Lord Derek
The Royal Twins walked into the soundproof room which they had been using very recently as their planning room. This development was not one to be taken lightly, because once Curtis had done his which would ruin his stay at the Tower and probably make his education useless in the real world, someone in the room would be next and Derek was hoping against hope that they could stop this Lady Clarence from doing anymore harm.
Curtis was not sitting still as the Royals took their seat before the three of them. His right leg was constantly bouncing up and down while he bit his lip in fear, from his reaction to the job he had been given, he knew of the consequences he would face for the rest of his life if he did this. If Curtis did this, his life would be over, he wouldn't get the luxury of still having wealth even if the power and reputation was gone, like in the case of the Princess.
Among the male Saints, no one really shamed the Princess, but not even one of them thought of being with her; many had labeled her damaged by association. By kissing her brother not only would her father do something so wicked to her brother which would in turn break the Princess, the entire male and female population had turned her to some girl walking around with a viral infection that she collected by mistake. They didn't hate her, but neither did hey worship her, if the Princess could lose her status in a second and the Prince could become synonymous to a demon, who was Curtis or any of them that their life wouldn't hit rock bottom should they do as Lady Clarence had ordered.
"We have to do something." Derek said as they all sat down in the classroom. Despite his sister's insistence of them sticking it out with the Royal Twins who he knew deep within himself could turn on all of them without remorse, Derek was off the firm belief that something would eventually have to be done should the Lady Clarence character become more dangerous to them. Best if they framed the Prince than go down for this; his sister's threat of turning herself in if they framed the Prince was nothing but silly nonsense in his opinion. Because when push came to shove, family always stayed together.
"Yeah, let's do something now that the Princess has done what Lady Clarence said." Dominic said with a very composed anger that was more worrisome than an all out rage.
"You know that's not what I mean." He replied even though it was what he meant. When Lady Clarence had blackmailed the Princess, he had hoped against hope that it had been a one time thing or that only the Royal Twins would be blackmailed. It was selfish and wrong of him to want that, but he still wanted that, he would rather it was them than him and his family.
"Really, because when I had been against this plan to roll over from the get go, the lot of you had said we should do as she said. Or do the rules now change that it's you sister's lover's turn?" The Prince had a point, but there was no point in hashing old news, the new news was for the to work together and stop this Blackmailer before she did anymore harm, especially since it was the Princess that would go down for the crime thanks to the Blackmailer.
"What I mean your high..." He couldn't get the words out of his mouth fast enough before the Prince moved faster than he thought was possible.
Dominic literally exploded from his chair by getting up and throwing the chair he was sitting on straight to him, using his magic he threw the chair across the room but was not fast enough to avoid the Prince who tackled a shocked Derek to the ground. The force rattled Derek and made him unprepared for the onslaught punches that cracked his nose, before the Prince could continue, he was flung off him by Curtis through magic.
Instant retaliation ensued courtesy of the Princess who gave the peasant a wave powerful enough to barrel him into the sturdy wall of the classroom. Dominic moved again but Derek was ready and using his magic threw the Prince back to the ground with a force enough to give any Saint a moment to catch their breath, but not Dominic who was back to his feet.
This time, the Prince picked a table and flung it at Derek who used his magic to break it into a million pieces, only to be slammed with a chair across his face. The blow had him disoriented and unable to avoid more punches from the Prince due to the fact that his hands had already been rendered useless thanks to some tight hold by the Prince.
"You bastards did nothing when my sister was forced to make out with me in public! You said nothing! But now that one of you have to do it, you say we must do something?" Dominic asked with venom and rage.
Letting him go, the prince stepped backwards to look at the three of them properly. "You want to know what I think? I think you three are not on my sister's side, you watched her kill Edward and did nothing but wait for me to walk into the room. I am sure that if it wasn't I that entered, you three would have gladly washed your hands off her, but because it was me you lot decided to become creative and punish the both of us for not taking the fall after killing your best friend by becoming Lady Clarence." Dominic said with a deathly calm that had Derek shiver.
No he was wrong about him being Lady Clarence, how could he be Lady Clarence? What pleasure would he possible gain from being Lady Clarence? Sure he and Edward had been close, but not so close that he would go on a vendetta for him. He wasn't a fanatic of Edward, that was more the style of Edward's friends or most importantly Mustapha and Emefiele. Also, this was all the Princess' idea to make the Prince think it was her, that way he would protect her and them by extension.
"Your highness, please you have to believe us when we say we are not the enemy." Elswyth said to the Royals, mostly to the Princess, in a voice filled with panic.
"I don't have to believe you guys, because from now on I will protect my sister as I see fit even if it means I will have to pin the crime on the three of you!" The Prince said in a voice that gave no room for debate.
At his utterance, Derek felt a pit in his stomach and his heart skip, that did not sound good in any language and that made him panic. He looked at his sister who looked very shocked and afraid, before he looked at Curtis who had a knowing look that went really dark as he met his eyes. He was right and Derek knew it, if there was any doubt that the Prince and Princess could turn on them, that silly thinking was out the window.
Now they knew what was at stake here, it was now them or the Royal Twins, they could either roll over and go down for this or they could pin all of this on the Twins. Derek turned to look at the Princess who looked disappointed in them, after all she had done this for them including offering to make him King, the least they could have done was start the plan to end Lady Clarence the night they had received the first letter. Of course he knew he was being unjust, of course he knew he was not being his normal righteous self by encouraging Curtis' fears, but what choice did he have? It was either his family or her family and come rain or sun, he would always pick his family over hers every time.
Shaking his fear away, he leaned against the wall to watch the Royals walk out the room with the Princess looking very unhappy with them and the Prince looking so calm that one would have doubted the destruction he had just inflicted in the room.
"We are fucked, you know that right?" Curtis asked as he took a sit. "What do we do now?"
"We have to get them back to our side, but to do that we have to prove that we are worthy of being helped." Elswyth said. "We have to figure out who could be Lady Clarence and present this to the Royal Twins, we don't want them thinking that we are Lady Clarence getting a kick out of doing this to ourselves." Elswyth said.
"You must have witnessed a very different conversation with the Twins. They will pin this on us and have us die for killing Edward." Curtis said.
"But we did kill Edward!" She said. "Us and not them, so we cannot fault them for wanting to pin what we did on us, we can't." She said as she stood up. "But I believe in Dominica, if there is anyone that would be able to save us from the Prince's rage, it is her."
"Listen to me darling, we do not need saving from a powerless Prince, we can do this ourselves. Let us save ourselves from them by making them go down for this." Curtis begged. "Come on Derek, tell her to see this clearly!"
Derek agreed with him as his sister knelt before him and began to heal his face. If they really wanted to live long enough to not only graduate but become something of value in Syera, they would have to end this Lady Clarence bullshit as well as the risk of being found out as the killers by the world courtesy of the Royals.
"Curtis is right, we are going to pin this on the Prince and there is no amount of talking that would make us do anything else." He said as he stood up and walked to shake Curtis' hand. "Let us destroy the Twins and save ourselves."