"Dark magic burns, shallow cuts and bruises," laying the prince down in the queen's bed, Hestia began to check up on his wounds, Still unconscious, the prince was in a terrible state, far worse than when he'd been brought to her after his fight with Wolf. "I'm assuming he was in a scuffle with someone recently, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes ago?"
Watching Hestia closely as she began healing her son, Astoria's heart ached at the sight of her broken son. Who could've hurt him? And why was he in a fight with someone in the first place? Such questions haunted her, but then as his eyelids lifted open, she washed away concern to deter any trouble that her expression could cause William.
"Who did this to you?" She asked, and through battered and quivering lips, he answered.
"R-Robert…W-we ha…had a fight-aghhh!" His body bucked to the pain and William clenched his teeth shut. Being healed by Hestia was far from pleasant for her magic was overabundant and often reacted with the magic of the other person. Like silver running through the veins instead of blood, William felt sharp cuts emerging everywhere on his insides. "Easy! Y-you gonna kill me like this!"
"Hestia!" Screamed Astoria, but the healer didn't budge.
"Consider it bitter medicine, nothing good feels good, you bratty nobleborne…" Visibly upset about having to heal him every other day and being verbally abused with insults while doing so, Hestia ignored his complaints.
Although upset over how much he was suffering, Astoria kept her distance as Hestia continued to heal her son. Her magic was ancient and much like her it didn't quite assimilate to the rest of modern society. Despite that, her experience in medicine has kept even a single member of the royal family from perishing an untimely death.
By the time she was done, William could barely move a muscle. But that did not stop him from spewing lies while making them to be as believable as possible.
"My master…he knocked me out last night," turning his attention to Sola who was the most baffled out of everyone, William heaved a sigh of relief as if seeing her had set his heart to rest. "I'm glad you're okay, I tried to talk sense into him but he wanted to do something bad to you and Wolf so that I would become king without opposition."
"I-Is that why he hired those people?!" The queen blurted out while squatting right by William's face.
Looking at his mother, his eyes tearing up from being tired, William placed a gentle hand on her cheek.
"What people? All I remember is that I got in a fight with him after he hurt Sola…" It was then that Sola snapped out of her frozen stance, she knew that must be a lie, but with the queen holding his hand so dearly, the maid knew her words would've never reached her. "T-this morning, when I woke up, I was in the dungeon and he was leading me down the corridor to show where he'd kept Sola, but she wasn't there and that's when I knew I had to do something."
"What did you do?" Asked Astoria, and with a weak smile her son responded.
"I locked him up after we fought," gulping heavily, William pulled himself up and groaned as his muscles still ached from the hurt. The queen tried to reach out to help, but he declined any aid and picked himself up. "Obviously I wanna win the competition, but not by killing someone–I tried to explain that to him, but all he cares for is seeing me as king and gaining power through me."
There were obvious gaps in his ploy, but the added confusion from everything that had muddied the whole picture. Not to mention, the bruises that she'd seen on her son, made the queen more susceptible to believing his lies.
"That blasted bastard!" She yelled, getting off the ground.
Pulling her son in a hug, she held him tight for a brief moment. If Wolf were the resilient type, William was the coddled son. In his youth, he'd confided in books, but competition with his brother who was far superior in physical strength, had led him down a horrible path.
"At least you finally see that man for how he is," pulling away from William, Astoria wore a gentle smile. "We'll hold a hearing against him once things have calmed, but for now, we need a greater number of guards by the dungeons and also by your room."
'No…' Looking to the queen, whom she had told what little she had heard from the door, Sola knew that William had just gotten away with trying to murder Wolf. Those injuries caused by daggers and dark magic were the same weapons used by him and his master, which only helped him create the injuries that looked as if they'd been inflicted by Robert instead of himself. Recognizing that fact, Sola couldn't get her eyes off of William for she knew with her betrayal known and the queen believed his testimony more than hers, there was no way she could get away with what she'd done without any repercussions. 'I need to go talk to Wolf, now!'
"I-I'll go bring some water for the prince." Turning her attention to Hestia, Sola quickly got her superior's permission to head out and get some water. And although the prince didn't want her to go, he had no choice but to keep his mouth shut and avoid raising further suspicion.
Rushing out the door unhindered, the maid headed straight for the servant quarters. But upon getting there, she was stunned by the crowd rushing everywhere. Trying to get through them without stumbling into anyone was already enough of a headache, but paired with the regular employees of the castle trying to direct everyone everywhere, the whole place had turned into an absolute mess.
'Who the hell let children in here?!' Feeling random kids grabbing her hand, her skirt, even bumping her butt and side quite often, she felt even more awkward trying to maneuver herself through the crowd. 'Hands off my legs and butt, you dimwits!'
Getting lost and scared in the crowd, the children were latching out to anyone who looked trustworthy to help find their parents. However, brushing them off–Sola continued to move forward.
"Finally! Wolf, open up!" Knocking on Wolf's room with no reservation, Sola hoped nobody would notice since the crowd was distracting enough. But the moment her hand hit the door, it swung right open, revealing nobody was in there.
'Ohhh I hate this day…' From having to escape prison to getting in trouble beyond what she could've ever expected, today without a doubt; not her day.
'Where is he?' She thought, not realizing that he too had gone looking for her.