Invitation to the palace

CHAPTER 10

The capital was abuzz with the news of the broken engagement. The next day after Luther's visit, I was invited (more like forced to the Palace to see the Emperor and Empress who were waiting for me in their visitation room. I had peacefully got dressed in a navy blue gown when a maid ran to my room to inform me that some people from the Palace were there to pick me up, Laura and I went outside. My uncle and brother were already there, clearly agitated. Uncle wanted to come along with me, as did Alan, but only I was instructed to go. I rolled my eyes before calmly telling them to be calm and that nothing would happen to me. I could see that they didn't believe that but they didn't voice their thoughts 

To say the effort the Emperor and Empress tried to bulky me was laughable was a gross understatement. With Luther in the room looking all gloomy and pitiful like a child about to throw a tantrum, they tried to sweet talk me into retracting my statement. When that didn't work, they tried to threaten me with the fact that they were the royal family. I just laughed at them.

"Forgive me but it seemed you all are forgetting who I am." I began, starting at the three with a cold smile. "I am Alyssa Velcro, the heir of the Ancient and Noble House of Velcro. My family was ruling this land before the Empire was formed. In order to ensure peace and stability, my family was named one of the Pillars of this Empire. You all will invite civil war into your life if you so much touch the hair on my head. My uncle and my brother will not hesitate to proclaim war on the royal family and 2/3 of the distinguished houses of this Empire will stand behind me. Do not forget the reason why you begged and pleaded for my father to agree to the betrothal between I and Luther. So I ask you right here and now: do you want a civil war on your hands?"

The three before me were obviously pissed off, gritting their teeth and biting their tongue. I just stared at them with a look of disinterest. 

"I thought as much." I stood up from my seat. "You have no one but your son to blame for this current situation. If he wasn't whoring around and had remained faithful, hell, remained discrete about his wanton activities, we wouldn't be in this situation right now." I gave a curtsy and said, "Have a good day your highnesses."

I walked out of the room, feeling the enraged stares on my back. I walked calmly back to the carriage waiting for it to take me back home and when I stepped into my uncle's study, my uncle and brother bombarded me with questions. In the end, they two were infuriated about the audacity of the royal family. My uncle was silent and looked calm but his eyes were cold. He asked me if I was truly sure about my decision to break off the engagement with Luther and I answered positively without any hesitation. 

When I was undressing with the help of Laura, I gave her the instruction to deliver the copied documents to the capital's biggest news agency, and when she finished helping me dress in my indoor clothing, she went to do as told.

By evening, the corruption of the Byron family had spread like wildfire. Like I wanted, it had overshadowed the news of my broken engagement. I chuckled in amusement as I read the paper Laura had provided to me. The paper went ahead mention how the Byron family had made many attempts to assassinate me, and even my current attack seemed to be an intervention by the gods because the banner men they'd paid to kill me were instead killed by bandits whilst I managed to escape. Laura had informed me when she came back with more deserts for me that my uncle was fuming beyond comprehension. Even Alan was silent for once as he watched my uncle behave out of character. But who could blame my uncle? I was all but his daughter by blood and a man close to the Emperor had came close to kill his beloved niece – all because she was engaged to the Crown Prince. The paper even went as far as to suggest if the Emperor knew about this and didn't say a word because he knew the Bryon family. The paper then stated that the anonymous person who provided them with the evidence of the corruption happening in the Empire had told them that they had given the Empire's Inquisitor the same documents but nothing had been said. This had dragged Lord Nigel into the mess and I know that the man would do his best to detangle himself from the mess.

Uncle and Alan were making preparations to head over to the Palace and they looked ready to spill blood. They would be leaving with a handful of our family's skilled men and women. By now, the Byron family would have been arrested and taken to the Palace. Vice suddenly appeared with Dan via magically teleportation, making Laura to get into a battle stance for a mere moment before she relaxed when she saw who it was, to inform us that all the major houses in the Council had been called for emergency meeting. Oh, I just know uncle was going to rip them all a new one. And there was still more to come. I plan to release the other documents to the press that implicated other minor houses, with a handful of major houses, for their own corruption and evil deeds. If luck has it, in a few days heads would be rolling by the exposure of the various unchecked reasons happening in the Empire. 

I chuckled again, taking a sip of my wine.