Van was very serious about his proposition to the counsel, he was clearly admitting his passionate love for hitomi and they weren't going to stand for it and neither was Celena:
_"so what you are saying your highness is that you are ready to die for hitomi… and you say that you didn't bed her… I believe after what we just heard it is unbelievable to say that you didn't do what you did"
_"and more than that you dare doing such a vile crime in your room till the morning!"
Van's mother, queen Varie, who was assisting to the judgment spoke for the first time:
_" that is why I believe that nothing happened between them, princess Celena do you believe that if they did something together they would stay till morning in a room that anyone can enter any minute during the morning"
The wise words said by the queen made the members of the counsel think again about everything, and after a moment they decided:
_"we believe it is time for the counsel to rethink about everything, and it needs a little time, so meanwhile everyone can rest"
Celena was truly frustrated 'stupid queen, who does she think she is, she should have kept her big mouth shot, no one asked her to interfere'
Meanwhile, Gaddess got out of the hall where van was being judged and followed his best friend to have a talk:
_"my lord if I may ask…"
_"Gaddess we talked about dropping the titles, you are my best friend and if it isn't you who can ask then who can"
_"van…what happened, please tell me"
_"I… I don't know, I woke up and I found her next to me, I wasn't drunk and I didn't ask for anything, it just…"
_"so you didn't do anything"
_"exactly, what a bad night, my nightmare… my nightmare was that Celena was laughing viciously in the middle of the night watching me hang from a rope, I guess it will happen"
_"Celena? Did you say Celena?"
_"well yes, why are you asking?"
_"no nothing, well I got to go now, I will be back in a few minutes"
_"but where are you…"
Van didn't even finish when Gaddess left him and went alone to the stables.
He needed to think…
Celena had walked out of van's room that night Gaddess saw her as he was going down to his room.
She didn't see that hitomi was there?
But maybe hitomi wasn't there before Celena was.
And maybe Celena was the reason hitomi was in that room.
This morning I saw her smile and rush to van's room, something she never did before.
And that day just before she went to van's room in the night she went to van's office and underlined the law in the king's book of etiquette, and the law said…
The law… of course, Celena used the law to trap van and hitomi.
It is all Celena's fault, I am sure.
But all is left to do is to prove how she did it.
Van's horse escaflowne suddenly moved which made Gaddess go forward inside the stables and it was when he found…
A small hand kerchief, it had a killing smell.
Wine, why does this hand kerchief contain wine, the smell is killing me I feel like I can almost fall unconscious.
Unconscious… yes this is how she did it. She put hitomi unconscious.
Gaddess was beginning to understand how Celena executed her plan to trick van and hitomi, but still there was something missing. He had to find out how, but he didn't have much time.
They were going to execute hitomi that night.
As he was picking up the handkerchief the trap door opened in front of him. It was a small dark place.
All what Gaddess saw were stairs, so he walked inside and saw where the stairs lead…
Van's room, I am truly in van's room. A trap door, so this is how Celena did it the trap door.
This is it, now I found out how she did it; everything is clear, I better get that hand kerchief and explain everything to the counsel.
Gaddess was planning on interfering after being called back to the hall where van was judged, but to his bad luck he was kept aside by the guards.
He wasn't alone outside everyone was.
Except van and Celena.
He didn't like it at all, he knew that she had a big influence on the counsel and he feared that.
After a few hours van was out of the hall with a face as black as the night. His eyes were looking to the ground and he was clearly going one way.
To the cells were hitomi was kept, he had to talk to her.
Gaddess followed van as fast as he could:
_"van, van wait… what happened in there? What did Celena say? What did they decide?"
_"… I… need to talk to hitomi"
_"wait, what happened?"
_"they… they want to kill her"
_"wha… and you?"
_"they will put me in prison and they wan to kill her an hour from now"
_"an hour!"
Van didn't say another word; he went directly to the cell where hitomi was kept:
_"hitomi I… don't know…"
_"don't say anything I know what is going to happen to us, I am not the only one suffering you will suffer too"
_"but you will DIE and I won't…"
_"I know, I know, Celena didn't miss her chance to come and tell me what is waiting for me: she told me that I will wrought in hell while you will wrought in prison and that it is all we deserved"
_"what? How dare she say that?"
_"don't get mad its ok; I don't care what she says I am dying anyway…"
_"stop please I beg you, stop, I can't stand knowing that you will die innocent"
_"but at least I won't suffer, while you would loose everything and stay in prison for the rest of your life"
_"I won't… I won't stay in prison all my life… I will follow you, I promise"
Van's watery eyes now covered his cheeks with tears, when he felt tears he turned his back to hitomi and hid his eyes with his hand.
He couldn't stand anymore suffering; loosing hitomi was the greatest suffering anyone can give him.
Hitomi looked at him from the back, she knew he was suffering. She hated to see him suffer:
_"hitomi, you are not going to die alone, once they want to kill you I will bite my tongue swallow it and kill my self as well"
_"no please don't, I want you to live and move on"
_"I wouldn't know how to live without you, hitomi… I love you, there is no one that can replace you, you are my soul, and if you die so does my soul… and all what would be left is a lifeless body"
Hitomi's face was now full of tears, just like van's. A few minutes passed as our lovers were looking at each other in a disturbing silence; neither of them knew what to say anymore.
But the silence wasn't to last, three guards entered the prison accompanied with the main member of the counsel:
_"I believe it is time for justice to be made, van you are to assist this before you get put in your cell"
The poor king couldn't say a word and he had nothing to say he was sad, mad and hopeless.
Hitomi was carried away by the guards. When she reached the backyard of the palace, she saw the people of fanelia gathered around the deadly rope, all silent and sad.
As she got closer to the rope, her senses were abandoning her; she could feel her spirit leave her body already. But she didn't want to cry, especially in front of van, who was standing tall, silent with no expression on his face.
He too didn't want his beloved to see him weak.
Celena was smiling wide, everyone saw her smile and yet no one said a thing.
"Today we are assisting to the punishment that lady hitomi kanzaki is going to endure because of her vile act to the king's etiquette" said an anonymous voice.
Van was frustrated to hear such a speech, his whole body was shaking, but he had to control him self before he sent someone to join hitomi in the other world.
Hitomi could feel the thick rope going around her neck. And that was when her tears went down to hug her tender cheeks.
Once van saw her tears, he felt a knife going into his heart as he fell on his knees and started breathing heavily.
Hitomi had the rope tight on her neck now; all what was left was to lift it up…
_"stop! Stop this execution, this girl is innocent and so is this king and I have proofs" came high and proud Gaddess's voice.
Everybody looked at him speechless and surprised.
Van stood on his feet, and hitomi turned exited.
_"Sir Gaddess how dare you interrupt this execution just to tell us that what our eyes saw was nothing but an illusion"
_"it wasn't an illusion, it was a trap, a perfectly prepared trap to trick our noble king and the lady that conquered his heart"
_"and what proof do you have of this ridiculous nonsense"
_"your greatness, if I may, I want to ask you one thing, who was the person who saw van in the situation he was in"
_"his fiancé Celena"
_"and since when does Celena go to van's room in the early morning and so exited, I saw her smile widely when I walked next to her before she entered his room and just the day before she was mad at him for the bachelor party"
_"you are wasting our time sir Gaddess, we do not care about your personal opinion, what you are saying here is no proof at all"
_"indeed, but this is"
_"what is that?"
_"this is the hand kerchief that started everything"
_"explain yourself"
_"come close and smell this hand kerchief"
_"oh my god! What is that horrible smell; it almost made me fall…"
_"unconscious, this is exactly what it was made for, and you could know by the smell that the whine had passed more than one day on this hand kerchief. This was used to put hitomi unconscious so she would be transported to van's room from this way"
Gaddess got a little far and entered the stables as the members of the counsel followed him with the queen and the king and Celena her self.
He approached steadily behind escaflowne and opened the trap door and led a few members of the counsel to the room.
_"it can't be"
_"but it is, I discovered the door open today in the early morning, and yesterday as I was ending my shift and going to my room I saw Celena get out from van's room in the night, would you deny that princess.
Celena was lost, she couldn't say a word.
_"well looks like a cat got your tongue, too bad then I would go on, you see gentlemen we can see as well that hitomi's clothes were carefully all placed to van's side, and if indeed the couple did what you accused them to have done, then the clothes would be thrown anywhere not only on one side, and both of them would have been naked and not just hitomi"
_"but…"
_"wait gentlemen, there is more, here is the spare cover that was used to cover hitomi's body, do you think that hitomi would have covered her self with the spare cover while she could have stayed "comfortable" And close to the body of her beloved who was not naked at all.
And here, take the pare cover and smell it, it is all covered with van's essence and the smell is even stronger than when usually van uses the essence, which he only uses during occasions and that day their wasn't one"
_"and from where would have the princess get the idea of her evil scheme? And what is the reason for it?"
_"follow me gentlemen, I have something to show you"
The members of the counsel followed silently Gaddess, finally taking his proofs seriously.
He led them to van's office where he started explaining pulling the book of the king's etiquette still closed in his hands:
_"the night before the scheme our dear princess came to me to ask me for the keys of van's office pretending there was a paper in there she forgot to sign and the keys are still with her, show us princess"
Gaddess came to Celena and put his hand in the purse that she always carried and pulled out the keys, to the surprise of all the members:
_"and then she came in here and I secretly followed her and saw her take this book and underline something, please gentlemen see for yourselves"
One of the counsel members took the book and opened it and saw "the particular law underlined":
_"oh! But why would she do something like that?"
_"well read again the underlined law and you will understand"
{The king's bride or bride to be would then take his place on the throne}
_"this all makes sense, it does make sense"
Then the main member of the counsel turned to Celena and said madly:
_"because of your evil plot against the king, you shall be put in prison for the rest of your life, guards take her away"
After Celena was taken to prison, the members of the counsel went back to the backyard where everyone was waiting, not knowing what was going on.
_"ladies and gentlemen, thanks to the noble sir Gaddess we had discovered that all of this was a vicious plot against the king, so this execution is stopped and the criminal is now put in prison"
Then the member of the counsel came to van and bowed on their knees:
_"our majesty we gullible members of your counsel ask of your noble person to forgive us for all the suffering and humiliation we have caused you"
Van was silent for a while, he was still under the shock, but soon enough happiness took over and he said:
_"you should ask forgiveness from lady hitomi in the first place, she was the one who suffered the most… but as for me I have one condition to forgive you"
_"please name it your majesty"
_"I want no objection coming out of you for my wedding with hitomi"
_"we follow your condition your majesty, we won't stand in front of your union"
_"good, now apologize to lady hitomi"
The members of the counsel released hitomi's neck and bowed down to her knees:
_"your noble pure ladyship, we ask you forgiveness for all the pain we caused you"
_"stand up gentlemen, you are forgiven"
_"you have a big heart my lady"
_"of course I do, how you think I could carry all this love for your great king"
The members of the counsel where pleased to hear that phrase from hitomi.
But she didn't care what they said once she was free hitomi ran for comfort in van's arms:
_"I was so scared, I didn't want to finish my life without you"
_"me either, don't worry now I won't let anything take you away from me, not even death"
And then the king gave his beloved a warm kiss followed by a heart full hug, everybody was overjoyed and cheerful.
But the problems weren't over yet; Celena was stock in her cell cursing on the happy king and his beloved.
_"nothing is over yet van Fanel, I will kill you, you won't live to see your little hitomi a bride I promise!"
xoxoxoxoxox
Well I hope that you have enjoyed this chapter, it isn't perfect I know but I hope you like it, problems aren't over for now, but our beloved couple are stronger than ever to handle, keep reading ;)