"Amelia! Noah! Oliver!" Isabelle's knees buckled as she fell on the ground, arms spread wide open as she welcomed her two siblings within her embrace while the infant was brought closer by Flynn.
Meanwhile, Henry and Ser Liam kept themselves in the corner. After Flynn told him everything and how helping Isabella would make it easy for her to confess against Timothy, he wasted no time raiding Timothy's mansion with Ser Liam and his retinue.
The mansion itself was almost empty, serving only as a vacation home for him and his mother. Truth to be told, he was also surprised to find some knights bearing the Goldenshield nobility mark on their chest plates.
This indicated that the said noble house is in some way involved in the mansion.
'Been a while since I purged the noble houses in the Kingdom. Two years of rest made them forget the consequences of crossing the line…' Henry muttered under his breath dangerously. Although there would be some implications when it comes to dealing with an ancient noble house that is nearly as old as the first foundation of the Kingdom itself, that doesn't mean Henry would turn a blind eye to what's happening.
Not to mention, there are quite a few documents that they found in the place. Confidential and sensitive ones. And Henry had a tiny bit of idea as to why such papers were easily found in the open.
The place of the mansion is what you can describe as hidden in plain sight. It has no marks on its gates or anything nor any banners raised to indicate its ownership. Instead, it was situated far away from the Kingdom's walls, near the outskirts of the outer district. It was near the borders of the forest.
As for how Henry found them. It was simple, he had long understood the habits of Timothy. Not only did the boy have many private properties under his and his mother's names, but he also had a habit of scattering his collection throughout the said properties instead of placing them inside the royal castle where he lived almost every day.
So with a little bit of investigating especially Isabella's background and her closest acquaintances, it only took a single hour to scour the entire Kingdom and find the target swiftly.
The operation was executed silently and swiftly. Not a single servant managed to escape to report. Henry planned to handle them tomorrow once the matter is fully settled today.
"H-How?" After a moment of recovering and pulling her siblings closer than ever, Isabella finally found the time to ask Flynn.
In which the man simply shrugged, "I may not look like it but I'm not the kind of man that leaves a girl to bear her problems alone, not when there's something I can do to help…"
Just as Isabella thought that Flynn now looked more handsome in her eyes, he continued, "And besides, we also need your help." He discreetly pointed at Henry behind him.
"My help?" She frowned at first but eventually realized what Flynn's words meant.
Without a moment of hesitation, she nodded her head vigorously, "You want me to confess to my crimes? I'll do it." Looking back down at her siblings, she continued, "As long as you promise me to keep my siblings safe while I spend time behind bars…"
Flynn was about to retort, but then he realized that he was not exactly in a position to dismiss Isabella from facing imprisonment.
Fortunately for them, Henry shares the same sentiment, "You won't be spending time behind bars."
But before Isabella could sigh in relief, Henry continued, "But that doesn't mean you're free from facing the punishment of sabotaging your Crown Prince's ship."
"From this instant, you are stripped of your Royal Knight status, you will be demoted to Knight and not only that, you'll be doing 5 years of unpaid service to the Kingdom. Last but not the least, you'll be under Grand Master Liam's retinue from now on."
Isabella didn't dare to lift her head to refute. And it's not because she was afraid or anything. But because she felt like her punishment was not as severe as she expected.
Mostly, when a knight betrays or commits a heinous crime against the royal family they're serving, their heads would be served under a guillotine. After all, it is of the utmost importance to a Knight's code and honor to never fail their loyalty to their lords no matter what.
"Do you, Dame Isabella, accept this punishment?"
"I understand, Your Royal Highness!" To show her resolve, Isabella smashed her head against the concrete floor, causing a web of cracks to form.
"Is sis being punished? Is it because of us?"
"Shh! Just keep quiet Noah! She is talking to the Crown Prince!"
Hearing her siblings talk behind her back, Isabella instantly forgot all the punishments imposed upon her. As long as her siblings are fine, she doesn't care if she has to kiss the edge of the guillotine's blade.
"Good. Like Flynn just said, I'd be expecting your help to confess against Timothy, is that understood?"
"I understand! I swear upon my life and knight's honor that I shall speak the truth and only the truth!"
Henry smiled, "That's the spirit. Now stand up and write a full report of everything that my brother forced you to perform. Don't miss out a single detail, once you're done, send it to Grand Master Liam."
With that being said, Henry left the vicinity. Liam and Flynn stayed behind—the former because he still had to wait for the report letter while the latter had an entirely different reason.
"How're you feeling now?" Flynn asked after crouching, the swaddled Oliver still asleep on his arms. Isabella wiped off the tear stains from her face and grinned.
"If my siblings weren't here, I could've kissed you by now!"
Those words instantly froze Flynn on the spot, his cheeks gaining a tint of red while Liam snorted from behind, stepping away to form a distance between him and the two just in case something…unexpected were to happen.
'Out of all the Dames in this Kingdom, didn't expect Isabella to find the one for her.' The Grand Master murmured to himself.
———
At the Royal Castle, Henry was back at his father's study. Earlier while Flynn was out doing his job, Henry was reporting everything that happened during his rescue of Rapunzel, only leaving out a few tiny details.
"You left in a hurry after that man barged in. So, what took you an hour and a half to come back?" Sitting behind his desk, King Maximus played with the pen in his hand while leaning back on his chair with a casual demeanor.
Henry stared straight into his father's eyes, "I think it's time to remove a chess piece from the board tonight."
Maximus stared at his son's face for a brief moment, "Looks like nothing I say will stop you. Alright, what do you want me to do then?"
"Tonight, let's convene a court meeting regarding the case of Timothy. I'll need the head of the House of Goldenshield to attend too, can that be done?"
Maximus nodded his head, "Alright, Corvus wouldn't refuse me. What else?"
"I can tell from the look on your face that you're curious why I'm getting the Goldenshield house involved. Read this." Taking out the stack of papers, he placed them on the desk in front of him.
Maximus grabbed the first paper on top and silently skimmed. A few seconds later, his brows creased. He grabbed another paper and this time, he took his time to read.
He kept doing the same pace over and over again until he was no longer leaning on his chair, "Henry…" He raised his head to face his first son, "Do you know what these papers mean? They're letters and transaction deals made by Timothy and Corvus."
He cherry-picked one of the papers and raised it for Henry to see, "This is a letter with Corvus's mark as the Head of his House. It says here about the slimy profit he's making by selling your own invention, the bicycles, to other non-affiliated Kingdoms and villages through the black market."
Henry nodded his head, his face nonchalant, "I know."
"You know? He's making you lose thousands of gold coins, Henry."
"I know. I purposely ignored it because I know there will come a day when we'll be able to use this against him. He thought no one would notice but I did the first moment he tried to convince me to give him half of the profit of the Bicycles sold as long as he handles the trade and delivery to the non-affiliated Kingdoms."
"When I refused him, I knew he would attempt to do something like this but I still let him, and now, look at what we have against him. Just this one is enough for us to diminish his house's influence and even oust him from the head position. There's no loss in losing out on a few thousand gold coins when in return, I'd be able to remove one of the biggest thorns on my side."
Henry then searched through the pile of papers before handing a few to Maximus, including one certain paper indicating that Corvus was the one who sent Timothy's letter of assassination against him the day before he got back from Arendelle
"Look at this one, this letter states that Corvus has connections to the Bandit King. That's how he operates his illegal business through the black market. If we could take him down, we'd also be able to take the Bandit King down for sure."
The next thing Henry said made Maximus's breath hitch, "Didn't you want to get revenge for grandpa's death or did all that resolve dissolve the moment your butt cheeks started warming up that seat?"
Years ago, the previous King, Maximus's father was on an expedition to establish a trade alliance with the Kingdom of Agrabah, one of the Great Kingdoms, and known for having a massive amount of different sorts of spices.
Unfortunately, tragedy struck. For some unknown reason, the Bandit King ambushed them with his entire brigand. And as someone known to be the King among bandits, his brigand is almost equivalent to a Kingdom's army. Unlike an average bandit, the Bandit King's men are well-armoured, well-armed, and well-fed.
So when the Bandit King ambushed the King with all of his men, King Maximus Charming II along with many other Royal Knights and their retinue died after half a day of bloody battle, with it ending after the Bandit King decapitated King Maximus II with his double-edged War Axe.
That day also kick-started the Kingdom's greatest internal war. The King's sudden death made Maximus III, and the other concubine's children fight a bloody throne war.
Due to its abruptness, Maximus III had to fight through countless challenges, skirmishes against his brothers and sisters, taking his brother's life with his very own hands, and learn the way of the speech to garner the support of several nobility houses.
By the end of the internal war in the Kingdom with Maximus III being crowned as the new King at last, it was already too late to seek revenge against the Bandit King. The man has clearly foreseen the upcoming internal strife and took that opportunity to lie low and hide.
Though Henry sees an entirely different story from the one he presented to his father a few years ago. The Bandit King's ambush was a result of a betrayal within the Kingdom rather than an unlucky encounter.
After all, if it was just an unlucky encounter, the Bandit King wouldn't have his entire garrison with him during that day. Not to mention, the King's expedition was extremely hidden from the public, so only a few certain people are aware of it.
"These papers prove that Corvus's father made deals with the Bandit King, which I suspect also had something to do with the Bandit King being able to perfectly ambush Grandpa without any prior warnings."
Maximus's face contorted into a held-back rage, his nostrils flaring, brows curving downwards as he clutched the paper in his hand with whitening knuckles.
"This court meeting could be the first step for us to take revenge against the Bandit King. If he could still make deals with the Bandit King after his father passed away, he must know something about the Bandit King's current locations and hidden camps."
"The House of Goldenshield has been sitting on their piles of gold for way too long. It's time to let another goose sit on it. Someone more…compliant, if you know what I mean."