Both hands covering my face, I sighed while lowering it towards my legs.
Now it all makes sense….
How did I genuinely not think about it until now?
I guess I didn't really have any reason to put the pieces together until now, but looking back on everything it just makes me feel stupid. Even earlier when we left the house she said "see ya later" didn't she? I obviously thought she meant after the trial, but clearly…
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine… honestly, I'm completely fine now. The realization hit me straight in the guts, then released all of my stress."
"I'm not really sure what you realized, but I guess that's a good thing?"
"Yeah, I bet you don't know."
"Indeed, I have no clue what you're talking about, my dear little brother."
I just sideeyed her for about a moment or so. I can bet my entire life savings (amounting to 0 either way) that she's well aware of what I realized. But given the fact that not only she hasn't told me anything until now, but she's also playing dumb then… I guess it's not up to her to talk broadly about ? Granted, it could also be because saying anything about The Commander's hidden identity- persona? I have no clue what to even call Luna at this point, but regardless, it's probably best not to mention it outloud.
Either way, I genuinely am feeling no more discomfort whatsoever now. Whether it's just the relief from having realized something so obvious or just the comfort of having her around, I'm not so sure. But at this point? I don't even know if it matters anymore.
Oh but also, I guess calling her The Commander now would feel a little weird, huh? I used that nickname to not mutter the name of the single strongest and most powerful individual on the continent unwisely, but… yeah, I think that's kind of irrelevant now.
Weirdly or not, I honestly prefer Mio over Luna as a name, so this feels better for me too. But regardless of that, after about 10 seconds of silence since Mio had raised her face from those papers, she finally broke the silence.
"I see. So what you're saying is that the previous commander and captain of this kingdom found letters between the late Ashford Great Duke and the blue haired lizard?"
"Blue haired li—-?… indeed. That is the case."
"What do you two have to say about that then?"
Dad and mom both stood up before speaking.
"We found it…"
"Quite repulsive, your honor."
"What-"
"Don't interrupt them. They allowed you to speak, didn't they?"
"…"
"Continue then. Why exactly do you two find what he said repulsive?"
"Of course, that's because…"
"…he's completely ignoring your own actions and research, your honor."
"Hm… and what may you possibly mean by that?"
"Of course, we're talking about the fact that…"
"You executed those that he said to have found evidence against my father yourself. And to make it even worse, the counts of which they were found guilty on were… treason."
Mio's expression shifted from her usual serene smile to a smug grin. If I had to take a guess, she probably intentionally allowed the King to tell his poorly made up story and didn't bring this up, to make him look even worse than he already is currently. And it seems like it worked. The King, after hearing what they said and realizing the massive plot hole in his narrative, became visibly nervous.
"That's true, isn't it? So then let me ask you one thing, Geezer."
"…what is it, Great Sovereign?"
"If your basis for pinning the Late Ashford Great Duke as a treason are the words of two treasons themselves…"
She paused her sentence for about 3 seconds. That was enough for everyone in this room besides us "good guys" to drop into a cold sweat, just by looking at her, and hearing her next words.
"Then why are you telling me that with such confidence, even though I personally punished them myself? At this point, you're either insinuating that I'm wrong… or that I'm one of them, are you not?"
"N-no! I could never!"
Yeah… you fucked up, your majesty.
His biggest mistake was ignoring the narrative that was already set in place behind the scenes. The public of course didn't know that they were treasonous, because it was the king's way of covering up for themselves. So to him it may just look like blaming a second decoy that he had at disposal in a way or another, but to us? And more importantly, to Mio?
It's pretty much as if he's telling her that he intends on lying to her face and making it obvious. Even when you take into account the fact that she most likely knows the entire truth and hasn't simply arrested the king, it's most likely that she is intentionally willing to let him off the hook with it, but he's still trying to act as if he's in charge… that's just stupidity at its finest.
And the worst part, is the way that he's actually trying to frame the whole situation, even if indirectly. "Yes, those two that you executed yourself are the reason why I accused the Late Ashford Great Duke. And I'm going to use that story even though you're allowing me to keep my position as the King, because I clearly forgot to get my story right. That doesn't matter though, I'll just make it seem like you're either wrong or maybe even one of them! If the people doubt you, I have a greater chance of winning this." Or something like that.
"Then what are you insinuating?"
"I'm… I'm just saying that although those two were indeed truly repulsive individuals, which have been rightfully executed by you, we should still take a few more options into consideration."
"those being?"
"Like the possibility of them having been working together with the Late Great Duke, and merely making them act as decoys. If they were to get caught, it would've been more scandalous, am I wrong? So by taking out some of their own comrades, they kept their facade strong, until you found out the truth yourself and punished them. I would never insinuate that you're wrong, or that you're one of them, Great Sovereign."
I guess he does have a somewhat functional brain, huh? At the very least, his coverup story that he made up on the spot does seem to be fairly logical.
It is also a pretty common thing. The higher ups throw down the bus the henchmen to avoid getting caught themselves, since if they get caught it's game over. Though obviously the subjects are different in reality, he's technically not lying, is he? Since he did technically rat out on our grandpa while covering up for himself and the other Kings… well, of course except the part where our grandpa was always innocent to begin with.
"I see. I guess that's a fairly good point, isn't it? What do you two think?"
"Although it's a pretty bold claim…"
"We can't deny that it is somewhat logical."
"See? I've told you, Great Sovereign. Although those filthy individuals may have been rotten, it is not a reason to assume the Late Great Duke wasn't."
"But do you have any proof of him actually having been a treason, or a bad guy to begin with? Of course, other than the words of the other two."
I honestly expected him to back down at that point. However, in a way or another, it seems like he wasn't actually completely unprepared. Recomposing himself, the King then spoke confidently.
"Of course I do. I wouldn't be making such bold claims otherwise."
"Let's see it then."
He clapped his hands once, and then the door of the courtroom opened. We all looked back, not really sure of what to expect, however it seems like we didn't really need to have any particularly insane guesses. After all, only 2 people came inside the room. I personally had never seen them before, but given the fact that even Maia looked curious when I glanced at her, I'm assuming they may have genuinely just been fairly irrelevant people in the grand scheme of things. Or I guess just not someone that she or maybe even Mio had ever met before.
One of them was holding some type of large notebook? A folder? Or something along those lines, while the other had a suitcase on her. Once they finally reached the area between the stairs and the desks, the two individuals, a man and a woman, both having black hair and wearing your average uniform, spoke up.
"Pardon our intrusion, Great Sovereign."
"We are two detectives, hired by his Majesty himself. We specialize in old unsolved or covered cases, regardless of their nature."
"Hm… that's pretty interesting. What are your names? I've never seen you before."
"My name is Luke, and she is my wife, Tina."
"The reason why you may not have heard or seen us before, besides the fact that we simply aren't that well known in the grand scheme of things, is the fact that we mainly take commissions from corporations, or private cases."
"Is that so? Then would you mind giving me a little overview of your credentials?"
"We don't mind at all, in fact we're glad to be able to prove our worth before jumping over our conclusions with the investigation that his Majesty commissioned us with."
"We've been commissioned around 242 times within the last 5 years or so. Most of our cases consist of solving non reported murder or financially related cases. For example, if a crime never gets reported and documented, but one of the victims wants to gather enough proof to be able to hand someone to the authorities, they can contact us."
He then opened the notebook, or I guess it really is a folder more than that? Well? Regardless of what it is, he grabbed a bunch of papers from it, while his wife opened her suitcase, and took out some photos.
"Though usually it goes against our policy to give out any details regarding our cases as they are private, we're assuming the risk of breaking that rule in this case. What we have here, is a bunch of documented reports we personally made, and photographs we took as proof."
"I'm not sure if I should respect your devotion or shame your actions, but either way, I'll take a look at them at the very least."
The next moment, they disappeared from their hands and appeared on her desk. Scanning them with a curious expression, it only took about 30 seconds for Mio to speak up again. Her tone seemed to be fairly positive as well, which I'm assuming is because their proof is valid I guess. I'm not really sure if it's a good thing given the fact that they're employed by the King, but hey, gotta give credits where credits are due.
"I understand that you're fairly knowledgeable within your field. I remember a few of these cases being brought to my attention as well, so I guess these are the records of how they came to be to begin with. Like this one for example, where a man supposedly stole 10 gold coins from a family that sold most of their belongings to buy their son some high quality adventuring gear. The man that stole the money was someone with a stable job and actually a childhood friend of the boy's father, so no one really doubted him. But after the parents hired you, enough proof was gathered to place him as the main suspect, and the parents managed to file a report against him, winning their case."
"We remember that case noticeably well actually, since the family that was taken advantage of was one of the most kindhearted clients we've ever had. Even though they had been robbed, and had no clues on who the culprit was, and even though they barely had any financial aid to feed themselves by that point…"
"They still offered us dinner every night. Even when our investigation was taking a lot longer than expected, and me and my husband ourselves were starting to lose hope and patience, they never did. They kept treating us with nothing but kindness and support, and believed in us until we found the culprit."
"Of course, needless to say, we ended up never charging them a dime even after our job was completed. In fact, we personally gifted them 100 gold coins from our pockets just so they could get back on their feet, and they're doing fairly well now."
"Their son is also now a B rank adventurer by the way, you know? He's only 17 years old too, just around the same age as our son. Him and our son are both adventurers and have been on great terms ever since."
What a heartwarming story… damn it! I hate to admit it, but I can't tell anymore if these guys are good or not!
I mean, come one. If they're employed by him and are here to supposedly prove that our grandpa was a treason even though that's not true, they're obviously going to just pull out some completely fake records, right? But they seem to actually be legitimately good people, even having a solid background to their work… not to mention, the fact that they publicly, in front of the entire kingdom announced that their son is an adventurer, so if something goes wrong on their end, it won't be long until he's found as their kid and probably have his career ruined.
Just what the hell is the deal with these guys? I actually can't tell anymore! Maybe Maia…- yeah, nevermind. She had a similarly confused expression as me, and the same went even for The Queen of Nature, her daughter and the fake twins. I'm assuming that they were aware of the truth as well, so the fact that they were also confused spoke a little too loudly for our liking.
"That's definitely a notable deed. You have my personal praise as detectives. However…"
…I guess none of that matters to Mio, huh? I feel like we're all stupid for even stressing over it, and it's only been a few moments since we even started.
"I hope you're aware that I have my own sources too, right? So if you two end up showing me a bunch of nonsense, your careers are over. I could even charge you with lying to the Supreme Judge while in court, you know?"
Laying it out flat, without a single drop of hesitation. Well, I guess you don't need hesitation when you're at the top, but still.
Even they looked a little nervous now. Granted, their poker faces were really good, but they did have a few drops of sweat running down their faces each. Coincidentally, I also could see the hands of the man shaking, whatever his name was again, so the picture of the events was becoming clearer.
These guys…
They're giving it all up.
They're most likely aware that whatever "proof" they have isn't actually going to amount to anything, but they're still going for it. Though their case records seem to be legitimate, I'm assuming they have some real reasons to be going on this career ending, suicidal quest.
I don't know what it is.....or rather, I actually do. A gut feeling. That's all the proof I have. But it was enough to make me feel uncomfortable to the point where I had to.
"We… are aware."
"But we still wish to present to you the results of our investigation on the Late Great Ashford Duke, Your Honor."
"Say, Maia…"
I started a mana communication with her.
"What is it, Cael…"
"This could be just a gut feeling, you know? So take it with a grain of salt."
"No, I actually think we're on the same page here, my dear little brother."
"…"
"Alright then. Pull the sheets out."
"If they're willingly putting themselves in an inevitable career ending situation, even though they have a solid background to their name…"
"Then there's probably a reason for why they don't have a choice but to go with it. Is that what you're also thinking? My dear older sister."
"To think that the King would go to such an extent."
"I didn't want to assume he's this rotten, honestly. But seeing how things are, then there's only one possibility that comes to mind."
"Yeah, I agree…"
And as they pulled out both the paper sheets and pictures of their supposed research results…me and Maia ended up synchronizing for once, as we reached the same conclusion.
"'His Majesty is probably… Blackmailing them.'"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Maia's Pov)
Don't get me wrong… it's not like I'm trying to defend him or anything, since I'm obviously not a fan of his, with him being the reason our grandpa died, we were publicly labeled as treason and all. But has he really stepped that low? For a King to do something this lowly just to try and get us to appear guilty, you'd expect our grandpa to have been his archenemy or something, not that he just was against the King's treason plan.
But I clearly can't ignore this possibility now that it seems like I'm not the only one who reached the same conclusion, so I have to at least try and ask Mio about it.
"Alright, this is definitely a pretty unexpected turn of events… Cael, I'm ending this mana communication. Alright?"
"I mean, I don't mind? But why suddenly?"
"There can only be one reason in this case, you know?"
"…wait, are you?-"
"Yeah, I'm going to ask her what she thinks. We can't let this be, can we?"
"Is that not against courtroom rules or something? To secretly talk with the judge and all…"
"Is it not worse for a king to potentially blackmail some honest detectives just to make stuff up?"
"…alright then. Lemme know how it goes I guess."
"Don't worry, I will."
And so I ended the one with him, and began a new mana communication right away, with our dear Commander.
"Mio, these two…"
"Yeah, I know."
"You think something's going on too, huh?"
"I intentionally mentioned that case about the thief. I wanted to see if they'd mention anything in particular that may seem unnecessary or off, even if played as a completely natural follow up side note. Did you not notice something weird about what they said about that case?"
"Well, when you put it that way… I guess they did mention how good those people were quite a lot? Not to mention, the comment about their son was actually fairly stupid on their end if they're aware that they have no…real… proof——"
"It seems like you caught on too."
"Don't tell me…"
"It's most likely possible that the geezer has either that family from that case into custody, or this couple's son himself. I'm not really sure which it is, but either way, I saw that comment as weird. Which is why I tried to scare them off by putting their position out flat. If they give me complete crap, their careers are over. And though they did seem to "willingly" give me their research's results, there are some pretty big red flags all over the place."
"Are they that bad? You just started reading them…"
"I'll get to these in a second, I'm honestly hoping that if I read more I'll be able to somehow stretch this as much as I can. But even before that, they were clearly showing signs of uncomfortableness, if not straight up fear. That man's arm was shaking as an example, though he's pretty good at hiding it. When I glanced over at Cael, I think that he also noticed, since his eyes were directed towards his hand."
"Well, I'm not surprised that either one of you did. Though it does make me feel a little guilty for not noticing as well…"
"No point in that. You've already noticed more than enough, otherwise you wouldn't have started a mana communication with me, right?"
"…regardless of that. How bad are they really?"
"I was hoping they'd just back off after my attempt at intimidation, but the fact that they went on to give me this crap is honestly just concerning. They're mostly just either straight up fabricated interviews, or alleged rumors surrounding your grandpa. The interviews are with alleged people that knew him personally, talking about how he was always a little shady and what not, while the rumors? You can take a guess on that. They're really just the usual "I heard he was making suspicious trades! It must've been with the Dragon Prince!" Type of thing."
"That bad?! Is the King even aware of what's on there? From the looks of it, he didn't even give them enough time to try and fabricate proper proof…"
"I doubt it. You'd be giving this geezer too much credit if you assumed he'd actually try to read the fabricated material he probably blackmailed a random family to achieve."
"Seriously… how low can he step?"
"If these two just backed off, once again, I would've protected them from the geezer myself… but clearly, they seem to be in a "if we don't do this, we'll lose—-" whatever or I guess whoever he's blackmailing them with, type of mentality. And while I can stretch this a little, at least so the conversation isn't just a one sided debunk from my end, it's still really bad."
"What about the pictures? If the research results are that bad, I honestly don't even know what to expect from those."
"Yeah, you were better off not asking honestly. These are even worse in fact."
"…we're way too deep into this to back off at this point, so just go for it. I'm ready."
"If you say so. They're mostly attempts at capturing "ruins" from the burnt main Ashford mansion. I'm talking about things like an alleged safe that survived everything that happened to that mansion, allegedly containing the supposed letters between your grandpa and the blue haired lizard. Clearly fabricated, and some even uncompleted fake bills between alleged mail men, which is how these letters have "never been intercepted" before, and so on. I doubt even a child would believe in this "proof" coming from professional detectives with a clear background."
"But, besides the story itself of magically recovered ruins being iffy, are the pictures really that bad?"
"It would've been great if it was the story being iffy as the issue. It's the pictures themselves unfortunately though. For instance, the ones with the safe for example, they're pictures of a barely scratched, off brand safe that's made out of wood, and has a golden outline on its edges… the fact that it's in wood alone makes it a terrible case for being a surviving relic from a burnt down mansion. The letters? The handwriting is so messy that you can't even read them, which is most likely intentional. Though unfortunately for them, from the recorded and documented real letters of your grandpa, it's actually a fairly known fact that he had really easy to read and neat handwriting."
"To screw up that bad… I'm genuinely curious if these two even had more than a week of time to prepare these."
"A week? That's generous. If I had to take a guess, they probably had 3 days at most. That's as much generosity as I'm willing to give to the geezer honestly, since I doubt he gave them any more."
"I can't find any convincing and logical way of denying your claim, which is concerning."
"It sure is. But as I said, I'll try my best to make this flow more like a genuine debate on the authenticity of their research, rather than an onesided debunk."
"Well, good luck with that one… if their proof is this bad, you'll definitely need it. But on a side note, even though I'm not really worried about their safety anymore since you're aware that they're in trouble,
there is still one thing in a little concerned about."
"Their career, and their son's, I'm assuming?"
"Yeah, that's right. I mean, they already put it on the line when handing those things to you, right? I'm a little skeptical of how the people are going to take this one, after they're completely wrong."
"I can't make miracles-"
"Yeah, no, you literally can-"
"I'm talking about psychological miracles, you annoying ass gorilla."
"Did you really have to use Cael's nickname for me…"
"It's fitting."
"…continue."
"As I said. I can't make miracles happen, so I can't guarantee that the people won't doubt their worth as detectives once this trial is over. But honestly? I'm not really too worried about either one of those. It may sound a little contradictory, but I doubt that the people will care that much. When you look at it from a different point of view, they're probably just going to be focused on reshaping their moralities and drowning in guilt for hating your entire bloodline for 20 years straight instead, no?"
"When you put it that way, I guess it does seem pretty unlikely for their careers to be truly affected."
"Not to mention, by the end of the trial, they'd have seen their King completely lose every single argument he tried to give out, so they're probably going to start doubting his credibility, if they haven't yet. Maybe it'll go down the 'the King gave them an impossible mission, but they still did their best. They couldn't have possibly brought up good proof of the Late Great Duke being a treason if he wasn't one to begin with.' Route instead, which is what I'm hoping for at least."
"I guess that's our last hope, huh? Speaking of hope actually though, are we just gonna hope mom and dad will catch on and try to not flat out debunk them like you're going to? Or should we tell them?"
"Uhmm, I think they probably caught on as well? if they see me not aggressively breaking down their stuff then they should probably realize that I'm doing it on purpose? But just to be safe I guess I'll tell them myself, so don't worry about that. Either way, it's time for this conversation to end by now. I've been silently looking at these papers and pictures long enough."
"Sounds good to me. At least I can also reassure Cael about it now, since he seemed pretty worried."
"Yeah, I would…really appreciate that. Luckily enough, it looks like he calmed down for now, but I'd rather not see him stressed for the time being."
"I know that much, don't worry. Either way, I doubt he'd stress about these two nearly as much as he did from seeing you, you know? So even if I don't reassure him that they'll be fine, most people probably wouldn't even notice that he's conscious about them."
"But I would."
"Of course, I am well aware. Which is why, I'm ending this mana conversation now, and I'll tell him right away that these 2 will be fine, and he doesn't have to worry."
"Alright… Thanks, my dear older sister."
"You're Welcome, my dear younger sister."
And so, I quickly ended ours while beginning a new one with Cael.