Slaine knew that he was no longer in the interrogation room with Count Cruhteo. He couldn't have been. The surface he was lying on was too soft. The lack of pain concerned him. If there was one thing that he knew is that if you were still in pain you were still alive. But the minute the pain stopped you were a goner. Or at least that's what his father had told him. Well there was only one way to find out.
He opened his eyes.
"Ah, you're awake. Slaine Troyard." A familiar voice cooed from the side of the bed he was apparently in. He looked over to see Count Saazbaum sitting cross-legged in a chair with a book in his lap. Slaine sat up shakily, wincing in pain. So he was alive after all….
"What happened? I was with Cruhteo being interrogated when…" He jerked back and faced the count with frightened eyes, "Shilo! Where is she!? What happened to her!?"
"Relax my boy. She is unharmed." Saazbaum stood, setting his book down, "You need not fear Count Cruhteo any longer. I have dealt with him myself." Slaine looked down at his hands. He tried to comprehend what this meant and found only one answer.
"My Lord are you saying….that you killed Count Cruhteo?" He asked softly.
"Your father, is a man to whom I owe a great debt." So Saazbaum was avoiding his question by going straight towards the reason why he was rescued. Clever tactic, but why was he using it?
"My father?" Slaine tilted his head in confusion.
"Yes, your father. Fifteen years ago after Heaven's Fall I was gravely injured." He explained, "Your father saved my life, thus I am in debt to him."
"I...see." Slaine frowned.
"And now I have seen how deeply your loyalty to our two Princesses lie." Saazbaum smiled eerily, making the terran boy feel uneasy, "I find it admirable how you managed to conceal Asseylum's survival when even the assassins were not aware of the fact."
"How did you know that her highness was alive? And what do you mean loyalty towards two princesses there has only ever been one!" Slaine sat up as straight as his body would allow.
"Slaine you should understand that Count Cruhteo was not a traitor." Saazbaum sighed, "He has shown his loyalty and truly meant his oath to the Princess Asseylum. But that is not the case for me." Slaine gasped as he realized what this meant, "In other words, I am the assassin who plotted Her Highness's death."
"H-how…..why!?" He demanded. The count merely only put a hand up and he stopped in his words.
"You asked about your loyalty towards TWO princesses did you not?" He asked, "Approximately thirteen years ago there were two of them. One of them was Asseylum as you know. But the other's name was Shilo."
"I forgot about her." Slaine's tense body relaxed a fraction, "Shilo Beauregard was named after her."
"Ah we shall get to her eventually." Saazbaum settled back down into his chair, "When young Shilo was five she took ill quite suddenly. It was so severe only our Emperor and Dr. Beauregard were allowed to see her. In a matter of hours they deduced that the child had been poisoned. They managed to save her, by a thread. Together they decided to hide her until the assassins could be discovered. The Emperor gave her over to Dr. Beauregard's care, telling the people of Vers that she had died. In the meantime Dr. Beauregard would raise her as his own child. To ensure her own safety they used the Aldnoah Drives to wipe her memory temporarily. After that Dr. Beauregard designed a medicine that would keep the memory wipe in place. In order to keep her within the castle walls she was told she had a blood condition and that's why she had to take her medicine. She still lives among us, and you seem to have done a great deal in protecting her."
"What are you….talking about..?" Slaine shook his head in disbelief. What he'd just been told….it could only mean- No! It couldn't be! She couldn't be, "Are you saying-"
"That your friend, Shilo Beauregard, is in reality…" No. No. No! NO!
"Shilo Vers Allusia, our supposedly dead princess."