Witch's Daughter And The Devil's Son

On the third day of the conference, Cian left the conference half way, leaving the rest of the matters to be handled by his ministers. He had received an important lead on that mysterious group led by that woman and had to leave, not waiting for the conference to be over.

"Your Highness, your cousin has sent another message," Eliot informed when Cian sat in his carriage and read paper that was already placed inside his carriage secretly."

"Let's go to the guest mansion first," Cian ordered.

They had to change into clothes to disguise themselves into ordinary nobles before leaving and Cian needed to get some important documents from his study.

When he reached the guest mansion, Cian spotted the commotion inside the foyer, where all the servants and guards had gathered along with knights inspecting the disaster occured part of the foyer.

"What's going on?" Cian asked, his cold, dignified voice resonating inside the foyer.

His personal aide hurried to explain, "Your Highness, all of a sudden there was a strong wind and this glass window shattered. We do not know if it could even happen."

Cian observed the foyer. Every part of it was as it is, untouched except for this one window while other windows and even their curtains looked untouched.

"Investigate it," Cian offered and walked upstairs to go to his chamber to change the clothes.

While standing in front of the mirror, Cian's mind was drifting to that mysterious woman, the leader of that group. He had observed her when she was fighting using her sword. The reason she caught his eyes at that moment was, she was small and frail compared to other robust swordsmen but she was more skilled than them.

Though he was not aware that person was a woman, her swift moves and skilled swordsmanship was praise worthy. It was only a shock he got when he heard her voice that confirmed she was a woman.

'Today, I will find out who that woman is. She must not be ordinary to go against the King himself. Must be a woman from the family that is against the King. They can be of great help in eradicating the entire plantation of banned herbs from the land of Othinia.'

When he stepped out of the chamber, on the way to the study, Eliot reached Cian.

"Have you investigated?" Cian asked.

"Yes, Your Highness. We gathered the statement of the witnesses and it seems like there was no intruder in the first place."

The moment Cian entered his study, he stopped in his tracks. He suspiciously glanced at the surroundings before walking towards the large desk. Something seemed off, and only realized what it was when he felt a breeze enter the room.

'The window is open?'

He went towards the desk and observed each and every item placed on it. Others would see nothing strange, but Cian who would notice even the slightest differences in how his things were arranged.

His fingers touched the ink bottle, adjusting it slightly to be perfectly perpendicular to the stack of papers placed next to it, the minor change causing his brows to furrow. He touched the brush of the quill pen and it was wet with ink, as if the last user tried to clean it in a hurry.

"Eliot," was all Cian needed to say.

Seeing his liege frown while inspecting his own things, the knight immediately looked around the study to find clues of anyone barging in. He even checked outside the window, but the ground below was empty, and the grass and bushes showed no signs of being trampled. There were no signs of people jumping out.

"I see no clues, Your Highness," Eliot said, aware of what was going on his prince's mind.

'Someone surely has entered the study,' Cian was sure and instructed his knight, "Give me a list of the people who came in and out of the mansion this morning, or anyone sighted by the gatekeepers nearby," Cian ordered. "All the servants had been informed prior that no one is permitted to enter the study without my permission. It means someone deliberately sneaked in.

This might be related to the window incident."

"I will get the information, Your Highness," the knight said with a salute.

It did not take long for the knight to return to the study. "Reporting to Your Highness, none of the servants left to run errands this morning due to the window incident, and other than Prince Arlan's aide, no outsider visited the mansion in your absence."

"Prince Arlan's aide?" Cian asked, startled. "You mean Physician Orian? What did he come here for?"

"He brought medication for your hand injury. Your attendant says he left after handing over the medicines."

There was a doubtful look on Cian's face, but then he let out a smirk. "He seems to care too much for a small injury of someone not his master."

"He came here just before the incident of window shattering happened," the knight added. "Shall we bring him here for interrogation?"

"No need," Cian informed.

The knight didn't question his leige's decision and asked, "Your Highness was hurt yesterday again. Since Griven's physician is suspicious, shall I ask for a new physician to come and check?"

"I am fine," he rejected. "We have to leave for the investigation today. King Drayce and Prince Arlan will join us this time."

Cian started to deduce the actions of Arlan's aide. That aide came here when the servants were most busy, especially busy having their meal after their master had left. That aide was smart enough to choose the perfect time but was the reason to sneak in his study, to search exactly what.

'I need to keep an eye on Prince Arlan's aide. Maybe discuss it with King Drayce before that aide turns into an adversary. There is always something suspicious about him as if he is trying to hide something.'

Cian left the palace to meet Arlan and Drayce at the spot of their meeting outside the palace.

"Today we will make sure to find all of their whereabouts and plantations and in the coming days, we will leave them to have leftover ashes only," Drayce commented while riding the horse.

Arlan simply nodded, as if he was immersed in some other thoughts.

"Are you thinking about Oriana?" Drayce asked.

Arlan nodded without any hesitation, "She is worrisome. I can't tell what trouble she would bring upon herself in my absence."

"Do not worry. As you wanted, Seren had called for her and will keep her by her side till you return to the guest mansion. Seren will make sure Oriana won't put herself in any danger."

"I will have to thank Her Majesty," Arlan spoke.

"You might get an earful from my wife."

"Huh? What did I do?"

"She is displeased with the way you are treating Oriana these days, especially in the market yesterday, you clearly ignored her. Could you not see how sad she was?"

"I know," he replied calmly, "But you already know what is going on with me."

"That I can understand but not my wife. All she knows is that she cares for Oriana and you are the man who is hurting her," Drayce informed, "She is even planning to expose Oriana's identity as a woman to her brother and let Prince Cian have her."

"What?" Arlan exclaimed as he stopped riding, his eyes turning between flickers of red and gold, his hold in the reins tightened, his knuckles turning white.

"Calm down," Drayce reached closer and patted his shoulder, "My wife is just sensitive towards the one she cares about."

Arlan tried to calm down and spoke, "Please tell Seren to not worry much."

If it was not Seren and someone else, Arlan would have lost his politeness and had cursed the person many times. But he could not be disrespectful towards his dear friend's wife.

"She won't. She knows, Oriana is your chosen one," Drayce assured.

Cian reached there in time and the three along with their respective knights left for the investigation.

They reached one of the isolated hidden plantation part and their storage places.

"I will inspect on those storage. We might get important proofs about people involved in it," Arlan said and walked away with his knight, leaving Drayce and Cian together.

"This plantation seems to be the biggest one out of others we know," Cian commented.

Drayce nodded as they secretly made their way towards the plantation field, "I need to check other than black nightshade, what other herbs they are cultivating."

Cian nodded and followed Drayce, only to hear him say, "Be careful Prince Cian. They are poisonous herbs."

Cian nodded and continued to walk. Meanwhile he spoke, "King Drayce, today Prince Arlan's aide had sneaked into my study. I wonder what is his deal."

Drayce didn't look surprised as he continued to do his work and spoke casually, "She must be there to get the hints about planation of black nightshade."

"What?" Cian exclaimed in suppressed voice.

"Don't worry about her intentions. I assure you, she harbours no ill intentions and simply needs it to treat her grandfather by using it as a medicine," Drayce informed. "In fact, I would like if you can arrange good amount of well preserved black nightshade and give it to me so I can hand it over to her."

Cian was speechless for a moment. Once he gathered his thoughts, he spoke, "I would not question your judgement and would not hesitate to fulfil your request, King Drayce, but...why are you addressing that aide 'She'? That aide..."

"…is a woman," Drayce answered his doubt, "and she is no threat to us."

"Does Prince Arlan know it?"

"If he was not aware of his own personal aide being a woman, I would have disowned him as my friend for lack of his intelligence."

Cian chuckled, "No wonder he is so possessive of his aide. In the market, I felt like he wanted to kill me right there for talking with her." Cian could not help but mused, "Seems interesting."

Drayce finally looked at the Prince, "Prince Cian, I would like you to keep caring for her and welcome any help from her."

Cian was taken aback. Instead of asking him to stay away from his friend's belonging, Drayce was asking the opposite.

"King Drayce, are you trying to use me to make that stubborn Prince realise something? Aren't you worried he might see me as his enemy."

"I am sure you can handle it, Prince Cian," Drayce spoke and turned to resume his work.

"Alright, I will see what I can do," Cian assured and smirked inwardly, 'It would be fun to mess with that stubborn and overly proud Prince.'