A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!
Jason flipped through the last of the reports before glancing out the window. He didn't normally stare out the window this much, especially during work, but he found himself in the habit of peering out into the gardens from his third floor study around this time in the afternoon. Perhaps it was because Princess Piper liked to take a walk around the freesia and gardenia garden located below.
He could see that she was laughing as she talked with her ladies-in-waiting. Her assigned guard, Leo, appeared to have said something back which caused the whole group to laugh again.
Jason forced down the little bit of jealousy that had gathered. Ever since the scandal that the Colchis Princess had all but been dismissed from the bridal candidacy, Jason had been so embroiled with cleaning up behind the scenes that he had not been able to spend as much time with Piper as he would have liked. All links to the infertility medicine in Medea's food and drink had to be demolished so they would be untraceable to him, no matter how suspicious the aristocratic faction was. He also had to be more stringent with all food and drink that were delivered to him and Piper, in case the aristocratic faction tried to poison them back.
"Your Highness."
Jason looked up to see one of his stewards bowing nervously.
"Report."
"The Head of the Black Knights Order, Duke Perseus Jackson, has been summoned for the attempted murder of Lady Kelli Chase."
Jason closed his eyes and sighed. That witch again. Ah, those bastards, he thought. They were making a move so quickly after their last attempt. It seemed that this was their last ditch effort to spare bloodshed before they truly had to spill blood.
"I understand."
Since the inquisition hearing into the attempted murder was urgent, Jason didn't look back at the garden. He missed Princess Piper looking up into the third floor window where she could usually see the outline of him working in his study. Piper's smile dimmed somewhat, finding herself missing the straight and diligent figure of the Cuoran prince sitting by the window.
By the time Percy arrived at the inquisition hearing, everyone else had gathered in the meeting room.
"You must not think the life of a noblewoman is important, Duke Jackson," Marquis Ares shot out. "Seeing that you are late to your own meeting."
Percy raised his eyebrow back. "Oh, my, I see that I am just on time though. Besides, you mistake me. I value everyone's life equally. But I don't believe the true perpetrator of the crime does, don't you think, Marquis Ares?"
Percy stared calmly back at the marquis until he looked away. Percy tried to hide a smile but he couldn't help some of the cheer that crept on his face. He'd woken up in bed with Annabeth sleeping peacefully in his arms. Truthfully, he was quite reluctant to slip out of the warmth of her embrace but an urgent message had finally roused him. He had spent the rest of the morning quickly commanding his knights to gather information on the situation.
In contrast to Percy's cheerful attitude, many people in the meeting hall looked grim, except for the Cuoran crown princess and the second prince. A noblewoman had been found in the midst of an attack, and the attacker appeared to be wearing the uniform from the Black Knights Order.
One of the leaders from the aristocratic faction slammed her hand onto the table. The middle-aged woman sniffed and snapped her fan closed. Percy recalled that she was the vice treasurer, an influential woman who had a formidable power over the royal treasury.
"Would you like to explain the situation, Duke Jackson? Why one of your knights attacked Lady Kelli Chase?" She sneered.
"Perhaps it was because he had orders to." Another man piped up.
Percy smiled inwardly. So that was indeed their plan. They didn't mention him by name but insinuated that it was under his command that supposedly orchestrated the attack.
"It is possible. After all, who doesn't know that poor Miss Chase caused the ire of Duke Jackson when she spilled wine on him during the winter ball?" Marquis Ares added.
"How disappointing. I didn't think that Duke Jackson would exert his power to cruelly treat a poor, defenseless woman."
The murmurs of disgust rippled through the room.
"Quiet," Crown Princess Thalia halted the room. "We shall see what is the truth soon enough. Before then, I would like to remind you that we are here for an inquisition to gather facts about the case, not for a trial that Duke Perseus Jackson has assaulted a woman."
"That is correct, Your Highness. I would like to remind everyone to remember their words when it has been revealed that my reputation was slandered."
Percy made sure to meet the eyes of every person who had spoken venom just earlier. A few of the weaker ones shifted their gaze while others threw disgusting gazes back.
"Yes, evidence does not lie."
The head investigator for the assault case presented a tattered piece of cloth for the audience to see. The insignia of the Black Knights Order was clear to see.
"It was reported that a man in dark clothing was found standing over Lady Kelli Chase. He was in the midst of raising a club when he was discovered, causing him to flee into alleyways. In the direction that he fled in, this piece of Black Knights Order uniform was discovered. It looked to have been torn off when the attacker went over a wall."
The head investigator showed the piece of uniform to Percy. "Your Grace, does this uniform look to be from an authentic Black Knights Order uniform?"
Percy quickly inspected the cloth. "Yes, it is our uniform."
"Aha! So you admit it," the middle aged woman who had spoken clicked her tongue in satisfaction.
"Not so fast," Percy refuted.
He had the head investigator flip the cloth over to the other side. On the back side of the embroidered insignia were a set of serial numbers, which Percy pointed out to the inquisition members.
"See these serial numbers? Every uniform will have one to keep track of which one is authentic or not. No uniform will have the same serial number." He explained.
Count Luke Castellan nodded. "This is the same from the White Knights Order. What is the point of this, Duke Jackson? It only serves to prove that the uniform is real since it is not known to the public that the Knights Order uniforms have serial numbers inside of the jacket."
Percy grinned. "An excellent question, Count Castellan. What is the point of this, indeed. What is different from the Black Knights Order uniform than that of the White Knights Order is that once a knight is inducted into the Black Knights Order, their uniform will have their name embroidered into the jacket underneath the serial number. It is something that our knights do as it is a great honor to be a knight serving Cuora. They are not merely numbers, but someone who has shown great talent and skill to prove themselves as a Black Knight."
Several knights stepped forward and showed that their uniforms had their names embroidered.
Marquis Ares scoffed. "A trivial point."
"Not at all, Marquis." Percy pointed to the cloth. "As you can see, there is no name underneath the serial numbers. This uniform does not belong to any of my knights."
"They could have worn an uniform without their name in order not to be identified." Count Castellan countered.
"Then why wear the uniform in the first place?" Percy shot back.
"That is so, they would have just worn plain clothes to avoid being identified." Prince Jason injected as well. "Why wear something so easily distinguished?"
"Exactly, Your Highness. It is almost as if someone wants to mislead others in thinking that it is a member of the Black Knights Order." Percy pointed. "In fact, look at the edges of this cloth. It is weird for a Black Knight jacket to be simply ripped if grazing over a wall. The cloth for both Black Knights and White Knights Orders is provided by the royal family of Cuora and is of high quality. They would not rip so easily and are made to help withstand the blow of a sword."
With this, Percy hinted that the aristocratic faction was insulting the royal Cuoran family for providing shoddy clothing to its knights.
He held up the cloth. "Look at these borders. These are the markings of a knife cutting through cloth, and not from a rough brick wall. One would also expect to see perhaps red dust from the brick wall on the cloth. Even if the cloth has been handled for a while and red dust would have fallen off, there would still be some dust left. But, this piece of cloth is perfectly clean."
Percy had sowed enough doubt into the inquisition members. The members who had stated that he was at fault were beginning to show signs of nervousness. But there were still some that did not balk.
"But clearly someone still had access to the Black Knights uniform," Marquis Ares said. "Who else but a Black Knight could gain access to such clothing?"
"Two groups of people do," Percy clarified. "Both Black Knights and White Knights are able to go to the same dress shop headed by the royal family to get their uniforms. In fact, I have taken the liberty to invite the head of the dress shop to arrive."
An elderly woman stepped forward. Many people bowed to her in respect, even the aristocratic faction. The head of the dress shop, Countess Sophie Lawrence, used to be the former nanny to the current Cuoran king and both the crown princess and the second prince. It was whispered that whomever she watched would be the favored heirs to the Cuoran throne, since she rejected nannying all other royal children. Now she was the head mistress of the palace dress making.
A assistant brought over a few log books at Countess Lawrence's signal. "As you can see, I keep a catalog of all the uniforms we make. The cloth here is indeed from an authentic Black Knights uniform." The countess raised her hand to silence a few of the people who were about to protest. "Quiet, I am not done talking. The serial number on this piece of uniform shows that this uniform has not been assigned to anyone."
The countess coughed into her handkerchief before continuing. "I keep a tight ship. Every uniform, be it steward, knight or maid, is inventoried constantly when they're in storage to prevent decay like moth balls or rats using them for nesting materials. As you can see on this log book, this uniform with this particular serial number went missing a few days ago."
Another maid now brought over another book. The countess flipped to the middle. "As you can see here, we also keep track of who is entering the storage. On this day that this uniform went missing, no Black Knights entered but two White Knights did. One came in for simple repairs and one requested a larger size. The knight requesting a larger size is the only one who entered the storage. He must have slipped out with a Black Knight uniform. My apologies, Your Highnesses. I have been remiss in my duties for not preventing such a mistake."
"No, no, Countess." Crown Princess Thalia stopped the countess from bowing her head. "It is due to the evil doings of others that innocent, hard-working individuals suffer the consequences. You will not be punished for the theft of an uniform."
Percy almost laughed seeing the ashen faces of those who had claimed that it was he who had ordered the attack on Kelli Chase. Now he had one more thing to knock them in the dust.
"Ah, I almost forgot to say this, but it was my knights who discovered the attack."
"What?" Count Castellan almost jumped out of his seat.
Percy smirked. He had deliberately concealed the fact that it was the Black Knights who had interrupted the attack on Kelli Chase. Due to information from a source close to Princess Medea and Ethan Nakamura, they had learned that the aristocratic faction was determined to kill Kelli Chase and blame the murder on the Black Knights Order as a last ditch effort to pull down his military influence. White Knights were supposed to be in the same area Kelli was to be attacked to "discover" the attack and stand as witnesses that a Black Knight had performed the attack. However, Percy had assigned his own men to secretly tail Kelli, thus stopping the attacker from killing Kelli and being there faster before the White Knights had ever reached the scene.
"My knights caught a glimpse of the man's face, and they did not recognize this person."
"Ha. They're clearly covering for each other by saying they do not know each other," Marquis Ares refuted.
"Excuse me." A steward entered and whispered in Crown Princess Thalia's ear.
A bright smile appeared in the princess' face. "Well, it's a good thing that we have just caught the one impersonating a Black Knight. And Lady Kelli has woken up. She can tell us directly just who attacked her."
A lineup of six knights were led into the room, each wearing a Black Knight uniform. There was one man at the right end who looked extremely nervous. He made eye contact with Marquis Ares, whose face suddenly turned interesting shades of purple. None of this was missed by Percy.
Lady Kelli Chase was then led to the room. She immediately pointed to the man on the right end.
"That's him!" She shrieked. "He looks just like the man who attacked me."
Marquis Ares dug his fingers into his palm. They had failed to eliminate a pawn who knew too many secrets, and now this pawn was coming back to haunt them. There were supposed to be men who were to kill the man hired to impersonate a Black Knight and kill Kelli Chase. How had they failed and why had the hired assassin been captured instead? Everything was being ruined right in front of his eyes.
The rest of the knights were dismissed. Percy pointed the man who had been pointed out. "We had each man in this line-up dressed as though they were Black Knights to eliminate confounding factors. This man, as pointed out by Lady Kelli, is not one of my Knights."
Prince Jason raised his hand and imperial knights began to drag the man away. The man's eyes held fear and pleaded for his life. But the people who had hired him turned their stony gazes away. Percy wasn't sure what punishment Jason was going to implement, but it would for sure not be pleasant.
The cries in the room began to grow loudly. Many of them demanded justice for Duke Jackson, who had been slandered and framed. Notably, many of the aristocratic faction were sullen and quiet. Those in the know were also tense. Now for sure, there would be a coup in the uprising, as neither side foresaw the aristocratic faction giving up so easily.
Kelli was led away from the hearing room and ushered into another holding cell. She gnashed her teeth and scratched at her arms.
How dare she? How dare she!
It was when Kelli had come to when she learned that it was Princess Medea who had tried to kill her. Most likely, Luke had also known of the plan and had done nothing to stop it. Being betrayed by both her former backer and lover, Kelli willingly spilled everything that had happened when questioned by Prince Jason. How, they had planted salt in Princess Piper's tea, how Kelli had overheard Medea sending poisoned flowers, and how the Colchis princess planned to have Piper assaulted. Had Kelli not revealed her information, she would have been tortured by the Cuoran prince until she could resist no longer. With no other choice, Kelli had to work with the prince instead, betraying her employer back.
In truth, Kelli hadn't seen a single glimpse of the man who had tried to kill her. But her life was being held between two knife points; one from the aristocratic faction and one with the imperial faction. Kelli held far greater hatred for the aristocratic faction who had used her and then thrown her aside like worthless trash. She followed what the Cuoran prince said to do exactly and pointed out the man who was said to have tried to kill her. She then saw Luke's expression in the hearing. It was a face full of disgust and contempt.
She bit back a laughter of despair. Out of one boiling pot into another, and she didn't know what was better.
A/N: I've been watching too many crime documentaries lately, and all it's done is make me not trust humans and not want to date. Valentine's Day is overrated and a capitalistic venture in trying to spend money for overpriced flowers and chocolate. And no, I am not salty because I am single. Definitely not salty. I'm a low sodium Kikkoman soy sauce girl.
Because of my crime documentary watching, I am very scared of how many people kill their partners. Like, isn't divorce much easier than poisoning or hiring a hitman and then being caught and then sent to jail for the rest of your life? Also, I do not appreciate being hit on while I buy groceries. Please, I'm just looking for oatmeal, and please don't follow me up and down the aisle :/
All right, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and see you all next chapter! Stay safe c:
