the Princesss rumor style investigation
The fourth princess was not about to lose. Her hairpin was crooked, her dress was in shreds, and she had one hand tangled in Cassidy's hair while the other was jabbing for an eye.
She gritted her teeth, her voice a low hiss. "I'm not giving up! Come at me again if you have the guts. You think I'm afraid of you?"
Seeing their princess had the upper hand, her maids, Auspicious and As-Desired, got a second wind. They rolled up their sleeves and shoved the fourth princess's maids back, shouting, "Giving up now? You think you can get away with bullying our princess?"
But Peach and Lotus were no pushovers. When they saw the other two pulling out moves they'd never seen before, they started looking around for anything they could use as a weapon.
"We're not giving up! Our princess is royalty! How dare you be so disrespectful?"
Vaughn stared at the two groups brawling like alley cats at the entrance of the Onyx Guard headquarters, and the scene made his head spin. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, half-convinced he was hallucinating from too many days spent interrogating suspects.
These two were supposed to be in the perfectly nice Imperial Palace or their own manors, not running wild at his headquarters.
He took a deep breath, and a moment later, he moved, a blur of black cloth shooting forward. Before anyone could register what was happening, he'd grabbed Princess Solana's wrist with one hand and the fourth princess's arm with the other, yanking the two of them apart.
The fourth princess, furious at being pulled away before she could claim victory, spun around to chew out whoever had interfered.
But the words died in her throat when she saw the grim, stormy face of the Onyx Guard's commander, Vaughn Garrison.
She snapped her mouth shut, whipped her head away, and just fumed in silence.
Cassidy, still buzzing from the fight, was also yanked back. She whipped her head around to glare at him.
"Vaughn, what do you think you're doing?"
Worried they'd start right back up, Vaughn quickly pivoted to official business.
"About those people you sent over earlier, Princess," he said. "I've finished the interrogation."
Cassidy looked shocked. "Already?"
Hearing that, the fourth princess forgot all about fighting and immediately perked up, listening intently.
Vaughn's lip twitched, thinking of the mother and her two children Cassidy had sent over. The moment the woman saw her five-year-old son being led into the prison, the Onyx Guard barely had to lean on her before she confessed everything. It had all gone so smoothly it was almost suspicious.
He composed himself and said in a low voice, "To answer your question, Princess, what Lady Bradford said wasn't a lie. Her hometown was flooded when she was young, and she was separated from her parents. She wandered the streets with a group of refugees for a while. But there's more."
Vaughn's expression hardened as he recalled what he'd learned.
"Not long after, she was taken in by a group of people and raised in a hidden safe house on the outskirts of the capital."
"A safe house?" the fourth princess's eyes widened. As a princess, she could be surprisingly sharp whenever the security of the empire was at stake. "Were there other people there?"
"Yes." Vaughn nodded, his tone grave. "According to Lady Bradford, she wasn't the only one. There were many other girls her age, all orphans who had been kidnapped when they were young. They were raised in that house and taught everything, reading, writing, the Four Accomplishments,
how to read people, how to manipulate them."
He let that sink in. "Once they came of age, they were sent out one by one to get close to government officials, either as mistresses or as maids, quietly infiltrating their households."
Cassidy frowned. "Who ran the place?"
"I've already sent the Guard to investigate the location," Vaughn replied.
"But there's a catch. Lady Bradford said that in all her time there, she never saw the true face of the person in charge. Everything was managed by a nanny named Liu. Food, clothing, lessons, it was all decided by her and her alone."
"Then let's go grab this nanny and question her!" Cassidy said, ready to move.
"I've already had my men check the location of the safe house," Vaughn said, cutting her off. "Years have passed. The place is long empty. There's no telling where that nanny is now."
He thought of the piece of paper Reid Donovan had brought him, the one with the strange pattern.
"However, Lady Bradford did reveal one more thing. Years ago, she overheard two people talking by a side gate of the safe house. She saw a tattoo on the back of one person's neck, a circular pattern about the size of a copper coin, very similar to the one on your paper."
Cassidy sat up straight. "Was it a tiger?"
"Yes," Vaughn confirmed. "Lady Bradford said she was sneaking out for some air while the nanny wasn't looking and had to hide behind a decorative rock. She only saw the person's back, not their face."
He leaned in slightly. "But from their conversation, it was all about the appointment and dismissal of officials in the Imperial Court. They even mentioned His Majesty. This means they aren't just anybody. They have to be officials serving at court."
Vaughn's eyes were dark, and the hand inside his sleeve was clenched into a tight fist. "This person is buried deep, and they started this plan a long time ago. I'm afraid this conspiracy is much larger than we thought."
Cassidy's eyes widened. "Could they... could they really be remnants of the old dynasty?" she murmured.
"Remnants of the old dynasty?" Vaughn echoed, startled. "Princess, how would you know that?"
Cassidy tapped the Inspection Bureau token at her waist. "They're remnants of the old dynasty because I say they are. If they aren't, they'll have to find evidence to prove it. And if they can't, well, that just means my judgment was right."
She gave Vaughn a look of pitying disdain. "How do you guys at the Onyx Guard normally handle cases? You don't even know that much?"
Vaughn opened his mouth to argue, then shut it, a little ashamed to admit she had a weird kind of point. That... *rumor-style* investigation method would certainly save a lot of trouble. But only if the target really was a threat to the empire.
The fourth princess looked at Cassidy, a slow realization dawning on her face. "So, you didn't actually know Lady Bradford was a problem? You just... suspected her randomly?"
Caught, Cassidy bristled. "What do you mean, 'randomly'? My suspicion was perfectly reasonable! If she wasn't a problem, why would I have suspected her?"
The fourth princess just stared, completely baffled by that logic.
"Wait," she said, her voice suddenly small. "If they really are remnants of the old dynasty... doesn't that mean Father is in great danger?"
Hearing this, Cassidy shot to her feet.
"I've always said the officials at my uncle's court were a bunch of useless fools. Turns out they were traitors! My uncle is surrounded by them all day, it's like a sheep in a tiger's den! No, I have to go to the palace. I have to protect him!"
With that, Cassidy hiked up her skirts and scrambled onto her carriage.
"I want to go protect my father, too!" the fourth princess cried, hurrying after her.
Vaughn was speechless.
When, exactly, had he said that *everyone* at the Imperial Court was a remnant of the old dynasty?
After getting a demonstration of the princess's "investigation by rumor" method, Vaughn was suddenly terrified that on this little trip to the palace, he was about to get himself labeled a traitor, too.