"Who killed Malphas?"
A chilling silence had gripped the mortuary in its doomsday wake where Malphas's lifeless body lay. Nefarion's voice held a steely edge, a tremble of an untold fury shaking his body.
Malphas's death had sent shockwaves across the palace that stole the luster from the sunny day outside. An Order's death, especially a murder, wasn't a minor matter to simply overlook.
"Tell me everything," With a clenched jaw, he urged Doloros to speak.
A somber light passed through the elderly demon's features. "It's as my lord said. Sir Malphas was stabbed to death. Most definitely a sword. The wound is wide enough that it matches a sword blade's proportion, certainly not a knife or a dagger. With the rapid blood loss, he…couldn't hold on for long."
An edgy silence dropped into the room which could echo at even the slightest sound of a pin's fall. Never did anyone imagine that a respectable member of an Order of the Council would be so brutally murdered. Not just any demon, but an Order was killed in cold blood. The fellow Orders could hardly digest this sudden and grim truth that had dropped upon them like a bolt of thunderous lightning.
"Zerath!"
Zerath dropped to his knee and bowed. "Your Majesty."
"Tell me what happened. Don't miss out on a single detail."
Slowly and clearly, Zerath narrated the incident to Nefarion and gave the full account for the Order.
Balam's eyes narrowed, a light of suspicion in his gaze. "What was my lord doing in the Realm of Harmony in the first place?"
After Asmodea, Gressil, who was relatively more carefree compared to the other demons in the Order, threw a scowl at Balam.
"Is that important right now, Sir Balam? One of our own is killed and what you care about is the reason behind my lord's presence in the forest? What are you trying to imply here?"
"My lord found Sir Balam first, so I'm simply asking the necessary questions. My lord had no reason to be there, now did he?"
"It sounds like you're accusing my lord of something."
"How dare I accuse my lord of such a blasphemy?" Balam bit his tongue as if he would never think about such a probability, yet his voice carried a hint of carelessness.
Whether an accident or a murder - Malphas's death was the last thing in the world that Balam cared about. His death had certainly stunned him, but Malphas - being someone who had shed off his support to Astaroth and him at the last moment and shown his true snake face - any traces of camaraderie towards him had long fizzled out.
"Enough with the pointing fingers," Nefarion's sharp command brought back the edgy silence. His gaze then returned to his son.
"So the killer is roaming freely, do I hear it correctly, Zerath?"
"...For now, yes, Your Majesty. There was no one around me when I found Sir Malphas. The killer had probably already escaped."
Nefarion banged his stick against the floor, sending mild tremors through it.
"Escape isn't the answer I'm looking for, Zerath! I'm looking for retribution! I don't care what it takes to find him, I want him in front of me as soon as possible! I command the knights to comb through every inch of the forest and bring me the culprit!"
Gressil bowed. "I'll ensure your command is followed down to its last letter, Your Majesty."
"Don't come empty-handed Gressil. I want something, anything that'll lead us to the murderer!"
While the heated exchange of fury from Nefarion continued to raise the temperature, a vacant look had filled Zerath's eyes. Whether any physical evidence would be discovered or not was a future matter - but what he did know at present were Malphas's last words.
'He was…a hu…Hu...man...'
If Zerath heard him correctly, the culprit behind Malphas's murder could very well be someone from the Emberlain Convoy.
But he couldn't do it. Despite his last words being the crucial piece of evidence that had come right from the victim's mouth, Zerath took a conscious decision to hold the information back, knowing the future repercussions very well.
I cannot decide this in haste. What if I heard it wrong?
His speech was fragmented. I might've misunderstood him. I cannot carelessly utter that he hinted at a human's involvement.
No…I have to be absolutely sure.
With the diplomatic relations between the two realms already strained as it were, where everybody walked on eggshells and just waited for the other side to take a misstep, the responsibility to keep this status quo was now graver than ever.
Draconis stepped forward, interrupting Zerath's thoughts. "Please allow me to aid Sir Gressil as well, Your Majesty. Searching for clues through magic could be faster."
"Allowed," he nodded grimly.
"Rise for the Crown Prince Zerath," Lucian walked in and dropped a prompt bow. "I found some disturbing news about Sir Malphas, my lord."
"Continue," Zerath's eyes squinted.
"As per your orders, I looked into the traitors who could've possibly leaked Eurus's ice tide incident to the Emberlain Convoy."
Orobas was flabbergasted. "It was leaked!?"
"Based on my lord's observation during the meeting with Crown Prince Elvin, it seemed as if they wanted to take advantage of Princess Clairette's injury and hold us responsible. They seemed to be aware of it. When I was investigating this, I found that Sir Malphas had a spy working for him in the Ministry of Diplomacy."
He signaled one of the knights, and the latter dragged a demon inside, forcing him on his knees as he pointed his sword at his neck.
"Y-Your Majesty, please forgive me!"
Asmodea stared at the young demon before her. "Nephis. He does all the administrative tasks and paperwork."
Lucian said, his gaze unchanging, "Yes. But compared to his normal duties, a considerable amount of gold was found hidden in his office. Upon interrogation, he confessed that Sir Malphas would spy on the Ministry of Diplomacy's matters through him. Like a bidirectional flow of information. Nephis admitted that it was upon Sir Malphas's orders that he leaked the incident to the Emberlain Crown Prince."
Nephis trembled. "F-Forgive me, my lord…I got tempted by the money…"
"Not only the ice-tide incident, my lord, but it seems that," Lucian took a moment's pause, "Sir Malphas plotted the incident with young lord Astaroth to purposely harm Princess Clairette."
The revelation was so jarring that nobody could even begin to comprehend it.
"Mind your words, Lucian!" Balam was the first to retaliate. "You're going too far with this! As if Astaroth had any ill intentions. Whatever he did was simply out of anger!"
Lucian threw Nephis a look, and he jolted as if he was on fire. ""That isn't t-true. I simply relayed Emberlain Convoy's demand to Sir Malphas. Th-They wanted someone from inside Rudaheim's palace to in-incite a deadly event that'd put the human princess's life at risk."
Nefarion's disbelief reached beyond the unimaginable threshold. "You mean to say that through Astaroth, Malphas orchestrated for Eurus to go berserk because…the Emberlain Convoy wanted it?"
He nodded frantically as if his life was on the life, which it was.
By this point, even Asmodea couldn't contain her neutral expression any longer. "But they're Princess's brothers. Not any half or step siblings, her real brothers. Why would they collude with Sir Malphas to harm their own sister?"
Orobas stroked his chin thoughtfully. "That's strange. Let's assume Sir Malphas truly colluded with them. Then he got killed the same day the Convoy left? It doesn't smell like a coincidence to me. We weren't particularly hiding the ice-tide incident from them, but we did forbid anyone to speak of it to prevent any misunderstandings. Lady Asmodea was going to handle it, but because…"
"The Princess asked me to hide her visible injuries. We, too, kept quiet," Doloros continued with that line of thought, "So they couldn't pursue the matter. And if they had despite our temporary secrecy, it'd have revealed that an insider told them."
Nefarion's grip on his stick tightened until green veins made their marks visible. "Accusing an Order of such a crime isn't a light matter. If I come to know that you lied and tried to distract us…"
Goosebumps rose up to Nephis's very scalp. "No, Your Majesty! I wouldn't dare to lie to you..!"
"You lied to Lady Asmodea, didn't you? Working under her, you supplied information to Malphas and betrayed her trust!"
"I-I'm speaking the truth, Your Majesty…" tears plopped to the ground as he pressed his forehead against the floor. "I know I erred and what'd happen to me if I lied to you. I swear it's the truth!"
Balam exclaimed. "It's the Emberlain Convoy, who else? Malphas failed in killing the Princess! Do you remember how he had asked for His Majesty's permission to lead the conversation instead of Lady Asmodea? I'm sure he wanted to bring up the topic of the incident and cause chaos!"
"Why would an Order willingly do that and put the demons' negotiating side in jeopardy?" Orobas grimaced.
"Perhaps, he wanted my seat," Asmodea's eyes narrowed. "He thought he could take my ministry if he'd flawlessly handle the out-of-control situation. He'd 'convince' the furious Emberlain Convoy to forgive us and that would've…at least in his assumptions, garnered His Majesty's favor."
"He'd do all that…for a ministry?" Orobas felt a headache.
"Why do you think he always gave me the daggers? He hated me because I 'snatched' his ministry. But I never imagined the lengths he'd go to to usurp it from me."
Draconis frowned. "The Emberlain Convoy didn't get what they wanted. Is it possible that they took this as Sir Malphas's betrayal and killed him?"
Zerath's breath hitched, his heart threatening to drum right out of his ribcage.
Nefarion's frosty gaze further hardened. "This is preposterous! The humans brainwashed our Order into going against us and now they killed him right under my nose!?"
Zerath's breaths grew more and more messy and chaotic, only one fear gnawing at his heart like slow poison.
If it was truly the Convoy who worked with Sir Malphas to harm Vivia, then doesn't it mean that Vivia, who has returned with her brothers, is still in danger?
She's in Emberlain right now…right besides the people who want to kill her.