Silence lingered in the throne room, no faint chatters, no muttering, just silence.
Creak!
The first sound came from the audience where his mother was seated.
She snapped her fan in half before shooting a threatening glare to the emperor.
"Your majesty, what sort of joke is this? You're going to execute a child for hitting your son? You're going too far… your son isn't dead yet, surely you could let this go with a punishment or two." She protested.
The emperor merely spared her a glance before asking.
"Are you questioning my decision Duchess?"
Rose snapped.
"If you're going to keep being unreasonable then so be it your majesty, I am indeed questioning your decision."
Gasps rippled amongst the crowd present, they knew the severity of what had just transpired.
Of course they did, the Duchess had openly challenged the crown and the worst part? The Astavore's actually had the ability to do so.
The king tilted his head slightly, his strange hazel eyes brushed past the duchess for the briefest moment before focusing on the Duke.
"You forget yourself Duchess Astavore, what you just did could spark a war, do watch your tongue, I can only allow so much to slide."
His warning was clear, shut up or I'll make you.
This time, the Duke, Viktor Von Astavore spoke up.
"I beg your pardon your majesty but even I believe killing a kid over such is, if anything, absurd."
His eyes met the King's directly, his pupils reflected like molten silver, losing its previous icy blue colour.
His warning was clear as well, Duke Astavore was ready to start a war if it came down to that.
The King's face darkened.
While the royal family were blessed by the sun god, their ability was nowhere powerful enough to rival the Astavore's.
Dominion over every single thing under the sun's warmth was overpowered but useless to the Astavore's who could tamper with the laws of reality.
"Duke Astavore, Duchess Astavore, we acknowledge your standing in the hierarchy as well as your strength, however the king still remains above you, you're nothing but his subjects and you should behave accordingly." Margrave Winston said with poorly masked contempt.
"The king is above an Astavore? Who decided that? The king still remains on his throne because we chose to hide our fangs." A condescending voice sounded followed by a chuckle causing everyone within the hall to fall silent.
In an instant, their attention fell towards the center of the throne room, where Si-eun was smiling.
He slowly stood up, ignoring the escorts behind him and the mutters of the audience, instead he allowed his gaze to linger directly on the dias where the royal family sat, each to their respective thrones.
The escorts tried to force him down to his knees but he didn't budge, eventually they let go of him when the king signaled them to let him be.
A sigh escaped his lips before any of the royal family member could speak.
"I didn't want to take this approach since it's a shame on my part as well, I allowed myself to be used as a disposable doll, how laughable, it is indeed funny now that I think of it."
His expression slowly morphed into a scowl.
"Yes I admit I hit the fifth prince, Elias… but that was under the effect of the drug the fourth prince, Kyle Jerome Evangelion administered to me."
At his words, the audience fell into a frenzy.
"Outrageous!" One said.
"Framing the prince for treason?"
"Does Prince Kyle actually have a hand in this?"
"How can we believe the words of a lout."
The crowd fell into a frenzy and the cause of it all? He was having the time of his life.
Even the king was stunned, and Kyle? Well he looked like he'd just eaten crap.
Si-eun was barely managing to suppress a laugh.
He'd experienced death once, he'd felt what it was like in the presence of true death right before his transmigration, he'd conversed with a god after floating as a soul within a sea of nothingness, compared to all that, this felt rather subtle.
To be honest, he was scared when he first thought about the trial earlier but now that he was in the presence of the king? He felt nothing.
He wasn't feeling that pressure of death nor did he feel like he was about to die, if anything he felt angry, angry at the fact that the bastard of a king was trying to use his predicament to bound his entire family.
The king silenced the hall by releasing his aura.
Contrary to what everyone had expected, he smiled, a rather slow and unsettling one.
"Speak boy and for your sake i hope you speak nothing but the truth else I shall see to it that your execution proceeds faster than intended."
Si-eun nodded.
"Of course your majesty."
His gaze drifted towards the fourth prince who was fuming with barely restrained rage.
"At the banquet two nights ago, I, under the command of Prince Kyle had nearly killed Prince Elias; from the symptoms I believe the drug he administered to me contains the moonsbane flower as confirmed by my family doctor, so while I committed the crime I'm being accused of, it was under the fourth prince's control."
Kyle snarled.
"Y-You, how dare you lying vermin accuse me… I outta…"
"Be quiet kyle." The king commanded.
'Yes that's good Kyle, listen to daddy and shut up you filthy cur'
But of course he didn't say it out loud, instead he continued speaking.
"Your majesty, it is common for brothers to eliminate each other for a chance to succeed the throne, I'm sure you're well aware, however your son bit off more than he could chew."
"Prince Kyle" Si-eun called. "You thought you could eliminate one hindrance to your succession for the throne while using the foolish son with a bad reputation of the same family your father couldn't handle, ambitious I'd say but you chose the wrong prey, in your attempt to gain a bit of favor from the king you forced his hands into potentially destroying kingdom."
He lingered then exhaled deeply.
"All my family needed was a legitimate reason to retaliate and you, prince Kyle Jerome Evangelion, provided that reason."
"You lie." Kyle snapped.
"Do I?"
"You vermin, you dare…"
"Hush now little prince, let's not embarrass ourselves further, I'm a lout, I already have a bad reputation, on the contrary you're the one who'd be affected from this."
At this point the audience were watching the exchange between Azazel and the fourth prince with bewildered expressions, heck even his parents were dumbfounded.
"I'll kill…"
"I don't remember giving you the permission to speak Kyle, neither did I permit your defense Azazel Von Astavore." The king interrupted with mild irritation.
Kyle flinched but Si-eun just shrugged.
"And you." He settled his gaze on Si-eun."With everything you said, we can't overrule the fact that you might be lying."
Si-eun fought back the urge to roll his eyes.
The king clearly knew what he was playing at, the bastard even had a lie detection skill activated but he chose to play along, why?
Because the king was someone who pursued amusement like a moth drawn to a flame, he knew Si-eun was lying but he was more amused at the fact that a mere child had the guts to lie to him and even turn the situation against his son, that was what Si-eun was after.
He was well aware what kind of person the king was and he had accounted for that in his plan.
The king kept people he found intriguing regardless of how dangerous they were because he had 'that'.
Now Si-eun was sure, he'd gotten the attention of the king. With this, his execution was more or less revoked, the rest were merely formalities.
"Your highness I wouldn't dare lie to your face, the only people who were with me at that time was his highness Kyle, the fifth prince and Count Jerome's son, Sheldon of house Timberly."
The king let out a huff then narrowed his eyes.
"Well then even if we account for the fact that you were being influenced, it doesn't still change the fact that you committed the crime, a punishment will be included should your execution be revoked, do you accept?" He asked.
Si-eun coughed lightly.
"Your majesty is a wise and benevolent king, surely you wouldn't be so biased as to punish me for your child's sin, although it's not my place to say, I do have a proposal for you your highness."
The king narrowed his eyes.
"Let's hear it then, it better be worth my time."
Si-eun licked his lips with glee before a slow smile adorned his face.
"To atone for my actions even though I was but a pawn to your genius son over there, I suggest watching over the fifth prince as an assistant during his time away from the palace, since we're both entering the academy, it's not such a bad proposal for his majesty… of course that in exchange for a bit of gold your bountiful treasury can afford to spare."