Chapter 16: Good News Come in Pairs
Archester City, the Capital of the Elgardish Empire, is a city where darkness looms in every corner and is hardly considered safe, yet despite all the dark reputation, it is the capital of fame and riches and the center of the modern world.
The Arcunians (residents of Archester) were always a crafty bunch who coped with the situation of their city wisely, harmonizing their inner relationships as an upper, middle, and lower class without any visible social struggle.
A city like that, which reeks of crime and hidden currents, has such a code embedded deep within. Last night, however, that code was broken when a rumor spread that a couple of lowlife harlots associated themselves with two foreign spies and tried to mug a Lady from a noble family. This was bound to echo deep in the social structure of the city and cause many to be restless.
If a noble —no less a noble lady— was attacked on the streets, then one can expect the watchmen and the constables of the metropolitan police to conduct a ruthless investigation in which many heads are bound to roll, however, the investigation was called off and the culprits announced killed. From the rumors, the two spies were northerners from Novark and their aim is yet to be known.
Some rumors were about to fly about the identity of the lady but the information brokers were wary enough to kill such rumors before anything spread. Everyone knew the consequences of upsetting House Moore, the house that feeds half of Archester’s households and opens their businesses. Still, many hands in the darkness seemed to be working on spreading scandalous rumors about the lady in question. With such recklessness, no one knew where the situation was heading.
Meanwhile, the mansion of House Moore was silent and still. Lord Julian Moore forbade his wife and her maids from taking as much as a single step out of the mansion with the excuse of fearing for their safety and assigned two of his personal guards to watch over Robert or rather... to watch out for Robert leaving the mansion.
Saskia and her maids would surely try to tarnish Vivian’s reputation at all costs and until the sleeping beauty wakes up, everyone in the household is to stay put and hold their breath tight.
Logan and Esmeralda were put on arrest and were questioned for the whole night about what happened. Logan’s carelessness was not to go unpunished but there was more at play here than just a knight going careless in his duties.
From Esmeralda’s testimony, she and Vivian were taken from the front of the Auction House and led to a nearby stable. House De Clare sent their young Lord that night to give their deepest apologies and promise to bring the wrongdoer to justice regarding their lack of security, the statement which made things even worse for Lord Julian, who could only suspect one culprit behind all of this.
If the place where most of the nobility was not secured for barely a single second, the fingers can only be directed in one direction, which no one points at no matter what, House Black. They see through the shadows and know everything before it even happens. If they were truly the ones who lifted the security so that Vivian gets attacked, it means that corruption has gone further than anything that happened in recent history.
House Black can’t just neglect the duty of protecting the Nobles even if these nobles are the black sheep of society. These are downgrading, scandalous, and very very serious accusations.