"I can prove my innocence to you, Master… if you wish to hear me out."
"What?" Augustus raised a brow, truly stunned by Rey's composure and non admittance of the truth despite the wealth of evidence against him.
"You are a kind, fair, and just person, Master. I truly believe you are honest and will not punish an innocent party. I am innocent and I can prove it." Rey pressed his head on the ground, groveling as a desperate slave should.
"Oh?"
Most people would have broken down and begun to beg for their lives at this point.
Augustus had gotten many slaves over the years. In fact, he got one every few days, and most of them never lasted a week.
Naturally, there had been a few exceptional ones among them whom he granted the same freedom as Rey.
A small number of them were foolish enough to steal from him, all of whom were caught.
At this moment, all of them—without exception—would confess to the crime and beg for mercy.
But Rey was different.
He had a certain confidence in his eyes that showed he was convinced of his own innocence.
This puzzled Augustus.
He hadn't been involved in the investigation personally, but he had competent subordinates.
Rey was the one who most frequented the general section of the library, and the book went missing a few days after he began to visit the library.
The book was even found in his room and had his prints.
Ergo… he was the thief.
"Really? You can prove it?" Augustus smiled at Rey, not particularly believing the boy, but still choosing to humor him. "Then do so, right here and now. You have five minutes."
"I only need two. As long as you hear me out, Master."
"Yout time starts now."
Rey smiled.
He had successfully gotten to this point.
His gamble had paid off!
"For one, I remember all the books I took from the library, Master. I know I read that one, but I didn't even go very far in it. It was too complex, so I returned it quickly. I read so many books every day, Master, and there are so many books in the Library. Why would I have a fixation on one book when I can always read it at any time?"
The moment Rey said this, Augustus chuckled and shook his head.
Then, Leon spoke.
"All the books you read were recorded by the Library Staff that supervised. Although you didn't have this book for very long, you certainly read it briefly before suspiciously returning it early."
"That doesn't mean I would steal it!"
"Silence! I have not finished speaking!" Leon said, his tone triumphant. "That book talks on Curse Art, specifically on Binding Techniques. Although the information is very vague and not very useful, it has a section that talks about Curse Arts used on slaves. You must have figured that out and decided to return it early so you wouldn't be suspected of trying to break your restriction. But you intended to steal it so that you could secretly research it and find a way to undo your slave contract."
"T-that—!" Rey's eyes bulged.
"Follish slave. The book wouldn't have given you anything useful anyway. It just talks on general concepts. But you would take any chance you could get at freedom, wouldn't you? You thought you were smart, but you're actually so foolish. You are an uneducated slave who simply awakened the ability to read and write because of your cursed bloodline. It's obvious you wouldn't know that we keep records of every book that is read or borrowed from the library. You also didn't think the Library staff would check the shelves daily for any missing book, so you thought you could get away with taking the book for only a day or two before returning it. Too bad! Your stupid plan failed!"
Rey listened patiently, not even interrupting Leon until he was done speaking.
Once he was done, Rey was overjoyed.
But he didn't show it.
Instead, he chose to display a solemn expression.
"It is true that I discovered that the book was primarily focused on Curse Art and how it affected slaves. But that is why I decided to return it early. I didn't want to betray Master, who has been nothing but kind to me all this time."
"Liar! You—!"
"I have not finished speaking!" It was Rey's turn to raise his voice and interrupt Leon. "Master gave me time to explain myself, yet you keep interrupting. Are you insulting Master right now by defying his will?!"
"A-ah, I—"
Augustus shot Leon an annoyed look, forcing the Knight to shrink back after apologizing profusely.
'Good. Now that I Leon has said everything I want him to say and I have ensured he won't interrupt me again, it's time for my true plan to bloom.'
Rey had been on defense this entire time, but it was all intentional.
'Of course, I know how the library works. I used to read a lot of books both on Earth and in H'Trae. But he assumed I wouldn't know about inventory and record keeping because I am a slave, just as I wanted him to.' Rey's eyes flashed with ominous light as he glanced at Leon for a moment.
'Now watch closely, you newbie…' His lips lightly curled upward. 'This is how you make a proper scheme.'
"Master, to tell you the truth, I have a surefire way to prove my innocence. Many people don't know this, but the flowers in the garden have pollen that stick to anything they are in contact with. They also don't vanish until after a week. I read all my books in the garden, and all the patrol officers and gardeners can testify to this. You can check all the books in the records: all of them will have traces of the pollen on them. These pollen are nearly invisible and don't leave much of a scent, but with even a low-Sequence Technique, or microscopic technology, perhaps pollen detectors, you can find their traces on—"
"How does this prove that you did not steal the book, though? All the pollen proves is that you read the book in the garden, which is true." Augustus rolled his eyes in dissatisfaction.
It was clear that he was getting impatient.
But this was when the brilliance of Rey's plan shone forth.
"The pollen doesn't just stick to books but clothes. All the clothes I wore to the garden these past few days will have these pollen on them." As Rey said this, he glanced at Leon, who was already sweating buckets.
The young Knight's bloodshot eyes were twitching, though he kept his head bowed so his expression wouldn't show.
'So you've figured it out, huh? You idiot…'