As Alm goes to investigate the location of the artifact, Celica approaches the young man, a close eye kept on him as she leans down to pick up her heel lodged in the dirt. He flinches for a moment, as if he expected her to hurt him—but of course, that couldn't be farther from the actual truth of things.
(Unless he gave her a reason to, of course.)
"Why did you do it?" She asks, instead. "For money, I assume? A magical heirloom like that would no doubt run for a pretty coin down in the markets—the black market, even. There have been a number of illegal magical products making circulation as of late."
And an artifact that could take the shape of almost anything? Miraculous as it was dangerous, depending on what hands it fell into.
The young man sniffs with annoyance, "As if fancy blue bloods like you would understand. You've never had to want for anything. Never had to starve, never had to worry about where your next meal came from..."
His eyes flit up as Alm returns with the heirloom, and the man scoffs, "I was told that if I nabbed the artifact from the Duke, me and my siblings wouldn't have to worry about a thing anymore."
Celica frowns. He could be telling the truth, or he could just as easily be fabricating a story to garner sympathy, and lessen his punishment. No matter his reasons, he was caught in the midst of a crime—something had to be done about it.
Turning to Alm, she reaches out to touch the scepter, humming in confirmation. "...Yes, I feel a tremendous amount of magic coming from this. Amazing job, love. It seems we've found our item. We'll have to return it to the Duke. As for our friend here..."
"Tell us more about your siblings. I don't know who roped you into this, but my beloved and I will assure that they are taken care of while you're explaining your story in the Knights' custody."
The man hangs his head in defeat, but Celica knows it's for the best. She glances at Alm, sharing a nod with him. No matter the servant's reasons, he needed to take accountability for what he's done, and they couldn't risk believing a lie and allowing him to escape. Of course, she would keep her word to help his family.
In some way, it was the greed and privilege of the wealthy that led to this—however small the gesture might be, this would be their way of giving back.
For now, the authorities could take it from here. Perhaps she could share at least one more dance with her beloved, before the night's end...