Chapter 121: Christina's Determination
"Did you hear? Lord Claude is missing!"
"Where could he be?"
"Why did you think he's missing?"
"He never skips class even though he's super busy! Something must've happened!"
"Ohhh! I miss him already!"
"Where are you, Lord Claude?"
I hear whispers of Claude's fan girls as I walked around the school hallway during lunch break. Because of what happened recently, I have no appetite.
It's been a mere day since Claude went missing. I received more than just scolding from Iris when I returned to the castle with news of what happened at Count Oyano's secret lair. She was outright furious that because I recklessly went to rescue Pooch alone, Claude end up being kidnapped by that bitch Eliza. Hearing about the mind control Artifact made Iris anxious and she ordered all her knights to search for him and Eliza all over the capital (with no leads, which made it bound to fail). I partially understand her feelings though. Having Claude as an enemy is a terrifying thought.
Nevertheless, this incident strained our relationship even further than before. Funny that only weeks ago we were close enough that I even shared my past insecurities to her. Now she won't even look straight at me in the eye and only speaks to me in a cold tone, as if I'm a stranger.
This is… frustrating. And I can't even depend on Pooch for mental healing anymore because getting close to him will only bring him into more danger.
Now, I must face this whole mess alone.
"Princess Alexia!" I heard a familiar voice calling out to me. It's Christina Hope, the daughter of Duke Hope. Her appearance is a surprise because I heard that on the day Pooch is kidnapped, she went missing as well (though I didn't notice because I was too focused on Pooch's kidnapping case).
"Good day, Miss Hope. Is everything okay?" I put on a mask and addressed her as if nothing is wrong, hiding how mentally exhausted I am.
"There's something I want to talk to you about. In private!" She said with a serious face. That's something I can't ignore.
"Is that so? Very well. Please follow me to my office." I invited her to the office room assigned for my personal use. Before we reached my office though, I was greeted by someone I should avoid right now.
"Hey there, Princess Alexia. Is it time for investigation already?" Pooch said with a mischievous smile.
"H-How rare it is for you to actually seek me out, Pooch. But your services are no longer needed. You may go." I said while wearing a fake smile. Christina merely watched our interaction from where she is.
"Hooo… How rare indeed that you're the one rejecting me."
"Indeed. Now if you'll excuse us, we're going to have a girl's only talk." I said before walking past him.
"I have a message from Jack the Ripper~!" Those words made me stop in place and when I glanced at him, he's holding a card, though he's hiding what card it is.
"And how, pray tell, did you get that?"
"Pretty sure I got it when I escaped from the bindings that night. It was suddenly in my pocket and I didn't notice it until I escaped that place with my sis."
"And why did it take this long for you to bring this to my attention?"
"Well… you've been so cold and has been avoiding me since that incident. Normally you'd be the one bothering me."
"Oh my. To think you'd actually admit that you missed me, Pooch."
"I'm not. I just want to get rid of this thing as soon as possible."
"Then you may leave it to me and be on your merry way." That got him to give me the card wordlessly. It's a 3 of spades, with the letter "J" written on it with blood.
"Fuck that clown. Always leaving riddles…!"
"Language, princess."
"I don't have to take that from you, Poochie!"
"Okay,okay. I won't comment on your crude language anymore even if you swear like a sailor. Anyway, you need someone to interpret that message for you?" I raised my eyebrow at that statement. Poochie offering help? There's gotta be something he wants.
"Usually you'd avoid me or complain. What is it that you want, Pooch?"
"I want 5 Million Zeni."
"Is that so? How greedy you are Pooch. But no matter how desperate you are for money, you wouldn't actually seek me out."
"And a place to stay so I can be protected."
"I thought your sister is protecting you just fine."
"That's who I need protection from." He said it with a funny frowning face. What a poor doggie my Pooch is.
"Haaah. I get it. We'll discuss it in my office. I hope you don't mind, Miss Hope."
"No problem, Princess. Your boyfriend can come too."
"H-He's not my boyfriend! N-Not anymore anyway." I said while blushing. She just giggled at my denial.
Although I should be avoiding him, I end up feeling relieved that he sought me out. Also, I suppose letting him stay in the castle should keep him safer than letting him stay with his sister, even if she won't be happy about it. Not to mention, he's the only one who seems to have a knack at solving that accursed clown's cryptic messages and I'm desperate for help now that Claude is gone.
I invited both of them to my office and the maid served us tea before leaving us alone.
"Now then. Since Miss Hope is the first to approach me, I'll let her speak first. You don't mind, don't you, Pooch?"
"No problem."
"Thank you, Princess. And please call me Christina."
"Very well, Christina. Please proceed with your story about your disappearance."
"Y-Yes. It all started when my father summoned me and handed me over to the Thirteen Night Blades as per Eliza's orders…."
I was blindfolded, my hands are tied behind my back with magic suppressing cuffs and I was brought to a secret lair (judging from the damp air, I bet it's underground) and when they removed my blindfold, I am face to face with Eliza.
"Welcome to my humble abode, Christina." She called it humble even though there are luxurious and expensive furniture, carpets, tea sets, make up sets and even scented candles in the room.
"Eliza. To what do I owe the displeasure?" I replied with venom in my voice.
"You know why. You tried to steal my Claude. For that, I shall make sure you regret ever being born." She replied with a smug grin.
"Lady Eliza. May I assist you with teaching this slut a lesson?" One of the men who brought me, the very same man who asked my father for permission to rape me, asked her for the same thing.
"You may do whatever you want to her after I say so. Got it? I want to personally inflict as much pain to her as possible. Torture is a delicate art and I don't want you fools to ruin everything."
"O-Of course!" The man replied with a disappointed face, though he still gazed at me with disgusting eyes and licks his lips creepily, no doubt looking forward to the time when he can do whatever he wants to me. Oh Goddess… Lord Claude… Somebody… Please save me!
Noticing my barely concealed distress at the thought of being raped, Eliza's grin grew wider.
"Yes. That's the face I wanna see. You and I are gonna spend a looooong time together. Hee hee hee." She said as she took a bunch of needles from her drawer.
I spent the next few days enduring her torture… though I'm not the only victim judging from the pathetic screams and cries of a boy that echoes throughout the hallways.
"Hiiiiii! Nooo! Please don't hurt meeee~!" I wanted to pity that boy… but his voice sounds so pathetic even to me that I can only get weirded out. Whoever you are, I hope that you will rest in peace when you die.
Then a day passed since the last time I heard the boy's screams. Today I didn't hear him anymore. Did he die?
Oh great. The door to my cell opens, revealing the bastard who wants to rape me. He has such a huge grin as he gazed lustfully at my bruised body, which is only concealed by my torn school uniform.
"Wakey wakey, slut! I've received permission from Lady Eliza! Now we're gonna have so much fun all night! Hee hee hee!" Oh no. The day I dreaded has come!
"No! Stay away from me!" I wanted to kick him out but my body is weakened by the magic suppressing cuffs, the torture I went through and how malnourished I am. Even at my full power, I wouldn't be able to defeat him. I can only watch helplessly as he approached me with those slimy hands of his reaching out to me.
"Hey! Cogblogged! Didn't you hear the boss calling for us all?" The voice of another man interrupts him before he could reach me.
"Just a quickie is fine, right?" He said.
"You do realize that today is the day we're going to capture the princess, right?" What? They're going after the princesses too?
"It's just one princess, right? With a hostage no less! Wouldn't hurt for just one man to be absent."
"The boss wants all of us to surround her so she wouldn't escape, Cogblogged. Now come!"
"Tch. I better get a chance to rape the princess later." He said as he left my cell with the other man. A few minutes later Eliza came to visit my cell.
"Awww looks like you're lonely. Don't worry. I'll keep you company." She said with that sickening grin as she placed an iron collar with chains and dragged me out of the cell to her room.
After we arrived at her room, she was about to start another torture session but was interrupted when the entire place shook as if there's an explosion happening upstairs. Eliza merely grinned.
"Ahh… I can feel it. It's him! He's here for me! Hee hee hee!" She exclaimed with a maddened grin with both her hands in her cheeks. I thought she wouldn't get creepier than she already has and yet she surprised me once again. She quickly went to her wardrobe and changed her clothes. She's now dressed in nothing but a night gown and she went to sit on her king sized bed as if waiting for her lover to come and make love with her.
But…. Is it true? Lord Claude has come? For me? Both of us waited for his arrival with great anticipation.
After few more minutes of waiting, the door to her room bursts open… revealing Lord Claude. He has really come for me! My shining knight! My savior!
"Welcome to my room, my dear Claude. Would you like a tea? Or a massage? Or perhaps you'd like to go straight to bed?" Eliza invited him in seductively (creepily) but Lord Claude's face is unfazed. He looked around the room and our eyes met, causing me to blush.
Eliza pulled the chains on my neck to interrupt us both.
"Say, Lord Claude. Do you like this girl? Then let's make a deal, shall we? I'll let this girl go and all you have to do is accept my gift." She said as she showed him an amulet in her hand. The amulet with a glowing sapphire embedded at the center, which matched the amulet she's currently wearing, though hers have a glowing ruby instead. I have a bad feeling about this.
"What's the meaning of this?" Lord Claude asked, clearly unimpressed.
"I just wanted us to wear something matching. Nothing much, am I right?" No, Lord Claude! Please! Whatever you do—
"Hmph. Very well. Release her at once." Lord Claude said and Eliza's grin grew wider as she unexpectedly honoured her words and released the collar on my neck, though my hands remain bound with the magic suppressing cuffs.
"You may go now, slut. I no longer need you. Make sure to be careful on the way home~! That is… if you have home left. Ha ha ha ha!"
"Eliza! You bitch!" I wanted to kick her smug face but Lord Claude stopped me by putting his hand on my shoulders.
"It's okay. Leave this to me." He said as he threw me out of the room and proceeded to close the door and lock it from the inside.
"No! Lord Claude! Please don't do this!" I ran towards the door and banged the door with my shoulders, hoping to change his mind. After getting no response for a few seconds, I ran through the hallways, expecting to find some help but the place is strangely abandoned.
I then saw the corpses of Viscount Shinobi and Marquis Jet and know why. Judging from the cards embedded on their heads, the rumoured killer clown must've killed them. I kept running and discovered a gruesome sight. Count Oyano Bou's corpse lying face down with a card on the back of his skull… and on the platform below a pile of corpses cut cleanly to pieces. I noticed the man who wanted to rape me to be among them. Good riddance.
I kept running and climbed the stairs until I finally escaped the underground lair and end up in a cellar of a mansion, which I later identified as Count Oyano Bou's mansion. From there I was able to make my way home to Hope mansion.
Of course, with my father already abandoning me I wouldn't enter through the front door. Using a secret escape route that only my family knows, I managed to enter the mansion.
I only came here to collect my belongings… and get some help from my servants who are still loyal to me to remove the cuffs, heal my wounds and get me a proper meal... and get a proper rest in my room without my father's knowledge. Luckily he haven't threw away my belongings yet.
"And the next day, I went to school and… heard Lord Claude is missing… and here we are." I finished my story.
"How did we not run into each other? When I reached Eliza's room, no one's there!" Alexia asked.
"Perhaps we missed each other. There were a lot of branching paths in the hallways of that hellhole."
"I noticed. So anyway, your story provided me with great insight and I thank you for sharing with me, Christina."
"I have a request, your highness."
"Name it."
"First, I want you to arrest my father for collaborating with the Thirteen Night Blades and for selling me out."
"You don't even need to ask. I'll make sure he rots in jail."
"Thank you. And my second request… I want to join your investigation team! I want to help free Lord Claude from Eliza's clutches as much as I can!"
Author's Note:
I almost forgot about Christina joining Alexia's investigation team in the last chapter so here it is. The flashback end up being longer than I planned but it's okay.
A-Yellow-Lizard : Thank you so much for the chapter! I love everything. Claude is going to be chewed out by claire/alexia? Maybe some speed chess between PtO and JtR? I'm a fan of death note and sherlock holmes so I love some detective action lol.
Answer: Claude is the one being kidnapped now. Or is he?
And I guess I need to add a little more detective stuff soon. No plans for Phantom of the Opera and Jack the Ripper to meet currently.
TheVirtualPug : Ughhhhhhhh.
Your upload schedule is like showing someone the most delicious meal in the world before proceeding to force them to eat a small portion every week. I mean no rush of course. Your personal life matters way more than entertaining random strangers on the internet, but goddam I neeeeeeed more.
Answer: Glad you liked my fic so much and thank you for your patience. While my upload schedule is still fast compared to other fanfic authors, I understand that waiting makes it feel longer than it should have been.
borregodillon9 : Can't wait
Answer: Thank you for waiting.