Lord Eudes read the next item in the agenda in front of everyone.
“The Department of Human Welfare presents the next agenda. It stated that The Third Princess went out of the palace and harmed the innocent people by colluding with the unknown red-eyed man.”
King Armen looked at the ministers from the left as they all had a smirk on their lips. He knew it was another scheme against his daughter, and he was prepared for it. He decided to hear them all at first, and there was no way he would let go of the culprit who had troubled his innocent daughter and even tried to burn her.
Cian looked at his father, who gave him an assuring glare which conveyed everything would be fine. Being away from the capital Cian was not aware of the entire situation, but King Armen had briefly described him about it the previous night as he was sure that this matter might be raised in the next court session.
With the worry of defending his sister, Cian had another concern, and that was once again, the red-eyed man was associated with his sister, and he knew who that man was.
The minister of the Department of Human Welfare, Minister Warin, stepped forward to present his case as he bowed to king Armen to ask for permission. “Your Majesty!”
King Armen nodded lightly, “Proceed!”
Minister Warin bowed lightly before continuing, “Your majesty, on the day of The Second Princess’ engagement, The Third Princess went out of the palace. Despite being told not to step out of the tower, she disobeyed Your Majesty, King Armen’s decree, and went out. Not just that, but she even had hurt the ordinary and innocent people outside of the palace.”
“Innocent?” Prince Cian commented as he offered a doubtful sight to the minister Warin.
Not feeling affected by it, Minister Warin nodded, “Yes, Your Highness! The Third Princess even had an unknown red-eyed man with her who also killed an innocent man.”
Minister Warin moved his sight from Cian to King Armen, “Your Majesty, being the minister of the Department of Human Welfare and what responsibility I hold towards the innocent and ordinary subjects of this kingdom, I seek justice for those innocent people whom The Third Princess had harmed.”
King Aman knew where it would lead and waited to check what they held under their sleeves. The red-eyed man the minister had mentioned was the King of Megaris, and it took him by surprise how they related Seren and Drayce as acquaintances in harming people.
Minister Warin talked again, “Your Majesty, I wish you to hear everything from those innocent people who are here and know what The Third Princess had done with them. How brutally she treated them.”
Though King Armen and Cian felt angry with it, they couldn’t show it on their faces as everyone had the right to say their part. If things were so easy, they would have beheaded everyone at the very moment.
Minister Warin looked at the guard, “Bring them.”
Soon after, a bunch of ten men entered the Royal Court as the guards followed them. All of them looked hurt, more like they were burned. Looking at them, anyone could guess The Third Princess must have put them on fire. It was highly possible as Seren had done it even before, and most of the palace people had a bitter experience with it.
King Armen had ordered his men to catch these people and decided to punish them on his own without even giving them a chance to plead for forgiveness, but the same night, he got the news about Cian’s abduction. The sudden emergency in the kingdom made him push his plan for later. Only if it was not enough, what happened with Seren kept him occupied to think about the other minor things.
Those Ten men kneeled in front of the king, and one of them cried out, “Your Majesty, see how badly the third princess has hurt us. Thereby we are here to seek justice for ourselves.” He was the same drunk man who dared to stop Seren and even asked his men to remove her clothes in front of everyone.
Cian stepped forward and looked at Minister Warin, “Minister Warin, care to explain what exactly happened so we can decide who was at fault.”
Minister Warin looked at the injured men and said, “Don’t be afraid and tell everyone what happened that day.”
The man who had talked just a while ago turned his face as much sad as he could while the others with him pretended to look weaker as if they would die soon.
“Your Highness!” he looked at Cian and lowered his head to bow him as he talked with his head down, “That day, we saw a lady who was covering her face with a veil and hat. From the attire, she looked like a lady from a noble family. The part of the capital she was wandering into was not for any noble family lady. Thinking she must have lost her way, I thought to talk to her and guide her to the right way. But when I talked to her, she turned angry and put all of us on fire. Then we realized that she was not any noble lady but a witch. Despite being threatened for our lives, we all thought to capture her so that she couldn’t harm others. When we went after her, we saw one red-eyed man taking her with him and hid her in the deserted alley. All of us went there, and a man mercilessly killed one of our subordinates. We didn’t know she was the third princess. If we had known, we wouldn’t dare bother her”
Prince Cian gazed at those men and asked coldly. “So you all didn’t know she was the third princess even after she burned you.”
“No, Your highness,” they said in unison.
Cian walked in front of them from left to right as he continued to say, “How many so-called witches do we have in the kingdom who have the ability to burn someone upon turning angry?”
This question startled the men, but one of them answered, “If there is one, then there can be more, Your Highness.”
Cian continued to walk, which had started to scare those men, “In all these years, has anyone ever come across them?”
“No, Your Highness?” they said in unison again, in their crying and pleading voices.
“Then, are you sure you didn’t know who she was even after she put all of you on fire?” Cian stopped walking as he stood exactly opposite to those men, facing them intently, “Tales about her burning people, when she is angry, are famous in the entire kingdom, aren’t they?”
“Y-Your Highness, we were so scared to even think about it. We thought she was a witch, and we needed to capture her to protect everyone.”
“Are you sure?” Cian asked again, his sapphire blue eyes looking scarier with every passing moment.
“Y-yes, Your Highness,” none of them dared to look at him.
“Forget about what you thought but let me clear one thing to you, The Third Princess doesn’t have the habit of burning lowly creatures without any reason. I am sure there must be a strong reason that she had to do it.”
All of those men gulped as they looked at each other as if saying they were doomed if the truth came out.
“I want the truth,” Cian ordered loudly, and the entire Royal court heard him loud and clear.
“W-What we had told earlier is the truth,” the other man insisted, siding with those who had talked previously.
“There won’t be another chance,” Cian warned with his intimidating gaze as his hand, which already held the handle of the sword, gripped it tightly.
Feeling scared, one man immediately lowered his head and said, “This is the truth, your highness.”
To stop Cian from intimidating those men and getting the truth out from them, Minister Warin said to interrupt him, “I think the third princess came out of the palace to meet that red-eyed man, but because of these people, she got caught. This must be the reason why she turned angry and harmed them.”
“Red-eyed man?” Cian said, even though he knew who they were talking about.
“Prince Cian, we all know there is only one man with a pair of red eyes, The King of Megaris, King Drayce. I wonder if something is going on between the third Princess and the King of Megaris…..”
“Minister Warin!” Cian interrupted and warned him loudly, “Watch what you talk about, The Third Princess of this Kingdom.”
Not just Cian but King Armen had turned furious too. ‘How dare he?’
Minister Warin immediately bowed to both the royals, “Apology, Your Majesty! Apology, Your Highness!” Just as they thought this minister would say no more, he spoke again, “Apology if my words offend his majesty but if we seek for the truth and the justice, then we should consider and talk about all the aspects. Being the third Princess of this Kingdom doesn’t give her the privilege to hide the truth. We need to reach the root cause of this incident.”
King Armen and Prince Cian couldn’t stop him from saying his side, and they could only bear with what would come next.
Darus Count looked at the queen, who looked neutral, but she couldn’t hide that light smirk on her lips.
Just then, the guard announced. The king of Megaris, His Majesty King Drayce! The Crown Prince of Griven, His Highness Prince Arlan are entering the royal court.”
Everyone turned to look at the door of the royal court as if suddenly the atmosphere had turned still and something pulled them to look at the two Royal men who had just entered the Royal Court.
