kyle placed his pen down as he finished speaking.

“So of course you have a right to be upset, but you’ve got to put up with it for now.” 

“What do you think the sentence will be?”

“Giving up part of your property, or volunteer work depending on the situation. Well, that’s what it is. We can’t give you a prison term with the Imperial court trembling in fear of the dragon in the first place.”

“Well … “

If it was really only that, then it was just like a slap on the wrist. Her body already had 15 crimes recorded anyway, so what’s the difference between having one more criminal record on it? There was no need to worry. Noah started to nod her head in agreement but stopped at Kyle’s words.

“Of course, you can’t do it with your oral confession, you need to do it in a formal way.”

“What way?”

“A reflection statement.”

“A what?”

‘A letter of apology? Saying what? I’m sorry, I will never do that again, like that?’ Noah wondered.

“Is that really going to work?”

“It depends on how much time you spend on it.”

No matter how bad writing the letter of apology was, it couldn’t be worse than writing her thesis. She felt a little better when she thought like that.

“I see. I’ll write the apology tomorrow. It’s only a letter.”

Kyle only said,

“Hah.”

“……?”

It didn’t take long for Noah to realise why he laughed.

The very next day, when Noah went down to the underground interrogation room to write the letter, what she found was a pile of papers on the desk and felt a chill down on her spine.

“Why didn’t you tell me that I would have to write twenty copies of the apology letter?” Noah moaned.

Noah was onto her fifteenth copy of the apology letter. Kyle’s answer was to hand Noah a new piece of paper as soon as she finished the copy. 

“No one believes your words anyway, so you need to write more than one apology. It’s not the content that matters, it’s the fact that Eleonora Asil wrote them all.”

In other words, overwhelm them with quantity. Noah reflected on the sins she did not even commit with all her heart, by writing twenty sets of the letter. Each one was made of five sheets so there were about a hundred sheets in total.