Azrael stood still, lost in a trance and tempted by the sweet smell calling out to her.
Without thinking, Azrael continued to walk towards the lady that was bathed in blood, her eyes filled with hunger and desire. Her surroundings seemed to fade as the noises became muted.
Azrael gasped, escaping from the suffocating smell as a hand grabbed her by the arm. Catching her breath, she gazed upon the man holding her tightly. The man glared at her, his eyebrows knitted into a frown.
"Why are you here?"
Azrael didn't answer as she tried to free herself from the man's grip with a grimace.
"Let go. You're hurting me."
With a skeptical look, the man reluctantly let go of her arms.
"Captain! What happened?" A young man in his early 20s rushed towards their direction, tucking in his shirt on his pants while running.
The man, Andrail Ross, looked at him with a serious expression.
"Survey the area and question everyone present."
He then faced Azrael again and started binding her with a silver thread.
"You're coming with me." He said as he dragged her with him.
"Where are you taking me?"
"I recognize the knife."
Confused, Azrael tried to free herself from the bind to no avail.
"What do you mean?"
Andrail didn't bother to reply and only looked at her.
"What?"
The captain continued dragging her as he escorted her to the dungeon in the palace.
It was cold and dark with no sunlight but torches.
Creak...
Andrail closed the rusty gate of the cell as he left Azrael behind, clueless and shouting.
"Hey! Come back!" Azrael yelled in annoyance.
She felt violated and humiliated. The arrogant man didn't explain her situation and left her in a dark and eerie dungeon. Feeling lost and drained, Azrael walked towards the bed, dusts showered upon her as she sat.
cough... cough...
"Ahem."
Azrael stopped coughing as her attention turned to the woman outside her cell. Her eyes widened in anticipation, hoping to quickly get out of her predicament.
"I apologize on captain's behalf. I'm Serene, the vice captain of the advanced command team. The captain made a mistake for bringing you to this cell, I will immediately transfer you to another one and explain your situation on the way," Serene explained calmly, her voice soft and soothing.
Azrael's eyes twitched as she heard the word transfer instead of release.
"You might be confused right now. I apologize again," said Serene with sincerity as she slowly walk through the dark hallway, guiding Azrael to her new cell.
"The death of the princess is still being investigated, On the other hand, the dagger that she was holding..."
Serene eyed Azrael on her peripheral view as she stopped for a moment before continuing her words.
"...it's your dagger."
Serene cleared her throat as she halted in front of a cell that was cleaner and more spacious than the previous cell.
clank...
The sound of metals hitting each other echoed through the hallway as Serene opened the new cell for Azrael in the flesh of Fleur. The cell was more brighter with a lamp inside than the one she was in before.
Fleur was still considered as someone with a high ranking status, thus, no one would dare to humiliate her in any way except for the cold captain.
...
Two days passed quickly and nothing peculiar happened during that time.
She was baffled.
'Weren't they supposed to question me?'
Azrael continuously tapped her feet, feeling uneasy and perplexed by her situation.
"Is this some sort of a prank?"
Azrael scoffed in disbelief, unsure whether to laugh or cry.
...
Three days passed.
Strangely, the torches were getting dimmer and the air is getting colder despite the hot weather.
...
Four days passed.
"Azrael"
A chilling whisper echoed through the cell.
Azrael dropped her spoon on the chicken noodles she was eating, spilling the soup on the table.
She felt chills down her spine. Someone called her by her real name.
She slowly lifted her head up to meet the gaze of whoever called her. To her surprise, no one was there. She looked everywhere around her but there was no one else.
Kekeke...
A mischievous laugh echoed through the cell.
Slowly, she looked down.
A pair of eyes emerged from the noodle soup on the table. Its pupils dilated, nerves bulging as they stared at Azrael. Soon, the pair of eyes became a face, its mouth wide open while letting out a shriek.
Thud!
Azrael aggressively stabbed the face with a fork.
"Captain Fleur, is there anything wrong?" A soothing voice called out to her.
Azrael looked up in haste, met with a questioning look.
"Vice captain Serene," Azrael muttered in confusion.
She turned her head down again in a daze. Her hands tightly gripped on the fork that she used to stab the strange face on her soup.
Confused, Azrael saw no face in the soup that have now messily spilled all over the table.
"You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Azrael didn't know what to say and remained silent. She didn't know how to explain what just happened nor does she have a plan to tell the vice about it.
"Anyway, you will be released tomorrow." Vice Captain Serene said with a soft smile on her face.
Azrael frowned as she turned to look at the vice.
"What about the investigation?"
"It's going well."
Azrael couldn't help but feel annoyed at her reply. It was obvious that they were trying to hide the results of their investigation. In addition, they didn't even question her and now they're letting her out.
"For the past three days, you never went to visit and interrogate me. Just what did you even take me here for?"
Serene looked at her in confusion, her eyes briefly squinted before it quickly returned to normal in realization.
"I see. Captain Fleur doesn't frequent the dungeon. You are always out for surveying and expeditions. In any case, it's not that questionable for the captain to not be familiar with the structure of the dungeon." Serene muttered, her hands scratching the back of her neck.
So that's what the look for.
As the captain, Fleur should be familiar with the structures of the dungeon and their interrogation and investigation process. It must be surprising for a captain to reach her position without knowing the basics.
"What is it?" Azrael probed further, feeling no shame.
"The dungeon itself is the one responsible for the investigation of its prisone- ahem," Serene shot a careful glance at Azrael after she misspoke, scared of offending the short-tempered captain.
"What does that mean?"
"The dungeon can dig through the person's dark secrets and cause them hallucinations. Usually, after they hallucinate for quite a long time, they start to feel guilty or nervous that they start to expose their selves." Serene explained.
"A hallucination?"
"Yes. Though, sometimes it's not enough to expose their crimes. That's why the investigation team still conducts investigations thoroughly or there will be times where the captain will personally talk with the suspects. In your case, the palace maids and workers have vouched for you that the dagger that they've found on the scene, which is believed to be yours was given by you to the princess as a gift. They've also found death threat letters addressed to the princess which leads to the real culprit. It also looks like you've been doing well here so rest assured." Serene explained in detail.
"So that's what happened," Azrael couldn't help but feel wronged once more. All of this happened just because of a dagger that Fleur originally had.
"One more thing, may I ask you something?" Asked the vice.
"Ask away."
"Why didn't you say anything about the dagger in the first place? You just let Captain Ross drag you here. You could have told him that you gave your dagger to the princess."
'Simple, I'm not the one who gave it and I have completely no idea.'
"I wasn't in the mood to story tell." Azrael replied with a deadpan expression.
"Oh. Then, I'll be going now." Serene replied with a baffled look.