Princess Dominica
Dinner was a very solemn affair for the trios who had actually killed Edward. Derek was back after receiving his punishment, unlike Curtis who had first been whipped almost as hard as they whipped her brother before being rusticated, he had only been rusticated pending the one the King would bestow onto him. The punishment from her father could vary from banishment to something as light as suspension from using his privileges for a while. Like she had earlier thought, her father was going to use his arrival to make a statement, what statement he wanted to make though, was up for interpretation.
While they ate, she kept looking for the person she was supposed to identify as Lady Clarence, the others had done their job of asking around and stalking to get their confirmation and were going to communicate their discovery during their late night meeting, yet she had not even asked a single question about her suspect, not when she knew he was the one.
She didn't have to wait too long to identify Lady Clarence because the kid looked right at her with an arrogant smile. Of course one could not just conclude that he was the blackmailer because he was wearing an arrogant smile, on the contrary, she knew he was the blackmailer because she had been keeping record of every encounter her brother had had with everyone in the Tower, and even though the bullying reduced as the years went by, the one person who never stopped was him, Emefiele.
Emefiele had always been the guy who was always annoying and could never be shaken off; he never go the memo when she was around. While other people stopped whatever depraved thing they were doing to her brother the moment she arrived, he would rather turn around and begin to haul insults at her for defending her own brother. He was the first to ask her whether she was fucking him before she had had to put him in his place with multiple broken bones from a fall. He fit the profile perfectly too, he did not have a lot of political power seeing as his father was nothing but a local judge who would not be able to protect him should she decide to send his name to her father whom she hated but still loved her blindly. The only reason why he had been able to survive for many years was because for some fucked up reason, Edward liked him a lot and with his father being Prime Minister, well Emefiele could not be hurt too much. Perhaps his lord and master's teaching finally got through to him and he had thought twice about reporting her 'crime' since he was no longer around to protect him, but instead decided to torture them for the crime.
"Nic, I know who Lady Clarence is." She said as she looked down at her plate. "Emefiele." She said before looking at the boy who now looked worried as her brother turned his eyes to stare blankly at the boy and gave him a steady that the boy had to flee the room from. Her eyes followed the boy as did her brother's eyes. Looking at the other three, she saw their eyes meet theirs and as if speaking to each other with their minds, they all finished their food and left the room. It was time they had their meeting.
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"You sure it's him?" Curtis asked as they entered their meeting room. "Because I am very eager to break some bones with my bare hands."
"It's him alright, I have a very long list of things he has been doing around us that stands out." Dominica replied.
"But what if it's Karim, he has been looking at me weirdly ever since Edward was pronounced dead in the training hall." Elswyth said as she sat on her chair.
"It could be Mustapha, I have no doubt that he and Edward were closer than the rest of us were. I was just a friend to Edward, but Mustapha was like a worshiper of some sort." Derek said as he took his seat.
"Using that alone doesn't justify changing the person of interest Derek. All the names I gave you guys were names of people who worshipped Edward in varying degrees, one might be more fanatic than the other, but does not change the fact that they all adored Edward." Dominic said as he took a seat at the head of their meeting with her taking the seat beside him as a co-chair.
"I believe it is Emefiele, the guy literally ran out the door the moment my brother locked eyes with him." She said. "Not only that of course, but after weighing the information I have been able to collect about this guy, he fits the profile perfectly; he fit it like a jigsaw."
"What if you are wrong, what if he is not working alone but he is working with the other four in the list?" Curtis asked. "If we somehow put an end to this guy, what if the others simply continue his good work and punish us even more before the King comes to deliver his own punishment." He said in a worried looked while taking nervous breaths. He, like the others, was shit scared about the King's arrival, her brother on the other hand was quite calm, maybe it was because they already had a plan for their father.
"You have yet to say something your highness." Elswyth said after a moment of silence.
Her brother looked at her for a moment, debating whether to accept her belief as gospel, before he turned to look at the others. "The truth is this, we will never be able to found out who Lady Clarence is with all certainty, not with our time limit, therefore we will have to gamble, we need to put forward two names that could be Lady Clarence and then put it to a vote. We have Emefiele and…?"
"Mustapha." Derek said.
"If you believe it is Mustapha that is the blackmailer, let us see your hands." Dominic said. Derek and Curtis raised their hands while Elswyth looked down unable to look at her brother's confused look, perhaps he was hoping his sister would support him in his ability to deduce who could be their tormentor.
"If it is Emefiele you believe to be out blackmailer." She and Elswyth raised their hands up at his words which now left the final decision to Dominic who had not raised his hand.
"I guess it is up to you brother, who do you believe got the suspect right?"
"You have to be honest here, Prince Dominic, if you get it wrong, we would be punishing an innocent man." Derek said in his usual self-righteousness.
Dominic looked a Derek and then at her, he had a straight face on that hid his facial expression, but she knew her brother the longest and even his best poker face could not hide his emotions from her. He was looking at her and begging her to be right because they both knew that no matter what happened, he would never disagree with her in public. They could have their opposing beliefs, but they only had the disagreement in private behind closed doors, in public, he would always take her side even if she was wrong, now was the time his blind faith in her would be put to the test, would he question her or believe her without much thought, risking their fate on the possibility that she could be wrong?
He had not even brought forward Collins, the guy he was to speak with, hell he had not even spoken to the guy, not when she had already identified Lady Clarence. Dominic took in a deep breath before he looked at the others. "My sister is right; Emefiele is Lady Clarence and this is what we are going to do about it."
Lady Clarence
The music was loud as it always was annually whenever the King's Birthday was being celebrated. The students were all dancing and mingling among themselves with so much joy that he wanted to bash someone's head in. No one had the right to be this happy, not when he and his lover Edward were in agony about their future.
He had thought, for a very long time, that he and Edward were going to have a future together albeit in secret and away from the prying eyes of anyone that could report them to the Reformers to be 'reformed'. Now that beautiful fantasy was getting dashed by the most powerful men in the land, they being his lover's father and the father of his lover's future wife, the King. Just when he had thought that they could have a future together, the King and Prime Minister had had a novel idea of uniting their families together and making Edward King after the King was gone; seeing as there was no way in hell that the Prince was going to take over from his father.
He should be happy that his lover and friend was going to be the next King of Syera, but he was in pure agony because he could see Edward not having the power of the King so long as the Princess' brother remained alive.
It was an open secret that the Prince and Princess were more in love with each other than anyone had any right to be, this meant that if the King died and Edward was married to the Princess, Edward would have no power over his wife or the kingdom. The Princess was not only well loved but was the most powerful Saint in the Kingdom, even more powerful than the King himself; he was certain that it was only a thin rope that withheld the Princess from just eliminating her father and becoming Queen herself in order to stop the hate on her brother.
"If we are going to do this, we need the Prince off the board. With him alive, the Princess will always have a reason to get more power, enough power to be able to decide the fate of anyone who looked at her brother the wrong way." He whispered to Edward who was nursing his wine.
"I know that, but I can't just kill him, not with her there to kill me if I do something out of line." Edward replied as he stared at the Prince and Princess who were in each other's space, breathing each other's air and even drinking from the same cup. Their intimacy was disgusting and wrong, so wrong he wished he had the political power to survive murdering the Prince. It was one thing to hate the guy that the King himself wanted dead so many times and had failed, but it was another thing to actually do it as a person not born with Royal Blood. With Edward about to be King when the King passed away, he could afford to kill the Prince and survive the comeuppance.
"If you were drunk enough, it would just be another altercation between the Prince and the son of the Prime Minister, nothing the Princess has to get involved in at the get-go." He said confidently as he took the wine from Edward's hands and gave him a glass of a stronger alcohol. "This should do the trick."
Edward looked at the drink, him and then the Royal Twins. "Okay then." He said and gulped his drink before he headed towards the Prince to begin the fight.
The fight was, well not what he had expected or hoped it to be; it had been very one-sided. To say he was not scared at the sight would be a lie, he was absolutely shitting his pants nervous at the sight of the Prince take on Edward and win. True Edward was not the most powerful Saint in the country, but he was among those that could be considered impressive, to see him get handled so easily made him more apprehensive about their future together.
He felt nothing but shame and guilt as his lover matched out of the room in embarrassment and anger at being defeated by the Prince he was supposed to have mistakenly killed tonight. Mustering the courage, he finished his drink took a deep breath and intended to follow him only to be stopped by Derek, the fucking holy man.
"Let me go see how he is and try to talk him off the ledge, you and I both know that you are not who he should have around him when he is in a murderous rage." Derek said with a little condescension in his voice; the arrogant self-righteous prick had offhandedly just told him that he was a terrible influence on his best friend Edward, and he had done so with a concerned face. Oh how he would love to bring this prick down a peg or two.
Nodding his head in understanding, he watched Derek follow Edward before he saw the Princess leave and then the Prince. Waiting and watching the door for a moment, he kept biting his lips in nervousness, something was not right, he did not know what was not right but he could feel it in his bones that something was off. Seeing everyone completely distracted by their own business, he snuck out of the room to look for his lover.
That was when he had stumbled upon the classroom that emitted whispers of the Princess confessing to her brother that she had killed Edward.