"Guards who serve members of the royal family directly are bestowed special swords by the king," Harold explained.
Although the others all knew this, it was the first time both Alicia and Paulina had learned about it, and they looked at the sword with interest. It did look different and had a long golden design in the middle with some words and a circle crested on it.
"So the man was willing to give you this piece of information despite seeing you with this sword and knowing his life might be at stake?" Alicia asked Alvin in confusion.
Alvin nodded. "I just convinced him a little and he told—"
"He broke one of his arms and legs," Harvey cut in, making all eyes turn to Alvin, who just sat there and was looking ahead with a straight face.
Alvin glared at Harvey when he noticed the way all eyes had turned on him.
"It was... necessary," Alvin said awkwardly as he put his sword away. While Williams shook his head at his sister, who seemed to be trying hard not to smile.
"Did they have any children? And did the children survive?" Alicia remembered to ask, and Harvey gave her a nod.
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"Yes. They had a son, but no one knows where he is or if he died that night. The only bodies found were those of the physician, his wife, and some servants and maids. His son's body wasn't found," Alvin explained, while Harold listened to all the conversation going on around him without contributing a word.
"How old was his son when this happened?" Luciana asked thoughtfully.
"About three years old. The man remembered because he had his daughter around the same period the physician's wife had her son," Harvey said and Alicia immediately faced Alvin in disbelief.
"You broke the arm and leg of an old man?!"
"He is not that ol..." Alvin let the rest of his words trail off when Alicia glared at him.
"What does it matter whether he is old or not?" Alicia snapped at him.
Alvin glanced at Harold, hoping that Harold would come to his aid and help him explain to his wife that it had been necessary, but Harold looked away from both Alicia and Alvin.
"If there was another way to convince him to speak, I would have done so," Alvin said, looking flustered and feeling betrayed by Harold. He couldn't help feeling like a child who was being scolded by his mother.
The other ladies in the room were taken aback by Alvin's apparent nervousness. This was the first time they had seen him this way, and it seemed like only Princess Amber had this effect on him, Susan mused as she watched him, failing to hide the jealousy she felt. How come he was like that to Amber but was cold to everyone else?
"This is not acceptable. You can't keep using such brutal force on people. They're not animals!" Alicia said passionately, and the others looked at her, wondering why she was so affected by something like that when her husband was even more brutal than Alvin was. Didn't anyone tell her what he had done on the day he woke up from his unconsciousness?
"I will... try to be gentler next time," Alvin promised, even though he didn't believe that either. What was the gentler way of making someone who didn't want to speak speak? This was him being gentle already! Prince Harold wouldn't have even bothered with the man and simply slashed him with his sword for wasting his time, even though he wouldn't get any information from a dead man.
Alvin sent a glare in Harvey's direction and was beginning to get uncomfortable with all the focus on him until thankfully, Lance spoke. He had never thought that in this life, he would be thankful to Lance at some point.
"If someone from the royal family killed the physician, then he must have known something he wasn't supposed to, right?"
Alicia nodded. That makes sense. "If it were the king who had killed him, they wouldn't have done it that way. He would have simply been arrested or something. But he was killed secretly after telling his wife to run away. Someone else in the palace must have killed him. A member of the royal family..." she looked at Harold to be sure she was on the right track with her reasoning, and he nodded.
Every one of them was suddenly quiet. If it wasn't the king, they all knew the next person in mind who would have carried out such an action. It definitely wasn't Harold, Ivan, Harry, or Tyra. They were all kids back then. There was only one person left... the queen. And maybe, Damon.
So what exactly happened back then and what did the physician know?
"Maybe the physician's son or someone close to his family is alive and is seeking vengeance?" Lance asked, and everyone looked at him, genuinely surprised to know that he was smart enough to have figured out something like that.
"Aww! Our little Lance is growing," Alicia cooed as she reached out a hand to ruffle his hair, and everyone looked at her in surprise, including Lance, who seemed startled by her touch.
'ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ N(ov)elBin',
Before Lance could move away, Harold's leg shot forward and kicked him out of her reach, causing him to groan in pain as he was sent flying to the other end of the room.
',
"Why did you let your hair touch her?!" Harold glared at Lance while the others looked at Harold, Alicia, and the unfortunate Lance in disbelief. Was he serious right now?
"How could you kick him like that?" Alicia complained in horror as she stood up and went to help Lance, but before she could touch him, he put his hand up and moved away from her reach as he cried out, "DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Lance was beginning to regret swearing that oath because now he was bound to these people. There was a psychopath who would break someone's hand and a leg to get a piece of information and another who could kill someone for breathing the same air as his wife.
Well, not that he was that perfect, but he would have preferred to be the one on the giving end and not the receiver.