image [https://scontent-cgk1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/441516363_122144836622179549_2298485333980625021_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s600x600&_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_eui2=AeHzp4yLPwxf_A3zKtsKpxbbJyPHDnQZGj0nI8cOdBkaPSCkKVig9wiOGGYbV1Mp8F7Jn42Jp37F-R4qLn4TSdr2&_nc_ohc=PcGkOrtF3YEQ7kNvgEmvw6f&_nc_ht=scontent-cgk1-1.xx&oh=00_AYAUQAs_OoOwvbQuVwX6ciSD1fPDOxN_PKyLbeTeCd2TcQ&oe=665747B9]They got Ugly Don in the dimmed interrogation room. The room was located next to the jail. It was damp and only had one little ventilation hole. five people were surrounding a chained burly man sitting in the middle of the room. Four men of crown enforcers as large as Ugly Don with fists and clothes stained by blood, not their blood but Ugly Don's blood.

by the time the inquiror arrived, Ugly Don was already beaten up and tortured like never before. his nails were pulled out and some of his fingers were already decapitated. his open wounds were soaked in acid to make him suffer more.

"No, please. Spare me..she ..*cough*, I don't know who is she, they always wear hood whenever we meet. this one is pretty, I swear. I can tell. she addressed herself as lady white."

"what else?" the interrogator asked in a calm voice. it seems like he is a master at this art. He reached for a plier on the side table where Ugly Don sat. Ugly Don looked intimidated just by the Inquiror gesture. the Inquiror knew better that people like him couldn't be spooked by loud voices but everyone eventually broke to the pain.

"Let me remember," The ugly murderer tried to stall, taking his time to catch some breath until two of the huge interrogators stepped forward. "Oh, I remember now. She has a beauty spot on her left cheek. I swear that's all I know."

"Beauty spot on the left cheek?" Inquisitor Albert stated flatly as he scrutinized the battered criminal before him. "Right, throw him in the cells."

"No!" Ugly Don pleaded, his voice little more than a rasp as the four hulking Crown Enforcers dragged him away. "Just kill me already," he whispered, eyes hollow.

Albert smirked coldly. "Relax, after your public trial you'll be castrated and thrown into the Valley to live out your wretched existence."

Don's face drained of what little color remained as he shook his head slowly in abject horror. "No...please don't...not the Valley..."

The man had endured unimaginable tortures at the Inquiror's hands, his spirit and body now equally broken wrecks.

"Look at you, begging like all your pretty little victims did before you snuffed out their light," Albert sneered as the enforcers hauled Ugly Don from the chamber. "Ironic, isn't it?"

Lalisa, the Inquisitor's keen-eyed apprentice, had observed the entire interrogation in the silent appraisal of her mentor's techniques. "White-hooded lady, highborn, beauty spot, comely features...we can start narrowing down our list of suspects."

Albert stroked his chin contemplatively. "Lady Light comes to mind first among the city's upper echelons."

"What do we know about her?" Lalisa prompted.

"Well, we know she called off her engagement to Timothy of House Windrun at the last minute to instead marry Lord Tyburn."

The apprentice scoffed derisively. "Talk about monkey-branching."

"The scandal shook the entire Empire," Albert agreed with a nod. "Lady Light is practically deified among Regalyon's black widows for her...achievements."

"She made her soon-to-be husband annul his original marriage, not just divorce - annul," the Inquisitor emphasized. "And as an adherent of the Old Ways, a marriage in Lord Tyburn's eyes is an unbreakable, lifelong union. He severed all ties with his former wife, kids, and her prestigious family just to wed Lady Light."

Albert shook his head in patent disapproval. "Putting himself through the Church's administrative hells for that...wench."

"To be fair, by marrying Lord Tyburn - head of the vastly wealthy great house Windrun and the Empire's Ministry of Coin - Lady Light secured her place among the highest echelons of power and privilege." Lalisa weighed the facts impartially.

"For now at least," the Inquisitor scoffed. "In the court of public opinion, she's been crowned the Black Widow Queen, the Wench of Aione, and far less polite monikers."

He rifled through the paper notes once more. "And our victim here, Vila...she was a rising star, courted by several prospective wealthy suitors. You'll never guess who topped that list."

Lalisa's brow furrowed as the realization struck her. "Lord Tyburn? Lady Light's own husband?"

"Aye, that's the one." Albert's lip curled in disgust. "The white and red rose bouquets, the orchids - those were House Windrun's sigils, flaunted under Vila's nose. And according to Ugly Don's statements, our mystery lady addressed herself as 'Lady S' - as in Syndrilla."

"Whose folk tales deluded so many starry-eyed village girls into chasing pipedreams of romance with lords and merchants in the capital," Lalisa murmured, completing the connection.

"And we all know Lady Light claims direct descent from Queen Syndrilla herself." She added.

"Good eye," Albert praised. "Do you know the darker version of Syndrilla's story? The one not embodied in children's fairy tales?"

Lalisa shook her head. "No, Ser. please do enlighten me."

"Well, after becoming queen, Syndrilla took brutal revenge upon her wicked stepsisters and stepmother. She had them captured, their faces permanently disfigured, and banished them to the Valley."

A contemplative silence fell between mentor and apprentice as they absorbed the grim parallels.

"All leads point to Lady Light as our primary suspect," Albert finally declared.

"I also heard whispers from one of our Ministry's 'flies'..." he added cryptically.

Lalisa's eyes widened at the mention of those shadowy government spies. "Go on."

"Lords Tyburn and Germy were...rivals, of sorts, in their pursuit of Vila's affections. Their houses have longstanding tensions."

The apprentice's pencil scrambled over her notebook as the inquisitor elaborated. "That raises Lord Tyburn's motive for his obsession. But it also presents a potential threat to Lady Light's position, giving her ample reason to eliminate the competition."

As the sordid web of deception, power, and depravity woven by the Empire's elite became increasingly apparent, Lalisa could not help but shudder at the depths of moral bankruptcy they had plumbed.

"For a woman of means in this capital, the world is a vicious competition to secure a comfortable life by marrying into wealth and status. But even once you've anchored yourself to a lord or prosperous merchant, you can never let your guard down. The greatest threat is always younger, lovelier maidens looking to usurp your crown."

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Inquiror Albert shook his head in weary disdain. "When you're a highborn lady of Lyondyn, you must forever sleep with one eye open. One night beside your husband, the next morning you wake to find a divorce letter on your bedside table as he's run off with a beautiful new bride."

The inquiror's gaze grew distant as he continued. "They'll turn a blind eye to their husbands visiting brothels for pleasure. But should that man start ogling a younger, more beautiful woman as a potential new wife?" A mirthless chuckle escaped his lips. "That's where the path to widowhood begins."

"But why is that?" Lalisa asked, her face jumbled in puzzlement. "Why do these wealthy widows go to such murderous lengths over jealousy?"

The seasoned inquiror raised an eyebrow expectantly. "Because in the church of Aione—" He left the sentence hanging, silently prompting her to complete the thought.

"A man can only have one wife," she supplied after a beat.

"Smart lass." Albert allowed himself a faint smile of approval. "The number of eligible lords and prosperous merchants pales in comparison to the highborn women vying for their hands. I'd wager only one in every fifteen ladies of breeding actually secures such a lofty match."

The statistic was plucked from thin air, but likely not far from the harsh reality. The apprentice shot him a dubious look. "How do you know the figures so precisely?"

"How do I know?" Albert echoed with a wry chuckle. He gestured vaguely at the towers of reports and parchments surrounding them. "I do my homework, as should you. For us inquirors, our eyes are forever glued to this ceaseless flood of paperwork."

the inquiror reclined on his seat. He stared at his desk where books and parchments were stacked. all of them were past judgments, history books, and law.

the inquiror glanced at one particular among the books, it was an open page of the book laid on his desk. The particular book was on his left side about to fall over the edge of his desk. It has leather covered a bit minted on the edge, yet it was clean and still in good condition than the other books and parchments stacked on the desk.

it was the Tome, the holy book of the Church of Aione.

This book used to stand for something, he contemplated as he opened random pages in the book. Deep inside, he blamed the New Way for opening the path of the black widow lifestyle.

Every rule in the Tome has been abolished by the New Way. the Tome became the shell of its former glory.

The New Way movement, known as the Reform, emerged during the period between the First and the Second Crusade wars.

The Reforms of the Church of Aione ushered in a new era emphasizing human freedom and rights. Any tenets within the sacred Tome deemed contradictory to these principles were systematically abolished. One by one, archaic laws fell until the Second Reform sixty years ago radically reshaped the church's doctrine.

Fornication laws crumbled, giving way to freedom of faith and speech. The rights to assemble and for women to own property and inherit were enshrined. In this historical milestone for the Wessen realm, it was the men who drew the shortest of straws.

The Second Reform granted women an excess of rights and liberties. Once disenfranchised from the privilege of property ownership, they now laid claim to half their husband's assets without any prerequisite contribution. Inheritance rights too favored the fairer sex, often bestowing them greater financial means than the men duty-bound to provide.

But the New Way's reforms showed no signs of abating. The controversial concepts of alimony and child support entered the legal vernacular - sums to be paid periodically to ex-wives with or without progeny to account for.

Most unpalatable of all, women were granted the right to dissolve their marriages without provocation or justification.

It was only a matter of time before the audacious abused their newfound powers. Tales soon spread of women demanding divorce immediately after exchanging vows, securing half their former husband's fortune in one fell swoop. Child support payments were extorted under threat of maternal deprivation, the offspring were wielded as human shields by those seeking financial exploitation.

"These opportunistic women mimicked the natural behaviors of the reviled black widow spider. It doesn't end there," the mentor's words dripped with disdain. "Once their fiscal security is assured, they turn over a new leaf as they call it - shedding prior identities to ensnare wealthier mates while still lawfully bound to their original spouses."

He shook his head, disgust etching deep lines in his weathered features. "The abolition of fornication laws, the establishment of alimony and child support...all cultivated a perfected environment for the black widow's parasitism to thrive."

An ironic chuckle escaped his lips. "We once viewed the Ruhim and their Lua Laws as backward heathens. Now it is we who have embraced the primitive path."

Lalisa could only listen with rapt fascination as her mentor elaborated on the philosophical impacts of such sweeping social reform. The black widows, once the oppressed, had indeed become the oppressors - an epidemic particularly virulent in the cities and towns where prospective mates abounded.

A former husband's assets were bifurcated upon divorce - half forfeited to his ex-wife, the remainder gradually drained by compulsory alimony payments. the former husband couldn't do anything, and they have nothing. They became a hollow, a dead walking man, although they were still alive. Those former husbands who dared to run away from paying the alimony and child support will be hunted down like a hollow, by the Crest Crusaders, an army directly under the church of Aione.

the only way for the former husband and men to get out of becoming a victim of this system were only three; smuggle himself out of this empire, become a pirate, or convert to Lua's faith before he got married.

Regalyon, The empire of Men, was already leaning on the New Way. the only followers of the Old Way were the old houses, established families, and common folks who lived in villages and towns.

⁕⁕⁕

the Inquiror's room got dimmer. The candles burn as time goes on. One by one the candles were out of light. Testament on how much time the master of the chamber spent in the nights.

With all the fascinating talk about the New Way, The Second Reform, and the opportunistic destructive women's lifestyle, the apprentice just had inspired for her scriptum as tribunal test to get her bachelor degree. moreover, she could continue her journal to become a book.

She wrote it down in her notebook with his title, The Black Widows of The Empire.

"So, what's with this Syndrilla thing among the girls?" The inquiror's apprentice couldn't hold his curiosity. "As if they are obsessed by Syndrilla."

the apprentice put down her quill. She stopped writing for a while might have been better to put down the quill.

Inquiror Albert took a deep breath before uttering his words, "Landing a role as a Syndrilla is a huge deal for upcoming actresses. The Queen in the Mask is a very popular play and people's favorite fairytale. it opens the door of opportunity. these young girls believe a myth that whoever debuts as Syndrilla in Grand Paragon theatre will be destined for greatness for as long as they can last until the actress retires."

"Is it?" The apprentice dragged her chair and leaned closer to the Inquiror. "Is there any proof to back up this superstition?"

Inquiror Albert gazed into the ceiling. The same wooden ceiling he had at home made him relive his life as a middle-class family butcher's son who lived in a rough neighborhood near the slum district of Lyondyn.

One of the special moments for him was when his parents brought him to Grand Paragon to watch his favorite plays such as Syndrilla The Queen in the Mask, Amir The Shroud of Sand, and many more.

"Lady Ovel of Albion. Madam Daria of House Chestmark. Sylvana the Beaut. All of them were once portrayed Syndrilla in Grand Paragon, and the list goes on and on." He recalled every one of the actresses who played Syndrilla as if it was yesterday as he saw them.

The inquiror approached his desk with books and tomes and parchments all spread all over to continue his work. He didn't waste time as he knew being glued to the parchment reports and books and history of past cases would help him solve his case much faster.

"These were just ladies in my generation, back when I was still but a young boy. Not to mention those who came before them. you won't believe how pretty and elegant they were. but still, with all the fame and fortune, they all have a hefty price to pay." He spread the reports while still talking with his apprentice.

"The competition in the entertainment industry is cutthroat, figuratively and literally." Inquiror Albert sat on his chair behind the desk, a comfy chair with armrests and cushion. "Because they have constant attention from the public, the people demand them to be perfect. fair porcelain skin, soft and warm personality. Tight waist, perkiest breast, beautiful face, freely cascaded hair, and the sky is the limit."

"Rumor has it, to stay young, some of them even made a journey up north to do a blood ritual at the Ishtara altar. sacrificing virgin maidens, draining their blood and bathing with it." Inquiror Albert started to talk about the rumor of the unspoken tradition behind the glamorous entertainment lifestyle.

Lalisa shivered just after hearing the rumor. Her seat felt like it was made from ancient ice.

"The Grand Paragon Theater has a policy in order not to confuse the audience, the grand theatre only uses the same actor and actress dedicated to a play. They made the role exclusively for a certain actor or actress until they retired or end of contract."

"This policy added more to the pride of getting the role as Syndrilla." Inquiror Albert spoke out his view.

Lalisa recalled her interview with some of her source testimony, "I heard, Vila's debut will be in two weeks, it such a shame."

"Indeed it is. Many people looking forward to her debut as she is the new rising star. and yet she already become a victim of the brutal side of the entertainment world." Inquiror Albert looks like he won't stop explaining his deposition to his apprentice.

Inquiror Albert closed his conclusion with an ironic scoff, "Happily ever after.."

"so much for the fame and fortune behind the superstition." the apprentice who majored in philosophy and political knowledge at Regalyon Academy stated.

"Aye, fame and fortune came after the superstition, and yet —superstition or not— people live and die for what they believe." Inquiror Albert reclined into the chair.

⁕⁕⁕