In the prince's workroom that morning, Drystan knocked three times before entering the room. He was holding a bunch of papers in his arms as he approached the first prince whom was sitting restlessly in the room. Right after entering, the room was heavier than usual. For Drystan, the cold and stuffy atmosphere he felt the entire time felt new everytime he entered the room. But this time, he can clearly see the sudden disturbances on the first prince's actions. It was noticeable despite him trying hard to hide it. The first prince was still lost in his thoughts as he looked at the window depressingly. Despite Drystan entering so loudly, the first prince seemed not yet to notice his presence.
"Prince El? Here all the list of evidences and testimonies we've gathered through the entire night," Drystan placed the pile of papers he's carefully holding in the desk. Despite being careful, he can't still hide his restlessness after seeing the first prince acting like that for the first time.
"Prince El?" Drystan flicked his fingers until El snapped out from wandering in his thoughts. He was startled as he flinched and immediately turned his chair around.
"Ah ..! What is it Drystan?" he indifferently said despite his weird actions just before.
"Here are the evidences and testimonies of some Palladine and Armenia estate servants." Drystan repeated nonchalantly as he tried acting cool about the weird prince's actions.
El stood up and turned around. As he faced the window, he looked out again and the mood instantly became depressing that Drystan felt tired just by looking at him acting like that.
"What did they say? Are both of them guilty of such crime?"
"Ah- ... yes ... Sadly ..."
El let out a heavy sigh as he put his hands inside his pocket. "Continue your report."
"According to the testimonies collected, both of the estate have been doing this trade for years. They enslaved commoners and sold them to other countries. In the Armenia's carriage, we found a bunch of illegal drugs while a single key was found in the Palladine. The servants of both estate were tight - lipped but we still managed to squeeze some information from the other servants. And as what we've concluded, both of the families probably can't get away with this despite claiming their innocence. The strange thing was they were all claiming that the trade was always happening at 20:00, not 20:10."
"Drugs?" El turned his head around and looked coldly at Drystan.
"Yes. The Armenia's carriage was filled with drugs. Suspected to be fake, we investigated the carriage overnight but with the official crest of the Armenia that was made of pure gold embedded on it, we can't say that that was not their carriage."
With uncertainty in El's face, he didn't hesitate to asked what was bugging him the entire night.
"Drugs? Not gold? Are you telling me that the Armenia was dealing with drugs? Are you certain?!"
Flustered with the first prince's question, he slowly nodded his head, "Yes ... We're certain of it, Prince El."
El froze in his spot and never uttered a single word upon Drystan's response.
"Prince El, is there anything wrong?"
"There are other people present at that time" With his hair covering his eyes, he whispered softly with his head bowed down.
"Pardon?"
Acting flustered for the first time, he abruptly looked at Drystan with his eyes shaking and said " I said that there are other people present at that time!" in a very high pitch that was almost like a yell.
"What?! Is that true?!" Drystan responded in the very same manner.
"Yeah ..." as the memories of that night started appearing in his mind as if it was a nightmare, he lost all the strength in his legs and sat down in his seat. "I even exchanged blades with one of them."
"Then, did you win? Did you see his face?" Drystan sat down in front of the desk as he tried squeezing out information from El's mouth. Seeing the first prince all flustered like that, he can't help but drop the formalities at that moment.
Looking pessimistic for the first time, he slowly tilted his head and looked at Drystan with such dreary expression in his face.
"No ... I lost. For the first time in my life ... to think that I lost to someone I didn't even expected. Matter worse, it was a woman."
"Woman? Is it a knight of some estate? I never heard of female becoming a knight in my entire life!" Drystan was shocked to what he just heard. For the first prince to admit defeat when it comes sword fighting, it was something that he never expected hearing from the first prince's mouth.
After being thrown at the Jade Palace, the first prince dedicated himself in improving his current self. He learned everything from finance, history, land management, military tactics to proper etiquettes and sword fighting. With the kingdom's knights training him, he was considered as a genius. But to think that he lost to someone on one thing the first prince had confident in winning. Adding that the opponent was a female, it greatly dealt a heavy toll on the his mentality.
Despite being depressed about what he had experienced, he never hesitated to answer every question Drystan asked.
"She wasn't a knight. She was wearing a full black outfit from head to toe with just her eyes showing. Her eyes ..." the look on Roselia's face appeared for a moment in his mind. A cold and smizing ash colored - eyes that was cold and ruthless as if he was being swallowed alive.
"An assasin? Is she from the third prince's faction? Is this all plotted by the third prince?" Drystan spoke out what he was thinking. "But all of the evidences were pointing to both of the families. There's no evidences of their interventions at all."
"No ..." El managed to calm himself and stood up from his seat. "She's not working for the that guy. If I heard right what the other guy whispered, the one I've encountered was called ..." he walked towards the door and stopped as he looked back at Drystan.
"General." they exchanged silent stares.
"General?" Drystan was having cold sweat in his seat.
"Yeah ... In short, the leader of the group." he looked forward and sighed heavily as he opened the door.
"Then if what you said is true, then this General and his group already knew about the illegal trade and they're the one who informed us about it?"
"Probably. It's impossible that only drugs and a storage key was present during this trade. It's not impossible but it totally doesn't make any sense at all. Something was missing. The Armenia were selling slaves presented by the Palladine every month. If what I speculated is correct then their target was the missing gold. I don't really know how they did it but after the trade, they managed to swap the gold carriage with drugs. With us being informed about this rather late, we ended up cleaning the mess they made with both families taking all the blame. And just like that, they stole all the gold without even having their presence known. As if they never existed, just like a ghost."
Drystan abruptly jolted up of his seat and panicked as it was obvious in his expression and voice. "Then! Is there a possibility that the other countries were already starting to infiltrate the kingdom and planning to meddle between the fight of two factions silently in the shadows? I mean with this, it's very rational to think that with both of the factions busy with their fight, they can suddenly take this opportunity to start a war."
El just stood in front of the opened door. His mood went down as he sighed heavily with too much stress he's feeling that time.
"I don't know ... I want to calm my mind for now, Drystan ... There's too much weird happenings that I can't even understand anymore. For now, grant a request to His Highness about the Armenia/Palladine case. Even if they're not guilty, as gossips about them started flying around by now, we should immediately remove them from the faction. It's sad but let's just hope that both of the family will just end up losing their nobility titles instead of being hanged as an example."
"Okay, Prince El. I'll do it by today."
El walked away from that stuffy room and decided to calm himself by wandering around the capital. He disguised himself as a commoner and slipped out of the Jade Palace. There's too much that happened that he, a prince himself can't even process logically anymore. As he was wandering in town, he saw a familiar face entering a famous pastry shop. Upon seeing that person, he unconsciously smiled as he followed and entered that exact pastry shop. In the counter, as that person was ordering, he poked the person's shoulder gently with his fingers. The person turned around surprisingly flinched upon seeing him.
"It's been a long time! 2 months I guess?" he smiled broadly as he looked at her. The person whom he saw was Roselia.
"You!!" With her flushed face, she froze in her spot as he looked at him directly in the eye.
As El looked back in her eyes, he can't help but think about the encounter he had last night. He noticed the same eye features of Roselia and the woman from last night. He never knew that they're the same person.
[ To think that she had the same eye color with the woman in black last night. The only difference is that her eyes was sweeter and gentlier compared to that woman's cold gaze. If she dressed full black, I can totally mistake her for that woman. ]
"Ah ... I need to go now! Uhmm ... Bye ..!" Roselia tried to leave but El held her arms tightly and gave a warm smile at her. Roselia took a glance and instantly felt uncomfortable upon seeing his smile.
"Can we chat a bit?" El maintained his smile.
"A--, about what?!" Roselia slowly turned her head back and stuttered in uneasiness after looking back at him.
"What do you mean by that? Isn't there only a single thing to talk about?" El leaned his head forward and chuckled softly as he looked calmly in her eyes.