“My name is Commander Adrian Benretti, I wish to know exactly what happened here.”

His voice was deep and commanding, He stared at the uninterrupted crime scene with a stoic face as he spoke and Jean seemed a little bit intimidated by the man.

…….

“Damn it!!”

The duke slammed his fist on to the table in anger and frustration. He hadn’t expected for things to suddenly go wrong so quickly not to mention the target is going to be far more difficult to capture now. He grit his teeth and a vein popped on his forehead. If his eyes were not deceiving him then what he saw earlier meant that the target either had a twin or she has clones and not only that but the one he was seeing right was possibly a clone as well.

While he was thinking about what had happened, Shian the butler appeared as a black Sludge that rose from the floor and took a kneeling stance, his face looking down on the floor no daring to look him in the eyes.

“my lord I apologize for my failure”

He said his voice laced with great regret and his heart expectant of a punishment, however the duke paid him no heed as he waited for the servant sent by the king to arrive at his door and knock.

*knock* knock*

“enter”

The door opened revealing an elderly butler.

“your grace, his majesty wishes to speak with you”

The elderly butler informed, with the duke giving him a nod acknowledging that he had received the message. Seeing that his message was properly taken the butler closed the door, not bearing the silence of his lord Shian spoke.

“What do you wish for me to do now that the target has Gerrick within her grasp and what of my failure?”

“Get me a book pertaining to law, I need to know what things I can get away with, I want it here by the time I get back from the audience with the king and as for your punishment it’s simple, kill Garrick by all means if you fail a second time then I don’t need you”

It was pointless wasting time on punishing Shian right now, things had not gone as he wanted and they needed to be rectified, in order to attain Gerrick Shian will have to engage the target in combat which will allow him to get a grasp at her power and skills and help him come up with a plan.

“Yes my lord!”

Shian disappeared and The Duke got up from his chair and exited the room and went to meet with the king.

……..

[Saxonwold Mansion]

The room was silent with only the sound of knights cleaning up the blood that was left after they had took away the body, which had required a lot of furniture had to be moved to make things easier as such the room looked quite barren with only a few people at the corner having a conversation concerning the event, Elia and Jean had finished detailing the previous event to the Commander.

“are you telling me that one of our Kingdom's Nobles is the cause of this”

The commander asked, he had heard what they said yet he still found it unbelievable however the fact that they reported the crime makes unlikely that they were the perpetrators, however it was possible they self-reported to take the suspicion off themselves but then again why commit a crime in your own house and then report it? It was best not to speculate.

“I know it may sound unbelievable Commander but please this warrants an investigation at the very least”

Morris added in a pleading tone, in hindsight it was quite the terrible idea to bring the Commander here without first clearing the scene and getting rid of the body, the likelihood of everyone being charged for murder or accomplices to a murder is rather high.

“I understand Morris but you understand I can’t just trust your word for it now can I? and besides this girl here is a Saxonwold who’s to say that Her family didn’t plan this to slander or frame some poor nobles family and take it’s rank”

The patriarch to the Benretti Knight house expressed as his eyes looked down on the pale girl before him, the Saxonwold are known(not really) to be quite treacherous, he would not put it past her father to try frame another noble family just to attain its rank, Harold was certainly shrewd and calculating enough to come up with such machinations after all why else would he spend so much time in his territory if he wasn’t planning something.

“Excuse me?!!”

Elia asked in a tone that suggested that she was quite surprised by the man’s words, one would think that keeping a certain level of professionalism was necessary but it seemed that was not the case or at least not the case for the Benretti family.

“what? I’m sure you, yourself are aware of your own family’s ways”

He continued. Speaking as if his words were true and obvious which in turn caused Elia to frown, she made no attempt to hide her displeasure and frustration, this man was clearly asking for trouble and she did not appreciate him slandering her family.

“Excuse me Sir, but I will not have you insult the Saxonwold house like this, such slander cannot be appreciated and certainly not in front of the young miss”

Jean spoke as he took a step forward with his sword at his waist gripping, he shielded Elia with his arm as he did, regardless of how intimidating the man was, Jean was a knight of the Saxonwold family to watch someone slander its honor was unacceptable.

“like Father like daughter, I suppose having a loser Father makes loser children, such a shame. With that kind of attitude you’ll never be anything more than a knight house”

Elia responded, feeling a great deal of annoyance, she had hoped the father would be to some extent sensible, she wondered if the feud between the two families was truly just about one family losing a title to another, maybe there was something deeper she didn’t know but even so it did not Excuse the man from such rude behavior.

“Is that how you speak to your elders brat?! It seems Harold failed in raising you”

He spoke with clear anger in his tone, tolerating disrespect from a child was definitely something he was not willing to do and he was definitely not going to take such disrespect from the prepubescent child of the Saxonwold house, however Because he was still on duty he would have to take it, to dishonor the knights by retaliating with violence against a child is not something he was keen to do, a strongly worded letter to Harold should do.

“Ahem! Commander Benretti, if we could get back to the topic at hand”

Morris interrupted the conversation, he felt like rolling his eyes at the exchange, Noble families tend to have feuds all the time but they’re far more subtle and most know how to separate personal matters from business, he supposed Lower rankings families were much simpler in their approaches to feuds.

“Very well sir Morris, For the time being the knights will take the body to be examined by a doctor and we’ll take the arrows to mages and have them identify the type of magic used on them”

He explained with stare directed at Elia which had caused Jean to feel the need to stand before her, it easy to realize that the Commander was quite emotional and was led more by his emotions than anything else.

“However none of you are you leave the city, and there’ll be a security stationed here to keep an eye on you till the investigation is over, I’ll take my leave for the time being but I’ll return.”

The Commander explained and once he finished he shook hands with Morris who then gave his thanks and expressed everyone’s willingness to cooperate with the investigation before the Captain left along with the body and his knights.

........

A/N: fueds between families just suck, especially ones that have been going on for generations. Like why tf should I care if some old guy did something to some old guy in your family a hundred years ago, i wasn't there, just let me live my life bruv.

Anyway, Comment your thoughts and suggestions please.

How Yuji scaring the dogshit out of Mahito huh? HIM movements I tell you.