Against the advice of the doctors, Halkias took Ilya and brought her to a cottage situated in the neighbouring fief. To his relief, Ilya agreed with his arrangement. She even assured the doctors that it was just what she wanted.
Halkias figured that it would be best for Ilya to recuperate in peace. However, that wasn't the only reason he had in mind.
Sending Ilya to a remote place was the first step towards achieving their objective.
Rather than the actual journey, the most difficult part of the process was letting Ilya escape the hospital undetected. Since the corpses of the Gertrude Family couldn't be relocated, the Court of Justice had to surround the hospital with their own guards.
As luck would have it, only less than a quarter of them were knights and the rest were unseasoned soldiers. Reverend, who was a prospect to be the Vice-Commander of the third order, was more than enough to deceive them.
The regrettable thing was that Halkias and Reverend were required to attend the trial for the Gertrude Dukedom Incident. Thus, they had to leave Ilya with merely one nurse attending to her needs.
"I sent the Commander of the sixth order as my substitute. I apologize for not informing you ahead of time." Halkias asked as he gazed outside the window of his carriage. "I was summoned."
"Yes, I was informed about that after the proceedings."
"So, how did it go? What did those pesky nobles have to say?"
Before responding, Reverend massaged his temples with his fingers. It wasn't only the case proceedings that he had to deal with. He also had to finish the errands given to him by Halkias. Out of all the knights, Reverend was probably the most preoccupied.
"The court had to dismiss the nobles among the audience. They had to delay the beginning for nearly an hour because of that. The nobles were the most boisterous, even raising accusations while the trial was ongoing. And…" Reverend sighed deeply, unable to continue right away.
Somehow, Halkias felt even more apologetic for leaving his subordinate alone. He diverted his gaze towards the young knight, shaking his head upon seeing the frown on Reverend's crestfallen countenance.
"You know how short-tempered the Commander of the sixth order is. She wanted to take a jab at Baron Mortto, so we had to calm her down first more than anything. Vice-commander Chequer even tried to push that task on me. Seriously, they have no mercy."
Thereafter, Reverend went on to grumble about his grievances. The young knight seemed to have forgotten that he was in the presence of his Commander. Thankfully for him, Halkias was understanding of his efforts, thus he let him whine.
Besides, Halkias had something to think about as well.
He returned his attention to the scenery outside, breathing in the fresh air of the fields. The capital was riddled with infrastructures and it was boisterous all year round. That being so. Halkias learned to appreciate the endless greeneries that retained their vividness under the darkness of the night.
'As expected, he already knows. It seems that I wasn't that vigilant in hiding the matter about Ilya's awakening. Or…' Halkias scoffed as he closed his eyes, leaning his back on the cushion. 'Who am I kidding? It's him. Of course, he's going to know it. There's nothing that we can hide from that person.'
For a while more, Halkias indulged in the complicatedness of his thoughts.
Soon, he was disturbed by the repeated knocks on the door.
"My Lord, we've arrived."
Halkias slowly opened his eyes and saw that the door was opened. Reverend had already alighted and was waiting for him outside of the carriage. He quickly went down, nodded at the footman, and began his saunter towards the cottage with Reverend on his trail.
After a couple of minutes of walking, they've arrived at the entrance. Before Halkias could even knock, the door opened.
"Good evening, My Lord." The nurse said as she bowed.
"Good evening. Where is Her Grace?"
"She's in the garden. But, My Lord, there's quite a bit of a problem."
Halkias urged the nurse to speak by a nod. He didn't have that bad of a premonition, so he was able to remain calm.
"Lady Bismarck insisted on practicing with the sword. I don't believe that she's in the state to move around yet. I told her many times that she should rest, but she doesn't listen."
Instead of reprimanding the nurse, Halkias gave her a shallow smile.
"Don't worry about it. She knows her limits, so it won't be bad to let her do what she wants."
The nurse found it difficult to agree with Halkias' words. When it came down to it, she saw how weakened Ilya was when she first arrived at the cottage.
She initially thought that it was a corpse she was tasked to take care of. That's how grave Ilya's state was the moment they met. Because of that, she still had reservations about letting the woman move like a normal person.
Halkias walked past the nurse and went straight to the garden. Immediately, his eyes landed on Ilya who was standing in the middle of the small garden.
Upon sensing his presence, Ilya lowered her sword and looked directly at the man.
"What brings you here, Lord Halkias?"
The coldness of her feathery voice didn't startle Halkias. In fact, it made him feel as if the emptiness in his heart was being tickled. Like a thorn that was just dislodged from his throat.
"I came here to tell you about the details of the trials held within the past week. I figured that you would be interested."
"Interested? For what reason?" Ilya tilted her head to the side. Then, she stabbed the dirt with her sword and fully faced Halkias. "Well, I might be interested in one thing. Who is the suspect that they've come up with?"
Ahead of answering her query, Halkias made his way towards the bench. He took a seat and gestured for Ilya to come near him.
"The main suspect for the incident is Troy Vhelian Gertrude. It's easy to arrive at that conclusion upon inspecting the corpses."
"Make no mistake, Lord Halkias. There's no such thing as an easy to arrive conclusion."
Shortly, Ilya sat down beside him all the while marvelling at the false radiance of the moon.
"The court just wanted an easy way out of the matter. The Prime Minister of the nation had just been murdered. They had to finish the proceedings as soon as possible. In that way, the reelection for the next Prime Minister would be deemed as the priority."
Halkias didn't refute Ilya's words. How would he even refute the truth? However, it wasn't like he was finished with his agenda. It was introspection that he wanted to do, not just relaying information.
"This is all according to your plan, isn't it, Ilya von Bismarck?"