The Royal Harem

Capitol XXII

The anticipated day has finally come.

Alathea was quietly sitting in her throne with her legs crossed beneath her gown. She could feel her silver crown, decorated with emerald gemstones, sat atop of her braided hair. Both of her hands were resting on the arm rest and her back were leaning on the velvet cushion of her golden throne. With her, the consorts were quietly standing in each side of the throne silently waiting for their audience and the star of the show.

"Undine Empire's court officials" Once their presence was announced, the knights opened the door of the throne room. Alathea sat straight on her throne and her consorts quietly stood on their places.

The room was then filled by the royal court officials. They all approached the end of the stairs and bowed at the Empress, greeting her with "May the Moon goddess bless her greatness and the Undine Empire"

Alathea lifted a hand to acknowledge the presence. She looked down on her subjects, expressions were showing either confusion or curiosity as to why they were all summoned by the Empress.

"I do not wish to make this longer" Alathea suddenly said, her eyes still moving around her audience "As we all have known, my seventh imperial consort and the prince of the Halu, Kai Tohr had died because of poisoning. I have mourned for his death and now we have found the culprit who killed my beloved lover" voices have started to raise as the ministers started talking to each other, showing their reaction. On the other hand, the royal advisors did not share the same reactions as the ministers. They all raised an eyebrow at this and looked up at their ruler with curiosity "It took some time but we have managed to find the culprit" she looked at the knights by the doorway "Take them inside"

The knights placed a hand on their chest and bowed before opening the door once again. One of the knights stood by the doorway and entered the room with a line of servants following him, their heads were kept down as they followed the knight at the center of the room.

The witnesses had to move to give way and have them placed near the stairs. The royal ministers were now silent watching as the proceedings has started.

Kneeling, the servants had kept their head down low as they wait for the Empress' words. Alathea raised a hand and gestured one of her lady-in-waiting to show the content of the silver tray that she's holding.

She carefully lifted the cloth that was covering the tray and showed a large glass bottle with a familiar red flower inside it. The whole room was filled with gasps as they recognized the flower in display. It was the deadliest and discreet poison you can found in the Empire.

"As you can see, the rhoa flower was used to poison the late seventh consort" Alathea had started speaking once again "the infamous flower that my ancestors had blacklisted, ordered to burn and banned for further production"

"This is impossible! This is an imperial order, it shouldn't have existed anymore!" one of the ministers exclaimed, pointing at the glass bottle

"Who would even dared to?!"

"your greatness, if I may ask" Kile raised a hand to get everyone's attention "How are you sure that the late seventh consort was poisoned with this?"

Instead of Alathea answering, it was Adlai who spoke "With the investigation that had undergone, it was clinically announced that he was killed by a poison but as we looked into it we could not find any evidence of poison that might have killed the late seventh consort. We tried to find answers and managed to look into the rhoa flower case, that had still been producing, we concluded that it might be the rhoa flower that had killed the late seventh imperial consort"

"This is punishable by death!" the ministers had started to raise their voices but Alathea quickly shut them with her hand raised

"and these servants?" Kile asked, looking briefly at the servants kneeling at the carpeted floor