Joaquin's party didn't end perfectly. A noble was beaten up and seriously injured in the western district of Princeton. This made the city's security officers unable to believe it.
A whole team of security officers surrounded Joaquin's house, determined to catch the culprit. This kind of incident was too bad, and the higher-ups couldn't suppress it even if they wanted to.
However, what made the sheriffs speechless was that they didn't know if Tereese's brain had been damaged by the beating. The mages accompanying the sheriffs had already given him a simple treatment, but he still couldn't stop talking nonsense.
"A black shadow, I saw a black shadow!"
"Ah, at least two of my ribs are broken! You useless things!"
"Hurry up and catch the culprit! He's in this house!"
"I'm Marquis Myster's nephew! Hurry up and catch the culprit!"
.....
The security officers originally didn't want to bother with this noble's brain, but in the end, Terry brought up his uncle, so the security officers had to take care of this poor victim.
Of course, Joaquin's family wasn't easy to deal with. The security officers didn't have the authority to search an earl's house, so they could only do a rough search.
No one suspected that it was the work of the Count's people, because it would be too obvious. The games of the nobles were not as simple as fighting with their fists. If they were caught red-handed, the whole family might be punished, and the loss would outweigh the gain.
In the end, after half a day of analysis and discussion, everyone agreed that one of Terry's rivals in love found someone to take revenge. The confession of "who asked you to steal my woman" was the main evidence.
Some people also suspected that someone deliberately diverted everyone's attention, but this wasn't important anymore. The higher-ups wanted results, regardless of right or wrong.
The security officers needed to conclude this case before dark, or else the nobles in the capital would doubt their ability to handle cases.
This case caused a lot of noise, and in the end, in order to quickly close the case, they found a poor person to be the scapegoat.
Princeton was so big, and hundreds of poor people died every day. Who would care about a poor person that no one paid attention to?
It wasn't until the evening that the security troops finally left, and the nobles who had been under house arrest for half a day could finally go home.
Who would have thought that this would be an ordinary gathering? Most of the nobles who had been detained for so long didn't complain at all. Instead, they discussed with their companions in high spirits.
Krist had lost a lot of face this time. He would probably become the laughing stock of the nobles for the next few months.
"Joaquin, I'm leaving!"
"Bye ~"
"Until next time, Joaquin!"
"Goodbye!"
"Welcome again!"
"Alright."
As the sky darkened, many nobles left Joaquin's house.
These nobles were the first suspects, but they were also the first to be eliminated.
There were no fools among the nobles. Who would choose to use their fists instead of their brains, unless they were unqualified nobles?
Of course, this was only one of the reasons. The other main reason was that when Tris was beaten up, all the nobles present were in the garden. Everyone had an alibi.
Including Locke.
"Darling, you don't have to do this," whispered Angelina as she leaned on Locke's shoulder.
"Hmph, he actually dared to scold you. He's lucky I didn't kill him right away," comforted Locke.
"Idiot!" Joaquin snorted disapprovingly at the couple who were showing off their affection for each other.
An alibi required at least three people, and Angelina, Joaquin, and Daenie had done it together.
He could understand why Angelina and Daenie helped him, but he didn't expect Joaquin to help him too.
"I was just venting my anger. I didn't really want to save you," said Joaquin arrogantly as she crossed her arms.
"Always, thank you!" Locke finally said after a long while.
Nearly three hundred soldiers surrounded her house for the whole afternoon. Even though Joaquin had a count as her father, she was still greatly affected.
Moreover, Tris had suffered such a big loss at her house, so he would most likely blame Joaquin. Logically speaking, he owed her a favour this time.
"You don't have to thank me. Just treat Angelina well. I won't be seeing you out." Joaquin strode away in her crystal heels. She still had a lot of work to do after such a big incident in the mansion.
"Let's go." Angelina was afraid that Joaquin would anger him again, so she pulled him with one hand and Daenie with the other and walked out of Joaquin's house.
Angelina was overthinking things. He wasn't an impulsive person. Every decision and action he made was carefully considered by himself before he carried it out. Now that he owed Joaquin a favour, he certainly wouldn't do anything if he was in the wrong.
The carriage was quiet. Angelina held onto Locke with one hand, thinking about something.
Daenie had her head lowered, but when she raised her head occasionally, she would look at Locke curiously.
After a while, they arrived at Daenie's house. "Goodbye, Daenie!"
"Goodbye!"
The sisters, Angelina and Daenie, waved goodbye.
After Daenie entered her house, the carriage set off again.
"Don't be so impulsive in the future!" As soon as the outsiders were gone, Angelina immediately lost her gentlemanly demeanor and pinched Locke's arm hard.
"Ouch!" Locke pretended to be in pain, but he felt that Angelina didn't use much force.
"Huh? Did I hurt you? Let me see, let me see. " As she said that, Angelina anxiously looked at the area where Locke was pinched. When she looked up and saw Locke smiling at her, she realised that she'd been fooled by him.
"You're so annoying!" Angelina pinched Locke again. This time, she wanted to kill him.
No matter how much force Angelina used, Locke, a low-rank Knecht, wouldn't feel anything. He picked her up by the waist, placed her on his lap, and kissed her passionately.
The two kissed passionately in the carriage.
It was a rare Sunday for Locke to stay at home for the whole day. He lay on the wooden chair in the courtyard like a master, and Suzanne was beside him, fanning him.
Princeton wasn't hot at all in March, so Locke was just too pretentious.
"How about I find something for you to do?" asked Locke softly as he caressed Suzanne's hair.
"Sure!" Suzanne had been quite bored recently. Although she'd learned a bit of Aomarian from Locke and the others, she rarely went out. She would only be interested in going out when Locke was with her.
"How about I find you a school?" asked Locke. He didn't want Suzanne to go into business now. They'd only been in Princeton for a month, and they hadn't figured out anything yet. If they went into business rashly, they might cause some unnecessary trouble.
This place wasn't like when they were in Shalor, where Locke and Cardoj's caravan protected her.
"Alright." Suzanne thought for a while and nodded. She was actually very similar to Locke. She didn't like to learn from textbooks and was only interested in things that could help her.
"Then I'll ask Grace tonight." Locke snapped his fingers.
Kristin was already fourteen years old. When Grace was in Faustian, she wanted to find a school or a teacher for her, but she never had the chance. Now that they were in Aomar, there were countless schools of all kinds. In Princeton alone, there were several schools in addition to the Royal Academy.
Grace had already picked a few, so she could make a decision soon. When the time came, she would add Suzanne to the list so that she could keep Kristin company.
These were all ordinary schools. It was unrealistic for them to learn impetus and magic like Locke and Angelina, so they could only learn some basic knowledge. Most of them were arithmetic and the history of Aomar.
It was better to have something to do than to stay at home and do nothing. Locke planned to add his sister Lia to the list. Lia had been doing embroidery and reading at home for the past few days. She was even more of a homebody than Suzanne.
"Study?" Lia was surprised for a moment, but she quickly responded, "Sure."
"You can go with Kristin and Suzanne," added Locke.
"Okay." Lia already knew what kind of relationship he had with Suzanne.
"Sanctas Academy of Science. Go to class tomorrow," reminded Locke.
"Alright." Lia was much easier to talk to than Kristin. Locke remembered how Kristin cried and threatened to hang herself when he asked her to go to class during the day. She almost tore the house down.