After sharing the joy of reuniting with her husband after a long time, Lucia leaned against his chest and fell asleep in his arms while they were making small talk. After the incident, she had suffered from insomnia that made her toss and turn till dawn, but after his return, all her tension was released.
When Hugo came down from the second floor after properly placing his sleeping wife in bed, Fabian had already arrived and was waiting for him.
"The situation isn't looking very good."
Fabian handed in his report. Hugo kept receiving information about the situation on the way back home, so he was roughly informed about it. The only disappointment was the fact that the bitch and the bastard were already dead.[1] If they were alive, he would have given them the worst agony they had ever experienced as a gift.
It had been a week since the incident happened. If Hugo was there when the incident occurred, he would have found any way possible to cover up the incident, but a lot of time had already passed.
The acts that Roy committed had already become an established fact, so it was too late to deal with the rumors. The death of the King's brother-in-law, Count Ramis, was not a topic that people would easily lose interest in. Rather, people were keeping a close watch on how this case would be resolved. There were also people making half-baked guesses, wondering if it would turn into a war between the two dukes.
The reason why the situation had become so difficult was because it completely excluded the Duchess. Hugo did not want his wife to even be mentioned anywhere in this case at all.
Rumors in the social circle were a tag that followed you throughout your entire life. If they were to resolve the case by using evidence that David and Anita had conspired to harm the Duchess, the harm to his wife would be too big. People would trample her with all sorts of speculative remarks.
"Is there any way to get him out?"
"We have looked through several methods, but it is impossible."
Roy did not explain the situation at the time nor did he plead his case. He did not give any reason to justify his crime. In order to explain the situation, Roy would have to mention the Duchess, so he could never open his mouth.
'What to do…'
Hugo thought of the most extreme way. That is, putting a crime on David's head instead. The only crime that could justify the killing of the Duke's eldest son, was rebellion.
'No. The king will not cooperate.'
The scale was too big. If they wanted to steer it towards rebellion, they only had to fabricate the evidence. It just so happens that there was a good prey for that. They would have no trouble packaging the youth's organization funded by David as traitors wishing to overthrow the country.
However, David was the successor of the Duke of Ramis. David's rebellion was the Ramis family's rebellion and it wasn't an issue that would end with David alone dying. The surrounding people would not be left alone.
Being at the height of his power, the Duke of Ramis had as many political enemies as he had allies. Those enemies wouldn't let go of this opportunity and would tenaciously drag the Duke towards his ruin. And if that happened, the Queen and the princes would be tied into it. There was no end.
Currently, the Duke of Ramis was a victim. The Duke of Ramis was the king's father-in-law and right-hand man. Kwiz would not stand aside and let the Duke of Ramis, who had lost his son, be wrongly accused of rebellion.
'Is there no way to secretly take him out…?'
They could also approach this by assuming Roy's release was impossible and stealing him away. This method would definitely make him become enemies with the Duke of Ramis. The king would not approve and eventually, he would be standing against the king.
Hugo was not afraid to fight the king. He had more than enough strength hidden in the north.
However, war needed justification. In order to inspire the morale of those participating in the war, you must provide justification for them to fight. That way, they would be willing to bravely fight for the Taran family.
If a war was started to save one of the knights of the Duke that had committed a vicious murder, even if the soldiers externally pretended to follow, they would not be able to accept it, therefore it would definitely end in failure.
Even if he chose to stay in the north and not step foot in the capital at all, Kwiz would not quietly turn a blind eye. It was not Kwiz's nature to leave an enemy behind his back. His nature was to remove any element that could become unstable by all means.
Hugo could always keep himself safe regardless, but his wife was weak. She couldn't live a life forever anxious that something might squeeze into any gap in their defenses. He couldn't do that to his wife.
In order to save Roy, he needed the king's cooperation. Hugo folded his arms, sat back, and fell into deep thought.
Fabian stood, waiting for his lord's decision with bated breath. Fabian was curious as to how the Duke would resolve this incident.
No matter how hard he thought about it, there was no choice but to suffer a loss by abandoning Roy. If they could settle this incident by abandoning a knight who murdered a Duke's heir, it was a profitable trade.
The office was silent with a strange sense of tension in the air.
"I will go to the palace. Go and inform His Majesty that I am seeking an private audience."
"Yes, Your Grace."
Fabian first left for the palace and after a while, Hugo also headed to the palace.
* * *
Hugo secretly entered the palace, unseen by others. The fact that the Duke of Taran was back, would soon be known through the mouths of gossipers anyway, but it was better to handle everything quietly if possible.
"Hoho. Did you fly here, Gong? I heard you were at the border not too long ago."
Kwiz said cheerfully as soon as he saw Hugo. Not being too serious in everything was a mask that Kwiz used. If he displayed a similar attitude regardless of what happened, it would be hard to read his intentions.
"As soon as I returned, I was met with a rather unsavory incident." (Hugo)
"What are you going to do?" (Kwiz)
Without wasting time, Kwiz brought up the main subject. The situation was at its peak and there was no room left for counter measures. Just the fact that Kwiz did not touch Roy who was locked up in the dungeon so far, showed enough good faith. The Queen was a bundle of tears while his father-in-law visited everyday and expressed his sadness.
After investigating the circumstances, there were a lot of suspicious parts in the situation. Why did the Countess of Falcon have a magical tool owned by the ducal house of Ramis? Why did she led the noblewomen to Katherine's breakroom? Even if they assumed that the Countess killed the princess' handmaid in order to steal her clothes, why did she kill the Duchess' handmaid afterwards? There were a lot of doubtful areas.
There was strong suspicion that the Countess was in some sort of agreement with David, but there was no real evidence. It was also unclear as to what exactly she was planning to do. Even after shaking out the Countess' house and businesses, nothing came out. David often dropped by her bar but that was not a crime.
The Duke of Ramis claimed that the family's magical tool was stolen and thoroughly denied any connection with the Countess.
He insisted that David, who had been down at the fiefdom, received special consideration from him, his father, to spend time at home for the founding day, so he came to the capital and purely entered the palace in order to attend the party.
Roy killed all the people involved, and the only party concerned, Roy, was keeping his mouth shut. There was no evidence to refute the claims of the Duke of Ramis. Therefore, David was murdered unfairly, and Roy was a vicious murderer.
"I heard the situation is not looking very good." (Hugo)
"It is not good indeed. Sir. Krotin has to say something in order for us to piece the puzzle together. Even that is already too late. At this point, it is hard to turn things around no matter what he says. But seeing as Duke Ramis is not steering David's death as a deliberate conspiracy of Duke Taran's, one can see that he is holding back a lot. My father-in-law's request is simple. He wants Sir. Krotin to be executed according to the law. With that, he will let things go. Rather, this King is surprised because he was very cool-headed in the face of his son's death." (Kwiz)
"…"
"Releasing Sir. Krotin is difficult. There's also an issue with the fact that Sir. Krotin had a sword in the palace. If we handle the death of his eldest son in a passable manner, my father-in-law will make an issue out of it. If they claim that his purpose was to assassinate this king and they gather public opinion, it will lead to a political controversy and the Taran family will also be caught up in it. This king doesn't want things to develop that way."
The king's anti-opposing forces were still holding their breaths. Right now, when they hadn't properly sorted them out, if the king's two greatest strengths were to fight each other, it would be exposing a gap to them. Since that situation would turn into a mud fight, Kwiz would choose to execute Roy.
"Why in the world is Sir. Krotin like that? The incident aside, I'm just so curious, I can't sleep." (Kwiz)
"Can I see him?" (Hugo)
****
The solitary cell of the castle dungeon was designed with a dual structure. When you entered through the stone gates, there was a room made of stone walls and a wall built with bars to confine the prisoner to another room. Even if the prisoner was able to somehow get out from behind the bars, they would have to deal with the knights guarding the stone gates outside. It was a prison made for holding dangerous criminals.
Although Roy was indeed a dangerous character, the reason why Kwiz put him in the solitary cell was to prevent people from having access to him. There was a possibility of Duke Ramis trying to assassinate the prisoner in order to get revenge.
Roy was lying on the stone floor, using his arm as a pillow, and when he saw the man coming through the stone gate, he rose to his feet. The stone gate closed, leaving only the two of them inside.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" (Hugo)
"I am fine." (Roy)
Roy bashfully scratched his head. He didn't expect his lord's first question to be asking about his well-being.
"I heard you told Fabian about the situation at the time. Is there anything you haven't said?"
"No, there isn't. You really came fast, my lord. I thought you would take longer."
Perhaps that Roy thought he might die before his lord came back.
"Will I die?"
Roy calmly asked, as if he wasn't talking about himself. He knew that killing David would not be an ordinary issue. When he broke the bastard's neck, he was already prepared to die.
Killing Anita was not his initial intention. But as soon as he saw the handmaid entering the break room, he decided to kill her.
Roy's decision was the right one. If Anita was left alive and caught, she would have slandered the Duchess with all sorts of lies. Lucia would then be inevitably tied in as one of the parties involved and would have been at the center of all kinds of speculation and rumors.
Hugo frowned.
"You won't die."
Hugo thought for a moment before saying.
"If you want to keep your neck, you have to throw away your honor. Is your honor more important than your life?"
"Honor?"
Roy grinned.
"I've never had such a thing."[2]
Hugo chuckled.
"Then that's fine. Hang in there a little longer."
Hugo looked at Roy for a moment, then he threw out a brief sentence.
"You did well."
Roy laughed playfully and called out, stopping Hugo who was turning around.
"With this, have I repaid your favor?"[3]
A ray of light flashed through Hugo's eyes.
"You…"
Looking at Roy who was grinning widely, Hugo gave a faint smile.
"You'll be owing me your life again, so it is far from repaid." (Hugo)
"Wha— Wow, how did I end up like this? I should have run away when I realized you were a swindler." (Roy)[4]
Hugo left the solitary cell, listening to Roy's lamentable mutterings behind him. And when he got out of the dungeon, he called Fabian and secretly ordered him.
"Find a prisoner on death row. One with a similar physique and hair color to Roy. The physique has the first priority."
Fabian's eyes shone brightly. He bowed his head in reply and moved quickly. Hugo looked at the Fabian's receding back in the distance, then he turned his gaze to the Inner Palace that was some distance away. Now, it was time to negotiate with the king.
* * *
Katherine dropped by the Queen's palace.
"How is Her Royal Highness doing?"
"Her Highness is lying in bed. She cannot even eat at all."
The handmaid replied with a cloudy look on her face. Katherine gave a small sigh before entering the queen's bedroom.
Beth was greatly shocked by the terrible death of her younger brother and had been bedridden for several days. The palace people were afraid that something might go wrong with the fetus during the mourning period, so they were diligently running up and down.
"You have to recover your strength. You are expecting a child."
Katherine took Beth's hand and comforted her. Beth looked spiritless as she gave a weak smile.
"I didn't do much for my brother. I only said objectionable words every time we met."
Beth didn't know that her younger brother would leave so suddenly. He wasn't a brother that she was entirely satisfied with, but he was still her only blood brother. She nagged at him every time they met because she wanted him to turn out well. After her brother died, she was only filled with regret that she didn't ever tell him that he did well, at least once.
Her father was someone who held the family as more important than his son, and her husband didn't seem to care very much about his brother-in-law's death. There was no one that was sincerely hurt about her brother's death, so Beth was even more heartbroken.
"Sir. Krotin is someone that I'm also well-acquainted with. I know he has saved His Majesty's life many times too. But why then, would he do this? Why would he do that to my brother?" (Beth)
"The truth will be revealed. There will be conclusion, some way or another. His Majesty is also very worried because Your Royal Highness has been so down." (Katherine)
As Katherine comforted Beth, she recalled the night of the incident. When she heard that the King was urgently looking for her, Katherine had hurried to the Inner Palace. On her way to see the king, she happened to meet Kwiz, who was about to go to a meeting, in the hallway.
"The party is still going on, what are you doing here?"
As soon as Katherine heard the king's words, she thought something was strange.
"You seem to be busy, Your Majesty. It is not an urgent matter, so I will tell you later."
She angrily promised to track down whoever dared to forge a royal command and make them pay dearly for their sins. And after returning to the party venue, the incident happened right away.
Katherine testified that she came back from the Inner Palace and had been with the Duchess during the time that she was absent from the party. That is to say that the Duchess was never alone by herself during the party.
'Falcon. I knew that poisonous bitch would do something one day. You dare to turn my break room into such a sight?'
Katherine did not know the real truth of the incident. It was handled with secrecy and her elder brother refused to tell her the specific details. However, there was some parts of it that Katherine could guess.
There was no doubt that Countess of Falcon tried to do something bad to the Duchess and things fell through.
'That foolish wench must have had lingering feelings for the Duke of Taran. Doesn't even know her place.'
She could sense the feeling of a woman who had once like the Duke of Taran alone. Although she was dead, Katherine didn't want Anita's little schemes to result in anything, so she had actively pulled the Duchess out of the picture. Due to this, it was not known that Anita had impersonated the royal command and sent Katherine to the Inner Palace.
If Kwiz knew this, the investigation of the incident would have proceeded in a slightly different direction. The only people that used the private break room were Princess Katherine and the Duchess of Taran. With this information, they could come to the conclusion that since Katherine was sent away, the person being conspired against was the Duchess of Taran. However, since that possibility was blocked, the case had fallen into a fog.