The mention of Beta's nightmare brought unpleasant feelings to everyone present there, knowing how much havoc that potion was capable of causing. Most especially the queen, who began to have flashes of the incident that happened over a decade ago. She shut her eyes tightly as she went back to that moment when she ran out of her chamber in an ungrateful manner, hoping it was all an unfunny joke but still finding her precious son's corpse.
Her body shook as she tried to push that memory away and stop the tears in her eyes from spilling.
The royal physician looked at her from where he stood, feeling her pain. Her favourite son, Prince Harry, had died after his fight with Harold. Even though the little stable boy who had witnessed the fight and had run to call for help had confessed that Prince Harold's heave wasn't strong enough to kill Prince Harry, no one had been willing to listen to him. No one even knew where the stable boy was anymore. As far as everyone was concerned, Prince Harold and Harry had fought, and the former used the advantage of being an Alpha to kill the latter.
With the help of the royal physician, under the orders of the king, they continued looking for answers to why Prince Harold and Prince Harry had fought and the reason for his death. They also questioned the people who had seen him before the incident, and judging from the symptoms the people mentioned he showed, they guessed the potion had been the cause, but they had kept it from others. The only people who knew were the significant people in the royal family.
But whether Prince Harry had been poisoned with Beta's nightmare or not was not the problem for the queen, because as far as they were concerned, it was not enough to kill a Beta, so Harold was still responsible since Prince Harry also had a head injury.
Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to find the one responsible or how Harry got to consume such a potion because he wasn't alive to remember and narrate it to them. And Damian had paid the price. Dearly.
"How is that still in the palace when it was forbidden a long time ago?" Sir Gregory asked, shocked that his son had consumed such a substance.
Just then, the door opened again, distracting them all.
Damian stormed in, looking like whatever he had to say was urgent and couldn't wait. How bowed at once and started, "I'm sorry to barge in rudely, but... Princess Tyra is very sick and needs the presence of the royal physicia—"
"YOU WANT THE ROYAL PHYSICIAN TO LEAVE THIS IMPORTANT DISCUSSION TO ATTEND TO HER WHEN THERE ARE OTHER PHYSICIANS IN THE PALACE?" Sir Gregory yelled in anger. His only son had almost died?!
"I'm sorry, but she is still the princess, and she needs—"
"Shut it!" The queen glared at Damian, eyes blazing red with anger and unshed tears.
Damian immediately went mute and just stood behind obediently.
"What have you been doing letting that potion spread around the palace?" The queen looked pointedly at Damon, who gritted his teeth. She was trying very hard not to let the emotion she was feeling show, and it looked like Damon felt the same way.
"Just like every other person, I had no idea something like that still existed." He said to the house.
The queen let out a short cry and quickly used her hand to cover her mouth.
What was happening? By chance, was this a decade-long plot?
She flashed back to the note she received, the disappearance of the witch, Beth's death, the king's illness, and lastly, Harry's death.
Was it all a coincidence?
Meanwhile, questions were still flying around as everyone tried to understand why the potion was still in existence.
"Who still uses that after it was forbidden?"
"The one who made the potion was Sir Wilson. It is impossible for it to still be in circulation."
"But it is still in circulation!" Sir Gregory cried out. The son he was feeling pained for was busy praying for this meeting to end soon because he was tired of standing. Lance wondered how these men were able to stand for hours and still have the energy to argue.
"I don't care how any of you do it. Find the person who used that potion and bring them to me!" The queen cried out in despair as she tried to keep herself from falling.
She wasn't sure what she felt at the moment.
Anger? Fear? Anxiety? Hate?
But all she knew was that if she got the person, she was going to rip them apart with her bare hands.
"Where is Sir Wilson?" Harvey asked calmly from where he stood, observing the whole thing.
"Didn't he die many years ago?" One nobleman asked the man beside him.
"He died? I thought he simply stopped working here." Another said.
"Of course, he died! Why would he stop working here when he was so talented?" Another asked.
"We have other talented physicians, so it's possible he took a rest." Another said.
"You don't even know the whereabouts of someone who dedicated his life to this kingdom?" Alicia asked, showing her disgust.
"There were too many things going on in the palace back then. Why should we be bothered about a physician when the king didn't raise any issue about it?" One man asked.
"That's right. He worked for the palace, and if the palace isn't concerned about it, then why should we?" Another chipped in.
"Shut. Your. Mouths." Alicia said in anger, stunning them.
She looked at them in disbelief. Should she even be surprised? People were always going to be the same, whether in the past or present. How many politicians or people in government cared about citizens who dedicated their lives to work in sectors that promote the development of the country?
Teachers, Doctors, Nurses, Lawyers, Members of the armed forces. Did the government truly care about them?
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT ALL THAT!" The queen yelled, breaking Alicia's trail of thoughts.
"Someone is out to destroy the royal household, and it could be any of you right here!" The queen screamed, starting one of her crazy episodes.
"WHAT ARE YOU ACCUSING US OF?"
"WHY WOULD WE DO THAT?"
"IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO SAY, THEN RETURN TO YOUR CHAMBERS AND STOP LAYING FALSE CLAIMS."
The room turned into a mess as the noblemen began to attack the queen for what she said. Suddenly, a gentle voice spoke, "If I may dare speak, my Lords."
"Why would you dare speak here? Don't you know where you are standing?" A nobleman asked as he eyed Damian unpleasantly for daring to speak in their presence.
"I am standing amongst the noblemen of the royal court; I know that much. I am also our queen's guard. And if our queen is directly involved in this, it makes me involved too. Besides, I was also questioned concerning this."
The 'our queen' he kept repeating almost made some of them gag.
"You may speak." Damon gestured for him to go ahead.
Damian bowed to the house one more time as he began to speak. "Using harmful potions on members of the royal family is a crime punishable by death. And I believe that in order for the person to be caught, we need to start from the genesis of this whole problem and look for the one who made the potion."
"We already said he died many years ago!" Someone snapped at him impatiently.
"What if he didn't?" Damian asked calmly.
"I heard his body and those of his wife and servants were found." Another said.
"What? All together? Why am I just learning this?" Another man asked.
"Does it mean that he was murdered? Who could have murdered him?" Another asked.
Damian looked at them thoughtfully as he said, "If he was murdered, it makes it even more suspicious. Why would someone murder the entire family of a mere physician?"
Damian's innocent gaze went to the queen, who was even paler now and had all the veins in her neck popping and her hands balled in tight fists.
His eyes moved to spare a glance at Damon, who was looking calm but whose entire resolve was broken.
Damian, "I believe I speak on behalf of our queen when I say that it is important to look into who and why the royal physician was killed." He paused and added,
"Maybe someone killed them to steal the potion and use it, or maybe it was for another reason; we cannot tell. But if we can find the reason and the person behind it, I believe we can find the person responsible for what happened that night and put everyone at ease." He suggested to the house.
The queen slowly turned to look at Damian, her nails digging even deeper into her palm. Damian looked back at her and bowed modestly to her, as though he had just fixed all her life's problems.
As much as the noblemen did not like Damian and didn't want to acknowledge him, they could not deny the fact that what he said made sense.
"I think that idea is a good one. We should look into it and know what happened that night and who was responsible." Sir Richard said. "Who knows, maybe the person is even in our midst."
"YES!" Sir Gregory echoed. "I will deploy every resource I have to make sure the real culprit is caught!"
It led to another round of rowdiness as they all gave their support.
"Since that is the case, can our queen's restriction be released now, my lords?" Damian asked, interrupting them again.
"Even though we have a little idea about what happened that night, the queen is still guilty of forcing a maid to bear false witness against Princess Amber, which led to her almost getting executed. So I do not think it is wise to let her off now." A man said.
"Yes! She also caused a lot of trouble and has put the entire kingdom into unrest." Another agreed.
The queen could not even speak as she heard all the vile words being thrown around about her.
She could not say a word, even if she wanted to.
She had an even bigger problem to deal with.
Harold simply stared at her with an unreadable face before his eyes slowly moved to Damon.
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