"A thing for me?" Melina asked her back.
"Mmmm," she hummed in response before adding, "The prince had helped you when an elite had assaulted you and he even carried you himself to the infirmary. Prince Leon doesn't just do that for anyone, does he?" Cinna asked like it was slightly obvious.
"What do you mean he helped me?" Melina asked with a raised brow which Cinna returned.
"Yo-you do not know the prince had beaten up Sir Julian after he found you assaulted?
He had also carried you by himself to the royal infirmary! You needed to see the uproars caused by his actions!" she exclaimed.
However that wasn't the full story as Melina had not been assaulted but since they were not aware and only spoke according to the rumours they were told, they didn't have all the facts.
Meanwhile, Melina was trying to digest all that she was hearing at the moment. The prince had beaten up Sir Julian because of her. That made no sense! Or did it? The physician had said to her that the prince wanted her to eat then, didn't he? So that simply meant it had been an order from the prince.
No wonder everything had been lavish that morning. She knew there was no way that practitioner would have willingly given her those special treatments!
Realization finally hit Melina as she looked back at Cinna. "You said he carried me?" she asked again to be sure.
"Yes. Like a baby, Melina." she demonstrated with her hands and saw her friend's face turn red.
Oh, God! Why did he carry her?! Who gave him the right to do that?!
Was that why he had sent for her, perhaps to know if she was alright? But he said none of those. He instead spoke of a uniform!
And Sir Julian? Did that explain why she hadn't seen him since?
"I-I think I need to get back to work," Cinna told her and looked over to the plants she wasn't done watering in the garden.
Melina immediately nodded understandingly and left her, with wild imaginations of what may have happened earlier filling her mind.
She just prayed Sir Julian wouldn't come after her if the prince had truly beaten him up because of her or her life would be twice miserable.
....
Matthew, on the other hand, headed for Leon's quarter to tell him what had happened to his sister. He was not going to let that porcupine go so easily after hurting Alice and he knew the best person to handle the idiot at the moment was no other than the prince.
However, as he reached the front, he saw Leon leaving his quarters, looking dishevelled.
"Your Highness." he bowed.
"I have something to tell you-" both of them said at the same time, startling the other.
"Speak first," Leon urged him but seeing Leon's worried face, Matthew shook his head.
"No. You go first. Mine is not important," Matthew said. Even though what he had to say was important, he didn't want to add more worries to the prince's face seeing him like this.
Leon pondered over it for some seconds before he nodded in surrender.
"I think I know who might have taken the knife."
Hearing his words, Matthew couldn't help but roll his eyes in annoyance. Hadn't they dismissed this matter already?
"It was a maid. I think we should summon all the servants to the courtroom now," he said in a commanding tone.
"Wait. What? Now?" Matthew asked, surprised. "How are we certain that it's her? Even if she is, don't you think she wouldn't have something up her sleeves to protect herself? Do you believe she would just gladly be caught by you? How are we even sure she's a maid? Couldn't it have been a disguise?" Matthew had so many questions to ask in his head.
But one thing he knew was that he wouldn't go through the stress of summoning servants out this late. They already had enough to do.
His thoughts made Leon pause for a moment. Matthew had to be right because he had made sure to check and search everywhere in the palace that night. If she was the one, wouldn't they have gotten a clue already? Maybe she had only been walking about aimlessly at the palace due to other reasons? He couldn't be sure she was spying.
Even at that, it didn't mean he wouldn't try finding the maid who had the effrontery to do something like that. If she was the one who had taken the uniform, he would make sure to punish her on the scaffold.
He may have given Melina a pass but that was because...
He paused in his thoughts. Why did he give the girl a pass? Was it...
"Your Highness?" Matthew called him when he saw Leon spacing out.
"Em...After my coronation celebration tomorrow, I would have you investigate the maidservants thoroughly without their knowledge. Find out where they had all been and use those regions to search for the knife.
Matthew's eyes slightly widened at the assignment but he didn't object.
"Yes, Your Highness." he bowed.
"So...what did you want to tell me?" Leon asked Matthew when he was done relaying his worries.
"Well..." Matthew sighed.
...
Away from there in the guest's quarters, Julian's mother was sitting beside her son still with a downcast expression.
The royal physician had come to check on him, reading his pulse, cleaning his wounds and treating him.
"My Lady, I think your son should wake up before tomorrow's coronation. I am very sure of that." The physician knew how important it was for every single person to be present at the village square by tomorrow for the coronation so he had asked the priest for the fast healing antidote which a powerful spell had been placed on.
He had rubbed the gel repeatedly and Julian's wounds looked so much better from the previous day.
When Lord Nicholas's wife nodded at him, he picked up his tools and left the room.
When she heard the door shut, the woman sighed and lay heavily on her son's body.
The midnight slowly passed till it was early morning and the prime bells rang throughout the castle, indicating that it was the first hour of the King's coronation.
'Cough!'
Julian's mother rose from her son's body in alert and looked at him to see that his wounds had significantly gotten better.
Slowly, the man opened his eyes which were at first blurry but turned clear when he had it opened for a while.
"Julian? Oh, son you're awake!" the woman said as she jumped up from the bed in excitement.