Lady Dhampir
Chapter 161

No matter how angry he was, Ellias couldn't simply bend the rules so much as to deny Milena all the questions she wanted to ask. The Senators were already quite agitated, and this wasn't going to be an easy decision for them to make, either. Even if most people present already had picked which Prince they'd like to see crowned, leaving so many seats empty was not a small issue by any means; Milena was well aware that this was a decision about to be recorded in history. She knew it was also the best way she had for their supporters to make a comeback; to oblige Prince Ellias to play exactly by the rules.

Still, his angry green eyes weren't ready to accept this outcome. A long silence took place in the Council Room, each Senator waiting to see what was going to happen between them. Finally, after a very, very long pause, Ellias regained his seat, and turned to the Royal Secretary.

"Since the Princess made such an effort to attend, I suppose it's only fair she hears as much as we did. However, Princess Milena, this isn't an opportunity for you to clear names!" "How about you let me catch up first, Prince Ellias?" She hissed.

While the three people on the thrones glared at each other, the Royal Secretary, a bit tense, cleared his throat and, as asked by Milena, quickly retold the events. There wasn't anything she didn't remember until the moment she had been stabbed, and what had happened next had been well summed up, too. Indeed, the Royal Guards had easily identified all the attackers, and Ellias had immediately sent people to arrest their families. Milena found her first bait.

"... My apologies, your Highnesses," she said, interrupting the Royal Secretary. "You sent the Royal Guards to arrest the families of all the culprits, didn't you?" "Yes," confidently answered Ellias. "This is how we found the documents incriminating them, with this so-called Society of Vampires stamped all over it..."

Some Senators opened their mouths, suddenly understanding Milena's move, and a few smiles appeared.

"Shall I understand that you sent the Royal Guards to arrest those families before you had found those documents at their homes?"

Milena's question sent an icy wind throughout the room. Ellias blinked a couple of times, and his eyes went to the Captain of the Royal Guards, standing at one end of the room. However, the Captain was perfectly calm, in the resting pose of soldiers, and not looking at him. Milena put on a slight smile on her lips, although she was still not feeling well. Rayan, too, put on an act and frowned as if he had just realized it too.

"Brother, my wife is making a good point. You actually sent the Royal Guards to arrest the full families before you found anything incriminating?"

"I sent them to be detained for questioning," retorted Ellias.

"That's a lot of people to be arrested without proof," insisted Rayan.

"There wasn't any reason I should let anyone escape!"

"Escape? Why did you think they'd need to escape?"

Ellias' anger was rising slowly, but obviously. He glared at his brother, before turning to the Senators instead of addressing Milena or Rayan.

"Dear Council, I acted in a preventive way. Our Royal Family was targeted, there was an urgent need for action; I was the one to react first, and send the Royal Guards to..."

Rachel scoffed loudly.

"Duchess De Nova, if you have a point to make..."

"Sorry, Your Highness," she smirked. "I just couldn't help but think it would have been nice to see you actually react during the fight, not when it was over."

Ellias' expression went white with anger, but once again, the Duchess De Nova had aimed and shot right. By the glances a couple of the Royal Guards present exchanged, everyone who had witnessed the scene with their own eyes could confirm that Ellias hadn't taken a big part in the fight at all. Ironically, he had been pretty much knocked out for most of it, and by no one but his own brother...

"As you already know, Duchess De Nova," he retorted, "Prince Rayan was the one who did not allow me. Of course, it also meant I was more eager to do justice once I was able to."

Milena felt like throwing up, and not just because of her nausea this time. She remembered quite well Ellias' fit of rage against Marquess Alban De Carseus, and there wasn't an ounce of justice in that. Just the disgusting actions of a man who couldn't dominate his emotions.

However, Ellias certainly wasn't going to mention that. Instead, he sighed, and turned to the Council with a benevolent expression.

"I felt quite powerless, and frustrated that I was in no state to help my brother fight off our enemies. Hence, I jumped on the occasion I saw to lessen the evil of their actions. This wasn't an unfair bunch of blind arrests, but a preventive measure to protect the Royal Family. Thankfully, my orders actually allowed us to put our hands on more incriminating documents. If I hadn't done this, we may have faced even more dreadful events in the future!"

Milena's eyes quickly circled the reactions around the Council. Some of the Senators were nodding, actually believing his nonsense. Ellias had merely been lucky the Royal Guards had found anything at all, and he was just making some far-fetched statement about saving the Royal Family, when in reality, he was just too happy to wipe out some enemies in the light of weak lies.

"Indeed," exclaimed the young Duke De Winter, much to Milena's annoyance. "Prince Ellias' orders may have been bold, but we should be grateful his clairvoyance led us to dig out a much bigger issue! There is no time to be lenient towards rebels of the Kingdom! We are already facing such a dreadful situation, and those reckless people dared to threaten the Royal Family! At the King's funeral, no less!"

"When you mention those people, Young Duke," said Rayan. "I would like to hear who exactly you're referring to. As far as we know, there has been no proof of any of those families conspiring against the Royal Family."

Ellias' jaw dropped dramatically, and he stared at his twin as if he was crazy. Milena took a deep breath. It was even harder to control her emotions with that nausea attacking her every minute. She hoped that if she made a mess of herself, she would at least be able to puke on the one who deserved it...

"Their very own kind attacked you, Prince Ellias and the Princesses, your Highness!" Exclaimed Arseus. "What more proof do you want?"

"If we had locked up all of the family for each crime that had been committed against the Royal Family by an individual, I fear there wouldn't be so many noble families today," retorted Rayan.

An embarrassed silence went through the ranks this time. Of course. Each noble family had one or two black sheep in their family trees they'd much rather forget. Milena smirked. There wasn't even a need to dig very far in history books to find such cases: the fratricide inside the very own Royal Family, when Prince Sleverin had killed his own brother, was only one of the most famous cases.

A few nobles cleared their throats and looked down, hoping no one would voice out examples now. Still, Rayan had made quite a good point. Milena turned to Prince Ellias.

"So, you arrested the full family for each person that was arrested inside the Chapel, Prince Ellias. I do see quite a few members of the Council missing today, but I understand there are more people locked up, isn't there?"

"This was a preventive measure."

"Preventive of what? One attempt was already made, and as we all can see, it failed. Was there any clue that would have led us to think those families were gearing up for another attack this soon?"

"You're making no sense, Princess Milena! These people were obviously ready to betray the Royal Family! We found incriminating documents, and after the attack..."

"Actually," said Milena, interrupting him, "I happen to be quite curious about those documents as well."

The fact that she had so obviously interrupted someone of higher rank wasn't the only reason Ellias was furious: Milena was acting like a dog ready to bite at every bone she was going to find, until there was nothing left for her to chew on. She wasn't going to let him win this fight so easily, it was clear. This wasn't just about proving him wrong: with so many eyes watching their debacle, it was quite obvious she was also set on harming his chances of being named Crown Prince during this Council.

Since neither of the Princes or the Princess were adding anything, the Royal Secretary dared to speak out. One by one, he enumerated all the documents that had been found at each house, and everything that was on it. It took quite a long time, actually, until he was done explaining. Milena used that time to take deep breaths, and think of what other strategies she could use. Moreover, Rayan had gently put his hand on hers. It was a very calm gesture, and he hadn't even looked at her while doing so, but the slow rubbing of his thumb on her hand was all she needed. She could almost feel all of his worry about her health, and it only motivated her to do her best to sit straight, and ignore her sickness. The truth was, she just wanted to find a bathroom or a pot to burp over for the rest of the day, but that would have to wait...

When the Royal Secretary was finally done, some long minutes later, several Senators acted shocked. However, Milena wasn't convinced at all by this masquerade. As she had suspected, there was actually nothing directly incriminating anyone in those papers. First, because the members of the Society of Vampires were smart enough not to write anything compromising down. It was already complicated enough, even for Milena, to know exactly who was part of it, she was sure even inside those families, not everyone was involved. Her own family members probably had no clue of Raphael's involvement in the Society of Vampires either. Unfortunately, that was a point she couldn't prove; Milena refused to put her brother at risk by involving him in this trial. At least, he wasn't mentioned anywhere in those papers. No, actually, no names were even mentioned in those papers.

Like it was custom among nobles exchanging sensitive information, most of it was concealed with secret codes and specific formulations, like the titles saying "dear friend" instead of pointing any names. It may have looked common, but in the regular letters, people were careful to respect their correspondent's titles. Using the "dear friend" formulation was rare, and implied both ends of that correspondence were very close, or... careful. "Royal Secretary, how many names were actually specified, in all those documents you read?" Asked Milena.

"Uh... T-three, your Highness."

"Three. Captain, how many people were arrested under Prince Ellias' orders?"

The Captain of the Royal Guards bowed exaggeratedly low. He was nothing but a misused pawn, but unfortunately for him, he was the one to endure Milena's cold stare right then. "T-thirty seven, Your Highness..."

"Thirty-Seven," repeated Milena with a nod. "Prince Ellias, that sounds like eleven times too many to me."

"Princess Milena!" Roared the young Duke De Winter. "You can't ignore that those people concealed their names on purpose! Among those thirty-seven, they might all be guilty of anarchy!" "And they might all be innocent," retorted Rayan. "Thank you for bringing that up, young Duke."

More and more whispers were heard throughout the room. Both sides had a point, and as of now, the Council was obviously split. Some were very doubtful of Ellias' reckless arrests, but many were also suspicious of the intentions of the arrested families. They were wondering if those people might even be hiding more of their allies in those letters. Milena sighed.

"I'm pretty sure all the Laws of our Kingdom concur on the fact that any citizen shall be considered as innocent until proven guilty, Your Highnesses."

"They also mention that no one is able to escape the law," retorted Ellias. "Those people are obviously involved in an anarchist plot against the Royal Family, we shall not let this go easily! This matter requires a full investigation, and I swear, as a Prince of this Kingdom, that no innocent shall be harmed. However, as far as we know, none of these people has been able to prove their innocence yet."

"To prove their innocence? There hasn't even been time to hear their testimonies yet," said Rayan. "The Royal Guards spent about the whole night arresting those families in a ruckus that all of the Kingdom heard! No innocent shall be harmed? I fear you've already quite damaged their reputation, brother."

"Those people have obviously colluded to harm us in the first place!" Shouted Ellias. "Being lenient on traitors at such a time will not help us in any way, Prince Rayan!"

"May I remind your Highness," hissed Milena. "Those people are our people in the first place. You're calling them traitors in front of the whole Council, and you arbitrarily arrested several generations of families of our citizens and admitted to it, Prince Ellias. I hope you understand that the accountability of those actions will also lie with the Royal Family!"

Her words echoed in the room, as heavily as possible. The Council was well aware that Milena wasn't actually putting that responsibility on the Royal Family, but on no one else but Prince Ellias.

However, the human Prince didn't waver at her words. Instead, he was standing straighter than ever, without an ounce of remorse in his eyes.

"Princess Milena, you were the one who suffered the most from those actions. I admire your concern over those terrorists, but I'd like to establish this kindness won't lead us anywhere. Right now, we need answers, and actions."

"I wish your Highness had put these actions in place after the answers were given."

The tension was so intense between them, a lot of people in the room were feeling agitated just by looking at those three. The Princes and Princess were sending blow after blow at each other, and their words were so sharp, no one was willing to get between them and take a stance. Instead, they were stuck on the sidelines, hoping their side would be victorious. Only the Dukedoms could hope to speak out without receiving one of those blows, or be able to withstand it. Indeed, Lady De Nova sighed to get some attention.

"We have no testimonies, but from what I've heard, we don't have any proof of their guilt so far either. My understanding was that the people present at the scene had been arrested, but their families taken into custody were not incriminated by those letters, were they? Prince Ellias, I understand you're willing to keep any possible culprit, but I would like to see what justifies so many arrests without the shadow of a proof."

"Duchess De Nova, those letters were found in the Houses of the people arrested!"

"...So anyone living there could be a culprit, is that what you're saying?"

"Of course! We shall ignore no lead to..."

"I fear you've not done enough, then."

Ellias blinked.

"E-excuse me?"

"You arrested only the noble families, didn't you? What of the servants? The staff that works there, and the knights, too? If I follow your reasoning, anyone living in those domains could be involved, couldn't they?" "Duchess De Nova!" Protested Ellias, furiously.

"Of course, those letters could even have been brought in by some visitors actually, so that will considerably expand the number of arrests you'd have to make."

"This is not a situation to make fun of, Duchess De Nova! Are you trying to defend your allies? You can't deny those people that were arrested or killed right on the spot, but too many managed to flee! What are you going to do about all those that you let go, Duchess De Nova? Are you suggesting we close our eyes!"

"I let them flee, your Highness? Are you really implying I stood still during the fight? At least I was standing on my own two feet!"

"Enough!" Roared Rayan. "The Duchess De Nova has made her point, Brother. Arresting that many people blindly was reckless of you and the Royal Family will have to pay reparations for those who'll be proven innocent."

"If they are proven innocent, brother," smirked Ellias. "Aren't you and the Duchess so willing to defend them, when your own wife was their victim? I watched you go on a rampage over her previous poisoning, I find you to be very tame this time around! For what reason would you be so unwilling to find the truth?"

"The truth will be found," retorted Milena, upset. "However, nothing will be solved by locking up so many people!"

"This is for the sake of protecting our Royal Family. I did nothing I will apologize for. Those people call themselves the Society of Vampires, does that not shock you? This is clearly the hint of a group of anarchists ready to take us down! I shall not let any group of thirsty vampires assert their dominance over our Kingdom!"