Chapter 16 - The Investigator
After donning her uniform and leaving the house, Lilly flew to the barracks for the meeting. Her nerves had lessened a bit now since Myndia would be there supporting her. Adelia would likely support her as well, but she would be limited by her position as part of the royal family.
She had met up with Daisy right before the meeting and was now walking with her to the meeting room. Adelia and the investigator had already arrived and were ready to receive her.
“You’ll have to present the evidence and make your case. The admission from the clan leader will likely help a lot, but it might scare the royals to know that we have a good relationship with the assassins,” Daisy explained as they walked.
“Right… I’ll try to avoid using that unless it becomes necessary. With some luck, the evidence we’ve gathered, especially the documents from Eolanathel himself, will be enough.”
‘... Why would you reveal your relation to the assassins? Isn’t that just begging to become the enemy of the royals right away?’ Myndia asked, clearly following the conversation closely.
‘Well… I guess I would prefer not to be charged with a crime before we try to win against them through diplomacy after the war. What’s worse, them knowing we’re enemies or giving them a reason to go after us?’
‘You’re a war hero! How harsh do you think they dare to be?’
‘Which is why I’d like my name to stay clean by proving I haven’t done anything wrong. If they can twist his death into treason, we’ll have bigger issues.’
‘... Fine, I see your point,’ Myndia responded, sounding convinced by Lilly’s argument.
She had thought about this for longer than Myndia, but she still valued her input. And now that they were on the same side, it would be easier to rely on her in the meeting.
They had arrived at the door to the investigator's living quarters now, and Daisy was looking at Lilly nervously. From her perspective, Lilly had suddenly gone silent while she was talking to Myndia.
Lilly took a deep breath before looking at her. “I’ll be fine, Daisy. Thank you for your help.”
Daisy smiled, looking relieved by Lilly’s response. “Good then, I wish you luck. I’ll be nearby in case you need me.”
Lilly nodded back and went to open the door. She felt confident, dressed like a proper Protector, and equipped with more than enough evidence to counter any accusation.
Once she opened the door, she saw two guards dressed in black moving to open it for her. ‘Oh, I probably should have knocked,’ she thought, feeling a bit silly. The guards opened the door completely and gestured for her to enter.
The room was elegant but not overly so. It was decorated with dark wooden furniture and velvet drapes, suitable for most of the important guests who would visit. Princess Adelia would be living in the best room, which was slightly more decorated than this one.
Two people were standing on one side of the dining table in the middle of the room, which was the temporary meeting spot. Adelia smiled at Lilly as she entered, but she looked unusually nervous. Beside her stood a middle-aged blonde man dressed in black and green, looking just as elegant as any other royal.
He did not smile, but he nodded at Lilly as she entered. “Welcome, Lady Lilly. I’ve been expecting you.”
Lilly walked over to the table and reached over to shake his hand in greeting, unsure of how to address him. “Nice to meet you, Mister Investigator. How should I address you during your visit?”
Instead of taking her hand, the man smiled and held her hand up to his lips, giving it a light kiss. Lilly’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, but she wasn’t sure what the correct way to greet someone in the capital was. So she let it go.
Adelia started introducing him after the silence had lasted a while. “This is my uncle, Prince Victor. He’s the Head Judge of the court in Eldoria and advisor of my father.” She turned to her uncle before continuing. “This is Lady Lilly, the hero of Thundrel and the Enchantress of the Vermilion Flame. And my good friend.”
Lilly was surprised by his high position. Although he would be behind Adelia in the line of succession, in terms of power and influence, only the king might be above him.
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Victor looked at Adelia with an exasperated half-smile. “Lia, you know I can’t be nice because she’s your friend, right? We need to do this by the books, even if she is a hero.”
The familiar tone did little to alleviate Adelia’s nervous expression, making Lilly feel a bit nervous as well. ‘Is he really hard to deal with?’ she wondered. She could feel some pressure from him, but she felt it was likely from his experience and presence.
Victor sat down by the table, making Lilly and Adelia follow. “Lady Lilly, this meeting is mostly for me to get a clearer picture of the events that transpired here, leading to Master Keldorn's death. Later on, I will be doing an investigation on my own.”
Lilly nodded, understanding he would stay here for a while. “Would you like me to explain the course of events, or do you want to ask questions?”
“I think we mostly know the events that happened before the day of his demise, so if you could tell us what happened on that day, I would appreciate it.”
“Sure, I remember it quite clearly. It all happened quite early in the day. I just arrived for my lesson, preparing to learn some more enchanting. Master Keldorn arrived before me, so I went into the office and greeted him.
The lesson never got started since he started telling me about how he would be leaving the country instead of letting us kill him like we were planning. I panicke–”
“Hold on, you were planning to kill him? Why?” Victor asked, looking confused as to why he suddenly got a confession out of the blue.
Lilly smiled lightly, enjoying his reaction. “Well, because he was the mastermind behind a clan of assassins. The same group that massacred the Vermilion Family. I thought he would be too dangerous to let live, so I planned to kill him.”
“... I’m expecting you to be able to prove this claim, Lady Lilly. The Vermilion Family has been gone for hundreds of years, are you telling me he was an elf?”
“Exactly, he was over two thousand years old. I’m quite sure you know of his clan; it’s a group of elven assassins doing whatever it takes to keep the peace.”
Victor seemed lost in thought, but he seemed to realize something, looking back at Lilly with curiosity. “Fine then, I’ll look into it. What happened next?”
“When he said he was leaving and that he knew of our plans, I panicked and started trapping him in a giant sphere of flame. I managed to sever his arm while attempting to kill him, but he escaped through some form of teleportation. He…”
Lilly felt her throat clench from the emotions that suddenly surged from trying to retell the next events. Tears started forming in her eyes, despite her efforts to stop them. “He went to my house… I’m sorry, give me a moment.”
Adelia looked heartbroken, seeming more emotional than even Lilly was being. She stared sharply at her uncle, making him raise his hands in surrender. “You can take the time you need, Lady Lilly. I know the basics of what happened at your home, so we can skip that part if you’d like.”
Lilly nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Thanks, Prince Victor. The rest is sort of a blur, but I can tell you what I experienced. I was very angry and somehow turned into a half-bird creature. I chased after Eolanathel, which is his real name, out of the city.
He managed to trick me several times, causing me to crash into the ground with a lot of force. You can see the craters if you stand on the wall; they’re hard to miss. I lost him at one point, but then Selene shot an arrow from a floating restaurant in the city to reveal where he was hiding.
That turned out to be the deciding factor, letting me pierce his chest with my talons and ending him once and for all. Then he told me some final words before passing away.”
Victor seemed to follow her story intently, writing notes as she spoke. “I see. Can you tell me what those words were?”
“Don’t destroy this land, you monster. And then he told me to give Elly his spatial ring.”
“Elly? Who is that?”
“Eolande. She’s sort of my godmother. She used to be the leader of the clan of assassins before she left and eventually became an adventurer. Then we met earlier this year, as my powers were starting to reveal themselves. She also saved Selene during the attack on the city.”
Victor was taking notes passionately, seeming very interested in the details. “And you gave her the ring? From… Eolanathel?” he asked, reading the name from his notes.
“Yeah, I didn’t see any issues with it. I trust her with my life. Besides, she was his daughter.”
‘You might be oversharing a bit here, Lilly. Stick to the important things,’ Myndia advised from the amulet.
Victor kept making notes while nodding. “Mhm, and what happened after that?”
Lilly adjusted her level of sharing, thinking about what details she had to include. “I was dead tired, so Elly came to pick me up. We went back to her house, where I cried for a few hours. Then, I went out to start assessing the damage. My house turned into ruins, and the office was destroyed, but no one had died, thankfully.”
“What about the body? And his possessions?”
“Well, besides the ring, everything should have been picked up by the clan of assassins. You’ll have to contact them if you want to see it, but I’ve been told they had a funeral already.”
Victor sighed deeply, jotting down some final notes before closing his notebook. “Thank you for telling me what has happened so far. I still find it hard to believe Master Keldorn was an alias, but I’ll keep an open mind.
I’ll be considering this a confession since you’ve told me you personally ended his life. So unless we find a reason to think you were justified, you might be charged with treason. Any evidence you have will be considered in the final conclusion, so I would advise you to hand it over.”