Returning to Ashworth Manor to Catch Up on Sleep
He rubbed his temples and glanced outside, where the first hints of dawn were already streaking the sky.
"Enough," the Emperor said, his voice laced with exhaustion. "I've been away from the palace for too long. The sun's coming up."
He had Steward Payne hand a handkerchief to Prince Ashworth and his daughter before giving his orders. "Now that we have a lead, your top priority is to find everyone with this pattern on their necks. Track them down, no matter what it takes."
Then he turned his gaze to the Duke of Crestfall. "Since your son is involved, and that servant was from your household, you will cooperate with the Capital Inspection Bureau to find out who really poisoned Leo."
With that, the Emperor stood and started for the door, but not without one last parting shot for the Duke. "A man of your station, and yet your family is this undisciplined. You've brought nothing but disgrace to your ancestors."
The Duke of Crestfall could only stand there, speechless.
"Brother, where are you off to?" Prince Ashworth called out. "Going back to catch up on some sleep?"
The Emperor gritted his teeth. "I have to get back to the palace for the morning court session!" He shot a glare at his brother and niece. *No wonder they have so much energy to run around all night, they just sleep all day.*
Prince Ashworth grabbed his brother's hand. "Look at you, you haven't slept a wink. You've got dark circles under your eyes! Why go to court now? Come on, you can crash at my place. Hold court after you've had some real rest."
The Emperor swayed as his brother pulled on him, his expression darkening.
"I am the ruler of this empire! I can't be as lazy as you. The morning court is a matter of state, vital to the nation's security. It can't be delayed just because I'm a little tired! All you think about is food and fun, with no idea how to share the burdens of the nation!"
Seeing her chance, Cassidy immediately grabbed the Emperor's other sleeve and started pulling him toward her home.
"Uncle, it's fine! The Aethelian Empire isn't going to collapse if you miss court for one day. You can hold it anytime, why now? Get some sleep first. You can hold an evening session, it's the same thing."
The Emperor was utterly dumbfounded.
*With these two in charge,* he thought, *the empire is doomed.*
He was no match for the two of them combined and found himself being dragged off to Ashworth Manor to get some sleep.
Even from a distance, the people left at Crestfall House could hear the father and daughter's voices carrying on the morning air.
"You know, brother, I'm pretty sure that person in the veiled hat was the Duke of Crestfall. If I wasn't so sleepy right now, I'd have thrown him in the dungeon for questioning."
"Uncle, I still think the baby in that woman's belly belongs to the Duke. Why else would he be up so late at night, dragging me and Dad out to catch her?"
"Brother, why don't you just issue a decree and put the entire Crestfall family under house arrest? Throw the Duke in the dungeon to keep the Marquis of Stonehaven company."
"Uncle, I'm starting to feel a little dizzy and I can't stop yawning. Do you think the Duke poisoned me back at his house?"
"Brother, I feel dizzy too! And so sleepy. That old scoundrel must have poisoned me. You have to issue a decree! Have the ministry of justice haul him in for interrogation!"
Behind them, the Duke of Crestfall listened to the father and daughter flippantly discussing his arrest and poisoning, and his eyes turned red with rage.
He broke out in a cold sweat. Once the Emperor finished his nap at Ashworth Manor, would a decree be served to his family? One ordering the execution of them all?
The Duke desperately wanted to rush over to Ashworth Manor and keep an eye on those two himself.
Meanwhile, the Emperor, having been successfully abducted by his own family, could only instruct Steward Payne to notify the court officials that the morning session would be delayed until the evening.
Prince Ashworth immediately started trying to drag the Emperor off to boast about his heroic fight against two assassins on the outskirts of Argent the night before.
Listening nearby, Cassidy could only purse her lips.
She finally understood why her father had been so insistent on bringing the Emperor here.
And here she was, thinking he'd actually grown a conscience and was worried about his brother's health.
The Emperor, already exhausted, found his head buzzing from the prince's nonstop chatter. He made a quick escape from his brother's room and found a quiet courtyard as far away from the father-daughter duo as he could get.
Steward King had no choice but to increase the number of guards around the Emperor's courtyard. His masters had offended a lot of people lately. If someone finally snapped and broke into the manor to attack them, it would be a disaster if the Emperor got caught in the crossfire.
Having skipped court, the Emperor slept soundly at Ashworth Manor all the way until dinnertime.
He opened his eyes and, instead of his usual morning grogginess, felt a deep sense of relaxation spreading through his entire body.
Even the constant throb in his temples was gone.
Since ascending the throne, he had worked from dawn to dusk, consumed by the worries of his country.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd had such a deep, peaceful sleep.
*So this is their secret,* he thought. *They sleep so much during the day they have endless energy at night. Of course they run all over Argent.*
For the first time, the Emperor felt a pang of envy for the carefree lives his brother and niece led.
He sat up, and his gaze fell on the pillow he'd been sleeping on.
He picked it up and sniffed. A faint, clean scent of herbs and wood filled his nose.
It wasn't the heavy ambergris of the palace or the intense sandalwood from a censer.
It was just a light, refreshing smell, like a breeze blowing over a pond on a summer night.
No wonder he had slept so well. He immediately called for Steward Payne and told him to take the pillow back to his bedchamber.
Steward Payne hesitated for a moment. He wondered if he should remind His Majesty that you don't take things from "poor children." The Emperor took a pillow today; tomorrow, the prince and princess might very well show up at the palace demanding the deed to a pillow shop in return.
But seeing that the Emperor truly liked it, Payne could only quietly pack the pillow, making sure the manor's masters didn't see, and have a secret guard take it back to the palace.
When the Emperor emerged from his room, he found that both masters of Ashworth Manor were gone.
*What on earth did those two grow up eating? How do they have this much energy day after day?*
He quickly called for Steward King. "Where are the prince and princess?"
Steward King paused, then chose his words carefully. "Your Majesty, the prince and princess have gone to Donovan House for dinner."
The Emperor was speechless. If he recalled correctly, that scoundrel Ashworth had just recently beaten the son of the Donovan family's patriarch.
"The Donovans still invited them over for dinner?"
Steward King looked like he was in physical pain. "Your Majesty... they went on their own."
"Is this manor so broke you can't afford to feed them?" the Emperor demanded. "They just shamelessly ran over to someone else's house to freeload a meal without an invitation? Have they no shame?"
Steward King shook his head. "Your Majesty, Old Master Donovan is celebrating his sixtieth birthday in a fortnight. It's said to be a very grand affair. The prince and princess did not receive an invitation... so they have gone to demand one."
The Emperor was floored. For a moment, he wasn't sure what made him angrier: the fact that the Donovans had dared not to send an invitation, or the fact that his own brother and niece were shameless enough to go demand one.
Feeling a surge of secondhand embarrassment, the Emperor's gaze fell on the sweating steward.
"You are the head steward of this residence," he said, his tone sharp. "The rules of this entire household are your responsibility. Look at those two, they lack the most basic manners. Don't you manage them at all?"
Steward King's mind flooded with a dozen different retorts. *Manage them?* he grumbled inwardly. *Your Majesty, you're his own brother. You practically raised them both. If you couldn't teach them any manners, what in the world do you expect me, a mere steward, to do?*