Charles arrived in the Academy at five, the students are already in their last classes. Hearing the news about Anastasius really angered him but he decided to keep his rationality intact as to avoid making a decision that might harm the younger.
Instead, he ordered one of his few trusted friends to run a background check on Cassandra. It was Gabriel Hundt, eldest son of Duke Hundt of Oculus. Beside their reputation of having the richest duchy in the Corielle Kingdom, they're also a family of informants (all working under an alias) whose real identities are only known by the Royal family.
They're very efficient and accurate when it comes to finding iinformation so it's really a blessing for the Royal family to have them on their side.
"Based on the data we found, it seems that Duke Leclair is planning on adopting her secretly, but since the adoption process is still ongoing she still have to carry her original surname as of now. We can't find anything about her other than that, it's like it's thoroughly sealed or erased by a professional. Don't worry about it though, if we're talking about professionals we're far beyond them so this would still be easy-peasy." Gabriel said smugly, obviously proud of his background. But his smug expression turned into a frown immediately,
"Information is easy for us to access but only for the adoption process, however the other evidences that we will need to find in order to implicate him..." He trailed his words.
"Duke Leclair huh..." Charled frowned. Duke Leclair came from a family of dukes which the Royal family could not touch, it was because their ancestor, Duke Von Leclair, was recognized as one of the Kingdom's heroes in history. It is true that their family once upheld greatness and loyalty among other things, they were righteous and kind people, but rumors had it that those great traits of their lineage have completely been dissolved futher through generations after generations, and that their reputation had completely detriorated ever since the late late Duke's Illigitemate child took over the duchy.
But strangely so, their duchy is still thriving now despite the suspicious acts of the current duke. Their citizens loved them because of their faux warm image that hid their wicked expressions that is only known by the higher ups, so even if the Royal family wanted them to be investigated to check if they're planning a coup d'etat, they couldn't interfere with their affairs for there aren't enough evidences about it that would make the investigation possible.
"Yes, that's why I'm telling you this will be harder than what you think. If you really want to protect that candy boy of yours you can only do much as a Crown prince, unless you cut her ties with that family then you'll just have to keep up with her for the meantime."
Finding an evidence to implicate Duke Leclair on his wrongdoings and legally take away his immunity from the Royal family's scope of power is hard to do, actually, saying it's nearly impossible would even be an understatement since even his father couldn't do it.
There will be a lot of consequences if it wasn't done perfectly. The citizens might even raise a rebellion because of how much the duke have already manipulated them. And who knows if the duke is really planning a coup d'etat, the other aristocrats might even use this as an opportunity to rebel against the Royal Family too, because unlike the other Royal Families, the Corielles aren't the type that could be bribed nor manipulated, so they all secretly hated them.
If only he could use his truth serum against them, unfortunately it's still being held under the study of the Kingdom's top mages and scientists and until they can confirm it's safe to use, he still can't take a hold of it. Besides, even if it's ready to be used it would still be futile in the situation since if the Duke refused to take it, he, even as a part of the Royal family, can't pursue it further than that.
"So? What are the plans?"
"I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on her. If I kick her out of the Student Council now she might spread false rumors about Anastasius. For now we'll just have to keep this confidential."
"As you wish, Your highness."
🔹🔷🔹
The classes had ended and Anastasius is currently in his dorm room right now. He just finished writing a letter for his family and for Icarus.
Even now he still couldn't forget what Cassandra did to him, he wasn't upset at the fact that he was wronged; more than that, he feels bothered by her actions.
Based on the nameless book, the heroine should have been bright, naive, and pure, and what he saw earlier is very far from that. But now that he thinks about it, those characteristics weren't really shown that much in the book, rather, it was just described by the other characters. He never really knew what was going on the heroine's mind throughout the whole story so he's not sure if she's that pure inside.
'From now on I just need to be careful.' He thinks. Getting on her bad side might danger him after all. Although he doesn't see an improvement on Charles' and Cassandra's relationship as of the moment, it's still better to be safe right?
But now he wonders, why does Charles doesn't seem to be that fond of Cassandra as he how he did in the book? Was it because he won the contest? No, first of all, how did he even win the contest? Didn't he win the second place instead based on the book?
Anastasius heaved a deep sigh, everything isn't going the way the book ought to be so he doesn't really know what should be his next step now.
"I haven't thanked Clay yet..." He mumbled. Remembering what happened earlier, he would be lying if he says that he didn't expect Charles to be the one saving him. But of course it would still be rude if he didn't thank Clay properly about it.
'Is it wrong to miss him? I'm just a villain in this story...If I started to get greedy now...'
And for probably the fifth time, Anastasius sighed.
'I guess I'll just sleep, maybe I'd feel better tomorrow.'
**
Author's Note:
tHANK YOU FOR THE 18K VOTES!!!!!! You guys really rock I love y'all 😭💞
TAKE CARE LOVES!!!