The queen looked taken aback for a moment before she looked around at everyone who was also staring at her intensely.
"They... said it..." she stuttered.
"No one did." Sir Rager answered as he looked at her with an unreadable expression.
"How did you know that?" Sir Gregory asked her.
"You... you all mentioned it!" She yelled defensively and looked at Damon. "Right?"
Does it mean she knows about it?
Does she have a hand in it?
Does it mean she truly was with the Betas nightmare and had really used it?
Those questions flew around.
"It's not me! I didn't do it. Why would I kill him? Does it make sense to you?!" Her voice kept getting louder and louder.
"We didn't say you killed him," Sir Rager said.
"But that is what you are implying. You think our queen hid the Beta's nightmare somewhere just to poison Prince Harold's bride in the future?" Damian asked from the back angrily.
All eyes turned to him. Many looked angry.
This boy again.
Why was he so stubborn?
"YOU ARE FORBIDDEN FROM GETTING INVOLVED!" A nobleman yelled at him.
"Why? I serve the queen, and it is my duty to protect her!" Damian said cockily.
"He has a point," Damon said in Damian's defence, making everyone look at him as though he were crazy. Wasn't he the same person who always barked whenever someone of low status interrupted them?
"The queen does not have any reason to do so. Also, we all knew how much she struggled when she conceived Princess Tyra. Sir Wilson would have been of great help to her, and she doesn't have any reason to kill him." Damon explained.
"EXACTLY!" She cried in support. "Why would I do that to him?"
"We never can tell. You are still suspicious to us."
"How can you say the queen is suspicious? So you want to search her chamber first before you are convinced? But of course, you cannot do that to her. She is our queen." Damian said again, and this was beginning to make the noblemen angry as they began to throw words at him, some asking him to get lost before they petitioned for him to be executed.
Harold kept quiet the entire time. He had always been quiet during meetings like this because he didn't want anyone to think he had a hand in anything. People like to assume. And could easily conclude that he was doing this to get rid of the people he hated. But for the queen, he was going to make sure she saw hell. He had promised her that. And he was one to always fulfil his promises.
However, the noise was almost driving him crazy, and he wasn't sure how to handle it. The only explanation he had for it was probably because he had marked Alicia.
Men, and especially Alphas, were regarded as too great and important to have their lives tied to their wives for life. That way, it could also help the man if he wanted to get rid of his wife and take in another one. So it was generally agreed that marking should never happen. Men didn't want to lose their lives and agility because of their weak wives.
But Harold hadn't thought twice about it. And also, because it wasn't common, he didn't know what the side effects were like.
He tried to force himself to remain sane and looked at the noblemen, who were all attacking Damian with words, who remained rooted in his position without budging.
There was something about this guy...
It felt like he was laying a trap, but he wasn't exactly sure until he knew the outcome of this meeting.
"You have to cooperate with us and let a search be carried out in your chamber." Sir Rager said to the queen politely.
"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO SEARCH OUR QUEEN'S CHAMBER?" Damian shouted and drew out a sword.
"Arrest him!" Sir Rager pointed at Damian, and guards instantly surrounded him. Surprisingly, he didn't put up a fight as they grabbed him and took him out of the room.
The queen paled instantly. Searching her chamber was the worst humiliation she could face as a queen. And the only one who could have helped her stop it had been arrested.
Letting strange men into her private space to touch her things... never! "I... would rather die than have your filthy hands on my royal chamber."
"You don't have much choice now, my queen. It is something we must do to proceed since the King is not awake yet." Sir Gregory said.
"And while it is being done, you will be locked in the hot palace." Sir Rager added.
"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!" She yelled in disbelief. "I TOOK CARE OF YOUR LADY WIFE AND YOUR DAUGHTER!" she said accusingly at Sir Rager.
"And where are they now?" He asked her.
"THE KING IS RESPONSIBLE FOR IT! HE IS! MAYBE SIR WILSON WRONGED HIM. THAT WAS HOW I KNEW HIS HOUSE WAS BURNT!" She cried out amidst all their confusion and anger.
The door suddenly opened, and all eyes turned to it at once. The one who had entered was the royal physician. Immediately after the queen sighted him, her anxiety rose, and she had a bad feeling about this.
"What are you here for?" Damon asked. His voice was almost faint. At this point, he wasn't even anchoring the meeting anymore.
"To make a confession." He said, making the queen even more nervous and scared.
"The queen made me swear not to get the king treated of his ailment."
Another rowdiness started. And this time, it was more intense.
"STOP LYING!" She screamed.
The physician gave her a rundown of the king's illness, the queen's insistence on not getting him treated, how Harold stepped up to give his blood for the treatment to work, and how the king's health was improving gradually.
"That is good news. At least, the King would be up soon to tell us when he told you about Sir Wilson's murder." Sir Rager said with a straight face.
While the queen continued to yell and cuss at the royal physician with tears streaming down her cheeks, all the noblemen were onto her.
"You were trying so hard to make the King responsible when you are the one responsible?"
"Why aren't you saying anything?!" She bellowed at Damon, who kept mute. "You... you are the King's Beta. You have more power to control the royal guards. Why aren't they blaming you?"
"HOW DARE YOU TRY TO PUT THIS ON ME?" He yelled at her.
"How dare me?!" The queen asked in disbelief.
"He doesn't have any reason to do that." One nobleman mentioned.
"But I do?" She snapped at him.
"You probably wanted to get rid of the King, Prince Harold, and Princess Amber all at once that night so that Prince Ivan would take the throne. That was why you were also trying to marry your son to Lord Richard's daughter and have his son marry your niece." One said.
"Where is Lord Evan, by the way? Maybe he is also involved in her plot?" Another said.
Another said, "And Sir Richard too. He could have helped her with this."
"True. He has been quiet the entire time."
"Where is his son even?"
"Are you courting death?" Sir Richard asked them in a slow, careful tone.
Another round of verbal fighting was about to ensue before Harold spoke up.
"The search can be carried out in the Queen's chamber and every place she owns in this palace."
"YOU CANNOT DO—"
"Additionally," Harold continued, cutting her off.
"Find the book of records of royal guards at that time. Find them all and question them."
They all nodded in agreement. That was very smart.
They all ignored the queen's shouts as they arrested her from the hall, leading her to the hot palace while a search began in all her controlled areas within the palace.
With all that happening, the next meeting started.
King Cedric and his people were brought before the court.