Chương 66: Investigation

The next morning, Lira slipped quietly into the hidden alcove carrying a bundle of fresh clothes, bread, cheese, and a small apple she had taken from the kitchens. All of it was wrapped beneath a linen blanket she intended to later use as a cover for some of the books on the upper floors to protect them from dust. Every requisition needed justification, after all.

Thankfully, she was known for her irregular eating habits, and both she and Maren were roughly the same size, so she didn't need to search through the suspect's belongings. Maren looked significantly better than she had the previous night, though only by comparison. Her eyes were still swollen from crying, and the bruise forming along her cheek and lip had darkened overnight into an ugly shade of purple.

The frightened maid sat curled beneath her cloak, though that was not from the cold, as the heating enchantment Edward set up made the library comfortably warm; She was also clutching the waterskin tightly with both hands.

"I brought food," Lira said gently. Maren gave a weak nod. Lira handed over the clothes first.

"You can change into these later. They should fit."

"Thank you," Maren whispered hoarsely. Lira sat opposite her while the other girl slowly began eating. She waited patiently at first, allowing her to calm down properly before speaking again, and her tone became more serious.

"I need you to tell me exactly what happened," Lira said quietly.

"Everything. Do not leave anything out." Maren hesitated. For a moment, it looked like she might start crying again, but this time she managed to steady herself. Her hands trembled around the piece of bread as she spoke.

"It started after dinner service," she said softly.

"Hesta came looking for me personally." Lira's expression sharpened when Hesta was mentioned, and her eyes narrowed.

"She said there had been an accident near the prince's chambers. Someone had spilled tea, and it needed cleaning before he noticed."

"So I took a mop and a bucket and headed to the royal wing," Maren continued.

"At first, nothing seemed strange."

"And then?"

"When I reached the corridor near the chambers," Maren lowered her gaze toward her lap, "there was no spilled tea."

"That's when the door opened, and the prince stepped outside." Maren swallowed shakily.

"He dragged me into his room by the wrist, and he closed the door behind us." Her fingers tightened around the bread hard enough to crush part of it.

"I tried to leave, but he blocked the door." She shuddered visibly.

"He kept smiling like... like this was funny." Lira felt cold anger building steadily in her chest.

"He started talking to me," Maren continued.

"Saying I was prettier than the noble girls. Saying he loved my eyes. And saying I should feel honored."

"When I tried to get past him, he grabbed me by the shoulders and tried to kiss me." Her breathing became uneven again.

"I turned my face away and tried to push him back."

"And that's when he hit you," Lira said quietly. Maren nodded, touching her swollen lip carefully.

"He grabbed me by the front of my dress, then punched me." Lira's eyes lowered briefly toward the torn fabric, exposing more of the girl's chest than any maid uniform should.

"I think... I think he got angry because I resisted." For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then Maren surprised her.

"I instinctively fought back," she admitted softly.

"I hit him. I didn't think... I just reacted." That startled an involuntary snort out of Lira.

"Asshole had it coming," she said. Maren blinked at her crude words, but then she could not help smiling too, her bruised face brightening slightly.

"You punched a prince in the face," Lira clarified.

"I think I broke his nose?" The vindictive part of Lira loved that outcome, but her realistic side knew that striking royalty made Maren's situation far worse… too much worse.

"What happened after that?"

"He stumbled backward, holding his face. There was blood everywhere." Maren's voice shook harder now.

"So I ran immediately."

"I just ran toward the servant dorms until I found Headmaid Celene in her room." Lira nodded for her to continue.

"Celene covered me with one of her cloaks and tried taking me toward one of the servant exits." Maren took a shaky breath.

"But before we reached the gates, we heard guards." Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Lira frowned deeply. That was fast... maybe too fast. Prince Kavard had been too prepared for escalation.

"Celene shoved me into a storage closet before they saw me," Maren said.

"Then she walked out and asked what was happening."

"And?"

"They told her the prince had been assaulted by an assassin disguised as a maidservant." Maren laughed weakly, bitterly.

"Me, an assassin. Can you believe it?" Lira's expression darkened further.

"After they left, Celene said it was too dangerous to leave the palace grounds. That was when she brought me here." Lira was honestly impressed by how quickly Celene had put her neck out for one of her girls. Obviously, the headmaid knew Maren well enough to understand she was no assassin. The girl was clearly one of her favorites. Still, one detail stood out above all the others.

"Hesta," Lira said quietly.

"You think she set me up?" Maren looked uncertain.

"I think Hesta knew exactly what would happen." The pretty maid looked physically sick at the thought.

"But why would she do something like that?" Lira laughed once without humor.

"For favor, advancement, fear, or maybe she simply enjoys cruelty." Her eyes hardened.

"People like Hesta thrive on other people's suffering, and they will do almost anything to climb higher." Maren stared downward silently. Then, very quietly, she asked, "Do you think she knew he would hurt me?" Lira paused.

"More likely, she thought you would be meek enough to let it happen," she finally said with a grimace.

"I doubt she would have sent you if she knew you would punch a prince." Maren looked like she wanted to deny it, but she could not. Deep down, she already knew. Lira sighed and stood.

"Eat and rest," she said.

"You need strength."

"What are you going to do?" Lira's eyes narrowed thoughtfully.

"This cannot be the first time something like this has happened," she muttered.

"Men like Kavard do not suddenly start behaving this way overnight." She began pacing slowly inside the cramped alcove.

"There will be patterns, rumors, and other maids who suddenly quit." Her expression darkened further.

"Maybe even disappeared." Maren looked frightened again. Lira stopped pacing and looked toward the hidden entrance.

"If there is a pattern," she said quietly, "then I can track it."

"Be careful," Maren said.

"Don't attract the prince's attention."

"Don't worry about me." Lira smiled reassuringly.

"I can handle myself." As she left the alcove, Lira decided to put her ever-useful divination spell to work again.

"Ladar. Linasara. Oshkan. Cognar. Turat." Immediately, written records throughout the palace grounds lit up within her awareness. Countless books, ledgers, reports, journals, and loose papers tugged faintly against her senses like threads waiting to be followed. This time, however, she narrowed the focus carefully. She wanted records that might contain information regarding missing maids within roughly the last seven years. Prince Kavard was twenty-four. Lira doubted he had been behaving recklessly since childhood.

Men like him usually escalated over time, especially when they believed themselves untouchable. She deliberately kept the search broad enough to catch indirect references rather than exact matches, and almost immediately, multiple pings answered her spell. One strong pull came from the bookkeeping tower, which was unsurprising. Another pointed toward the grand hall itself. A third tugged faintly from somewhere deeper within the military keep.

But what surprised her most was that one of the clearest pings came from upstairs inside the library. Lira blinked in surprise before following the sensation upward. The trail led her toward one of the abandoned storage rooms near the upper floors. The room looked less like part of a royal library and more like a dumping ground for anything the palace no longer wanted to organize.

Boxes were piled haphazardly against warped shelves while stacks of old ledgers leaned dangerously sideways beneath years of dust and neglect. As Lira stepped further inside, she noticed something familiar about several documents scattered across one of the crates. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she recognized the handwriting immediately. Lord Grand Steward Atropos. The former overseer of all palace staff. The very man whose seal she had forged to secure her current position.

Apparently, after his death, portions of his administrative records had simply been dumped into storage when his estate was cleaned out by his heirs. Considering this library had spent years functioning as an oversized archive for unwanted paperwork, no one had likely cared enough to properly sort through any of it. Which meant the palace had accidentally handed Lira access to years of internal staffing records. The divination pull guided her toward several old ledgers near the back wall.

She crouched beside them carefully and opened the first volume, immediately finding lists of servants, employment dates, departmental transfers, and dismissals. Every staff member entering or leaving palace service appeared to have been recorded somewhere within these books, complete with signatures from whichever administrator handled the process. Lira immediately began absorbing information.

"Pika. Linasara. Cognar. Coopar. Nagla." Knowledge flowed rapidly into her mind as she skimmed through volume after volume. At first, the records seemed painfully mundane. Stable hands and carriage drivers were almost always processed through Berem. Footmen and valets consistently fell under Dalwin's authority. Scribes and administrative staff passed through Harwin. The patterns themselves made sense. Each steward controlled their own departments. The maid records, however, looked slightly different.

Celene handled the recording of every maid personally when they first entered palace service. Her signature appeared constantly throughout the intake records. Later, maids could be transferred between duties, and Old Marga's name began to appear whenever maids moved permanently into kitchen work. Once those maids got married, resigned, or transferred to other noble estates, the old cook would sign them off. Other than that, Celene handled nearly all departure records personally.

Except when it came to three names... only three. Out of hundreds of recorded maids over several years, only three dismissal records carried Hesta's signature personally. Now that was deeply suspicious. The first maid had supposedly transferred to service in a provincial estate. The second had been fired due to disciplinary problems. The third had simply disappeared from active records, with Hesta's barely legible handwriting signing her off as a no-show after several days of absence.

Lira leaned back slowly against the dusty shelves, her mind turning over the implications. Hesta was technically a headmaid, though from what Lira understood, the older woman mostly pushed herself into the role and barely possessed any official administrative authority. She had no legitimate reason to personally process servant dismissals, especially not only three isolated cases scattered among hundreds of otherwise normal records. Lira's eyes narrowed further as she checked the dates.

All three removals had occurred within the last three years. More importantly, each one happened near the beginning of the social season. The exact sort of chaotic period when servants could disappear quietly without attracting much immediate attention. A cold feeling settled into her stomach. There was a pattern here, and Lira was beginning to suspect Prince Kavard was not the only monster hiding behind palace walls.