“Tessa!” exclaimed Nana, shocked to see the blood.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s not deep...”

Indeed, the cut was long and thin, but only a bit of blood came out. Tessa licked it quickly, making her cousin grimace, but Cessilia ignored her, walking in to help the Counselor out.

“You shouldn’t do this for me, my ladies... It’s fine, His Majesty is mad at me, I don’t want him to deflect his anger at you...”

“Too late for that, Cessi already had words with him,” scoffed Tessa. “Come on, let’s just go before those idiots really bring people to stop us...”

The soldiers were alerted indeed, but the Princess’ presence seemed to leave them all in utter confusion as to what to do. Not only that, but many of them were glancing at Nupia in their strange group, and when they tried to leave, no one dared to stand in their way. It was clear they weren’t freeing a major criminal, either; everyone knew about the old Counselor. Hence, they were let out without a word, although no one dared to voice their support or say anything. A lot of them probably wondered if they would be punished for this, but it was too late to do anything to stop two Royal Counselors, a candidate, and a princess...

On their way out and after they had finally reached the ground floor, Nana let out a long sigh.

“I can’t believe this went well... Are you alright, Uncle Yassim?”

“I’m grateful for my ladies to have come to save a helpless old man, but I’m afraid this won’t help quell the King’s anger toward me...”

“I d-don’t c-care,” declared Cessilia. “I want you t-to b-be my c-counselor if the K-King doesn’t want you.”

“Really?” exclaimed Yassim, looking a bit amused. “If it’s the Princess’ order, then...”

“Let’s g-go t-to my room, I have q-questions for you,” added Cessilia.

“...Are you alright?” Nana asked Tessa, visibly a bit worried.

“I’m fine. See?”

To her surprise, when Tessandra showed her hand, there was no wound anymore, but instead, a thin trail of little, vivid green scales. Naptunie was so shocked she blinked twice.

“Wha...”

“The dragon’s skin,” Tessandra explained. “It’s one of our families’ abilities. When our skin is cut like this, scales appear to accelerate the healing process and protect us. It’s almost instantaneous, and everything will be better in just a couple of hours!”

“It’s so amazing!” exclaimed Naptunie. “And they are such a pretty green too!”

“Right? It means that if I had a dragon, it would have been... Cessi?”

Cessilia, who was walking in front, had brutally stopped. Her eyes were staring ahead, and Tessandra realized the door to their Cerulean Suite was open. She turned her head, but next to her, Nupia seemed at a loss too.

“I... We didn’t leave it open...”

Cessilia left the Counselors there and ran into the bedroom first, her cousin right behind her. The two women’s reactions were enough to make Naptunie worried too, and she followed behind, wondering what was going on. When she finally walked in and saw the state of the room, she gasped in shock, covering her mouth.

It had been ransacked.

“Oh my God,” cried Nana. “Who could have... We were just gone for a while...”

Cessilia and Tessandra were both staring around the room with furious eyes. This had been very plainly targeted toward them, their clothing and possessions had been completely trashed and spread all across the room. The fur coat Nana was looking at just that morning was ripped, as were all of their clothes. The furniture had been turned all over the place, the drawers were thrown out, but the curtains and carpets were fine. This was clearly meant to intimidate and upset them.

“...They took our gold,” muttered Tessandra, furious.

The two young women ventured farther into the room, staring at all the damage. Everything had been done in a hurry, savagely, and without any restraint. The bags they had brought with them had just been violently ripped apart, the contents spread all over the place for more damage. Naptunie was so shocked at the scene, she began tearing up silently.

“All your pretty dresses...” she mumbled, “and your money...”

When she took notice of Naptunie’s tears, Cessilia walked back to gently hug her.

“D-don’t worry, Nana. Th-this is nothing.”

“That’s for sure,” scoffed Tessa. “Nothing compared to the payback those wretches will receive...”

“C-Counselor Yamino,” said Cessi, “c-could you and C-Counselor Yassim g-give us a few minutes? We will c-clean th-this up.”

“What? Clean this? You should report this, my lady!”

“N-no. I d-don’t want t-to g-give them the sa-... sat-tisfaction. We will t-take c-care of it our way.”

“We will clean it up for you, my lady,” said Nupia, stepping forward. “My siblings and I are–”

Before she could finish her sentence, Tessa was holding her sword’s blade pointed at her throat, her dark eyes glaring at the young servant. Nupia froze, her eyes down on the blade, visibly scared. Tessandra’s movement had been so quick and swift; it was as if her weapon had come out of nowhere.

“You and your siblings are not taking another step into this room,” she hissed. “I don’t trust you any more than whoever did this.”

“But–”

“G-get out,” Cessilia ordered.

Her tone was just as calm as her cousin’s and as cold as ice. No matter what, it was clear the two women’s thoughts were aligned. With a sullen look, Nupia stepped out. Yamino and Yassim were still baffled by the scene and barely moved to let her out. As soon as the servant was gone and the doors closed behind her, Tessa lowered her sword. Cessilia’s expression too seemed to relax a little, although her eyes were still down on the disaster at her feet. She let out a faint sigh but didn’t seem as perturbed as one could have been by this sabotage. For a few seconds, a strange silence befell the room, and the two Counselors seemed at a loss whether to go now or not until Cessilia spoke up.

“C-Counselor Yassim, c-can I ask you s-something?”

“Anything, my lady.”

“Why d-did you choose to g-go to the D-Dragon Empire?”

Of all questions, this one seemed particularly out of the blue, but Cessilia’s green eyes as she looked at him were clear. She wanted an answer, now. They hadn’t seen Yassim since the previous day, but since she had seen Ashen, and gotten a glimpse of his complicated relationship with the King, Cessilia was eager to know. Tessandra frowned.

“Right... You said the King wanted a queen, but he obviously had many options here already. Why did you come specifically to get one of our Empire’s princesses?”

Tessandra could tell there was a special relationship between Cessilia and the King, but just like her cousin, she was suspicious of Yassim’s involvement. It was a long journey for the old man, and he obviously risked his life to bring Cessilia back here to the Eastern Kingdom. They knew he had lied, but that didn’t explain how he had known that choosing Cessilia to come here as a candidate would spare his head from the King’s wrath... and make her a plausible candidate.

The old man, clearly defeated, nodded slowly. He looked tired from his short time in the cell but did his best to stand straight in front of the Princess.

“I once again apologize for my duplicity, Princess Cessilia. In fact, my visit to the Dragon Empire was guided by my own suspicions about King Ashen’s past. ...You see, all of our citizens know the King disappeared, seven years ago.”

“Right before the fall of the previous King,” Nana nodded. “I remember. There were claims he had been killed by his father’s enemies... It made a lot of things worse because many also suspected the Princes were trying to kill each other, and those left were violent and ruthless. We didn’t want them to become King... but Prince Ashen was good to the people, and many were upset about his death.”

“Exactly, Lady Naptunie. However, an old man such as myself knows best about half-truths. I believe all the people in this room will be able to keep this secret, but... our King didn’t exactly die at that time. In fact, he was very close, but miraculously, our master survived his fate long enough to escape those who wanted him dead. I know this for a fact, because I myself helped our King escape this very castle, and Aestara, back then.”