"That is quite an accusation you all are claiming right before the Royal Family." Shouto glared at Mirei and the servant who got on the floor. The next thing he knew, all the other servants got down on the floor and exclaimed how they saw Michiyo and Eijirou converse with one another in the middle of the night at Guren Garden.
"Hmph. It seems like the garden you like so much is used as a place of secret meet ups, Shouto." Enji was clearly displeased to hear about Shouto's wife seeing another man.
"But Michiyo wasn't seeing anyone in secret. I allow her to speak to anyone when she wants and when she wishes. She is my wife, not just my property."
"Then why was Michiyo seeing that man on her own without a single servant with her? If she had a servant with her at the time, we will have prove she is not seeing another man behind your back. Shouto-sama, you are too kind to her, you are biased because you are blinded by her. If you continue with this, she will definitely take advantage of your good heart." Mirei said to Shouto with a smirk.
Shouto frowned, "Michiyo is not unfaithful. I believe in her."
"Shouto..." Michiyo was happy that Shouto's on her side even though everyone else were trying so hard to dig a hole for her to fall into it. Michiyo held Shouto's hand, "Shouto, I can prove I am innocent. Mirei-san, you claim I am pregnant with someone else's child, right?"
"That is correct. All the other servants can see your bump clear as day, about how you have been feeling sick even in the morning. If this is not signs of pregnancy, I don't know what it is."
"Yes. I have seen Michiyo-hime show signs of pregnancy." A young servant backed up Mirei and her claims, "I am very certain Michiyo-hime is pregnant and confident the father is definitely that man over there!" The servant pointed a finger of accusation at Eijirou.
Eijirou looked at the servants, at Mirei, and then at the king and queen. "I am innocent." He then looked at Michiyo and he smiled confidently at her, "I will never do anything to harm Michiyo-hime. If anything, I would protect her." That was his absolute truth.
Shouto closed his eyes once and then he asked Eri to summon a Palace Midwife to conduct an examination.
"No." Mirei then stood in front of the king, "Your Majesty, I think a midwife you have summoned should conduct the search. That way, there are no biased matter and we can be assured Shouto-sama is not making the results fall in his favor."
"Hmm...you have a point. Then, I shall have a Midwife who served the Royal Court for over 40 years to conduct the examination. Shouto, you do realize if the results are not in your favor, Michiyo will be punished severely."
"I am aware." Shouto looked at his father with a serious look in his mismatched eyes, "Father, I want to ask, does this palace allow rumors to slander and knock someone down with evil intent?"
"Hmph, of course not. The Royal Court and the Palace have strict rules everyone, no matter their status, must abide to."
"It is clear the accused will be dealt with if they're found guilty...but what about the person who made the false accusations? What about the people who were wrong about the truth and tried to pass their assumptions off as the golden truth? How will the Royal Court deal with these people who attempt to slander an innocent person?"
Enji looked at the servants who were all on the ground, they're all confident about what they have seen with their own eyes. Enji then looked at Shouto, "They will be forced out of the Royal Palace and return to their homes. If this Royal Court allow slander to pass off as the truth, this will be a laughing stock marked down in the history for the next generation to laugh at. We will uphold the principles of innocent until proven guilty at all costs."
"Good." Shouto looked at Michiyo, "Michiyo, you're okay with that?"
"Of course."
Shouto pressed his forehead against Michiyo's before letting her go with the two midwives. They will be back shortly. Shouto looked at Yuuki and she's smiling rather cunningly. 'Yuuki...' He began to think about something...
"Shouto, you're really a good husband. I would marry you if I don't have to follow Master around." Yuuki was about to hug Shouto's arm but then Katsuki grabbed her back the back of her collar and pulled her back.
"You little shit, you said that right in front of me too!" Katsuki slapped the back of Yuuki's head before trapping her head in a painful headlock, "I ought to shove my fist in your mouth!"
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Master, you're hurting me...!"
"Is it a good idea? What if someone finds out the truth?" Shouto was worried because one small mistake will cost Michiyo her life. They're taking a very huge risk just to defeat whoever the enemies were. Shouto wanted to search for the person spreading the rumor around but Yuuki said not to and to just go about their days. If it weren't for Katsuki and Eijirou training with him and keeping his mind elsewhere, he would have searched for the rumor.
"No one will find out a thing. I guarantee it." Yuuki said with confidence in her voice, "The most important thing is to not do anything."
"But that will mean they everyone will fall for the rumor." Shouto said back to her, clearly worried about the outcome.
Yuuki, however, wasn't worried at all. In fact, she's pretty chilled about it.
"I want them to fall."
Soon, the two midwives and Michiyo returned.
Enji was the first to speak, "How are the results?"
"You're not going to make a reveal she is not a virgin, are you?" Mirei chuckled with tone of mockery in her voice.
The midwife Enji sent to conduct the examination was the first to speak, "Michiyo-hime is not a virgin, and her stomach is indeed big."
The servants started to talk among themselves, all talking about how they were deceived by Michiyo's innocent face but hiding terrible things as well as talking about Shouto's reputation being tainted by her...there were some servants even talking about how Michiyo should have been buried along with Touya or left with the Western Prince.
"Be quiet!" The midwife shut everyone up in the instance, "Her stomach is big, but she is NOT pregnant."
The servants and Mirei looked visibly shocked by the discovery!
"Is that so?" Enji asked.
"That is a lie! There is no way her stomach can become this big!" Mirei snapped, pointing at Michiyo's stomach with her fan, "How can it be so big if you are not pregnant?!" Mirei then looked at all the other servants who were on the floor, "Everyone here saw her stomach has grown over the 3 months!"
"Michiyo-hime and I have been eating a lot of snacks, her stomach being bloated is nothing new." Yuuki said to Mirei, "I'm more concerned about why the servants have been invading her privacy and not doing their job~."
"T-then why isn't your stomach bloated?!" Mirei shouted at Yuuki, clearly not believing Michiyo wasn't pregnant.
Yuuki smirked, "I exercise by training. Do you know how intense my Master is when he trains? Unlike most women in the Palace who focus on preserving their beauty and health for the Royal Family, I fight alongside my Master. Michiyo-hime's stomach is merely bloated and she has indigestion...and you took that for pregnancy? You are all willfully ignorant."
Mirei couldn't lose here! She glared at a servant to the point of pressuring her to talk. The servant decided to speak up, "T-that's impossible! I-I saw Michiyo-hime suffering from morning sickness too! I am not stupid! Her stomach is big, she has morning sickness...! Everyone with common sense will know that is a pregnancy sign!"
"Silence, you lowly servant girl, how dare you stand before me pretending you have experience? How many women have you seen in your lifetime?" The midwife was having none of it; imagine you have more than 10 years worth of experience in a field of specialty only to have someone much younger than you trying to one up you in front of others in your field of specialty? The midwife didn't stop there, "How dare you assume a bloated girl with indigestion is pregnant! I have been a midwife and served the Royal Family for 40 straight years, I have seen countless women from low ranks to high ranks...you think I cannot tell the difference between a bloated stomach and a pregnant stomach?"
"I-I-! T-that's not what I meant-" The servant said, starting to sweat from pressure.
"If that is not what you meant, then what are you trying to say?"
Enji then looked at Mirei, the look in his eyes demanding to know what will she say next. Mirei got so scared and she got down on her knees, "Y-Your Majesty! I-I...! There must be some kind of trick! There's no way-!"
"Even if you don't believe the midwife Shouto have appointed to conduct the search, you should at least believe the midwife I have appointed. She has over 40 years of experience, even the doctors within the Royal Court ask for her advice if they're tending to pregnant women. What excuse do you have left?"
"You shouldn't slander people and put them down. Michiyo-hime have gotten better not too long ago and you have to be quick to put her down. How evil can you be?" Rei said to Mirei.
"I-I-!"
Shouto stepped forward, "Since the accused is innocent, that means we can punish the accusers."
The servants all began to panic, one of them even pointed it was Mirei's idea to spread the rumor like wildfire!
"What?! If you lowly servants did not gossip, I wouldn't have believed you!" Mirei argued, slapping a servant girl down. "You lowly people whose life are equal to pigs dare to drag me down with you?!"
"That is enough out of you. Cane her 30 times, watch her pack her things and force her to leave the Royal Palace immediately. I don't want to see your face here ever again."
Mirei couldn't believe what Enji was saying! She begged for forgiveness from the king and queen, from Shouto, and even from Michiyo. However, no one answered her cry for forgiveness as she was being dragged.
"No!" She forced the servants to let her go and she crawled to Michiyo, "I've been tricked! Yes! This is merely a misunderstanding! Michiyo-hime, help me!" She cried to her, begging for help even if it meant throwing her own sense of pride away. "You are someone of royalty, you don't know the everyday struggle of needing to rise to the top! Everything I did...I-I just wanted to survive!"
"Even if I don't understand your struggle, you cannot say 'because I have to struggle to live' as an excuse to go and ruin someone else's. You were about to throw my life away like it meant nothing."
"Take her away." Shouto said to his Royal Guards. Tenya and Momo took Mirei away. No matter how much Mirei cried for Shouto, he did not care about it. As for the servants, Shouto have not forgotten about them, "Cane them 20 times and kneel until the sun sets."
The servants cried but the order will have to be delivered.
"If this Palace allow such behavior to roam freely, it will cause chaos left and right. I am not tolerating such thing." Enji said, feeling very annoyed that the rumor he had been hearing turned out to be slander. "Michiyo-hime, I apologize for believing in the slander. I am glad to know your name is clear."
"It's nothing." Michiyo said to Enji and then looked at Yuuki. She smiled at Yuuki because everything was her idea. While on the outside it looks like the prince and Michiyo did everything...everything was orchestrated by Yuuki, and she was smiling rather cunningly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yuuki was curious about Mirei who was now in prison. Apparently, she's too hurt to leave after the caning so she's now confined. Yuuki had requested to go and see her because she wanted to see the person she had trapped in her cunning plan.
"Is the pain too much you can't sleep?" Yuuki asked on the other side of the bar.
"You bitch...you did this me!"
"I didn't do anything. You're the one who brought things up to the king and queen."
Mirei was completely ruined; she had never been caned in her life and it was a painful and humiliating thing to ever stain her life. Even though she's in the middle of a great pain, she still struggled hard to prop herself up a little and glare at Yuuki. Grabbing onto the steel bars, she demanded Yuuki to answer her question, "That stomach of hers..."
Yuuki smirked at Mirei, "You wanna know~?"
"It's amazing, it went as Yuuki planned! Yuuki is so clever, Katsuki! I am proud of her!" Eijirou said to Katsuki, still feeling very proud of Yuuki's overall plan. The two of them were chatting in Katsuki's room over some fine wine, "We got held back, but the results are great! Our names are cleared and we didn't even have to do much!"
"That stupid wolf is not as stupid as I thought. She had been planning everything 3 months ago for this very day."
"How did she fake the stomach? Bloating and indigestion is an excuse, but the stomach..."
"She must have someone made her a fake stomach. All Michiyo had to do is wear it under her clothes and eat a lot of treats with Yuuki. Yuuki must have known servants will walk by the Wasurenagusa Palace so she wants them to deliver the news back to Mirei."
"She made that stomach?" Eijirou asked, "That's amazing."
"Hmph." But Katsuki figured out the origin of the fake stomach.
"I've got Momo to create a very lightweight armor with a protruding stomach. That way, Michiyo can wear it under her clothes and the servants will believe she is pregnant and lead you to take the fall." Yuuki honestly told Mirei. "That fake stomach was created during the making of the swing. Pretty clever, right?"
"You bitch...!" She banged against the steel bars with her hands, "Why would you do this?! Why?!"
"Why? Why...I wonder why~?" Yuuki got closer Mirei, she's now within reach.
Mirei was breathing heavily from the pain and tears. She's clearly angry she had lost against Yuuki.
"Who the heck are you?!" She shouted as she grabbed Yuuki's lower ponytail when she turned her back to her to leave.
"I am..."
Mirei looked at the hair in her grasp and she did not see white. With a horrified look, she looked at Yuuki's face, "You're-!" Life was sapped out of her, she's frothing from the mouth and her face paled in an instant like snow. Mirei fell to the ground. The death was quick and instant as she fell to the dirty ground with shock in her eyes. Was it shock from the sudden death? Or the sudden shock upon founding out something about Yuuki?
"I am merely a demon ready to wreck vengeance onto someone." She touched the part of her hair that Mirei touched, the color was white once again. "I won't let you hurt Michiyo."