The entire time, Max was in a bulletproof golden paser with Emporer Valeborn, his wife, and his son. He got a message that the 'threat had been neutralized'. He gave a sigh of relief, informed Valeborn, and everyone inside relaxed easily that finally, the terrorist had been defeated. They had evacuated to the other side of Uraga, and he was waiting for the rest of the royal family and Tiffany to arrive.

When they arrived at the family estate, Max expected to see the Duke and Duchess there, but instead, they had one extra guest, Ĉiel. Max started to think he was seeing things from the acute head trauma from the small lamp to the back of his head. He was taken to the nearest family estate so he could "get the best care befitting of one so brave."

"That is a terrorist," Max shouted.

Max ran at him, and security pushed him down. Ĉiel cried big, long tears, and was shaken up from the "false accusations".

"I would never hurt My Lord, especially with all the kindness he has shown me tonight," he said. "These false accusations need to stop."

Max was still being pinned down by security and wasn't going to stop. He knew, he just knew, that the Weaver cyborg was a criminal.

"He's a cyborg that can change his face," Max screamed. "Kill him! I already told you that he's here!"

"No, he's not," Duke Blythe said. "There's a security set up on the fifth floor. We gave him emergency care and ran him through the scanner as an extra precaution. And I am so sorry for that young man."

"It's fine," he sniffled. "Safety is important."

"He doesn't even have nanobytes in his system," Duchess Valeria said. "Very rare nowadays."

Max stopped fighting and was in disbelief that he was wrong. It was impossible. The anonymous tip was so specific and valuable. Maybe it was to distract him from who the real assassin was.

Down on the ground, Max was forced to humble himself and apologize. He was finally released by security and was allowed to get up from the ground. Max was embarrassed and frustrated, but Emporer Valeborn was quite proud of his attack dog.

"He is only doing what he's meant to do," Valeborn said. "Please try and forgive him, young man."

"Yes My Lord, I will. He wasn't the one that shot me anyway," he said.

"It was that girl! I think she was trying to kill me," Duchess Valeria shouted.

"Tiffany made a horrible decision that she has paid for with her life," Duke Blythe said. "I never knew she was that kind of woman."

Everyone was tired of discussing death and intrigue, and that poor young man needed to get help from the family physician who was soon to arrive on call. Max went inside, quiet, head pounding, trying to understand everything that had happened. Nothing made sense. Tiffany would never try to kill the Duchess.

Max went to the guest room near the Emporer's, the one he was assigned to, and dreaded it.

He was tired of being in Valeborn's orbit.

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Inside the luxurious guest room, Max stripped naked and entered a hexagonal blue and white tiled room. He chose his favorite setting.

"Late night thunderstorm," he said.

The sound of soft rain echoed in the bathroom, the walls turned to holographic images of forest trees at night, and the ceiling released water, mimicking the soft, slow downpour of rain. He sat down, laid his thumping head against the cool tile, and tried to cry.

He couldn't.

----------------------------------------

Max fell asleep in the shower last night and woke up pruned and grumpy.

He didn't sleep the rest of the night, still paranoid that something would happen. He kept watch outside the Emporer's room the entire night, and there were no more threats to his life. The only noise in the night was his son waking up because he had a nightmare and wanted to sleep with his parents.

In the morning he was depressed, grieving Tiffany, and had no one to talk about it with except Duke Blythe, who would never admit he missed her. It was hard, wanting to cry, but unable to, and worrying that people would think you were weak and unable to do your job if you cried. Maybe you were a traitor to your nation if you cried. But what if someone thought he was heartless and cruel if he didn't?

So he couldn't.

That morning, the two houses, Valeborn and Ĉieldomo were having breakfast together. Max's shift was over and Sir Nash took watch and he could finally get some rest. He ran up the stairs and was doing one final security sweep when he saw something quite peculiar. He opened the door to one of the studies, and coincidentally it connected to another room. He could hear two people having a conversation.

It was Duke Blythe and Ĉiel.

"What did you do with him," Ĉiel asked.

"He's somewhere safe. They're trying to get him to talk but he won't budge. Fucker is actually a patriot."

Duke Blythe snickered and Ciel laughed along with him. Blythe continued to call whoever they kidnapped a bootlicker and a malsaĝulo.

"All you need to do now is stay friends with Duchess Valeria, alright? Easy enough," Duke Blythe instructed him.

"She's not that bad! I kind of like her! A little too touchy though," Ĉiel complained.

"Use that to your advantage."

"I don't want to sleep with her, gross."

"I never said you should, but if the moment arises then-"

"Then I still won't. YOU'RE THE WORST!"

"Stop shouting, someone will hear us," Duke Blythe pleaded.

"Fine. How long do we have left until we don't have to keep this up?"

"I prefer Fadeno, but the royal idiots are avoiding major towns thanks to all the...threats. Oh well," he laughed. "We'll just stop when we get to a public area, or when we get enough information out of the malsaĝulo."

The topic then changed to various insults about the royal family, and various politicians, and then soon Duke Blythe and Ĉiel had long veered into a different conversation. They were talking about sports when Max decided to slowly leave the study and exit the hallway.

He had heard rumors that Duke Blythe wanted to kill his brother to get the throne, but Valeborn's son, Ignacius, would most likely contest it once he turned twenty. It would be a short-lived reign. Tiffany had been trying to dispel the rumors that Blythe wanted to kill his brother, so why did he set her up to get her killed?

He had no proof other than what he heard alone in the room. Everyone was going to listen to the charismatic Ĉiel instead of the deceitful and terrifying Weaver that they kept around as a weird trophy. Max walked down the hall and turned the corner, waiting for Duke Blythe and Ĉiel to come out.

He was considering killing both of them and suffering the consequences. He unsheathed his weaker sword because he didn't think that it would be much of a fight, or that it would be a fight at all killing the two of them once they left the room. Max waited two minutes, hyping himself up, and considering just going inside the room when they came out.

"It's a shame Tiffany died. I loved her," Duke Blythe said.

"When you told me about her, she sounded like such a tough person. I didn't know she had been through so much when she was younger," Ĉiel replied.

"Ran away from an abusive orphanage. Lived on the streets. Joined the military. Did something with her life. She was so beautiful and strong..."

Max put his sword away when he heard soft crying from Duke Blythe, and Ĉiel told him that they should go back into the room.

"People will ask questions if they see you crying over a woman you should ignore," Ĉiel reminded him.

"How could anyone ignore a woman like her?"

When Max heard the door click shut, he slid down to the floor, hugged his knees close, and finally cried.