Alex almost screamed out the two sentences without letting anyone to interrupt him until he was finished and the effect was as he expected – everyone fell silent again.

While technically he was a noble, no woman allowed herself to use the family title, much less a kid like him. And for him to request a court session in order to get out of the marriage by accusing his own family of rape was completely unheard of.

“Nonsense!” Alvaro shouted, but the governor interrupted him along with the crowd that began to murmur again.

“Silence!” He shouted, but then turned to Alex, “Child, I understand what you are doing, but that is not how the world works.”

Indeed, he thought he understood the clever girl kneeling in the grass or most likely the one who was behind her ‘tantrum’, but what she was currently doing could become an unnecessary precedent in the kingdom. As a man he had the obligation to root the improper ideas from the minds of the strayed children.

“Your honor! The law …” Alex tried to explain himself, but the governor interrupted again, this time him.

“I know the law! In order to summon the Court of Nobles one must present me a written request!” With each word he spoke, the old governor slammed his chair arm making the words resonate in the surroundings even more imposingly.

At this point Alvaro Morales and his father finally relaxed. While the whole thing was doomed to fail from the beginning, every minute this farce continued increasingly stained the reputation of the Morales family. Luckily the governor became annoyed by Ramona’s theatrics. Of course, everyone in the guest seats had a similar thought.

“Thank you, your honor!” Unexpectedly Alex smiled confusing the crowd.

Then he got up, stepped towards the governor, pulled a folded paper from his bosom and passed it to the governor. The old man furrowed his brows in displeasure, but Esteban and Alvaro began to feel uneasy anew. Someone had prepared the written request and properly taught the little b*tch! It was no easy task to accomplish, especially knowing how they cleansed the castle not so long ago.

Governor didn’t take the letter from Alex, the man besides him did. He quickly read the request, but before he said anything, Hector Perez stood up drawing the attention.

“The request to summon the Court of Nobles must be written by the submitter! That is the law!” He loudly said, but the statement increased the governor’s annoyance even more.

In the same manner he did it previously, the old man slammed his chair arm shouting, “I know the law!”

Alex didn’t intend to let the governor dismiss him, so he said, “Your honor, the request was written by me! If you want, I can write another one, just order someone to bring the utensils.”

Everything Alex did before made sense and everyone present was certain someone had orchestrated the whole show. But to assume that a young girl could write was unthinkable. And for some reason she was ready to prove her ability! How in the world a girl would know how to write? Maybe a loving husband on a whim would teach his wife how to write her own name, but this?

Suddenly the man holding Alex’s request in hands smiled – this was the first change of expression he had all day.

He leaned closer to the governor, whispered something and the old man widened his eyes in shock, but then nodded.

“Bring me the writing utensils!” He loudly ordered.

“Your excellency! This is not needed” Esteban Morales quickly arrived in front of the governor and stood next to Alex. The latter could swear he felt the grandfather’s killing intent without looking at him.

Alvaro Morales guessed his father’s intention and arrived to Alex’s other side and said, “Someone is clearly manipulating her in order to tarnish the reputation of our two noble families! We …”

“Everything will happen according to the law!” Governor calmly stated and beckoned at Alex, “Child, come here!”

Alex heard both his relatives gnash teeth in anger, but ignored them and came over to the governor. He took the quill, inkwell and piece of paper and already knelt down in order to write when the governor stopped him.

“Don’t write the request again, we don’t have all day. Write the following: ‘I, Ramona Morales, was the one who wrote the request.’ It’ll be sufficient to prove your skill.”

Alex paused for a second, then looked up at the governor and smiled, “You are wise, your honor.”

And then quickly scribbled the few words the governor requested. The old man understood that even though it was incredibly hard for an uneducated person to remember how to ‘draw’ several sentences without knowing how to actually read and write, it was theoretically doable.

Alex, of course, quickly proved his ability. The crowd gasped in shock seeing him write. The closest people who could actually see the content even exclaimed praising his calligraphy.

Suddenly the atmosphere in the venue changed. Even the dumbest servant here knew something serious was about to happen and all of this was not about a simple rape allegation. Alvaro tried to step forward, but Alex already was at the governor’s side. There was no way to reach him. The earlier feeling of unease returned and was accompanied by his sister – helplessness.

Esteban Morales also intended to move, but realized the strange governor’s assistant was besides them again. The abilities of this Qi master was miles ahead of his own and all they could currently do was to pray this was only instigated by that hateful girl and not one of the other two families.

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Speaking of which – the two elders from Ramos and Lopes families immediately arrived to the front.

“Your honor!” Baron Sergio Ramos, the head of the Ramos family loudly said, “Do I understand correctly – the Court of Nobles of the Navada region will be held?”

“You bastard!” Esteban Morales quietly cursed.

Of course, their old rivals would use any opportunity to kick them when they were down. The only question was – which one of the two was behind all this?

“Take your seats at my side!” Governor commanded and loudly continued, “I, duke Juan Carlos Ortega, representing the royal family of the Hallancia kingdom hereby announce the hearing at the Court of Nobles of the Navada region open. The accused, families Morales and Peres, bring them to the front! The accuser … uhmm … Ramona Morales! What is the accusation?”

Everything happened so fast the whole crowd was in shock. Even Alex was in daze seeing the two men from the other two families arriving as if they had previously prepared and the few members of the accused families were ordered to be brought to the front.

Emanuela was in tears, as expected, but Mia was completely furious when the guards from the governor’s entourage suddenly began to play the role of enforcers and ordered them to go to the front. The two heirs, Silvio and Bernardo followed the orders in disbelief, but at some point Alex met Silvio’s furious gaze and read from his lips ‘I’ll kill you, b*tch!’.

Most of the people were certain it will end with this, but the humiliation could never be washed off. If Alex would’ve thought from their point of view, he would understand why the aristocrats from the other two families immediately used this opportunity to land a blow from which Morales could never recover. In the best case scenario when everything was over they could sell off their properties and move to another country to live as ‘wealthy commoners’ under a new name.

Seeing the seven members of the two families gathered in front, the governor became impatient and loudly repeated, “What is the accusation?!”

Alex finally realized it was his turn to speak and contrary to the general expectation him shouting ‘rape’, confidently said, “Conspiracy to overthrow the royal family by aiding the rebel forces in the south western …”

He didn’t manage to finish when Alvaro Morales with a loud scream “Die, demon spawn!” charged at him, only to be beheaded half way. The look of disbelief was still on Alvaro’s face when his head rolled over the lawn, but the ‘governor’s assistant’ was already back on his previous spot.

Emanuela instantly fainted, but Esteban held back his only grandson. The Perez family still didn’t understand how the grand wedding could come to this and the crowd fell silent once again, except for the three eldest daughters from Morales family who began to hysterically cry somewhere in the crowd. Their husbands rushed to shut them up, afraid of being incriminated along the two former noble families.

Now there were only five accused standing – Esteban and his grandson, and the three from Perez family. Emanuela, of course, lie unconscious.

“Wasn’t this about the rape?” After a brief silence finally baron Fabian Lopes asked.

This was the same question the rest of the gathered had in mind. Every head turned towards Alex.

“No.” He shook his head and smiled, “If I came forward with the real accusation, I would’ve never been allowed to speak.”

“Uhmmm … but we do need more proof than this, don’t we?” Baron Sergio Ramos pointed at the beheaded body of Alvaro Morales and asked.

“Of course!” Alex didn’t wait for the governor to respond and pulled up his dress.

The crowd gasped in surprise and shock at the sight. The dames blushed and covered their faces in shame while men curiously observed how Alex unstrapped two satchels from his long, thin, snow white legs. Afterwards he took out the leather book and the stack of letters from the two satchels and passed to the governor.

“This is Alvaro Morales’s logbook. It contains detailed information about their dealings with the rebels. The letters is the correspondence with both the rebels and the Perez family. From what I gathered the two families are supplying rebels with cultivation resources and weapons, somehow covering their income under their silver mining businesses.” Alex quickly explained, “I don’t know all the details, but you’ll probably find out after you search the Perez family castle. I doubt you’ll find anything here.”

Obviously Alvaro Morales burned all the evidence he had after the theft, but Perez’s had no idea they’ve been made.

Governor browsed the logbook with a serious expression, then took a quick look at the letters. Meanwhile the two barons at his side curiously looked over his shoulders.

The crowd was dead silent. The happy occasion first turned into a farce, but then to a real court case revealing conspiracy and treason. They’ll have something to gossip about for many years to come – the downfall of two noble families didn’t happen every day.

But the next part came as a surprise only to Alex who didn’t know how such cases were handled. As a man of more or less modern mindset he was shocked by governor who simply commanded “Behead them!” and few seconds later there were seven more lifeless corpses on the ground. The fact that three of them were accomplished Qi masters didn’t mean squat in front of the ‘governor’s assistant’.

Alex stared with wide eyes observing how the man with couple of slashes erased the two families from existence without getting a drop of blood on his own clothes. Esteban’s and Hector’s struggle was like a child’s play to him and he didn’t even need to make any special moves to deal with them as the two men fell similar to Alvaro Morales.

Half an hour later the Morales castle was on fire. Alex couldn’t understand why would they burn down a good castle just like that, but it was not as if he cared much anyway.

The guests scattered the moment governor waved his hand dismissing everyone. Even though everyone was hungry, all they cared about was to bring the hot news back home.

The two barons – Lopes and Ramos happily took over Morales family properties splitting everything in halves and Alex was now officially homeless. Of course, they allowed him to grab a satchel of gold coins pretending to not notice it and were surprised he was so modest to only take such a small amount. On the other hand, Alex knew that carrying too much money for a small girl like him could only lead to a quick downfall.

There was one more thing he did before leaving – he invaded his brother’s quarters and finally could confiscate comfortable clothing. Some of it he wore straight away and packed quite a few pieces to bring with him.

Now he stood there, dressed like a noble youth in clothing that was a bit too large for him, staring at flames coming from the castle’s windows.

“Regrets?” Alex got startled when the ‘governor’s assistant’ suddenly appeared next to him.

The man was back in his expressionless mode and it was hard to judge what exactly was he thinking.

“Nah.” Alex shook his head, “More like a relief.”

“What are your plans now?” The man asked.

“No idea.” Alex immediately answered. But then thought for a bit and cheekily said, “But I won’t say ‘no’ if you offered me a ride to the capital.”

The man looked back at him in surprise, but then loudly laughed and said, “Alright, you can tag along! We have a long way ahead of us.”