CHAPTER 323: TURN THINGS AROUND-I

At once, Iliza’s face turned pale as a sheet. Her eyes shifted slowly toward Minister Rueben, but he didn’t spare her so much as a glance. For a brief, hollow moment, Iliza wondered if she had made the right choice, if aligning with them had ever been wise. Clearly, her life held little weight to them now.

But it was too late to retreat. She had sunk too deep, soaked her hands in too much filth to return to the other side. Disobeying Minister Rueben or Queen Morgana would only hasten her death, and there was no chance the opposing side would ever take her back, not after everything she had done.

Caught between death and betrayal, Iliza turned back to her seat. Her voice trembled slightly, "I... I didn’t lie."

On the upper floor, Arabella remained still. Unmoved.

She had known what Iliza was capable of. Even back during the hunt, when Arabella had kept her distance, Iliza had shown her true nature, choosing self preservation, no matter the cost. No matter who it harmed.

The disappointment Arabella once felt had long since calcified into quiet contempt. She was not surprised to see Iliza still clinging to Morgana’s side like a lifeline, even now when it was clear they had no intention of saving her.

Perhaps she would stay loyal to them until the day she died, and maybe even then, her ghost would still whisper Morgana’s name.

But that was Iliza’s choice. Her fate, signed and sealed.

Judge Darling gave only a brief nod, unfazed. He was no stranger to liars, poor ones, especially. His sharp eyes saw through Iliza’s shallow deceit with ease, but it was not his job to coax the truth from her lips. His role was to ask, record, and weigh, not to persuade.

Then his attention shifted.

"Your Highness," he said, turning to Cassius.

The prince had listened to every word without flinching. In fact, he seemed mildly bored, as though he were listening to a dull sonata rather than standing trial for his life.

To him, Morgana’s attack felt clumsy, almost insulting.

Did she truly believe this would be enough?

Perhaps she thought she had already won, that even if Judge Darling ruled him innocent, the sheer weight of ’evidence’ and whispers in court would tip the scale in her favor. She didn’t need a guilty verdict. All she needed was enough doubt to justify chaining him again.

And perhaps... killing him slowly, one decree at a time.

Cassius smiled to Judge Darling, "Yes, judge?"

Judge Darling almost let out a sigh as he could see just how tiring this court was going to get, "Do you acknowledge the witness’s statement?"

Cassius hummed, "That I threatened to kill her?" he then raised his hand and showed his chain, "But how exactly? I don’t think that it is a good idea to believe in words without evidences... do you have the evidence of the floor in which I carved the number seven?"

Judge Darling turned to Queen Morgana and her face flushed with anger.

Cassius knew that Morgana was quite foolish. She likes beautiful things and if some furniture didn’t fit to her taste, she would immediately order for it to be removed.

Knowing that, Morgana who had just given birth must have been enraged to see the number seven on the floor and ordered the servants to peel the floor and replace the tiles.

But in the court, servants words aren’t treated as trustworthy. This is because they are all aware of what servants could do in order to protect their master and mistress, even if it means lying through their teeth.

Morgana herself must have gotten rid of her newborn baby during the time when she fixed the floor, thus she wouldn’t want to work an outsider and told her servants to take care of it all, leaving almost zero evidence for Cassius to work with.

"Rather," Cassius hummed, "I was there when my newborn sister was born. Excited as I was to see the baby, I walked in only to find that my mother was furious to find out she isn’t a boy..."

Queen Morgana frowned, "You are simply trying to shift blame to me now! I love Rahas! You shouldn’t dare utter that I wanted her dead!"

"Oh mother, I said that you weren’t excited about her," Cassius sighed, "I didn’t say that you wanted her dead," Cassius pointed for the court to go silent. "If it is true that you did love Rahas, then why is it that the royal physician said that you refused to see the newborn baby at all, even when they found out the baby is hungry? I have a midwife’s statement written that she was forced to feed the newborn baby as it had gone too hungry, almost to the point of starvation."

"No. NO! That didn’t happen. I did fed her-"

"-You didn’t even touch her," Cassius rolled her eyes. "Loved her? What kind of mother wouldn’t be excited to hold the baby at all? Yet now you claim that you loved her so deeply that you wanted to avenge her with my life?"

Queen Morgana gritted her teeth tight until her lips began to twitch. Her furious fists slammed on the table, brimming with the need of shouting straight to Cassius and holding him by the throat.

But she couldn’t do anything than stare at Judge Darling who then answered.

"Court in order, everyone shouldn’t talk without my permission," his strict voice was enough to shut everyone in order, almost in a blink.

Judge Darling then stopped at Cassius again and asked, "Thus this mean you suspect that the person behind the princess’s death is her own mother?"

"Well, if the evidence points to her, that wouldn’t be suspicion but just the truth, won’t it?" Cassius knew how to sway others into following his line of thought. The court was simply a playground of him when it comes to this trick.

Morgana could never reach the talent he achieved and all this time people follow her not because she was clever enough to trick them, rather it was because of her title.

But without her title?

She’s nothing but a trapped mouse.