CHAPTER 325: THEN MY QUESTION-I

Judge Darling pulled the letter to his hand and then turned to look at Cassius. He briefly studied the crown prince before speaking, "Is it true that Her Highness had once demanded you to walk down of your throne?"

Cassius wondered what was pulled from the leather but unexpectedly it was of an old letter that was written by Marissa before she eventually entered the castle again.

At the time, Marissa who was still living apart from the castle had once demanded him to walk away from the castle and remove himself from the position of a crown prince.

The reason was due to spite, at least that was what Cassius had thought until the death of his sister.

He understood after her death that Marissa had asked him to leave the throne as she deep down wanted her brother to be free from the castle’s curse.

Marissa wanted him to stop living for their mothers goal to becoming the King, so one day he could live a life the way he wanted, not due to what others expected from him.

"It was a normal banter between a brother and sister," Cassius answered with ease, "Marissa was upset and she wanted to punish me in her own way thus she said those words but in the end she returned to the castle as we both forgave each other."

"However in it, Marissa threaten him. She told in the latter that she has proof of his wrongdoing and if he refuses to do what she ask, she won’t hesitate before spreading the news and force him out of the throne!" Morgana yelled from the side, taking the momentum.

"It’s a typical threat but Marissa always had a bad habit of doing those. Rather we should see when that letter was written and check how long has it been since she threaten me, and when her death happened, it should happen after quite a far long time."

Turning the envelope, Judge Darling narrowed his eyes, "this was seven years ago."

"Indeed. If I feel threatened by my sister I would have finished her off seven years ago."

The murmurs in the room became louder and though at first some stared at Cassius with skepticism now they nodded and agreed to his words, finding this situation slightly forced.

Queen Morgana clicked her tongue, "But it could happen that she suddenly disagree with you and brought up the old threat which made you feel threaten into killing her."

"That could happen," Cassius nodded, "But where is the evidence in your words? All I’m hearing is simply suspicion of what could happen, no proof."

"You speak as if you have proof of your innocence!" Queen Morgana snipped, irked and angered by how Cassius seemed so easily manipulated the court.

Cassius smirked. This was what he had been waiting for. This was what he knew Morgana would say and how easily provoked she would be if he had just uttered a few words and remain smirking in his chair.

He stood up and that caused for the guards beside him to flinch, gathering their hands to their hip where their weapon hung.

But Cassius raised his hand and reminded them he was still shackled with a snicker, mocking how easily frightened they were.

"Then let me proof my innocence since everyone seems so desperate to blame me," Cassius then pointed his hand upward, "First let us go over what had happened that night should we? My sister was planning to elope with a human man. That human man is also a soldier who work in the castle, a well known soldier. Their relationship was a secret but they were never short of love letters that were so passionate."

Saying this, someone walked beside Judge Darling and place the mountain of letters written by Marisa to her beloved.

"Their relationship was deep enough for her to consider eloping and as her brother I understand the plight of wanting to be with your loved one but would never be accepted by the royals. It didn’t help that I was against her engagement to our cousin Lucien thus I supported her," pointed Cassius to where Lucien was sitting, his face colored in blue with shame and anger.

But aunt eve was quiet as what she wanted was just the truth and her nephew’s release from the court.

"I helped her of course but oddly that same very night the barbarians began to attack the borders. What was quite interesting is how the barbarians claimed that their eldest daughter in the tribe had been poisoned by us, quite wild accusations when they never allowed us to cross the border let alone try to touch the water source."

Cassius then shrugged, "after some digging I found out that the eldest daughter was indeed poisoned but she was never poisoned by us, rather someone from their own tribe. So how did they have the idea that we, Versailles would want to harm them? Well it’s due to a rumor said by a certain woman who they saved. A servant lady, with brown hair and freckles, but one very noticeable feature of her is how she uses her left hand and her right finger had been cut off."

A silence ensued and suddenly everyone darted their gazes to the end of the room where Morgana had sat at. After all there was one matching woman standing beside Morgana, her usual servant who would always be at her beck and call, the woman who was always thought to be mute with her right finger that had been both cut off from her hands.

Morgana fumed at this as she never thought that Cassius would talk to the barbarians. She had thought he would kill them all as he usually would.

"Why did I speak and interrogate them instead of killing then you ask?" Cassius spoke as if he had seen what she had thought. "Simple. I thought that the request was quite strange. The barbarians and I have clashed multiple times and I have took their lives when needed under father’s order however, it’s odd that despite the weather being far from winter that they seem to start a rebellion. It must mean that someone had tried to harm them and they had retaliate."

"Barbarians only attack during winter because they lack source of food but clearly mother, you won’t know that since you live in this pretty castle," Cassius’s voice dipped and not only Morgana squirmed hearing this. The rest of the ministers realized slowly that perhaps they had made the wrong choice.

Cassius was cornered and there was no way out of this, that was something they were quite certain but now... they no longer feel as certain as they thought they were.

"I have brought the barbarian with me as a witness," Cassius spoke smoothly, "But I still haven’t finish with my own defense so you might ask those barbarians the truth at a later time. Knowing how they despise us, you don’t have to worry that they’ll lie for my sake."

Judge Darling was quiet. That was enough tacit confirmation that even he understood that Cassius defense was perfect.

"My sister lope that same night and although I believe that I could come back in time, I was held back. No matter how I hurry I came back only to find Arabella on the floor, fainted, fighting for her life as someone had smashed a vase on her head. That person is the witness there."

Iliza flinched under Cassius scrutiny and everyone’s eyes on her was slowly peeling away her confidence.

"You said you saw Arabella all around the place, trying to administer potion to harm Marissa. But how quite odd that statement is. The two of them had been together since that morning and this was seen by everyone. No one would be foolish enough to poison someone when eyes are all on them. It would make it too easy for others to pinpoint the culprit of the poisoning. But odd isn’t it? Because Arabella has heard whispers in the corridor that Marissa was going to be attacked by the man who was going to elope with her— that man of course wasn’t actually Marissa’s lover but rather a skin walker. His body is still in the dungeon, rotten but you can see for yourself how there is two body bearing the same face as one of them is an actual skin walker."

Then Cassius cracked his finger, "Arabella rushed to stop Marissa upon finding out of this fact but oddly— oddly— a slave attacked her from behind by a vase with force strong enough to kill as if she was trying to erase evidence. Maybe because the person who had colluded with the skinwalker wasn’t Arabella all along but her?"

"You are stretching this accusation of yours! What you say is nothing but speculation-"

"Oh patience mother. Have you never heard of what they call as patience before? I promise you with patience you could achieve what people called a good listener."

Cassius crossed his arm and settled it in front of him, "My men have succeeded in bringing a rather very very interesting potion stored deep inside that slave’s room given by Minister Rueben," then clinking the potion Cassius showed it to judge Darling. "I’m sure you know what this is as you have also investigated the remnant potion. Seems that your little slave didn’t end up using this completely, maybe because somewhere she already knew that you would threw her out when she became a burden to your grandiose plan."

Arabella who had held her armrest leaned forward and how unsurprised was she to find that Iliza who had been standing there in fear had fallen on her bottom with tears of fear and guilt drenching her wounded face.

Regrets flashed across her eyes but it was all too late. Too late.