Acilia's Doubt

"Today is the very first day and surprisingly, nothing bad has happened."

Winter was currently in his prince mode, at the moment, he was wearing a long-sleeved dashiki with an elaborate design with the main color being black and gold, the same thing applied to his pants, of course, this made him stand out amongst the other nobility as they all wore suits but he didn't want to wear anything else besides this, per his continents tradition of clothing.

The only thing he couldn't have was dress shoes, as he was supposed to be the closest guard to the Pope, he needed to be ready for a fight at any moment.

This is exactly why he had this outfit custom-made with mobility and stretchiness in mind, he could do all the normal range of motions in this and not have to worry about being restricted or tearing something.

Right now, Winter was standing next to Clare in a social gathering where she was giving out prayers and blessings at the cathedral, it was one of the small points where she would or could freely walk around the public like this.

With the prince being constantly next to her and his entire shadow legion in the room, they were more than sure they could protect her, which allowed for something special like this to happen.

Of course, the attempts on Clare's life hadn't stopped, they have been apprehending people all day, from small-time crooks with no idea what was going on, to one big-name assassin from the West.

Everyone captured today was being questioned thoroughly, and all of them are pretty much saying the same thing. Someone approached them before the festival, and gave a large sum of money to either cause harm or kill the Pope.

Not a single one has even got within ten steps of the woman but the threat of so many people out for her today was worrying.

All of them aren't even out for something that was dangerous, apparently, even someone was just hired to trip her and another was to spill a drink on her...

None of them have a description of the person who hired them as they were dressed so heavily that they couldn't say if it was a man or a woman, an androgynous voice made things even more difficult.

As per usual, the magic lines were being monitored from within the royal palace, the great cathedral, and within reasonable bounds of a few suspicious individuals.

"Well, I find it nice that I get to walk around with the public like this. You haven't even had to lay a finger on anyone, harmonious things like this are the reasons I've become what I am." Clare smiled brightly and kept walking with Winter by her side.

Smiles like that are the reason Executioners do the work no one else wants to. She has no idea of the danger she's in and everyone who is innocent can live peacefully without a threat on their life.

If a few bad guys or a nation had to be put in the dirt to do that, the Executioners were all for it.

"I think I see another one."

Marika's voice came through on their magic signal, winter didn't even budge, he was quite literally the last line of defense. At the moment, since there was no fighting, Chisai was leading.

"Where are you? Lily, can you get a target lock on him?"

"Right at the back, near the alter, known assassin, he's on his cell..."

At the moment, they were in a very large room made for gatherings like this, this would be a place or people to rest and pray at the same time.

Winter and Clare were about on the far outer edge of the left side right now as she wanted to sit down for a moment. He happily gave her seating and sat down with her, continuing the conversation right where they sat.

Chisai was quite literally hiding in plain sight, she was dressed like everyone else here but had a dagger tucked in her boots just in case.

"On his cell? On a mission? Wait, I want to see if I can get a clear track on the signal. Lily, you just make sure no one else is here and keep some eyes on Her Holiness."

"Right!"

Lily and Erwin were working in tandem with each other, if Chisai had to take a guess, it was probably because Lily molded her entire style after him and Erwin was well... Erwin.

"While they do that, Team One, keep close by to that assassin, if he makes any moves, distract him a bit."

Team one was the usual scout group composed of the more crafty students, they didn't stand out and knew how to hide. They were all good at distortion magic and versed in some shadow magic making them the ultimate info gathers and distraction units. The name came from them being the only ones able to do what they do but with the addition of the 104th, Team One became Team Point with eight members.

Of course, when not directing as Team Point, the squads were known as Team One and Two for easy direction.

"Hold on a minute, this signal is coming from the royal palace. I'm contacting the Royal Claws."

In order to really make everything work out, all three branches from the entire Executioners Order were coming together.

The Royal Claws, the Execution Inquisition, and the military branch which doesn't have a cool name like their counterparts because they were so freshly breaking off from being part of the Ardent Grand Army.

"Can you tell where it's coming from in the palace?"

"No clue, I can just see it's from the palace... oh yeah, he is an assassin, you can deal with him whenever."

"Team One, take him down discreetly."

From Lily to Erwin to Chisai, the next thing that the assassin knew was that he was getting dragged off after having distortion magic cast on him. The entire room had no idea someone just got dragged off to a very questionable place.

But, changing gears, General Lumina was walking through the hall of the royal palace with two executioners behind her.

"This is the big break, that idiot that's been playing me for a fool just did the worst mistake ever! They used a magic signal to tell ME where they are!!"

She was on a charge, the usually relaxed face was smiling with glee as they kept moving through the halls. She had her cell up with a whole map of the massive palace and the last place the signal going to the assassin was dotted down right on the map.

As soon as the Royal Claws said something to her, everyone was set into motion. They were deployed to locate the queen but she was nowhere to be found, and at the moment, they were still looking for her while Lumina heads towards the magic signal.

It was coming from the ground floor, back of the palace, it was where a lot of the workers go to and some of them stay, the perfect place to send a signal because of the high traffic. It wasn't a place that was ignored in surveillance but it was certainly hard to monitor.

Lumina was so excited that she enhanced her body and kicked down the door which the signal was coming from.

It was a small room, used for storage, one singular window was letting in light to the clutter.

The lines of shelves were filled with junk that Lumina didn't care about, what her eyes were locked on was the person seemingly cluelessly staring at her.

"General Lumina?"

Of course, it was the missing Queen.

"Bag her, boys!!"

The Queen was taken by surprise as the two Executioners ran at her, she had no time to react as she was instantly locked in place by shadow magic. She was grabbed by the hand and it was forced behind her back as she was taken to the ground and thrown into handcuffs.

The cell in her hand was taken right after and it was tossed to Lumina who then used the cell to set up a connection to her own.

Chief Receptionist Erwin confirmed it was the same one that was contacting the assassin and right on the spot, the queen was arrested for attempted assassination and treason.

Lumina made no comments as she pridefully watched the queen be dragged off. She made no attempts to hear the cries of innocence and even did a bit of showboating while following the prisoner.

Momentarily, during times like this, Lumina was technically next in line since the queen had no kids or relatives that were actively in line to succeed.

She was about to abuse her powers again...

Lumina was starting to see how bad this looks.

The queen was trying to kill the pope using assassins, this was a massive problem, something like this getting out at a time of peace and a festival would downright destroy their reputation.

Lumina through all of her worry started to spin the lie that the Queen had caught a sickness and was being treated in her room and couldn't come out.

Every event she was to take part in was either canceled or the queen was subbed out with Lumina who had a free schedule. She just passed on her security duties to Athena who was in the city at the time.

But finally, with the queen's arrest, the Pope was a lot freer with her movements because the attacks on her life and pride had stopped.

The first day proceeded as expected and the next day started off well.

The cardinals were also allowed near the pope again, they were the first suspects of wanting her dead as any of them would be the next one if she happened to die.

All of them were properly interrogated but it ultimately looked like the queen was in this plot by herself. Even after a day of being locked up, she has yet to say she had any involvement in any of the attempts on Clare's life.

She was still the queen so they couldn't just torture her, no one was brave to even propose or think of the idea of doing so.

At the moment, Lumina was sitting in a cell, which was more or less just a really nice room in the royal palace with Executioners outside.

Sitting across from the General was the person being forced to stay here.

"...So, Acilia, what exactly is going to happen here?" Lumina was really just here to pass the time until her next event.

"I should be asking you that, traitor! You still have me here and those goons outside won't let me leave? Trying to kill Clare, why would I ever want to do something like that, idiot?"

Lumina has never heard someone talk and yell simultaneously like this. The energy output of her words is just aggressive enough to tell she's angry but she still felt professional beyond belief.

"We even showed you evidence directly from your cell that you deleted. You're literally the only suspect we have the most evidence on you."

"And I'm telling you it wasn't me, I have never seen any of that information, it's outrageous and completely untrue!"

Lumina was almost confused, how can she be so sure in a time like this? They've arrested people harder to read than her but this was almost like she truly believed she wasn't in the wrong here.

Spells to see if someone was lying were hard to come by but Lumina might have to see if she can find one.

"...Okay..." To Lumina things still weren't adding up. She jumped off her hype train and started thinking again, there was still something she was missing.

But at the same time, this could be a really convincing play. They caught her red-handed and when questioned what she was doing down in some storage room, she answered she had just woken up there with no knowledge of how she got there.

Being the queen of a kingdom, she had to be full of confidence and have the ability to play up anything.

There was a reason their people thought they were winning the war the whole time. Through the efforts of Acilia to keep the country afloat and keep their money high, if things came down to it, because of her, they could have possibly outlived Breidal through a very bloody and draining war of attrition.

A winner of that war would not have been present but a tie is better than a complete takeover.

Acilia was a master of belittling herself at times, she still was the queen but sometimes thought things would be better with someone else in her position.

Lumina was confused again while staring at the queen in front of her.

"Are you just going to stare or say something? I can see the evidence in front of me, my cell, and some testimony from someone in a rebellion that I somehow caused. Can you just explain why I would want to destroy a country that I've spent the last six years improving? Or why I would want to kill Clare?" Acilia was certain that they didn't have a motive for her and without a motive down, it was more likely that they could see she wasn't a culprit.

Or, that's what she was hoping, anyway.

"Hm. Well, you were trying to distract us with Breidal while you set up assassins, and by the time the festival came, we would have a lot of soldiers quelling Breidal where the Pope wouldn't have the protection she has now, and at the very first moment they had, Clare, would be dead."

Acilia's face was shocked which Lumina took as confirmation of being right. The smug smile put Acilia off her game and her face became visibly angry and stood up from her table, slamming her hands into the table she took in a deep breath.

"You're a fucking genius but right now, you're being the most foolish person I've ever seen! Lumina, release me, it's obvious I'm being framed, don't let your ego and confirmation bias be your downfall!" Acilia stood up straight and stared for a moment before sitting back down.

Lumina let out a sigh, she said nothing while getting up from her seat. It was a silent exit as Acilia was left in the room by herself once again.

She almost felt like that outburst was too much but she was keeping all of that in, it would eventually come out no matter what.

She wants to prove her innocence but really had no way of doing so. The amount of things stacked against her almost makes her believe that she had just gone crazy and did it, she really had no real explanations except for her own feelings and memories.

"Was it some sort of split personality?" Acilia stood up and walked over to the window. There were no bars but the glass was used for stopping magic though she didn't have any ability with it anyway.

She was always a politician first and a fighter never. Besides the spells that pretty much everyone know, she was weak.

"...No way! I'm innocent! A split personality is impossible! Someone would have noticed, right?"

She needed to calm down before she really did go crazy, she stopped thinking about it and instead focused on the city outside.

If she listened closely, she almost felt like she could hear the cheers of the people she's worked so hard to support. A soft smile came to her face as she put a hand on the glass.

She just couldn't help but think about what could possibly happen to her next...