Secrets of the Villainous Empress

Chapter Nineteen: Long May She Reign III

Dutchess of Sorbet

Innes was sure that her heart had stopped; either that or the coolness that had seeped into her legs at the panic of having the Marquis, Kassim’s favourite playmate, before them, was a sign of a heart attack.

Her hand reached the duke’s, and for the first time in her life, she consciously sought his help.

Innes grew up in an environment where the only person who could protect her was herself. At the tender age of sixteen, she had been sold by her mother to the Mayflower Ducal house because of her hair colour, and there, she caught George’s attention.

It was then that she learned the existence of secret doors that only beauty could open. For the most part, she had lowered herself and behaved as though she had been George’s pet until he had finally inherited the ducal and had decided to bring in concubines.

That was when she had learned that beauty was useless without claws, as she had had to fight for her position with every additional concubine he brought. As her heart hardened, her submissiveness faded, turning their marriage cold and lifeless. Yet, still, he never brought up divorce, she because she craved his estate, while he because of her hair colour.

So, they simply stayed together until time had negated Innes’s beauty and taken a toll on her health, forcing her to use her son for her ambitious plans.

It was odd that the peace in their marriage had finally been reignited by a conflict that could leave their bodies hanged outside the imperial palace walls, destroying their entire family name. Funnily enough, today of all days, when Innes had been certain that her biggest issue would be the missing pearls that supposedly matched well with the purple gown that she had planned to wear for the evening banquet.

“Gods, George.” She whispered to her husband.

“It's okay,” he whispered back, “He is loyal to the cause. He will not betray us.”

“Let us begin.” The Empress said, standing.

 An act that greatly confused everyone in the room.

Should the other nobles whose titles were lower than hers stand alongside her or…

“Remain seated.” She clarified then walked towards the Marquis. “Kneel.”

The Marquis’s eyes were bloodshot, and his lip busted, but he still wore a nervous half-smile that meant that he at least had things under control, right?

-Where is my boy?-

Was the only question stroking the duchesses mind, if he were here, she would have told him what to say to get himself out of the mess but now that-

“Let me start by clarifying that all roads lead to hell. Your execution has already been set, and your status denounced.”

Innes’s heart sank.

She could not, for the life of her, picture the scene before her as real. Azalea was easy, the easiest person to impress, as long as you did not show weakness, she was easy to manipulate, so…what? What the hell was the scene before her?

“All your assets will be taken back to the Empire as your life is not enough for the crime that you have committed.”

Water dripped to the floor from where the Marquis remained crouched, or what Innes hoped to the Gods was sweat at nervousness or a panic attack because tears showed remorse, and remorse meant that he was faltering.

-s**t-

“Innes, do you think that you can shoot him with your mana?”

“The Empress is standing right in front of him, but I can be on standby in case she moves.” She answered George, who nodded in response.

“It’s okay. The minute Grerret spills anything regarding the operation, the mark on his body will react, searing him from inside out.” The duke reassured.

“M-my fa-a-mily…?” the Marquis asked, his voice trembling.

“Will follow you to your grave, or that was the case before you decided to co-operate.” The Empress answered then turned to the ceiling and spoke vaguely, “Are you sure about that, Duchess?”

Innes almost choked on her heart’s harsh beat as she withdrew her mana from aiming.

Did…did the Empress mean her? Could she see the mana that she was manipulating? No, that’s not possib…is it?

Her mind went blank, as each incomplete thought was superimposed by another. Even the clicking of her husband's tongue could not bring her back.

“I keep warning you not to test me, duchess, seriously-” the Empress turned with such a scowl that Innes almost yelped out of her skin, “You are pissing me off.”

The Duke placed his hand against hers, but her entire body trembled uncontrollably.

Had she been too relaxed, had she been too careless?

A tear left her eye before she could compose herself. Still, she couldn’t help it, her life and all the things that she had taken for granted, like morning coffee with her daughter, walks in the garden, and the delicious taste of warm apple pie that she always rejected on account of her weight, haunted her. How useless her efforts tasted…how useless everything felt.

“Now then.” The Empress continued, “This morning, I had both Kassim and Grerret, the chief suspects of my assassination attempt, detained in my parlour room for questioning.”

“Without a hitch, Kassim identified the Marquis as the chief suspect in the organization, while the Marquis refused to answer the questions provided by my knights.”

“Kassim is currently still in the parlour room awaiting his judgment, and due to the unfairness of the situation as the Marquis had a loyalty mark on his body which forbids him to betray his master,” the Empress paused, then repeated her last words once more, “his master.”

“I, his victim, reasoned that the deal that he stroke with his merciful master was unfair as both parties have much to lose from their failure, even though they may or may not have the same weight in magnitude. So, I, his victim, gave him a recovery deal.”

“In exchange for answering a series of questions truthfully, I will not harm his family after his death, and ten percent of his liquidated assets will be given to his remaining family. Noah Grerret, a member of the imperial knights, will lose his position, and Connie Grerret will be expelled from the Royal academy. All the staff and family members in the former Grerret residence are banished from the Empire of Cursix and will be killed on sight after twenty-eight days have passed and the imperial order has gone unheeded.

The man hunched over on the ground sobbed while shaking his head.

“P-please…” he whimpered.

“Everyone here will act as witnesses to the nature of our bargain.” The Empress said, waving her hand over the council, then turned back to the pitiful shell of a man, “However, if you go back on your word, you, alongside everyone in your family, will perish.”

“Kassim, your merciful master, banked on your death. Therefore, he made you and your family the scapegoat in the entire venture.”

Innes’s chest heaved painfully; she could not think…well, she could think, but the only thoughts that swam her mind were:

-This wasn’t supposed to happen-

 -This wasn’t supposed to happen-

 -It was not supposed to be like this-

-Kassim, my boy, what have you done??-

-WHY WERE YOU NOT CAREFUL!!

-I TAUGHT YOU BETTER!!-

-OH, Gods! This wasn’t supposed to happen-

 -Kassim, my baby-

 -Not like this-

Over and over until her breathing grew more and more laboured.

“Because of the nature of his loyalty mark, I will ask a series of questions to Grerret, and all he will answer is yes or no.”

The Duke stood abruptly from his chair as though he had not counted on the Empress bypassing the marks loophole so efficiently.

All eyes in the room landed on the shocked Duke as he began rambling.

“Y-YoUr I-Imper-Rial mAjeSty w-what i-If he t-TeLls l-LiEs?”

The duke’s emotions were all over the place, embarrassingly so.

“Ah, well, I am glad you suggested that.” The Empress smiled. “Mathews, the thing?”

The imperial butler standing quietly by the still-open door reached into his jacket for a small vial with clear UV-coloured liquid. Then, in one swift movement, he used a knife hidden in his sleeve to draw blood from the Marquis's cheeks forcing the man to wince at the after-effects.

“Don’t worry about your looks.” The Empress whispered playfully, but the implication was anything other than ‘playful.’

A drop of his blood was added to the vial, which glowed in response then cleared.

-A lie detector potion-

“I hope that you are all familiar with that item,” The Empress pressed as she pointed to the vial the imperial butler held, “Oh, you will have to excuse my guests. This is Mathews Storm; I am sure you know him, while that is Darius Ferlo,”

She said, pointing to the famous vice-captain of the imperial knights dressed in white standing on the open door.

There were still a few more unintroduced people behind Darius, but the Empress waved her hands dismissively.

“Etcetera, etcetera.” She dismissed, “In any case, Mathews, explain the functioning of the detector potion to the neutral witnesses?”

Mathews cleared his throat then pointed to the UV- liquid in the vial on his left hand.

“The blood in the liquid has set this detector to only work for the former Marquis. The viability is two hours. However, I trust that that will be more than enough. The liquid will retain its current UV colour until a lie is told. If the lie is known, as in, the former Marquis has told a lie knowingly, the liquid will turn murky. If a question is asked on something that he, too, suspects but is uncertain, the colour will mirror his uncertainty. Green means relatively certain, while yellow means uncertain. Red, however, means he knows it to be so, but he himself is still uncertain.” The butler paused, “The generous addition was added to cater for questions that cannot be handled by the words yes and no.”

“Are we clear?” the Empress asked after the butler had finished with his presentation.

“NO!” the duke of sorbet roared, “W-WHAT IF THE LIQUID IS TAINTE-!?”

Before he could finish his loud protest, his left arm flew off his shoulder and landed easily on the floor.

As though his body too was startled by the sudden change, the crimson liquid that always accompanied severe wounds hesitated a few seconds before splashing around his vicinity. The duchess, whose mind had momentarily escaped her, jolted from her seat with her hands on her mouth to block out a scream.

“Haah, seriously.” The Empress sighed, her tone sounding irritated and devoid of any humour, “ How much nonsense do you want me to tolerate from one family?”

“Sit the f**k back down,” the Empress commanded coldly to the startled man who had still not consciously registered that he was missing a limb,  “You too, peachy.”

She pointed at Innes, addressing her by the colour of her hair, who swayed easily to the floor.

    *

     *

     *

Azalea Oleander Cursix.

-Well s**t-

“Duchess Tissir, heal the duke. I need a representative of the Sorbet dutchy awake for the end verdict.”

“Understood.” Nancy used her magic to summon plants in the council room so that they could lift the duke’s fallen limb from her seated position. Still, before she could place the medicinal healing plants that would aid in the reattachment, I interrupted her.

“No, I did not say restore what has been lost.” I clarified, “I said heal so that there is no more blood loss.”

 A look of disbelief and shock swarmed the duke’s face.

“This is not a marketplace. I permitted you to speak freely but to think that you would take it to such daring lengths as to accuse me of using dishonest means.”

The plants dropped his hand back to the ground, and the large healing leaves covered his shoulder gently. After a few seconds of re-attaching themselves, the leaves began to glow, beginning the healing process, further ensuring that re-attachment was impossible.

“Duke George, do not mistake my tolerance for idiocy.”

“Now then, let us proceed,” I said, unable to maintain the semblance of lightheartedness that I carried effortlessly before.

“Before we fully agree, I will ask a test question Just to show an example of how the rest of the session will proceed.” I paused, took a deep breath, then began, “Did your family know about your treasonous dealings with Kassim?”

“N-no.”

The colour of the liquid held up by the butler deepened to a murky brown, meaning that he had knowingly lied. The sight of the murky colour caused the former marquis to whimper loudly as though he were an animal in pain. Almost as though he had hoped that his family had not known.

I turned to the rest of the room then cleared my throat.

“We have learned three things from that question. One, the former Marquis committed treason, two, his family was tolerant of his treason therefore punishable. Lastly, Kassim was involved in his treasonous dealings. Thereby, Kassim also committed high treason and is thereby also punishable by death.”

“Let us proceed,” I said, quickly as I turned back to the crouched over former Marquis who could not even look me in the eye.

“The liquid has cleared. Proceed.” The Mathews said.

Though, unknowingly to all, the statement ‘proceed’ from the butler was his signal to me that he had begun recording the meeting for it to be broadcasted live to all broadcasting crystals in all the territories central squares.

For the entire two hours of the meeting, we uncovered the crimes of both the duchess’s son and the former Marquis to such an extent that the dukes and duchesses in the room unaffiliated with his schemes began asking questions pertaining to some of the events that took place in their duchies to track possible connections. By the time the two hours were up, everyone in the room was in awe, except the man missing an arm, who looked as though his soul had escaped him.