Unidentified Case

Under the sun, there are four, well-acquainted people standing next to each other. Their eyes that represent their innermost thoughts penetrate each other’s faces. There is a light emotion on their face that screamed the word, ‘hatred’. Their well-trained heart is on the edge as soon as they saw each other, let alone having a staring contest.

“Could you please set the table for us?” The Crown Prince’s eyes shifted to Lea, Baron Eclette’s older sister. She is a fine and well-educated woman with a heart of glass. Her love for children is so big that she gave up on marrying her lover and living in the outskirt of the Empire to take care of the children.

“Right away, your highness.” Lea silently bows her head before instructing the employee to set up the table for their visitors. A couple of employees prepare the table while no one except the Crown Prince dared to speak. It was only when a young woman with long brunette hair brought the snacks over did Kiha showed her charming smile.

She tilts her head and peeks at the young woman’s face and smiles beautifully at her, the woman who sees her returned the smile before whispering something to Kiha, making her smile from ear to ear.

“Please enjoy your time, I’ll excuse myself first.” It was the young woman who received Kiha’s smile, Sandra. She is a volunteer and as mysterious as Kiha, just like Kiha, she is also using her pseudonym.

Upon hearing that, Kalen nods his head before turning his eyes to his sister. His mind is full of thoughts about the rumors they heard before going to the orphanage, he cannot believe that his sister proposes to someone as his future wife. That was the first time he heard something about Kiha that involved him, the usual rumors about her are how she stalked Rhysand, what she do at the salon, and how much money she spent on one dress.

“Well, well, well, it seems like the rumors were true after all.” Kalen’s eyes shifted from Kiha to his friend, Luriel. He examined his sister’s reaction but there is only indifference in them. He was still wondering how can a person change so much in one week? Who hurts her that much to erase her heart-pounding smile?

‘Rhysand…’ his eyes once again shifted to another person. There is no one who can cause Kiha so much pain to the point of changing herself other than her first love, Rhysand. Kalen is sure of it but he can’t even blame his friend for this.

“What rumors?” Kiha’s calm and collected voice resounded their ears. Standing, she personally brewed tea for them. It was a ginger tea that is famous to the neighboring Empire. After that, Kiha quietly sits down next to her brother.

“That milady like handsome men and that you enjoy brewing tea.” A mischievous grin escapes the Crown Prince's lips, mocking the young lady sitting in front of him. He is expecting her to blush like usual however, her face is totally fine. She didn’t get red as tomato like what they expected and raised her brows instead.

“Is there a problem with that?” She straightened her back before turning her cold gaze to Luriel.

Kalen carefully watch Kiha’s movement as she said those words. ‘Even her way of speaking changed.’ Thoughts after thoughts suddenly piled upon his head, that he never tried talking to her when no one’s around. Their sister-brother relationship that everyone took an interest in bothered him the most.

“Of course not, I never said there is.” Luriel’s hatred toward Kiha is a reasonable one, she understands him because there is no one will be in a good relationship with someone who ruined their childhood. She tormented him the most together with Czarina. No one knows why she did that, and her only reason for doing that is because she received more attention if she did.

“Men like beautiful women as well, don’t you agree?” Her long wavy hair touches her brother’s forearm for a second before backing up. That simple gesture brings a huge impact on Kalen’s heart.

Women liking handsome men is the latest issue as men with average faces think it’s unfair for women to admire only those who received a handsome face. But the main issue here is how men disagree with women liking those who are handsome when the reason behind that is men with average faces make it something bigger by abducting beautiful women, harassing nobles, and lastly sexualizing all women making it more an uproar.

Handsome is given to men who had dignity, loyalty, respect, and especially high ranking people while those average are the ones who live in the back alley and do illegal things like exporting drugs, stealing, and such. That title is just a children’s joke, but those people who deal with illegal things didn’t like this joke. The other reason is that thieves, drug dealers, and such are easily swayed by words and jealousy.

“Are you referring to that issue?” Rhysand joined the conversation as he heard something interesting. The three of them are currently investigating those cases involving this issue, apparently, people on the back alley saw aristocrats as garbage that never deserved to be recycled, that’s why they only target noblewomen.

“Am I right? Their desire is incomparable that they abduct women.” Even though Rhysand felt uncomfortable around Kiha, he still pushed her to tell him what she knew. The investigation is well hidden to the public eye and it’s shocking that the madwoman in Richter House knows something they didn’t.

“How do you know about that, Kiha?” Kalen who’s keeping his mouth shut since earlier suddenly butt in. His eyes are fully focused on his sister, who is calmly sipping her ginger tea. This investigation was personally given to Luriel as a Crown Prince, and so that he could show them how suitable he is to the throne. Aside from them, only the Emperor knows about this case as it is a nation’s problem.

“I attended Princess Octavia’s masquerade party last month and noticed the absence of the young ladies on her table. They obviously didn’t notice their absence so I pretend to know nothing until I heard Lady Karen’s friends, they are worried sick because the young lady never attended their tea party and eventually visited their house just to know the young lady’s sudden trip.” Kiha looked at them while saying these things, she isn’t prepared to say anything to them yet but since the Crown Prince brought the topic, she poured them a lot of information.

“Octavia never told me the absences of her friends.” Contemplating, Luriel brings his hand to his chin, slightly looking up. His red shining hair that shines under the sun caught Kiha’s attention. That beautiful red hair that resembles blood, she likes it.

“That’s weird, you used to complain how loud she is.” Rhysand crosses his arms, looking seriously at his friend, Luriel. Princess Octavia’s personality is similar to her brother, Luriel. They are loud and energetic, and it’s weird that Octavia didn’t notice her friend’s absence when she treated them nicely and they are precious to her.

“I asked her, she said there is nothing wrong with it.” The tension between them lighten as they talked about another topic. They talked comfortably and treated each other as business partners. They even forgot to eat the snacks prepared for them.

“Then there is a black magic user among them.” Without much thinking, Kiha spouted what she think is right. The lessons she received from her mother are still vivid and she unconsciously said something.

“Black magic? How come you know these all?” It was Kalen who asked. Once again, thoughts of him being a bad brother confused him. The fact that his sister knows all of this and doesn’t say anything. That time when she visited Kanna, she said she know nothing about magic and now she is unconsciously spouting them all.

“Did I say black magic?” As if forgetting what she just said, Kiha’s face is titled a bit then her face looks confused.

“Yes, you just said there is black magic among them.” This time, it was Luriel who even leaned closer to the table, his upper body is lowered and his face is just a few inches away from Kiha’s face.

Kiha’s confused face returned to her usual face when she realized how close Luriel is. Disgusted, she intentionally pushed his face away from her. Her palm on his face, Kalen and Rhysand stared at them with wide eyes.

“I never said that, Cleon.”