?

　　“Your father’s murder?” Cassian repeated, perplexed. “Emperor Byron died of illness. What are you talking about?”

　　“I do not believe that to be the truth.” I boldly claimed.

　　“What evidence do you have of this? Do not tell me you are following your intuition, princess, because this is a rather large and dangerous claim you are making. A murder of an emperor is no small feat.”

　　“I am aware of that and as for evidence, I do not have any. But during his funeral, I overheard some noblemen talking about the suspicious circumstance of my father’s death and that led to Gideon doing an internal investigation.”

　　“I’m guessing that Lord Gideon did not manage to find anything hence why you are here, asking for me help?”

　　“That’s right.” I affirmed with a nod.

　　Cassian examined my face for a moment and I did my best to maintain my composure. He was trying to decide whether or not to trust me and I do not blame him. But I already told him too much of what I knew and I was silently hoping he would at least dwell on the matter instead of just brushing me off.

　　“You want to believe that your father was murdered because of some gossiping noblemen?”

　　“That’s not the only reason. I just find it impossible to believe that no one knew about his illness. His death was too sudden.”

　　“That’s how human life works, my dear na?ve princess. People drop dead for lesser reasons.”

　　I glared at him although I could not rebuttal his words as it was all true. Life is fragile, I know that but I cannot just ignore this nagging voice in my head. “I did not tell you this for you to give me a philosophy lecture, Cassian. Will you help me or not?”

　　Cassian chuckled under his breath. “My services are not for free and you must be aware of the Hollows popular saying?”

　　“An eye for an eye.”

　　Cassian nodded proudly. “All things have equal value. So, what are you willing to offer if I do agree to investigate this curious case?”

　　“You are a businessman before you are a Duke, are you not. Why don’t you tell me the price I must pay?”

　　Cassian looked at me, almost baffled by my words. I suppose he thought I already had something to bargain with him but truthfully I had assumed he would not agree to my request since there was no evidence present at the moment. This could be a goose chase in the end.

　　“Such leniency.” He uttered.

　　“Tell me.”

　　Cassian crossed one hand around his chest while the other went to his chin, as though he was deep in thought. He closed his eyes and tilted his head before letting out a soft sound. “Hm.”

　　“Cassian.” I called out as a warning when he did this for a prolonged moment.

　　His eyes shot open before he dropped his hands to his sides. “Let the price of this be pending for the moment. I shall look into this first and see where it leads me. But I must warn you, my dear wife, I am no miracle worker. If there is no evidence to support that the late emperor was killed, I hope you can look past such rumours and let this rest.”

　　I stayed silent, trying to comprehend his words. “You sound as though you are reluctant to even help me, Cassian.”

　　He laughed. “Do not take this the wrong way, this is more of an advice of sorts since you are my beloved wife after all. But nothing ever goes right for those who pry into the life of the dead. I would not want to see this beautiful face just hurt after all.” He said with a smirk.

　　I decided to not react to his words as I believe that Cassian has a strange tendency to overexaggerate things. I then lowered my head to bid him goodbye. “Thank you for your time and please be safe.” I said softly, ready to turn around to sneak back into the palace.

　　“Hold on.” Cassian called out, causing me to stop in my tracks. He then approached me and wrapped his cloak around my neck. I did not even realise when he had removed it. He then pulled up the hood to hide my face. “It would be troublesome if anyone saw you so make sure to hide your face.” he said before taking a quick step back.

　　“Thank you.” I said.

　　Cassian smiled. “Goodnight, my sweet Cordelia.”

　　*

　　My heart was beating incredibly fast, I could hear the pounding into my head irritatingly. The grip I had on the skirt of my dress was dangerously tight and I was tempted to rip the fabric just to calm the frustration I was feeling. I was expecting another day of me trapped in my study dealing with a mountain of paperwork. Never once did I wake up in the morning to learn such distressing news from Anne who panicked and appeared to be lacking sleep.

　　“P-Princess, please wait!” she called out as I rushed down the corridor.

　　“If what you say is the truth then I have no time to be waiting around, Anne! Rumours have the tendency to spread like wildfire after all.”

　　“But it was only a rumour among the maids! I only told you what I heard because you deserve to know these things! Especially since it involved your husband.” she stressed, trying her best to catch up with me.

　　“I am very well aware of that, Anne, and I thank you for bringing this to my attention.” I said through gritted teeth.

　　“Princess, please!” she cried, making me stop in my tracks when she boldly wrapped her hands around my arm. I looked over at her as she tried to catch her breath. Her hands were shaking around my arm and at that moment I felt guilty that I made her run around just to stop me from doing anything reckless. “We must not jump to conclusions.” She huffed between pants.

　　“I’m merely going to have a civil conversation with him, Anne. You are the one who is overthinking this.”

　　She made a face at my words, clearly not believing a word I just uttered. “I’ve been your lady-in-waiting for a very long time princess, I know the faces you make when you are happy, sad, annoyed and I definitely know your face when you are angry! And it’s even more alarming to know that you are the type to hide your emotions so for you to openly be upset about this only means—”

　　“Am I not allowed to be upset about this?” I blurted, interrupting her mid-sentence.

　　“N-No, of course you are but these are baseless rumours!”

　　“Even you do not believe that, Anne. If they were just rumours, you would not even bother telling me.”

　　“T-That’s just because…” her words trailed off as she lowered her gaze.

　　“Because there’s evidence, is there not?” Anne slowly nodded her head. “Well, tell me everything you know.” I urged her to continue.

　　“I did not personally see it happen but a handful of maids claim that they saw the incident occur because they were together, heading towards the dining hall to prepare for breakfast.” She explained properly instead of giving me a small amount of information earlier.

　　I sighed aloud, honestly not wanting to deal with this mess so early in the morning. Footsteps echoing through the corridor made me turn around only to find Lady Marie and her two daughters approaching me. They were uncharacteristically silent and Lady Marie even offered me a greeting smile.

　　“Good morning, Cordelia. Lovely day, is it not?” she tried to make conversation but my gaze was fixed on Elina who was clearly avoiding my eyes. “Now, dear, it’s rather rude to ignore me when I am here greeting you.” Lady Marie pressed.

　　I snapped my attention back to her, watching that twisted smile of hers form on his lips. She definitely had knowledge about this predicament and I would not be surprised if she was the one who orchestrated this entire scandal. I merely gave her a smile and a nod before turning around and walking away, heading towards the common room Anne had told me where my husbands were.

　　It was rare for them to be together but perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that they choose today to be civil with each other. I could hear Anne’s hurried footsteps following me from behind and when I finally reached the room, I pushed the door open, causing the people inside to turn to me in shock.

　　My eyes scanned the room, noting how Aiden was seated on the couch with Isaiah and Augustus as they were probably talking about something and Cassian was standing by the window, looking just as confused with his eyes on me. I took a deep breath and approached him, ignoring the other’s curious gazes. All I had to do was tell Cassian that I wanted to speak with him, it was simple really.

　　“Good morning, my sweet Cordelia.” He gave me a charming smile and my calm and collected composure that I was trying to maintain—crumbled.

　　“Did you sleep with Elina?” I blurted out.