Zylith.

"It was all you!" The livid Countess Wroth pointed her bony fingers at me and bellowed like a fanatic old wacko. I didn't think it was necessary to show any reactions to her futile accusations. Hence, I remained expressionless while only staring at her pitiful form without a word.

"How dare you point at a Royal!" Alexteris bellowed in sheer wrath. Let me tell you something, accusing a Royal of a felony without evidence was a treason all on its own. Now that the Countess Wroth dared to point her fingers at me, Alexteris had every reason to charge her of treachery. So I silently cheered for the guy when he stood up in my defence. You go Lexter! Show them who's the Man!

"N-No Your Majesty! I didn't mean tha-thaghh... She is the only one who had a reason to frame my family. I.. ghaah.... She must have seduced my grandson behind your back.... N-No! I did not mean that...Aaagghhh! What's happening!!" She screamed in frustration as she tried hard to stop herself from talking.

"Clodian, you....! My dear boy, tell them. Tell them the truth! Tell them how this sly vixen tried to lure you." Now the Countess was literally going bonkers, or so it seemed. On the other hand, her grandson was shaking his head from side to side as he clenched his teeth to stop his speech.

She grabbed his outer coat and shook him hard while screeching like the hag that she was, "Come on my boy, don't fear. Your grandmother is with you. Who is she? Just one of the many unscrupulous women in the King's harem, she will be thrown away sooner or later after she had been used enough. You have nothing to fear. Come say what the truth is! Your grandmother shall not let anything happen to you." At this point, the Countess Wroth had stopped trying to plug her mouth and openly bared her fangs at me, demonstrating very clearly that I was just a mere concubine and nothing more in her eyes.

The numerous onlookers on the sidelines drew in sharp breaths when they heard her uncouth words, furiously chattering amongst themselves while pointing fingers at her. Even if they thought of me as a mere laughable concubine, they were sensible enough to not bring those words to their mouths for fear of committing a treason. But now that the old Countess had so boldly insulted me in front of the noble gathering, they were baffled to say the least.

I was not shaken though, I never really thought of myself as a mere pathetic concubine. I never even considered myself as a married woman to be honest, even though Reuben claimed our marriage to be legit I never accepted this marriage from my heart. And I felt if my heart rejected such a union, I shouldn't be forceful towards myself and just go with the flow. So I had always only considered Reuben as a superior and a collaborator. So such insults didn't even make a dent on my self-worth. I only eyed her in disdain as I watched her destroy herself on her own.

"We would love to hear what Count Wroth has to say for himself as well." Alexteris sneered in contempt.

The revolting hog of a man quivered in desolation as he was forced to speak by Lord Xavier. "...Ahhhhgghh! ....I-I didn't, I was the one who desired the Queen. Ugghhh... I.."

"Clodian!!!" The Countess shrieked but she was held back by soldiers summoned by Alexteris.

"I wanted her the moment I saw her. Since Your Majesty can have any amount of women he wants, missing one or two is not really a loss to him, right?" At this moment, Clodian gave up trying to restrain himself as well since he realized he wouldn't be spared anyway.

Well of course he had bad intensions towards me. When I said that the grandson of Countess Wroth was famous, it was indeed a fact. But other than a great dancer, he was also rumoured to be a notorious flirt. But, there was a twist in this infamous rumour. There was an anonymous hushed buzz in the noble society about this young Count for quite a while. It was said that the Count was involved with many prominent ladies, and there was a similarity amongst all of them. Those prominent ladies were all either married or were engaged to be married.

So in a nutshell, he had a fetish with 'Taken Women'. But here is the catch, he was not into just any taken woman, his obsession was with the spouses of major players of the high society. He was obsessed with the accelerating feeling of a tough challenge and conquest over forbidden women. It was the most alluring crave to him and he was unable to resist it. Over the years, he was rumoured to be entangled with many such women, but he always managed to slip right through the hands of these cuckold bigwigs owing to the graces of the Queen Dowager.

The little old me found out about the interesting gossip from the mouth of my exceptionally reliable minion Liana's momma, Casandra. As the head maid of the Queen Dowager, Casandra was in the centre of all the cloak-and-dagger scandals. So, I had the foremost privilege of knowing about the most hush-hush hearsays of the noble society.

"YOU DARE?" Alexteris rushed to him and grabbed him by the collar in a mad fury.

And he started laughing erratically, "Haha... Hahahaha!! Why wouldn't I dare! My grandmother is the chief aide to the Queen Dowager herself and its not like she..." And he looked at me with the obscenest lascivious eyes anyone could ever see oneself, "is the Sovereign Queen. As grandmother said, she is just a mere concubine. So why wouldn't I dare."

"Clodian! Have you gone mad? What are you saying?" Countess Wroth looked more haggard than she ever did as she struggled to break free from the clutches of the royal guards. She seemed like she wanted to run to her grandson to clog his mouth with her hands.

"Ahhhhggggg! It's all your fault grandmother! Its all your fault." Now the man looked like a mad bull with crazy red eyes glaring holes at the old Countess. "If you didn't plot against the first Queen and tempted me to this party with gold to ruin her reputation, I would never have ended up like this! It's all your fault!" He wrestled wildly to break free from the knights who had him in shackles so he could rush to his grandmother to attack her. Yup! This guy looked nuttier than the Hatter!

The spectators whizzed in another bout of sharp air when they heard Clodian's words and the ballroom was rattled with hissing chatters and murmurs once more.

Old Countess Wroth had a look of pure incredulity, she took a step back as she stared at this dear grandson of hers with devastated eyes. She now knew what it felt like to be betrayed by one of her dearest. She almost lost her footing at such a daunting notion.

"You.... You ungrateful little!" She glared back at her supposed grandson with such hurt and fury that it could shake a person's core. But the rabid Count Clodian only felt scorn for this grandmother of his and glared back at her with blame and mockery. "I see, I see now. It seems I have raised a white-eyed wolf all these years." She scoffed at herself in turn.

[WHIITE-EYED WOLF : Ungrateful cretin]

She hung her head low in regret and utter disappointment, as though she had lost the battle of her life. I looked at this duo of grandmother and grandson and jeered in disdain. They were a joke in the name of family. Their hearts were as black as a cauldron, all they could ever acknowledge was power and money. In front of power, all else was mere dust in their shoes. These kinds of beings were the epitome of TRASH.

Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by the voice of the Countess Wroth, "Since I and my family have been pulled down to such a pathetic state, I do not want to shrink back from speaking the entire truth now."

I raised an amused brow to her words. I knew the Countess could not be the sole accomplice in this entire charade. She was indeed bold, but she was no idiot. She was not audacious enough to try and pull such ruthless schemes on her own. A powerful figure had to be behind her for her to be so daring. I thought that powerful figure was the Queen Dowager but it seems my presumptions were wrong when I saw her eyeing the Princess while she spoke.

I raised both of my brows at that. What a pleasant surprise.

Well, now that I think about it, it shouldn't really be a surprise as Princess Cordelia was Countess Wroth's favourite disciple.

"No matter a consort or a Sovereign Queen, Queen Elizabeth is still royalty. As such, how could I dare to take actions against a royal without the backing of any powerful authorities." She kept staring at Princess Cordelia all the while as she talked.

On the other hand, the Princess visibly blenched as she seemed to have realized what the Countess was about to reveal in front of the crowd. She looked as pale as a ghost and no longer had the prior haughtiness about herself.

The Queen Dowager as well, looked at her daughter with eyes of discontent. Why did it look like the Queen Dowager was not aware of the Princess's arrangements?

"I had never met Queen Elizabeth before I was summoned to the castle, how would I hold such animosity against a stranger." The Countess was like a rambling irate machine now, spilling everything in her gut. "If it weren't for the Princess_"

"I dare you to speak any more nonsense Countess Regina Wroth!" Queen Dowager Beatrice's mallow but firm voice abruptly interjected the old Countess's words in mid-sentence.

The Countess looked at the Queen Dowager in alarm. "Countess Wroth, at first your esteemed grandson and heir to the Wroth family dared to lay his filthy hands on my royal daughter-in-law, and then you dared to accuse the Royal against whom your grandson have been so impertinent, of an utterly indecorous crime without any evidence. And now, you dare to point your fingers against another Royal without evidence!? The way I see it, it seems the learnt Countess wants to sow discord amongst the Royal family." Queen Beatrice's clear-cut voice gave off the illusion of a royal verdict being decreed. Begrudgingly so, she was every bit the Royal that she portrayed and no one who was present in the ballroom could ever refute that.

All of a sudden, Countess Wroth was noticeably sweating under the intimidating sharp gaze of the Queen Dowager.

"N-No! No Your Majesty, I-I...."

"Countess Wroth, do you comprehend that your offence is grave enough to bury your entire household six-feet under the ground?" The Queen Dowager asked in a poised tone and the pitiful Countess shuddered in absolute fright.

"No! No Your revered Highness! Please have mercy on my innocent family. It is... it is all my doing. I should be the only one to carry the burden of my crimes. My Liege, this humble subject implores you to spare the innocent. I beg you to spare the innocent!" Countess roared in anguish as she got on her knees and grovelled on the ground.

The observers had varied kinds of looks on their faces. Some looked at the Countess and her grandson in derision while other could only show pity, and there were the ones like me, who had an impassive mask on as if all of this farce had nothing to do with them.

And finally, the verdict was passed.

"Ye heed all of thee. Listen to the Decree passed by the Royal descendants of the Holy Goddess Alzyriel. Thee shall obey and receive the punishment bequeathed to the Countess Regina Wroth and Count Clodian Wroth. Owned to the crimes of attempting to sully a Royal, the Countess and Count of the Wroth house of Nobles shall hereby be beheaded at the earliest of morrow, when the sun is at its agleam. Thou shall accept this decree and thank thy Heavens and the benevolence of Her Royal Highness, Queen Beatrice Brikenhead The Regalious." The lead chamberlain sang in a gratified condescend tone.

The word 'Sully' didn't really sit well with me. I mean, What the heck! Who the hell uses the word 'Sully'. It's as if I was raped and torn apart and thrown into some shady ditch without any hope of survival. Okay, that was pretty dark. But oh well, you get the gist right? That's what I felt like when I heard the word 'Sully' in the middle of the chamberlain's chorus of verdict.

I silently sighed as I watched both the Wroth duos being dragged out of the ballroom after they were sentenced to death. It was not that I didn't feel guilty about being the cause of someone's death, but Countess Wroth was a key figure in the Nobles circle. She held immense power over the Nobles faction. She had to go. Though I think she would've been spared if she didn't speak against the Princess. There was one thing that I noticed today about Queen Beatrice, her Achilles' heel, was her child. For such a ruthless and unyielding figure, it was quite surprising to see her so protective over her daughter. Loosing Countess Wroth was like loosing one of her limbs, but the Queen Dowager didn't bat an eyelash before ordering to behead her the moment she turned against her daughter. I don't know whether I should applaud such motherhood or revel in the fact that I discovered one of the impenetrable Queen Dowager's weaknesses.

After all that was said and done, the Queen Dowager came to me but somehow, I felt her eyes held a deep-seated look when she gazed at me, "Are you alright dear?" She muttered in a warm tone.

"Yes Queen Mother, thanks to you." I put on a weak thankful smile.

"Oh! How dare anyone bully my royal daughter-in-law right under my nose. You can rest assured and let me handle such wicked shrews in the future. This Queen Mother will not let anyone bully her daughter-in-law." She smiled in a tender manner, as though she meant every word, but I knew better. Princess Cordelia behind the Queen Dowager had a very odious look on, but I pretended as if I saw nothing and continued to interact with the Queen Dowager with a nice smile on. "I thank you for your kindness Queen Mother."

"Oh! And by the way, your performance today was flawless." She smiled and the people around also nodded in accord, congratulating and praising me for an impeccable performance.

I thanked them in courtesy and one by one, all of them retire for the day. Hence unbeknownst to all, I got a satisfactory result out of this ordeal.

"Unexpectedly, you have exceeded my expectations." I heard the first words of praise from the stingy mouth of Alexteris.

To be Continued..........