Chapter 13

[Rodolph Crambell Point Of View]

    The resident had been under attack by a mysterious assassin. When I heard the news from some maids reporting an unusual behavior of a maid who is not part of the servants, I reckoned it's an assassin. 

    To secure every parameter of the area, I locked most of the facilities of our residence, and put the marquees in state under quarantine. Surely because of this, the residents will stop their operation but we have to avoid casualties.

    However, we don't know where the assassin is now. So we investigate all maids around the mansion who's working, while considering those who went on vacation and I just recently discovered Anna's vacation without permission.

    The head maid said that she only said a few words and left. 'Secure, milady at all times' those words were far more suspicious than I intended to understand.

    "Is that all from the maids? " I asked. 

    One of the men I was assigned to investigate shrugged his head. "One maid reported that the mysterious maid insisted on delivering milady's tea, and the other one reported that the mysterious maid told another maid to deliver the tray which she was told was ordered by the one who brewed the tea. " 

    Is that so? 

    Then suddenly my eyes shifted in realization and immediately took off. I lifted my sword and hurried myself running in the mansion's hallways.

    I can't believe it! 

    No, let me make it in time! 

    If something happens to my daughter, I cannot forgive myself from this! Perhaps, I may be strict or overprotective sometimes but I'm doing this for her safety... My child, my daughter, is the only one left in me, so please gods don't take her away, please! 

    I huffed as I ran pace through the infinite hallways until I met the end which leads to my daughters door. Without further ahead, I immediately opened the door with my fist and engaged myself in. 

    'daddy! ' 

    The figure of a female maid holding my daughters neck as she choked her to death made me so frustrated. When I look at my daughter whose face is about to be broken, she lifts her hands trying to reach me and the scene of her mother dying in front of me chills down my spine. 

    "Please take care of her, please, I can't no longer watch her grow up into a beautiful petal, I'm sorry---" the words of the late marchioness echo through his system and the touch of her hands as she passed her will, my mind went blurry as I came back to reality.

    I slashed my blade through her neck cutting it in half, she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings so her death was initially unexpected. Her head came rolling down the aisle of my daughter's balcony and finally she let go of her, I drew my sword and slowly catched my daughter from falling.

    I'm glad I could make it in time...

--+-•-+--

    I let out a sigh as I watched my daughter sleeping under her soft furry blanket, she slept so well considering what happened to her earlier. I asked the physician of her condition and he told me that she'll be fine, but it was rather unexpected to see her survive 2 minutes without struggling with her nearing death.

    I was aware of her strange behavior lately... I just didn't have the guts to ask her... 

    At that time, when his highness the crown prince came to propose, that young prince came to me with a bright smile, he told me that there was no such thing as a proposal that has happened, and left without saying anything rather than that. 

    I tried investigating what happened that time but none witnessed them talking, the servant who visited the adjoining room told me that the crown prince and my daughter weren't talking, instead they were both quiet until the time she left the adjoining room completely.

    Anna stood beside me. "My apologies, milord, the lady seemed so determined to do something and needed my help, I didn't think my absence would end her life at stake, " she apologies, she kneels before me and I haven't flinched.

    Anna is a good girl. However, her carelessness of leaving without permission is not acceptable. She explained to me what really happened, she told me that my daughter knew she was a spy, and no one knew except me that Anna is a spy, she said it was not like that, it was as if she discovered her without even knowing how. 

    Her actions became more suspicious after that incident, while I tried to find the reason for yesterday's accident. 

    Everything is messed up and I am busy hunting down one of the criminals of the underground market, and now an assassin has barged into my residence and tried to kill my daughter... This day couldn't be any more damned...

    "So, who did she ask you to investigate? " I asked.

    "Milord, this... It's Milady's secret, she might not like it if I broke my promise..." 

    Is that so, she never told me something about this... Is this perhaps regardless of that day's event? The crown prince? Why didn't he continue the proposal to my daughter? 

    She did something and I'm not aware of it. My curiosity only rises so deep, I look at Anna who remains kneeling and I breathe deeply.

    "Tell me the truth, don't worry, she will never know about this, " Anna remained silent for a second, she tightened her grip on the carpet, she's trying to think if it's better to tell me or not. 

    "I... "

    She then stood up and she held her hands. "Milord, the milady asked me to investigate about a lady named Lucia, a baron's daughter who was the crown prince's secretive lover, " I sat down beside the bed with the empty chair on the side of the table behind in front of a cabinet.

    Then I signed my finger for her to continue. "The lady must be wary of something, at first, I thought her obsession to the crown prince hasn't change but I was shocked when she was happy of the news that the crown prince has a lover, so she asked me about rumors regardless the crown prince, then she stayed all night long in the library, that's all, milord. "

    "For what reason, did she want you to investigate his highness the crown prince? " She sighs and shrugs.

    "I don't know, milord, when I asked milady, she told me that I shouldn't ask too much questions of what she was going to do, " she was troubled that I will be asking to much of a question, because I can see it in her eye that she sincerely didn't knew about Atina's plan. 

    If that's the case, she was planning on something to investigate about someone and his highness the crown prince rumor, she's busy circulating a plan, did she do something while his highness the crown prince visited? 

    Suddenly a flick of memories took over me. A memory before yesterday's event... "Do you trust me? " a question she asked me about.

    Could it be? 

    "Trust me, it will be fine, I promise." Did she mean this? When did she become so clever to pull this off? I had so many questions I am dying to learn the answer but for now, let's just leave her be, it's not harmful and I trust her judgment.

    If she did this because I was worried about her, then it's fine... However, I cannot refuse her marriage candidates forever, she cannot succeed our name for she is a woman, there will be a time that this will not last long.

    I hate this arranged marriage, my daughter is yet to be an adult yet her first marriage candidate is his highness the crown prince? This is an absurd way of thinking, that's why I don't like it...

    I wish that my daughter will marry someone she sees fit, someone she likes, and someone she really wants to marry. Not a marriage of convenience or anything... A life with someone she truly loves... The same choice my father had given me, to choose someone who I truly love the most and marry her not bound by marriage of convenience. 

    That's why I'm desperate not to let her future be stained by a responsibility she didn't ask for. The successor to the family name is not a problem, because my wife died so early without giving birth to a male child, all the burden and responsibility as the only child has been befell to my daughter... I can always find a suiter for this, a man responsible enough to succeed.

    I'll adopt if I have too.

--+-•-+--

    Plenty of greetings from his majesty the emperor had flooded the mansion's entrance door, a servant from the imperial palace came delivering a message stating of my daughters well-being, of course, Atina is already well and has awakened, she is still recovering.

    The emperor must have found out about the tight security of House Crambell, to send dozens of get-well-soon greetings. 

    It's his majesty after all... Has his highness the crown prince not yet told his majesty the emperor about what happened... The emperor didn't look like he knew something, his highness might have never told about the failed proposal plan. 

    Besides, I don't think his majesty will like the idea of refusing an imperial proposal to a future empress. 

    That old man... He might be a former close best friend but his changes since his reign is really unexpected... He was a good man, no matter what, he would resolve anything but not with force... Sometimes he was annoying, sometimes his fluttering, but the emperor was caring for his citizens, so no matter what changes in him, his empire comes first. 

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