Chapter 13: Confronting the Prince Part 2

“Liliana Florencia Thorn, for the crime of bullying Holly, my true love, I hereby annul our engagement, strip you of your status of Saint, and sentence you to immediate death.”

There was that same stupid intro of his that I was already sick of hearing, but thankfully, my hunch was right. Despite ticking him off with my accidental laugh, he still proceeded to list my various supposed crimes, just as he’d done on the first night. However, this time I was paying attention. Most of the crimes were things I hadn’t done directly, but rather minor, petty actions done on my behalf by my faction.

Yes, I technically had a faction. I was the daughter of a duke, so every noble who was overseen by that duke and owned land under his protection was part of my faction. Now technically, I should have been running that faction in the academy, looking after students loyal to my family, and settling disputes with other factions. However, as you probably guessed from everything I’ve said so far, I wasn’t really up to that role. Thankfully, I had an older brother who had handled that for my first four years at the academy. Then, when he graduated, he passed along the duties to the first son of a marquess who was a close friend of my father. Officially, my family claimed that they wanted me to remain neutral so that I could rule more fairly when I became queen. Still, everybody probably knew that I just couldn’t handle the job.

While that was very depressing for me to admit, it also served as evidence of my own innocence. I couldn’t have said for certain whether or not Holly had actually been bullied by students from my faction. She certainly deserved it for flirting with an engaged prince, despite her low status (A status that would have led to a certain amount of bullying regardless of her behavior), but either way, nobody at the academy would actually believe that I had the influence to make people bully Holly. Now that I was paying attention, I even noticed some people in the crowd, particularly those in my faction, murmur dismisively when the prince claimed I had orchestrated all this. That was a win in my mind, though the next accusations weren’t as easily refuted.

Apparently, someone had pushed Holly down the stairs after class, and while I technically had an alibi, it wasn’t close to being rock solid. According to the prince, she had been pushed mere minutes before I was checked back into the dormitory. Additionally, given the distance between those two points, I would have practically needed to sprint away from the scene of the crime. This seemed highly unlikely to me, but the prince supposedly had witnesses who’d seen me at the scene of the crime. While I was certain Holly had convinced them to testify, my alibi wasn’t strong enough to dispute their claims. Still, I considered my case relatively strong until he brought up his final accusation, for which I had no defense.

According to the prince, my actions hadn’t been limited to just regular bullying. Oh no, apparently, once I saw that my efforts to drive them apart were failing, I’d attempted to murder Holly, and how had I done such a deed? Did I order Sally to kill her in her sleep, hire a group of thugs to attack her mid-carriage ride, or try to poison her food? Nope. I had just attacked her in the middle of class with magic. This claim was ridiculous enough that I actually felt offended, especially because my magic skills were truly awful. Still, there was little I could say to defend myself. It was during class, so I was certainly there, and Roman himself had witnessed the event, along with several other students.

“My magic skills are awful,” was the best defense I could muster. “Ask any teacher who has taught me in class, and they will confirm that I can’t cast anything beyond beginner class magic. If such a spell could kill Holly, then she is even less fit than I am to be queen.”

A bit too much honesty slipped through there, but it got me some muffled laughs from the crowd, so I tried not to focus on it, even though I knew I’d be cringing about that dumb line for ages. Still, I knew that wouldn’t be enough to save myself. While it had left the prince too stunned to respond, Roman stepped forward utterly unfazed. Looking back, nothing I’d ever said had ever really frazzled him or shaken that placid smile from his face. I’d always found that smile to be reassuring, but now it seemed like nothing more than a mask meant to hide the monster beneath,

“Lily,” he began with an informal nickname. “I was present for this incident. Are you questioning the word of a high-ranking member of the church?”

Obviously, that question was a trap. If I said yes without further proof, I’d basically be insulting the church. However, if I said no, my entire defense would basically be confessing to attempted murder. Roman had backed me into a corner, likely expecting me to stammer out an awkward response as I tried to defend myself. It was a good plan, but what he didn’t know was that I had nothing left to lose.

“That depends. Was it you or the church who ordered Holly to seduce my fiancé?”

For the briefest of moments, Roman’s eyes went wide with surprise before the crowd around me exploded into chatter and gossip.

“I know you are upset, child,” he said in the most condescending voice imaginable. “But do you really believe such lies will save you?”

“Nope,” I said with a wide grin. “I’m gonna die here. I know that and I’ve accepted it, but before that happens, I wanted everyone to know the truth.”

That was a lie. I certainly had my suspicions, especially after Roman’s earlier rant about the prince and Holly’s love. However, the idea of a high-ranking member of the church manipulating the crown prince in such a way was ridiculous. It was my own theory, and even I barely believed it, so if I was going to convince anyone else, I needed more proof. Though my accusation alone wouldn’t change anyone’s mind, it gave me a chance to gauge their reactions and see who was in on the plan.

Of course, Holly wouldn’t make things easy for me. As soon as I made my accusation, she buried her face in the prince’s chest, making her expression unreadable. Meanwhile, the prince himself looked enraged at me, but I also noticed that he gave Roman a somewhat questioning glance. It seemed that while the idiot hadn’t suspected anything, my guess had been right on the money. Roman was behind all of this.

I wasn’t sure what to do with that info, but I saw a potential path forward. If I could somehow prove this was all part of Roman’s plan to trick the prince and that Holly was in on it, that would change everything. They would both be charged and executed for tricking the prince. The church would likely abandon them to save face and may even let me keep my position of saint. However, that depended on what happened between the prince and me. Staying engaged with a man who had repeatedly killed me seemed more than a little bit insane. Still, I enjoyed the thought of spending the rest of my life making him miserable. That’s what kept my parents married back on earth, and I still turned out okay, right?

Regardless of my own self-delusions, my night wasn’t over. Surprisingly, I wasn’t dead yet, but I’d insulted the church and royal family enough to almost guarantee my execution. Still, I had gotten far more info than I could’ve hoped from this night, so I decided to end things with a bang.

“Well, this has been fun, but isn’t it about time you killed me?” I asked the prince with a casual shrug of my shoulders.

“Do you want to die?” he asked in shock as Holly removed herself from his arms and gave me an equally quizzical look.

Of course, I didn’t want to die, but I also knew that I didn’t have a winning hand yet. I’d sown some doubt about Holly and Roman, but it wasn’t enough to take them down. As things stood now, the two would bounce back and worm their way into the prince’s good graces with ease. Even if I survived the loop, I’d still be a loose end that they couldn’t afford to go free, and that wasn’t a life I was willing to live, at least not when I still held hope that a true escape was possible.

Alas, that hope was then torn to shreds, not by Holly or Roman, but rather by my own need to taunt all three of these idiots.

“As I said, I’ve accepted my own death as inevitable. Besides, I would hate to get in the way of your true love with Holly, especially now that she is...expecting.”

I said those words with a deep bow before internally cackling maniacally at the shocked gasps that suddenly filled the room. It was a truly glorious way to end this loop, but as I looked up, I did not see the unbridled anger I was expecting on the prince’s face. Instead, both he and Holly had turned a deep shade of red and were utterly incapable of looking at one another.

Suddenly, I recalled my first attempt at repeating the day. Not only had the prince and Holly been having breakfast, but they had both been dressed in their pajamas, as if Holly had spent the night. If that all wasn’t obvious enough, Holly now had a hand over her stomach.

“You have got to be...” I began to scream out before the prince silenced me with his divine magic.