Chapter 205: The Signet Ring
The silence stretched until Leroy’s voice broke it. Calm, clear, and unshaken. And everyone listened, because not even the Emperor or the dowager stopped him. Everyone understood that this old man standing there could receive what he asked in the halls of the emperor.
"Since no one else dares to say it, I will." Leroy stepped forward, his mask glinting under the light, his posture rigid with control. "From the beginning. The Emperor himself entrusted me with the investigation into the incident during the tribute ceremony: the incident that took the life of the Queen of Corvalith."
The chamber stirred, but Leroy pressed on, his words measured.
"I obeyed that order. I followed every trail that presented itself, and all of them led me to the Grand Duke. I am not here to spin tales, only to recount what occurred. I searched for him, as instructed, to bring him to the Emperor’s judgment. Yet the Grand Duke vanished. Not in his house, not in the streets. And yes—" his voice cut sharper, sweeping across the ministers, "—I verified with the guards at the gates. He had not left the city. He was here, hidden, but out of reach."
Leroy did not add that he had only gone to the gates that day because of Lorraine’s disappearance. Fortune had handed him a ready piece of truth to cloak in a necessary lie.
"I also went to a leper house in search of him...I did find some nefarious activities there, which I have included in the report." Leroy looked at the Dowager with a smirk. The Dowager clenched her jaws and glared at Leroy. Osric’s sharp eyes was observing everything going around. Years, hadn’t blurred his vision and his intelligence hadn’t dulled.
"There I found an abused old woman, who had forgotten who she was," Leroy continued, looking at the dowager. "But I couldn’t find the Grand Duke."
"Until today." Leroy’s hand fisted, then uncurled, steady again. "When the Grand Duke was dragged out onto the streets, not by me, nor by anyone in this hall, but by three men who bore long-standing enmity against him. They had held him in secret, beaten him within an inch of his life, and in the end, executed him for grievances that predated this court’s accusations."
He gestured faintly toward the severed head.
"The guards witnessed it. They took down the dying confession of one of those men before his last breath. His words revealed what I say now, that this death was vengeance, not conspiracy."
The hall remained hushed, ministers exchanging wary glances, some uneasy, others unwilling to admit they had leapt too quickly to blame.
Leroy’s voice rang one last time, firm as iron. "This is the truth. The truth the Emperor asked me to uncover. And I have fulfilled that command. If any man here dares call me a liar, then bring forth the guards and their records. Their testimony will echo mine."
Lord Leville strode forward, his voice sharp. "There might be witnesses, but how can we be certain it is not all orchestrated?"
"Orchestrated?" Leroy’s brow furrowed. "By who?"
"By someone who thrives in the shadows. Someone... paid by you, perhaps?" Leville’s tone dripped with insinuation. His lips curled as though ready to utter a name. "Lazi—"
The Dowager cut him off before the word could leave his mouth. "And what of your signet ring, Prince Leroy? There is a witness who named you a co-conspirator."
Leroy’s shoulders stiffened, but before he could speak, Osric’s gravelly voice filled the chamber. "Signet ring? Do you mean the signet ring of..." His eyes turned deliberately toward Leroy. "The Crown Prince of Kaltharion?"
Leville held it aloft. "I have it here. What more proof does the court require?"
Osric gave a bark of laughter, dry and cutting. "Ah, behold! A simpleton without discernment. Isabella, do you now fatten fools for sport in the court?" He fixed the Dowager with a look sharp enough to cleave.
Her lips parted, then closed at once. She had known this moment might come. Osric had already seen through her ploys, and she could only pray he would not strip them bare before the Emperor’s throne. The Emperor, watching her silence, said nothing either.
"When I heard whispers that the capital’s red-light quarter had risen from filth to finery," Osric continued, "I resolved that my first step upon Vaeloria’s soil should be at its threshold. And betrayed I was not. I had sport enough to make kings envious."
The ministers looked at him in disbelief. What business did this iron-willed elder have with such a place? Yet the Dowager understood the barb. He was drawing blood without naming her.
"There was a girl... Beautiful like a celestial..." Osric’s gaze grew distant, though his voice remained steady. "Her name escapes me, but her tongue was keen. She spoke of schemes to brand the Crown Prince of Kaltharion a traitor, for his fame burned brighter than Isabella’s son." His finger jabbed toward the Emperor.
The Emperor’s jaw clenched, his hands curling on the armrest. No one dared belittle him so, reducing his crown to nothing but his mother’s son. This old man stood in front of him, pointing his finger, and reduced him to his niece’s stupid son when he was the emperor of the whole of Vaeloria. Insolence like this begged for blood. His lips parted, ready to condemn, but the Dowager’s hand pressed lightly over his own, begging restraint.
Even Leroy, who had prepared himself for hostility, felt a shiver. The old man’s boldness lived up to every tale told of him.
"You dare call the Emperor—" Lord Leville began, scandalized.
"Why not speak against him?" Osric’s voice thundered over him. "Or has our Emperor become a tyrant whose ears are too delicate for dissent? That ring you flaunt..." His eyes narrowed at Leville’s hand. "It is a counterfeit. The true signet rests with me. I stood at the forge when it was birthed in fire. From the red-light quarter I received it, guarded by hands unsoiled by lust, but unwilling to yield to folly..." His eyes turned menacing as they landed on the emperor. "The folly of Vaeloria marching into yet another empty war."
Gasps broke across the chamber. Silence followed, heavy and accusing. Everyone knew Leville was the Dowager’s creature. And now, with a single blow, Osric had broken her snare and left her grasping at shadows.
Osric was right. With the delicate situation Vaeloria was in, with the queen of Corvalith dead, if Prince Leroy was accused, trust would break among all the vassal states. If they all gathered together, there would be war.
Leroy’s heart pounded. Lorraine had found the original? Then she had known all along.
But Osric was not yet finished.
Not yet.