“Miss Esther, please get inside the carriage as well. We need to leave now,” the knight, Sir Galien, said in a hurry.
The urgency in his voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she obediently sat inside the carriage. Inside the carriage, the royal physician was quietly looking over the prince, while Esther stared at them with a distressed face.
“How is His Highness? Will he be fine?” Esther asked after a while.
The royal physician initially didn’t want to answer her, but looking at her expression, he sighed. “His fever is high, and worse, the Crown Prince has lost a lot of blood, putting him in danger.”
‘I got rid of that dangerous thing. Will it be fine to use my powers on him now?’ Esther thought and raised her hand but even before she could do anything, she felt pain in her hand and realized that she could not use her power. She moved the sleeve up of her arms a little and there was a serious burn mark just above her wrist. She probably got it while dealing with that creature who chased after Prince Theron. She covered the mark with her sleeve immediately.
‘I will have to wait before being able to use my powers again,’ she decided and looked at the royal physician. “He will be alright till we reach the palace, right?”
The royal physician nodded, though he looked worried, making Esther wonder if there were other complications about the prince’s health.
After they reached the royal palace, the Crown Prince was transferred to his chamber where the Head Royal Physician along with the other skilled physicians of the city were present to treat their prince. The worried King and Queen were present there as well.
After checking on her son, Queen Theodora went to see Esther, who was then put into a separate room to be checked by another physician for any signs of injury. With her was Sir Galien, the Crown Prince’s knight, along with other palace officials in charge of the investigation, asking her questions about the things she could remember about the assassin who attacked the Crown Prince.
The entire Kingdom of Megaris was in a state of chaos after its Crown Prince had gone missing, and now that he was found, the palace officials could finally focus on investigating the mastermind behind the attack. Sir Galien had already given them his statement about the prince sneaking out of the royal ball to join the festivities in the city, up to the part about how they were attacked in the small pier by the river. Now, it was the turn of the second important witness to tell them what happened so they could continue their investigation.
Esther explained to them about what happened the best way she could. She had to be mindful when answering the questions as both Sir Galien and Prince Theron had seen her running towards them with the intention of protecting the prince. The troublesome question was how she, a royal servant serving a different royal, got to know about the attack on the prince. In the first place, the only ones who should have known that he slipped out of the palace were the Crown Prince himself and his knight.
As expected, the things they asked went along with her guesses. She told them the truth about how she noticed the Crown Prince in the plaza, and then, later on, spotted him again when she was accidentally lost in the bustling crowd on the way to the lantern event.
“Miss Esther, who was the one to attack Crown Prince Theron?”
“I don’t know,” she answered. She wished to keep her answer to the minimum about this part of her statement.
“Then how did you know someone was going to attack the Crown Prince? Why did you run to save him instead of calling the attention of the city guards?” Sir Galien, who had seen it all, asked her.
“I panicked,” she explained with a lowered head. “I was separated from the other ladies, and was in the part of the riverbank with sparser people. Then, I saw someone suspicious—he’s wearing a hooded robe with a weapon in hand, and then I noticed he was going in the opposite direction of the crowd. It made me suspicious so I followed him, and then only then did I notice that he seems to be aiming for His Highness, who was standing on the pier. My apologies. I should have called for the guards, but my first thoughts were to run towards him and call his attention…”
One of the investigating officials comforted her, “You were actually really brave, Miss.”
“Indeed, the fact that you acted to save the Crown Prince was commendable, although it was not the best decision to make.”
The other people in the room shared the same thoughts. There was no need for Esther, a servant, to apologize as she was the one to try to save the prince, not even caring for her life. In fact, Sir Galien should have received punishment for being unable to protect his liege, but it was postponed due to Prince Theron’s disappearance. If anyone were to be blamed, it was him, the Crown Prince’s guardian knight, for failing to do his duty.
While the officials tried to make Esther describe the appearance of the attacker, Sir Galien silently pondered on one side. He had seen the young lady trying to save the prince and how she even prevented those unseen attacks from hitting the prince. Sir Galien was puzzled about what that attack was. It reminded him of something he had heard from the rebels who attacked the Queen a few months back. Back then, they claimed that Esther had used some kind of invisible force to knock them away.
Sir Galien got a little suspicious and asked the young lady a question, “What was that strong force that hit us? Do you know what kind of attack it was?”
Esther acted confused. “Apologies, Sir. I was in such a hurry to save the prince that I don’t know what happened exactly. All I remembered is that before we fell on the river, there were metal weapons flying towards us, and Prince Theron saved me from them instead.”
“What about the earlier attacks? Did you not feel anything? You were the one to be hit by something first, causing you to fall towards His Highness,” Sir Galien insisted.
Esther put on a pondering look. “I felt like someone was behind me and pushed me. I remember falling on the ground. I must have hit my head because for the rest I don’t know what happened.”
Before Sir Galien could ask more, they heard a commanding voice coming from the direction of the door.. “Enough! She has answered your questions, and you are still not satisfied, hmm? If she said she doesn’t know, then she doesn’t know.”
