"Lady Qui Lin," the captain spoke. "He was found on the ground. Everything indicated that he fell..."
"A simple fall couldn't have killed the prince, he was a Cultivator."
Qui Lin's words still carried its gentle tone, but with each word the pain in her voice could be vividly felt.
Judith tried to control her breathing as the power Qui Lin exuded was unlike anything she ever felt. She tried to distract herself by turning her attention to the prince, but doing that only seemed to elevate her uneasiness, when she remembered the god that was coming for her.
"Lady Qui Lin..."
"The prince was murdered." Qui Lin interrupted the captain. "And if you don't bring me his killer before the sun sets on this day," Qui Lin had summoned her Alkalis rings around her lower arm, and what followed was fire which consumed her fists. "I'll burn everyone and everything in this Outpost to the ground, not exempting you captain."
The hall went dead silent as soon as she spoke these words, to a degree that a feather falling onto the ground would resound a echo that carried the weight of an explosion.
After what felt like an eternity, Qui Lin turned her back to the captain and made her way to the prince.
Judith watched as she picked him up from the ground and carried him up the stairs towards her room.
Out of the corner of Judith's eye, she caught glimpse of a tear streaking down Qui Lin's cheeks.
Seeing this had reminded Judith just how close the prince was to Qui Lin, but Judith didn't want to think on this for more than a moment, as she felt this wasn't the time to be thinking about a novel, when it's world was as real as she was.
"Captain what do we do?"
"Who in the world who do this?"
"She was bluffing right?
Likewise murmurs had reverberated into the air, all pouring out of the Tethereds that were healing the prince moments prior.
They had surrounded captain Qiao as their questions continued.
Judith, being the only one who knew exactly what happened to the prince, didn't know how to react to all of this.
There was a chance Qui Lin could do away with them all. No, as matter of fact, it was certain, because her tone when she made that warning lacked no doubt whatsoever.
Everyone in this outpost was going to die by Qui Lin's hands if the culprit wasn't discovered.
Judith had wondered to herself how she could resolve this, she didn't even know who and or where the god was at the moment, and even if she did, who's to say that she could even do anything then.
It was evident that everything was falling apart, leaving Judith with no options and no way out.
Or at least, no options a normal person would think of. Because Judith had cooked up an idea that would either fail spectacularly and get her killed, or it would save everyone here.
Said idea being to frame captain Qiao for the prince's death.
It was a long shot, but Judith felt she could pull it off because he was missing at the time of the prince's death, and Judith knew exactly where he was.
"Everyone just calm down," captain Qiao said. "No need to be alarmed, I will find the one responsible for this and bring him to Lady Qui Lin, the culprit will pay for the murdur of our prince." The captain had said, turning his eyes to Judith for a moment before turning away from her.
Judith had caught this gaze, which made her stroke her arms instinctively, most especially by the desperation she saw in the captain's eyes.
He wanted her, and by how much was visible in his eyes.
Judith knew she had to act immediately, before it was too late.
***
"You're falling behind." The maid that had been acquainted with Judith spoke, calling Judith to quicken her pace with the pails of water in her hands.
"Right." Judith said and hastened her steps.
She found herself drifting into her head more than she was present in this 'Reality' of a fantasy realm.
Her thoughts had been occupied by her plan, as she was trying to put everything to place but couldn't help herself from seeing only the worst outcome for this scenario.
Pulling herself from her head, she kept a steady stride beside the maid as they walked to the back of the manor, where they unloaded the water in the pail into a large and wide metal bowl, which was being used by the other maids present to do the laundry.
"That should be enough water, now onto the easy part," the maid had said with a forced smile on her face, as she used her pail as a chair and dippped her hands into the metal bowl filed with water.
After a second of rummaging through the soapy pool, she picked out a robe and began to scrub it against itself.
"What are you waiting for?" She said to Judith, who had forgotten for just a moment all the terror running amok within her when she found herself lost on admiration for what the maids were doing.
Judith didn't know exactly what it was she admired about the simple act of doing laundry with one's hands, but she felt some form of tranquility from it.
She overturned her pail, sat on it and followed the maid's lead.
Judith had followed in on washing the clothes, but soon found she wasn't any good at it, which didn't go unnoticed by the maid she was acquainted to. She giggled upon seeing Judith's childlike obliviousness to such a basic skill.
"You're not really good at this it would seem." The maid had said, being the first to break the silence that had loomed over the maids.
"I...guess I'm not." Judith said, now somewhat flustered.
"Well it's not difficult, let me show you." The maid drew her bucket closer to Judith and pulled up her arm. "You see, it's all about the angle of your wrist."
After analysing what the maid was doing, she decided to give it another go and this time, she was a bit more adequate.
"There you go." The maid had said with a smile.
"You always act like a fool Tsai." An older maid, probably the oldest of them all, who was seated at the opposite end of the metal bowl said to the maid helping Judith. Which caused Judith to raise her head.
"If you don't change that attitude of yours, you'll be the first to go." The older maid said.