Revenge of the Duchess

Chapter 41

"Not at all, Marquis." Percy pointed to the cloth. "As you can see, there is no name underneath the serial numbers. This uniform does not belong to any of my knights."

"They could have worn an uniform without their name in order not to be identified." Count Castellan countered.

"Then why wear the uniform in the first place?" Percy shot back.

"That is so, they would have just worn plain clothes to avoid being identified." Prince Jason injected as well. "Why wear something so easily distinguished?"

"Exactly, Your Highness. It is almost as if someone wants to mislead others in thinking that it is a member of the Black Knights Order." Percy pointed. "In fact, look at the edges of this cloth. It is weird for a Black Knight jacket to be simply ripped if grazing over a wall. The cloth for both Black Knights and White Knights Orders is provided by the royal family of Cuora and is of high quality. They would not rip so easily and are made to help withstand the blow of a sword."

With this, Percy hinted that the aristocratic faction was insulting the royal Cuoran family for providing shoddy clothing to its knights.

He held up the cloth. "Look at these borders. These are the markings of a knife cutting through cloth, and not from a rough brick wall. One would also expect to see perhaps red dust from the brick wall on the cloth. Even if the cloth has been handled for a while and red dust would have fallen off, there would still be some dust left. But, this piece of cloth is perfectly clean."

Percy had sowed enough doubt into the inquisition members. The members who had stated that he was at fault were beginning to show signs of nervousness. But there were still some that did not balk.

"But clearly someone still had access to the Black Knights uniform," Marquis Ares said. "Who else but a Black Knight could gain access to such clothing?"

"Two groups of people do," Percy clarified. "Both Black Knights and White Knights are able to go to the same dress shop headed by the royal family to get their uniforms. In fact, I have taken the liberty to invite the head of the dress shop to arrive."

An elderly woman stepped forward. Many people bowed to her in respect, even the aristocratic faction. The head of the dress shop, Countess Sophie Lawrence, used to be the former nanny to the current Cuoran king and both the crown princess and the second prince. It was whispered that whomever she watched would be the favored heirs to the Cuoran throne, since she rejected nannying all other royal children. Now she was the head mistress of the palace dress making.

A assistant brought over a few log books at Countess Lawrence's signal. "As you can see, I keep a catalog of all the uniforms we make. The cloth here is indeed from an authentic Black Knights uniform." The countess raised her hand to silence a few of the people who were about to protest. "Quiet, I am not done talking. The serial number on this piece of uniform shows that this uniform has not been assigned to anyone."

The countess coughed into her handkerchief before continuing. "I keep a tight ship. Every uniform, be it steward, knight or maid, is inventoried constantly when they're in storage to prevent decay like moth balls or rats using them for nesting materials. As you can see on this log book, this uniform with this particular serial number went missing a few days ago."

Another maid now brought over another book. The countess flipped to the middle. "As you can see here, we also keep track of who is entering the storage. On this day that this uniform went missing, no Black Knights entered but two White Knights did. One came in for simple repairs and one requested a larger size. The knight requesting a larger size is the only one who entered the storage. He must have slipped out with a Black Knight uniform. My apologies, Your Highnesses. I have been remiss in my duties for not preventing such a mistake."