Lucina Metron stormed the castle, her charge unrelenting and her fury righteous. She couldn’t be stopped by the retainers and servants, who all bent to her will.

She walked with purpose through the halls of the top floor, and would not stop until her target felt the wrath of the anger she had been accumulating since her return to the country weeks ago.

Finally stopping at the door she had been looking for Lucina didn't even knock before having her Kingdom Key which Joshua had returned, override the locked door. Both halves opened rapidly, creating a loud thunk which startled the only other person present.

Lucina walked a few feet into the entryway and stood there while she waited for the person in question to regain themselves. “So? What do you have to say for yourself?”

Lucina tried to calm her temper, and tapping her foot was all she could do to that end. She had never been this pissed off in her life. It was only after a drunken night out with her father that she learned of who was really pulling the strings, so she initiated a visit to quell any further manipulations.

“Starlords above. I’m gone for a month and already being blamed for things I didn’t fully do.” Cindy Metron, Lucina’s mother answered with a deep sigh.

“Don’t give me that shit, your majesty.” Cindy was slightly taken aback by her daughter’s attitude. She never called her mother so formally before. Not even when Cindy vetoed some of her ideas in front of the King.

“Alright, we can play.” Cindy’s eyes narrowed and she stood up from her seated position on the massive bed. She stood up, and walked over to a coffee table and sat down, after which she offered Lucina a seat.

The second oldest princess obliged, and sat down across from her mother. “Care for some Aisol? Maybe some Arinaca Coffee will-” She was abruptly cut short by Lucina’s fist being slammed onto the table.

“Mother, we’re not here to catch up. Don’t be stupid. This is an interrogation.” Cindy’s lip curled up into a sneer.

“Please, you can’t force me to comply with you. Even if you try using your Kingdom Key to force me to answer, I can just counteract that with my own. You have no influence over me.”

Cindy gave a small chuckle at the end of her sentence, an action which slowly died as she realized that Lucina had begun cackling to herself. “Ha… ha ha ha!” The sound would have been beautiful coming out from Lucina’s modified vocal chords, if it had not been so chilling.

“I can’t believe he was right about you, even to that extent.” Her smile vanished and was replaced by a frown. “Cindera Metron, Queen of the Metronian Kingdom. Reya Metron, second princess of the Metron Kingdom and First Squire of Paladin Cole commands you…”

A shudder went down Cindy’s spine as she realized what was happening. “Don’t you dare-!”

“Reveal to me the purpose of your machinations.” The shout was too late as Lucina finished invoking her ‘Inquisition,’ ability that was granted to her by Judgment’s Paladin protocols, and Cindy could feel the protection that her Kingdom Key gave her being eroded by the same system which had granted it in the first place.

“From a princess to a squ-” Cindy’s body convulsed as she fought the order. “-squire! How far you’ve fallen!” Cindy rebelled against Judgment’s compulsion, but knew it was only a matter of time before her body released some of the secrets it had been harboring for the better part of three months.

Lucina just gave her mother a dead-eyed stare, and waited for Judgment to finish breaking her down. However, she decided to do her mother a service, and spoke to Cindy against her better judgment.

“Mother, stop fighting it. Judgment has already given me the right to carry out this inquisition as I see fit, granted that the results are never revealed to the public. The only ones who will ever know are you, Joshua, and myself.”

Cindy’s eyes widened at the mention of Paladin Cole’s name, and Lucina watched with a dispassioned look as her mother began to tremble in anger.

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“Don’t mention that abomination in my household!” Cindy was seething, and breathing heavily. Lucina’s hard exterior began to melt as she looked on at her mother in pity. Have you never been challenged in your adult life before? Is this what sharing a country with someone not wrapped around your finger does to you?

Lucina gave the order to Judgment’s universal AI to ramp up the amount of compulsion being used on her mother. Cindy Metron’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she sat deadly still.

“Let’s do some test questions. Please state your maiden name.” Lucina waved her hand in front of her, bringing up a keyboard in her AR interface so she could record her mother’s answers.

Her mother’s eyes returned to where they had been, but instead of the fiery red color that she was used to, her irises had lines of code along them. “My name is Cindera Reign Metron. Daughter of the previous king, and sole survivor of her household.”

Lucina nodded, and wrote everything down. “Very good. Then, let’s check with you on some facts. What is your eldest daughter’s name, and how old is she?”

Cindy’s eyes shone blue as the code moved around. Eventually she opened her mouth and said, “Venus Light Metron. She is 29 years old.”

Once again, Lucina wrote down the response she got. Ok, it seems that mother is properly under Judgment’s control… what the hell kind of reality am I living in where I’m ok with this. A couple months back and I would never…

Lucina took a deep breath to compose herself before getting into the meat and potatoes of the interrogation. “Cindy Metron, who did you ally yourself with in order to imprison Paladin Cole when he got back from the Luong Empire?”

There was a moment of silence where Judgment’s AI collected the information from Cindy’s brain. The AI opened her mouth, and spoke using the Queen’s voice, “Duke Wingall, leader of the Pure Sun Party approached me with an offer of ridding me of Paladin Joshua Cole. Seeing as how his interests aligned with mine, we decided it was in our best interests to get rid of Reya’s backer and establish Raiden as the new heir to the throne.”

Lucina’s eyes narrowed as she stared at what she had just written down. The PSP, huh? I’ll need to get together with Raiden to discuss this.

The princess clicked her tongue at the thought of spending time with her brother alone, but quickly calmed down after thinking about the praise she’d receive from Joshua for getting this information.

“Then, let me ask you this: what was the PSP’s long term goal in having the Paladin excised from the upper echelons of society?”

Cindy processed the question, and replied, “They wished for the safety of their business deals. There have always been under-the-counter transactions that occur in the noble’s jurisdiction, but the presence of a Paladin had them fearful that they’d be forced to stop.”

So, they just wanted a free pass to commit crimes within their own regions? Disgusting. No wonder Joshua hates this country, given how corrupt it is, even on the surface.

“Their motive doesn’t surprise me, but why do you want Paladin Cole gone so much?” Lucina stared into her mother’s eyes, and watched her moving lips with barely contained anticipation.

“Because he is a blight on this country.” Although she had expected the answer, Lucina was slightly disappointed to hear it be conveyed with such simple words.

“Please elaborate.” She said, and waited some more as the Judgment program arranged her thoughts in a coherent order.

“Reya was not supposed to be anywhere close to the throne. Her ideals are ones that will shake the very foundation of this Kingdom. It will send us, our culture, and our heritage into disarray!”

Lucina’s eyes widened. The Judgment program even processed and expressed her emotions on the subject matter into her speech. “Getting rid of Paladin Cole, and by extension, her only true backer, would make her vulnerable to assassination and blackmail.”

“So that’s why you took out the contract with the Strafe family to kill Joshua.” Seeing as how she didn’t pose it as a question, Cidy didn’t respond. Lucina hastily rephrased the statement in order to get the confirmation that she was looking for.

Terminating the Inquisition program, Lucina shook her head at her mother. “I was expecting it, but hearing you talk about blackmailing or assassinating your daughter with your own mouth still irks me. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Cindy coughed and hacked as she manually restarted each of her faculties, starting with her lungs. Once the stale air was out, she took in a deep breath and grimaced at her daughter.

“I made the right choice. Mark my words, that man has you under a spell, enslavement, and the more you fall into it, the more and more bleak the future of our entire Kingdom will become. Say the word that you’ll betray him, and I’ll give you whatever you need and desire in order to make it a reality!”

Cindy shouted at Lucina’s retreating figure, but almost had a stroke when she saw what the princess flaunted as she turned to face her mother. She was pulling at a black leather collar, tightly wrapped around her neck, and bore the crest of Paladin Cole.

“Believe me mother,” Lucina said with a smirk, “I think this kind of spell isn’t too bad, to be honest.”