Total Eclipse of the Heart (Royal AU Wally x reader)

Chapter Nineteen

No response from the King. He was motionless, as if frozen in time.
"Now, obviously, when his body was found, I wasn't there. I couldn't have a first hand inspection of his body nor the place it was found in at the time it happened, so already I had my work cut out for me. Thankfully, I got a hold of the maid who found him." she picked up a document from her binder and cleared her throat. "The King was found in his chamber when she went to change the sheets that morning. He was laid on his back, fully clothed, as if he fell back onto the bed. He was skinny to the bone, as if he had been starving for several weeks. There seemed to be no sign of any physical injury, there was no blood anywhere, and he was very dry, like his body was decomposing- But of course, the maid didn't stay too long to check. The poor thing..."

She paused to look at the King of Hearts, see if he would say anything. He didn't, and besides, did she even want him to...?
"Since there was no physical injury, and based on the state of his body, I concluded that some kind of magic must've been involved. Now there's one thing we all know: the King of Spades – and every others before him – was the strongest magic-user in the world. So whoever killed him, it must have been something or someone powerful... I suspected you right away." she gestured towards him. "Not just because he was the King of Spades and you're the King of Hearts, but because the last time the King was seen alive, he was leaving his castle on horseback, on his way to your Kingdom." she tilted her head. "To attend the yearly meeting between the four royals of the land. But here's the thing: no one saw him come back...

"But I know," she raised both her hands. "that doesn't prove that you did it. Let our judgement be unclouded. So the first question I asked myself was of course 'how did he die'? I don't know anything about magic – much less the lethal kind – I couldn't ask anyone about it, and any book on such dark magic was stolen from our royal library during the Great Departure." she sighed. "I was stuck. The idea that it was the work of a poison of some kind did cross my mind, but the King of Spades was known to be almost indestructible, with a stomach so strong he could drink poison and only get a stomachache. You could say it was just a myth. But again, he was the strongest magic-user of all...

"So yes, I was stumped... And then, I got the opportunity to go into the royal library of your castle." she tilted her head. "I borrowed a few books but I knew that the knowledge I would need would be in the books that...people would look at me weird if they saw me take them. No matter how many times I would peek into the library as I passed by, there would always be someone there. And then... And this I have you and Frank to thank for, I got the password that would allow me to have the royal library all to myself."
Wally's eyes widened a little more.

"So I took books on dark magic, poisons, none of the things I read about would fit however. None of them would've left the King in the state he was left in, nor would they not leave any trace. And then I found a book on magic weapons, the legendary ones to be precise, and how Queen Ambrosia had one of these. A sword that, once the magic within it activated, would pierce through one's very soul and only their soul. Anything physical would go unscathed, so it wouldn't leave any trace on the body. Although it did not explain the King's almost mummified state, I decided to followed through that lead to see where it would go...
"Something strange happened however: I couldn't for the life of me find that sword. Of course I couldn't actively snoop around your castle. But you would think that an artefact such as a Legendary Weapon would be put on display for everyone to see if it wasn't being wielded anymore. I brought up the subject when I was paying a visit to Mr. Pillar and I came to find out a key piece of information. When the Queen died – may peace be on her soul now that her enemy is dead – she left her sword to you. And you've asked your royal blacksmith to reshape it to suit you better. You carry that sword almost everywhere you go, and there are talks about how only you can wield it...