Private meetings

There was a team of Minks which had come with Dr Miyagi to investigate the attempted poisoning incident within the Meridian family so they moved quickly with the assistance of the Rufus to sweep through the whole family home quickly.

Many rooms of the servants and other family members which were used to work within or were lived in had been visited one after another.

Nobody had expected the sudden intrusion and the visit from outsiders who came so they were caught off guard.

Many documents and other things they wished to hide had been left out in the open then were collected by those investigating.

Due to the authority of the family head being put to full use, they had no choice but to evacuate their rooms and had to gather together.

A small group of elders had gathered together and carefully looked around their surroundings with a worried look on their faces.

One spoke up to break the silence. "What do we do now? If they happen to come across some things I left then we could all be done for."

Another crossed his arms and frowned. "That is nothing. I think this could be a lot bigger than what we think it is."

Another spoke in a cold tone. "You fools, you are all far too careless."

"How was I supposed to know that the head cherished her this much?"

There were few of them that had attended the hunting event so they mostly relied on the rumours of what had happened which were strange to listen to.

They did not believe that Rufus would cherish his granddaughter that much and there must be some reason why he stood up at that time against the Glutt family.

Those that witnessed it had been left confused and shocked that Rufus had made such a decision but could not guess his intentions.

Some came to the conclusion that he was becoming senile and was making poor decisions while others saw it as part of some strategy or scheme that made use of what had happened which drew in support for the family at the cost of a growing antagonistic relationship with the Glutt family.

They still saw the need to take Pixel seriously enough that she needed to be eliminated before she grew up which made them become a part of the attempt to kill her.

They each played a small role and did not expect things to turn out as they were.

They never could have expected that Pixel was learning about herbs and was checking anything that arrived at her home for poison or any other kinds of tampering.

Most nobles would leave almost everything to the servants and usually ate what was placed in front of them so long as it looked high quality enough.

Pixel was still very young so she was an easier target than more experienced adults who had encountered all kinds of different threats and plots against them.

Even if Pixel was rumoured to be talented and intelligent, she was still a child and still had lots of weaknesses.

Pixel naturally had some weaknesses and was not yet fully mature so she could be killed if there was a chance given.

The main problem was that she rarely went outside of the family home unless she was with an escort and when she did, she was able to lose those that attempted to follow her.

They had only one place they were assured that they could use to kill her and that was within the family home where she would be the most comfortable.

They had checked the other servants in the location of Pixel and found they had no real experience with dealing with important duties and were not the best trained among those in the household so they would not be able to stop the assassination.

Those around Pixel would not notice the traces of poison and those that consumed it would die quickly and silently, those involved would be rewarded while others would have the blame pushed onto them.

Ash was from a lower background so they looked down on her a lot and believed she would pose no threat to their plans so they made a move when they believed the time was right, so long as Pixel was taken out with possibly some others then many would be satisfied with the result and it could quietly be swept under the rug.

It was most likely that the blame would have been pushed onto those serving Pixel and Ash if they both had died.

The elders had come together to provide some assistance to the assassination to make sure it went smoothly at the request of their benefactor and were united in their goals.

They were a group of elders which were clinging to their status barely and had not contributed to the family in a long time, many among them were lazy and were often behind with the work that had been assigned to them.

Due to their lack of efforts and achievements, their status was at risk and it would only be secured if they did some bad deeds for a couple of promises from their benefactor once the new head of the family had been secured.

They lacked enough useful information and believed in what they thought was considered normal for even the brightest of noble children while they greatly underestimated the influence Pixel really had over Rufus.

"Still.. I cannot understand how he noticed and responded so quickly, when Rufus is busy with his work then not much will be able to disturb him."

"Mm.. we did well to coordinate our work to keep him busy but it seems that we underestimated that child."

"How do we deal with this then?"

"Yeah.. I do not want to go down like this."

They were very anxious about losing everything they had and being caught for the bad deeds they had done.

They had never imagined that a small child would be the sole reason for their downfall.

As they were arguing among themselves in a hushed tone of voice, there was a pair of amber eyes which looked at them from not that far away. 'They have panicked very quickly and revealed themselves. So foolish.'

Pixel's Observation Haki was not completely mastered to a perfected stage yet but it was enough to pick up on the movements and the mood of a person.

She had been sent back home but had decided to keep up her Observation Haki as the investigation began which had picked up on the anxiety and panic nearby.

Those emotions revealed that those people possibly had something to feel guilty over or had something to hide so she tried to locate them then found where they had begun to gather. 'Hm.. it is a shame that I did not get to interrogate the suspects myself. I may have been able to gain more understanding of this and possibly spot who was really telling the truth.'

Being able to sense others emotions or intentions was a part of Observation Haki so if it was mastered in a certain way then reading others minds, emotions or even seeing into the future was a possibility.

Interrogating some people while possessing a useful type of Observation Haki would make the task so much easier that it could be counted as cheating.

The main issue was that even if she could detect their lies, she herself could be lying when she said what she had detected so those that listened to her could argue that she was making things up.

Haki was rare in most parts of the Grand Line and not everyone fully understood it, having others believe her words that she possessed it and could tell who was guilty would not be easily believed due to her age.

If Pixel chose to reveal her current mastery over Haki to everyone even though she did not wish to do so, her intentions would still be doubted since she was very close to the case and was too involved.

The case could be used to her benefit to get rid of her enemies and frame others so anyone could counter argue that she was lying and had no proof so she had to rely on Rufus to handle things after she had helped with the investigation and had come up with her own theories.

Pixel looked at the elders who continued to argue among themselves then picked up on some similar dark emotions and then silently approached that area. 'I could tell other what I have seen but I doubt that will be needed. It is enough to know who my enemies are for now in case all of them are not caught this time around. Grandfather can keep an eye on those that are not dealt with.'