"Right! Your Highness! This is exactly the problem I've never been able to understand!"
Seeing that Ileina seemed to finally realize, Adeline hurriedly nodded.
"Logically speaking, orphans in the Holy Kingdom would basically all be adopted by the church."
"And orphans not adopted by the church must have been adopted by other families, because as long as church personnel discover children wandering outside for a long time, they will actively adopt the children."
"Even sometimes, even when some children who have grown wild outside resist being adopted by the church, they will still be forcibly adopted by clergy, because Holy Kingdom law allows grassroots churches to forcibly adopt children after confirming they have no guardians..."
"So... either what Caroline said before was false, and she actually wasn't adopted by people in the Holy Capital slums at all, or... the residents of the Holy Capital slums had reasons they had to adopt her..."
"Or... her father or mother had deep connections with many people in the Holy Capital slums... and after her family members died, those slum residents, grateful for her family's kindness, all took out their best things and wealth to raise Caroline..."
"You have to know—compared to these people in the Holy Capital slums, the church, which actually controls a considerable portion of public authority and has experience in raising orphans, would be more suitable for raising an orphan."
"That is to say, only if many people in the slums together contributed a large portion of their wealth could she receive better life and education than being raised by the church..."
...
After hearing Adeline's analysis, both Elashia and Ileina's expressions gradually became serious.
Especially Ileina—her serious appearance even made Elashia feel she had instantly transformed back into that dignified and wise Holy Princess...
"Mm..."
Ileina furrowed her delicate brows, as if recalling something...
And the air became silent at this moment...
The silence between the three didn't last too long, and soon Ileina's sudden statement attracted Adeline and Elashia's attention.
"I think I should know..."
"Your Highness, please enlighten us!"
Adeline, excited by Ileina's words, hurriedly leaned forward to her.
"Mm... this can only be considered my speculation..."
Ileina thought for a moment and said to Adeline:
"Do you remember that I had my guards bring me several very thick bound volumes of newspapers before?"
"Newspapers?"
Adeline was stunned.
"What does Caroline's background have to do with newspapers?"
Ileina nodded meaningfully.
"Very possibly related, and the relationship might be very significant..."
"I don't know if you know—it should have been thirteen years ago, just after I left the Holy Kingdom, there was a shocking incident in the Holy Capital where poor people attacked wealthy merchants..."
"At first, the Holy Guards in the Holy Capital all thought this was just a violent incident caused by simple hatred of the rich, but as the investigation progressed, people discovered—this matter didn't seem as simple as it appeared on the surface..."
"As the investigation deepened, the Holy Guards discovered—it turned out the civilian riot was caused by a woman..."
"That woman could be called quite legendary... She was born in the Holy Capital slums as a child, extremely impoverished, and was sold to a brothel at her teens..."
"But somehow, she was suddenly liked by a very famous wealthy merchant in the Holy Capital..."
"That wealthy merchant even directly displayed his feelings for that prostitute in the media without reservation at the time, saying he would marry no one but her."
"After they married, this matter was celebrated as a good story by all the people of the Holy Kingdom..."
"In the years after their marriage, they were very harmonious, even having a very beautiful child together... When a Holy Tribunal official friend of that wealthy merchant visited their home, he even said—this child is a natural warrior and will definitely go far on the military path..."
"But... in the tenth year after their marriage, everything suddenly changed..."
Looking at the two who were listening intently to her story, Ileina continued:
"The cause seemed to be... that wealthy merchant wanted to enter the Holy Capital's grain business... To strike at competitors, he secretly hired several arsonists to set fire to his competitors' granaries..."
"Then his wife somehow suddenly learned of this matter... and secretly spread this information."
"After learning of this, the indignant Holy Capital civilians angrily surrounded that wealthy merchant's residence... then it evolved into a violent incident."
"After discovering this matter seemed to involve quite a few things behind the scenes, the Holy Capital's Holy Guards all became busy, investing tremendous effort to thoroughly investigate this matter..."
"Finally, the truth of this matter came to light—that woman knew the wealthy merchant's fire would destroy at least a thousand tons of grain, which would not only disadvantage that conspiracy target's business competition, but also definitely disadvantage the people in the Holy Capital, so she decided to stop the wealthy merchant's actions."
"And to avoid being discovered by the wealthy merchant, she secretly passed this intelligence out... finally resulting in this situation."
"At the end of the story, the woman, after being discovered by the wealthy merchant, left with her child, and the wealthy merchant was also arrested but regained freedom after paying a large sum to the Holy Court..."
"You know, the Holy Court at that time was very short of money. To raise funds for fighting the Blood Clan and repay the huge debt owed to the Elasian royal family, the Holy Court basically allowed purchasing prison terms with money in private..."
"So the final outcome of this matter was—the originally happy family was broken, the woman moved to the slums with her child, and the wealthy merchant completely lost his passion for love and family, devoting himself entirely to business after being released from prison..."
After Ileina finished saying this, she emphasized again:
"However... some of these news reports are credible, while others are not so reliable..."
"The main content of this matter was reported in the Holy Court's official newspaper and should be relatively credible, while information about that woman's background and subsequent developments all came from some civilian small newspapers, even from some newspapers that specialized in collecting scandals..."
"So I can't guarantee the authenticity of this matter... and this matter may not necessarily be related to Caroline..."
After listening to Ileina's description, Adeline fell into contemplation...
Before long, she raised her head.
"I think... the possibility that Caroline is that child is very high."
"One thing, two things matching might be coincidence, but if everything matches..."
"Oh my, we still couldn't keep it hidden..."
Just as Adeline was halfway through her words, Caroline's helpless yet deliberately relaxed voice suddenly rang out among the three!
Looking at the shocked Adeline, Caroline forced out a smile.
"Adeline, you didn't close the door properly..."