"Tread with no fear, tread further when I am here!" A jolly young man patted his chest with confidence as a trail of cowering nobel women followed. The crowd meandered between long trees with rustling leaves and eventually halted in front an aged stump.
"Come on Lady Ida, tell me what you see," the bright haired, bright eyed, and bright smile boy called forward one of the cowering women.
She tip toed to the front, half in disgust of the forest soil and dead leaves that were clinging to her expensive feet like lost lovers from her poverty days and half in absolute fear of whatever bugs and animals waited to claim their name on her death certificate.
"Robin, really, it's a dead trunk," said Lay Ida with her lips pressed in a scowl. "The tree has been cut off for better purposes than whatever we are serving here," she pointed at her fellow nose-scrunching ladies and then at Robin's too proud a face.
A failed murmur of disagreement was lost amongst the chatter of rustling leaves overhead.
The shepard boy took it as his moment to shine.
"Relatively correct, my ladyship, but what you see here isn't just a dead tree trunk," he gestured for the ladies to huddle around the perimeter of the stump and pointed at the concentric lines visible all over the trunk's face. The ladies faced it with scrunched noses.
"You see them? One narrow line represents summer and the wider line represents monsoon. These aren't just lines, these are marks of this tree's life, its age. What sort of a summer it had been through," he pointed at a distinctively thin line, "and what a monsoon it enjoyed," his finger moved to the thickest line, "Brilliant, isn't it?"
A murmur of awe rose above the rustling leaves, the nose scrunches fading away.
"How do you know so much about the world, Robin?" A lady gushed.
"Yes! That's incredible! I never knew it and my father is the biggest wood supplier to the Empire!" another lady fawned.
"Robin is surely the smartest," said Lady Ida with a subtle smile, as if she wasn't scowling mere moments before.
"Oh you ladies flatter me, I'm honoured," Robin sniffled before stepping over the stump and taking a seat as the centre of everyone's attention. Robin was a tall boy with a lean and muscular physique, probably owing to all the work he put in the outside world. He had a charismatic smile, that never failed to reach his eyes, and dimples which would pop right beside his lips, making women fan themselves on sight. His eyes were a bright blue, reflecting the beauty of all the ladies he charmed in a day.
He pressed his soles against eachother and swayed left and right on the stump as the women chattered away.
"I regret not bringing my maid. She would have picked up some fresh flowers for you and made a flower crown to suit you," A lady sighed. Others joined her in contemplation.
"Lilies would suit you best," another lady decided and her finger pulled Robin's chin to look him in the eye. She nodded in acknowledgement of her own point.
"I presume he's no short of deserving roses," yet another lady whacked lily-lady's hand away and brought Robin's attention to herself.
"I don't really like plucking flowers, it's horribly cruel for me," Robin sighed and pursed his lips. Curling, somewhat akin to a kicked puppy.
"Oh I absolutely understand! Don't pay heed to these fickle minded fools, Robin dearest!" Lady Ida elbowed a few women out of her way and stood in front of him.
They liked seeing themselves in his eyes — or so he assumed.
"It upsets me," sighed Robin as he looked up at Lady Ida, broad shoulders shrinking together.
"You see it?! You've made Pretty Robin upset! How do you plan on making up for it?!" fumed Lady Ida, demanding eye contact and prompt solutions for such an international crises.
"Don't be angry, Lady Ida, you'll get wrinkles! I'll be fine with a bottle of roseberry when I reach back home," Robin shrugged as his body hunched almost to a semi-circle.
"Oh poor Ro—"
"I have an idea!" One of the ladies stepped forward and pulled a rust coloured key pouch out of her bustpocket, "I happen to be in possession of Eden's garden, momentarily. You don't have to wait until you reach home, Robin!"
A flurry of gasps surrounded him.
"Eden's Garden? The magical garden that never dies and provides for the entire world-island?! Why would you have a key for that?! It never leaves the Imperial family's possession unless you steal it!" accused Lady Ida as her bejewelled finger pointed at the short lady holding the key.
"Insulting my family of theft is beneath you, Lady Ida. You must know that His Majesty holds our household in high regard!" seethed the short lady in her defence.
"Huh, high regard?! You're merely a General's family member, uncultured and brute. Don't try to make places where you shouldn't be in. It'll get you stomped!" Lady Ida mocked with a cunning smile.
Robin and the rest of the ladies took a backseat on this berserker.
"Are you calling me an insect?! Lady Ida, I will show you who survives the brute and uncultured!" As soon as the words escaped, the short woman pounced at Lady Ida in a frenzy.
To an onlooker, Lady Ida pulled her in and held her close as if they were in a passionate tango routine. On further inspection, Lady Ida dug her pointed nails in the short woman's ribs and wailed, "I'll kill you, you wild animal!"
"Try me, I'll eat you for dinner, you grass eating cow!" The short woman ripped Lady Ida's corset in one go.
To an onlooker, Lady Ida caressed her partner's head as the tearing of her corset was the start of something hot, something new. Upon squinting for details, Lady Ida pulled the short woman's hair as if she were to sell them and make monetary profit off of it.
The crowd enjoyed the shenanigans but someone was on a time crunch.
"Ladies, ladies!" Robin held up a hand to calm them down, "No body cares," he drawled as he stood up and seperated the two brawling women by their napes. "Make friends rather than enemies, okay?" He patted Lady Ida's stunned head and snatched the key pouch with a swift gesture, "You're all dying."
Somewhere between riding the adrenaline of witnessing a cat fight and Robin flipping personalities like a coin, the viewers missed the part where their sunshine prince unveiled a small dagger and came for their throats.
What was left for the next day's gossip headlines was mourning and a tea fight gotten out of hand.
The Royal Inspector narrowed his eyes at the sunken cold face of Lady Ida and the bugs that crawled all over her family jewels. From riches of the world to riches of the soil, Lady Ida had completed a life cycle. How poetic.
"Her fiancée has been missing since yesterday, hasn't he?" The Royal Inspector inquired his men. From receiving missing reports to tracking down twelve dead bodies in the middle of a forest — with a crime scene thst seemed as if the women were engaged in some sort of demon summoning cult — he had had an eventful morning.
"Yes Sire, he was reported missing after leaving the Cordelia Household at four in the evening," a man ran up to his superior and informed.
"That's awfully precise, what was he doing there?"
"Tutoring the young miss, I've been informed."
"No wonder. How was the couple's relationship with everyone? Did they seem like the sort to kill?" The Royal Inspector noticed a white handkerchief covering Lady Ida's chest.
"I wouldn't say. I would have to make further inquiries for that, my Sire."
"Yes please, do that."
The man nodded and scattered away as others worked hard to collect evidence.
The Royal Inspector was a man with a buff exterior, a smooth face and involuntarily bushy hair. His gait demanded respect as he walked around inspecting the twelve corpses, but on the inside he couldn't feel more inconvenienced.
Today was the first day of the Pearl Festival, which happened once every four years. The capital would be bursting with fun that he could be experiencing first hand if twelve ladies hadn't decided to scratch and bleed themselves to death in the middle of a forest. The nobels would never close this case.
He sighed.
"My Sire! Report!" A soldier ran up to him.
"Go on," the Royal Inspector stared the lanky soldier up and down.
"There are evidences of resistance and a fight but the final blow was landed by a dagger. We suspect the weapon to be small, with a straight blade around four inches."
Royal Inspector scrunched his nose for he could smell a long case crawling before his eyes. "So it is a murder," he concluded with a dejected sigh.
"Most certainly. Nothing seems stolen so we can only assume it was rage."
Royal Inspector raised a curious brow, "Why rage, so specifically?"
"Lady Ida's corset front was torn apart."
A glimmer of hope shone in the Royal Inspector's eyes. Expectations of a shorter case danced hand in hand with Faith before his mind's eyes.
"Ah! Lady Ida's fiancée comitted twelve murders and is on the run!" He growled in mild excitement, "How truly baffling and unfortunate!" He did not sound dejected at all. "This case would deeply affect the Grand Tutor's family and in turn bring frown on the Imperial family! A high profile case that even the nobels cannot keep open for long! How pressing!" He sounded elevated, "Word of this should not escape. It will be closed as a tea party gone wrong. I shall have a talk with His Majesty and solve it internally!"
Tears of happiness escaped his eyes. He could enjoy his off day again!
His men thought the Royal Inspector mourned the loss of twelve lives and respected him more.