5 Days after the explosion - Carriage

When the prince got inside the carriage, he found on the left side of it his niece in the middle and his two bodyguards at her side all stroking the cat, so he end up sitting in the right with the maid.

"Hey Aria shouldn't you be in the front with the guard?"(prince)

"he will be fine, this is a reinforced carriage so even if we are under attack, It should hold on until I go outside if something happen"(Aria)

The prince could order her to go outside with the guard, but since she would be occupied with the cat, Aria shouldn't bother him much so he didn't really care. They headed to the police HQ since he wanted to see if they found the maid body so he could start an investigation and see who she was, who did she know, who were the people she last spoke too, etc.

The girls occupied with the cat allowed the prince relax. He also tried to avoid looking outside since every time he did it the prince saw a lot of frowns and rude gesture from the people, so he mostly saw the 3 girls stroke the cat.

When he arrived at the police HQ all 5 of them got out of the carriage

"One of you two take Lina and the cat to a veterinarian to have him checked"(prince) pointed at his two bodyguards

"Me me me"(Aria)

"Fine, you go, let's go inside Susan"(prince) while walking to the station

Taking the cat to the vet was more of an excuse to make Lina go away since he didn't want her to hear about the dead body, but he couldn't just send her without protection so he send her with an escort. Inside he asked in the receptionist to talk with the Police chief while showing his ring but this time she didn't try to verify it.

Looks like this time she know who i am, i wonder if she got yelled at(prince)wondering since she was acting more friendly than last time

The prince went to the chief office to see if he could find out more about the dead girl. Luckily he was there

"Hello chief"(prince)

"Prince Julian, good to see you again, What brings you here"(P chief)

"I need to have another visit to the morgue if you don't mind"(prince)

"Sure sure, let's go"(P Chief) Treating the prince really respectfully

The 3 of them left the office and went down tot he morgue

"So, do you want to check on the priestess again?"(P chief)asked while going there

"No, actually I am looking for a different person"(Prince)

"Really?Is it related to the explosion?"(P chief)

"Probably, at least it is a side effect of it"(prince)while opening the door to the morgue

"Oh, hello chief, is that prince julian?"(Mortician)

"Yes, sorry for the intrusion"(prince)

"no problem, we work for the empire anyway"(mortician)

"I came looking for a dead girl that should have her throat cut 4 days ago. I don't know what she was wearing, how she looked like and I don't know where she was found, only that it was a different place to where she was found"(prince)

"Let me think... a yes, a naked girl was found dead 3 days ago in an alley dead but not raped, really unusual if you ask me. I think i have her file around here"(mortician) Started for something in a pile of papers and took something from it

"here it is. Cause of dead was blood lost from a deep wound in the throat around 11 pm and 3 am 4 days ago, No other wounds or bruises found on her body or signs of struggle before dead"(Mortician)

Yep, just like guisu said, it looks like he wasn't lying(prince)

"anything else?"(prince)

"Well, her name is Maria Stenfell, It looks like her mother filled a missing report yesterday after 48h of going missing and this morning an officer came to check the Jona doe's. Since it's a murder case now, the jurisdiction change hands but no one has being assigned to the case yet"(mortician) Reading the file and saying his own conclusions

"Do you know her prince?"(P chief)

"Not really, she worked at the palace so i may have seeing her or even talk to her some times but I don't talk with most of the palace staff"(prince)

"Then how did you know about her"(P chief)watching really carefull at the prince

The prince though for a second if he should tell the truth or not, but since he WAS the police chief, he may find out more than him if he was properly informed(well even so the prince wouldn't tell him everything)

"Simple, I talked to a guy that saw the moment she was murder and what they were talking about so I knew she worked at the palace and that she had her throat cut by the killer"(prince)shrugged

That surprised the police chief, the mortician and Susan, since they didn't expect that

"What can you tell us? everything you know may be useful in catching the killer"(P chief)

"Killerssss, it was 3 bald guys, one with a scar on his eye, I forgot wich one. All i know is that someone hired her to sneak into princess Rebbeca's room to steal her stuff. She enter through a hole in the wall made by someone else and she gave the stuff to a guard that he later give back to her outside the palace"(prince)

Again what the prince said surprised the 3 of the and Susan even turned a little pale.

"Is that true?"(Susan)

"Of course, I already checked the wall as you know and the dead girl confirms the rest of what I heard"(prince)

"Should you being telling us this? Even if I am the police chief, this information involves national security"(P Chief) panicking a little

"And I am just a mortician"(Mortician)

"Don't worry about the small stuff, the important thing now is catching the culprits and see if they are involve the temple explosion"(Prince)

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It looks like the prince was on a role, since he manage to shock a 3 time the 3 of them. It looks like none of them thought that this could be related to the explosion until the prince mention it

"Tha aa... That is even worst!!!! This shouldn't fall into our jurisdiction!!!"(P chief) Shouting and panicking at the same time he knew this was way over his head

That gave the prince a wicked idea that would make the police chief hate him or fear him for the rest of his life probably

"oh but it does, like you said this is a matter of national security so most of it must stay a secret. Since we can't tell the public someone sneak into the palace and stole Rebbeca's stuff, all the police is going to look for is for the murder of a poor maid that just happen to work in the palace, and since I am such a good person, I will alow a detective to question the staff"(prince) giving the police chief a smile

The prince smile made the 3 of them shake in fear a little, but the prince didn't do this to annoy the police. Since He knew that someone in the palace could be the culprit, it was best to relay on an outside source for it and making it look like a normal investigation may lower the guard of the culprit or culprits.

"I want your best detective on the case and have him come to the palace tomorrow, tell him of all I told you but he should act like he is only making a time line and making routine questions"(prince)talking tot he police chief

"Why like that?"(P chief) didn't understand why do it that way

"Simple, I want to catch the culprit of guard so it's best if it looks like normal procedure, but if you believe it's better to do t different do it, I just want to catch the culprit"(prince)

"nonono, it is fine, I was just a little curious. Tomorrow I will send one of my best detective to the palace"(P chief)

"Well, I will go now, if you have any more questions you can tell the detective so he can ask me tomorrow"(prince)

"Sure"(P chief) and the mortician glad that he finally left, leaving them time to process all the information they just got

The prince and susan left the Police HQ and went to the carriage, luckily the other 3 seems to have returned alredy.

"So, everything alright with the cat?"(prince)

"Yes! :-)"(Lina)

"The vet didn't found anything wrong with the cat, did you finish your business?"(P maid)

"All done, so let's go eat something around here"(prince)

The prince order guard a to take them to a famous restaurant near them since he didn't feel safe enough to eat in a normal one after seeing the looks the people gave him.

When they arrived at the restaurant, he gave the guard a silver coin and told him to order something while watching the carriage while the five of them eat something inside, the cat included. normally the maid and the cat would also stay, but since it would get awkward for lina other wise, he showed his ring and order a table.

It looks like being the only prince left give him a better standard than before, because the different in treatment was completely different from other times when he went to eat there. Before, when he showed the ring, even if he was a royal prince, he had being  treated the same than anyone else (since they probably knew which prince it was) but now you could see the extra effort they were putting, they even offer to empty the restaurant so they could have a quiet dinner, but the prince refused since he didn't want to increase his bad reputation.

"Wow, looks like they do treat you like royalty here"(Aria)

"Yeah, unlike some people who even tried to kill royalty"(prince) Glaring at aria

"Don't be over dramatic, I even got to wear this annoying thing thanks to that, and I only wanted to punish you for cheating"(Aria) shrugging

"I.DIDN'T.CHEAT you just suck"(prince) also shrugging at the end

It was aria's time to glare at the prince, but they were interrupted by the waiter asking what they wanted to eat, so the 2 calm down and all of them made an order.

The rest of the lunch they chatted about different things like how was the visit to the vet or what the prince did at the police station(he lied) and went they all finish, the prince left 2 gold coins and went to the carriage with the rest. Well, that was the idea, but a crowd formed outside of the restaurant, all of them watching the prince get outside and go inside the carriage. 

The prince thought they would make a riot and was a little afraid, but maybe because lina was there with the cat or no instigator was around, all the did was watch

"Why so many people were looking at us?"(lina)

"They were shock by your cuteness"(prince) lied with a charming smile

This made Lina blush and the other girls and the cat giving the prince a shock expression that looked like they were saying "who are you? what did you do with the prince?"

hey I can say nice things from time to time(prince)A little offended by their faces

They went to the palace without any incidents and managed to arrive safely there. Inside the duke took Susan away to talk to her a bit and her fiancé question him about his activities, but after telling the servant that a detective should arrive tomorrow to question the staff, he finally have time to relax, probably the first time since the explosion.

He spent the rest of the day lazing around, something he really missed and couldn't wait to get away from his responsibilities and laze around until old age. But if the prince wanted to be honest with himself, he reaaalllyyy needed a way to convince the people he was innocent or he wouldn't get there. His best hope was that tomorrow investigation found a culprit to bring to justice, but he really should start the preparations for plan B and C just in case

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