Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Who did it?

"Excuse me, Taliyah. What did you say again? " I asked Taliyah. She was busy packing something.

"My sister, Evyanah. She said she went to the tower to deliver something. " I have a very scratchy head.

Evyanah? I looked at Jasper and Jayden who was also listening to what Taliyah said. Good thing I didn"t mention that the one who delivered it was a young lady

"Evyanah? What did she deliver? " Jayden asked this time out of curiosity.

"Huh? I don't know, I just saw him going to the wizard course. " She replied, she also wondered why we were asking. "Wait, are you suspecting my sister?"

We looked at each other again, I gasped.

"Actually we're not sure yet." Should I tell her too? The wizard students didn"t mention how many people delivered what. Damn, we should"ve asked them about that too.

"We should tell Sir Leo about this." Jasper suggested, Jayden and I nodded.

"Tell something about what?" –Taliyah.

"It's not what we suspect your brother is but it looks like that." Jayden slapped Jasper for what he said.

"We just want a few explanations from you. We will ask Evyanah later. " Taliyah seemed to understand what we said.

"D-did my sister do it? I don"t think she"s that kind of person. " Taliyah explained to us. I tapped her shoulder.

"We're not sure yet but we're about to find out."

We told Sir Leo about it, he said that we should finish our class first and so we did.

*******************
We are all here in the STUDENT COUNCIL ROOM.

All of us members of the student council are also here, including Taliyah to talk about what she saw.

"Your sister? She went to deliver something? " asked Art.

"Yes, is she the culprit? I mean- "

"We are not sure yet, the victims said that the woman delivered the package containing the potions." I think Gray is in a mood right now.

I was just sitting the whole time listening to what they are saying, and I could feel someone is glaring at me. I should probably apologize for leaving him. I feel guilty now.

"Woman? Someone else can deliver then. " –Taliyah.

"Not so sure about that too. Every Saturday the delivery store is closed because they have a day off that day. " Art stated. "I went there yesterday, they said they didn't receive what was supposed to be delivered on Saturday at school."

"Teacher Merlin also said that he did not deliver anything to the tower." Gray added.

"You"re not covering for your sister are you?" Alistair uttered.

Her eyelids drooped and she looked down. She was also shaking.

"O-of course not. "Taliyah responded in a weak voice.

I sighed and stood up, they are seriously giving her so much pressure.

"Ok let me take it from here. Don't scare him, he doesn't seem to know what his brother did either. " I approached Taliyah. "Tell me, what happened…?"

"Uh… uhm… Uh- yes." Stuttering he says. I sighed.

"Taliyah, before you left the room with your sister. Wherever you go, you were having a mental breakdown that time. I"ll ask you again, what happened? "

I think I scared her more.

"Uh-"

"Taliyah, don't make me repeat what I said." His mouth was shut. She inhaled and exhaled like she"s ready to tell me everything

"I- we went in our room. We share rooms and we stayed there for a few minutes so she can calm me down. "

I sat down in front of her and gave her a ‘go-on-continue" look.

"I fell asleep because of don, but when I woke up he was no longer beside me. So I went out to find her, it only took me a few minutes to sleep. Which means it's not too far away. "

"But I saw her in front of the wizard course building. I was calling her but she wasn"t listening, and she was carrying a box. It looks like a delivery box or something so I thought he was ordered to deliver it to the tower. "

"I didn"t care that much since I thought she would not and I don"t want to bother her. So I went back to our room. She came back after that maybe but she collapsed in the bed, probably because she was tired of delivering? I really do not know."

Napaisip naman ako… Evyanah did that? But she looks innocent.

"We should go and ask her." I said let's go together.

"There are still holes in what Taliyah is saying. Let"s go. "

We went to Taliyah and Evyanah's room together.

We asked permission if the boys could enter the dorm, they agreed since they are members of the Student Council.

Jayden and Jasper were busy talking about something, Art went to join them while Gray is explaining something to Alistair. Pretty sure Alistair is busy glaring at me. I just sighed and held Taliyah on the shoulder.

"I"m sorry in advance, Pri- June. I really don't know what my brother did. " Taliyah's gentle response to me.

"We still didn"t know that yet, let"s wait till your sister explain. Ok? " it nodded weakly because of what I said.

Taliyah knocked before entering, we followed. The room was huge as expected since they are from the other Kingdom.

We saw Evyanah sitting on the edge of their window, stunned. Did you come in? I looked at Gray, as if he understood what I was referring to. He slowly shook his head meaning Evyanah didn't enter.

"Evy." Taliyah calls her sister. Evy looked at us, she was kind of sick or something.
"A-ah Sister! P-Prin- "he immediately bowed repeatedly when he saw us.

Taliyah made us sit on the sofa and Evyanah approached her with a confused look on her face.

"Did you come in today, Evy?" Taliyah asked the sister.

"I-I"m sorry, sis. My head didn't suddenly hurt. " We just listened. He did not enter? Why?

"They are here to ask you questions about the incident on Saturday." –Taliyah

"Incident? W-did something happen on Saturday? " Evyanah asked in shock. She still looks pale as if she is sick.

He know's nothing? Weird.

"Yeah, Princess was chased by the students from the wizard course." Evyanah looked at me with concern on her face.

"A-are you ok now, Princess?" he asked worriedly.

We were suddenly startled by a loud bang from Alistair's side.

"Oop- calm down Al. You are shocked. " –Art

"Cut the act. What did you do to the students in the wizard course? " Alistair snapped.

"A-me? I-I didn"t do anything to them, your highness. " Evyanah answered. Her voice was shaking probably because Alistair yelled at her.

"Let"s put the details then. Someone delivered something in the tower, the victims said it was a young lady. Not only that, you are a wizard too. " -Gray

"S-so you"re blaming me? You didn't see me go d-don. " - Evyanah.

"We didn't, but your sister did." - Jasper

"S-sister… saw me?" Evyanah turned to her sister, Taliyah was looking on the ground. "I-

"We"ll ask you the same. When Taliyah and you left, where did you go? " I will ask.

"Hi-I don"t remember, I d-don"t know what happened that day. I really can"t remember anything except calming my sister down in our own room. " Evyanah was already crying.

"Are you lying-" –Art

"NO! I swear I"m not. " Evyanah sobbed. I sighed and glared at Art, he raised both of his hands meaning he"s shutting up.

"It's ok, tell us what you remember from the very start." She was still confused but she was ready to tell everything.

"W-we went in our room so I can calm her down. After I calmed him down, he fell asleep, I would have gone to sleep in case there was a knock on the door. "

"I got up and went to open the door."

"Who was at the door?" I glared at Art again, he"s interrupting Evyanah!

"It was Seraphina."

What?

"S-seraphina? Why did he do this? " Taliyah was also surprised by what Evyanah said.

We just kept quiet and waited for his explanation.

"She came here because she saw Taliyah crying. She thought it was June"s fault so she went right away to comfort her, but Taliyah fell asleep. " I raised my eyebrow.

I made Taliyah cry? Excuse her-

"What? Princess didn"t do anything to me! SHE DID THIS TO ME! SHE- "

"Sister calm down." Whenever Taliyah heard Seraphina"s name or some incident that involved Seraphina it would suddenly disappear.

"What did she do next?" Jayden asked while tapping her fingers on the table in front of her.

"W-well she gave us something to eat. Since we haven't eaten before either. I accepted it since I want to be her friend too. We are family now. " Evyanah looked down while Taliyah was clenching her fists. "M-mother told us to be kind to her since she's new to the family."

"Why? What happened to your family before Seraphina came? " This time Jasper asked the question I wanted to ask.

Taliyah sighed and looked at her sister with a nod. Evyanah took a deep breath.

"W-well, we live in one of the palaces in the Gremlin Empire. We live as a happy family there, with my mother, father, my older sister, Taliyah and me. "
"We don't really have any problems as a family and we didn't let our parents down at anything even in school."

"But when Mama and Papa went to the village of the Gremlin Empire they saw Seraphina there. We didn"t really know what happened that time since we didn"t come and we weren"t allowed to come. "

"We don"t know what Seraphina did to our parents. We were surprised when they brought home a woman from the village at the same time saying that we were missing her cousin. " This time Taliyah spoke.

"Papa explained that this is his sister's missing child. We do know that papa has a sister but she"s already dead when she gave birth to the child. "

Seraphina has a possibility but does she have some mark? Or something that she"s really the lost child? Im confused.

"The thing is, the baby died along with its mother. The husband committed suicide after hearing that his wife and child had died. That"s what he told us, but when a pendant from Seraphina was shown, they immediately believed. It was a pendant that represents the Clement family, Auntie's husband. "

"Of course it was weird since Dad said that Auntie's son was dead. They made her a princess and educated her like us. We don"t really have a problem with her but then she starts messing with the family. "
"Since Seraphina doesn"t have any parents, she starts calling mother and father like her real parents. It wasn"t supposed to be allowed, because only the legitimate child should be able to call it that. But they were happy to hear Seraphina saying that, and we let it slide. "

"Older sister, Amiyah was the top student in our school. She was good at everything until Seraphina came. She cheated her way up to the top seat and framed it on my sister. We believed in Amiyah since she has evidences and we saw it too. But our parents let it slide again. Saying Amiyah didn"t do her best and creating false accusation towards Seraphina. "

"Next was the invitation the King sent from the Gem Empire, it was a sudden invitation. Said that the 10th seat in the Queen Candidate is needed and invited my sister Amiyah since she"s the older than us. But Seraphina insisted to be the one who wants to join, but Amiyah also wants to join since she always wanted to see the prince so she didn"t back down. Sad part is that Seraphina was chosen by our parents, now my sister gave up on everything. Amiyah didn"t do her best anymore and stopped talking to us. "

"It was all her fault that our family became a mess." Taliyah said softly. "And our parents are still asking us to treat her well. AFTER ALL SHE"VE DONE? "

Evyanah just sighed.

"So when Seraphina went here, she gave you some food and left?" Evyanah nodded at Jayden's question.

"Can I see the food she gave you?" Gray asked. Evyanah stood up and took the food.

"I ate a little and went to sleep afterwards. When I wake up, my head hurts. I didn"t remember doing anything that day, I thought I was just sleeping. " –Evyanah said while giving Gray the food.

"This…" Gray mumbled.

"This food is mixed with a potion spell."

I stood up at what Gray had said and took the bread he had observed.

"You ate one of these breads?" Evyanah nodded.

"Hmm? How does she know anything about potions when magic isn"t her specialty? " Art stated while rubbing his hands in the back of his neck.

"I-I don"t know. I don't know where he came from like that. We don"t really know anything about her. " Evyanah explained.

"Hmmm should we ask her then?" Jasper replied. It seems like they still didn"t agree with Evyanah"s explanation.

"We can ask her, do you know if her room is asana?" Jayden stood once the door opened.

We all got up and went out to go to Seraphina"s room, it wasn"t that far. I knocked and the door opened immediately.

"Oh princess!" She greeted me happily, she saw me and the others so she opened the door properly. "What brings you all here?"

She was looking innocent and she was smiling like she didn"t do anything.

"We're here to investigate something." Gray said. "Let us in and we will get this over with."

Seraphina let us all in. Gray, Art and Jasper were walking around the room while me, Jayden, Evyanah and Taliyah just took a seat in the sofa. Alistair was just standing and staring at Seraphina, who was confused why w"re here.

"What did you put in this bread?" Gray asked Seraphina once out of the bread that Evyanah ate on Saturday. Seraphina scratched her head.

"I didn"t bake that. I bought in the store, in the village. Why? Is there anything there? " Seraphina asked in astonishment.

"This bread has a potion spell on it, Evyanah said you bought it in their room on Saturday." –Art

"Potion spell?" –Seraphina.
"Ok, don"t act dumb. You gave it to them, it has an order spell on it. If you ate it or smell the smog of it you"ll faint and will be under a spell in just minutes. " Gray explained annoyingly.

"Excuse me? How should I know any about spells? Why are you accusing me when you didn"t have enough evidences? " Seraphina crossed her arms, her voice was still angelic and innocent as ever.

"Evyanah said you gave her the bread-

"Yes I did, what is wrong with that? I gave her some snacks and foods. Since I saw Taliyah crying when they are talking with the princess. I thought Princess June made her cry so I rushed to comfort her but she was asleep. " I raised an eyebrow at Seraphina's explanation. "As her step sister, I feel hurt seeing her cry-

"Shut up you two faced fake! The princess never made me cry! " Taliyah snapped. "Stop calling me sister! I don"t want your comfort! You made me feel this way, stop blaming the princess! You-

Evyanah calmed him down again.

"S-sister." Seraphina covered her mouth like she was surprised to hear that from Taliyah. "I-I never knew you hate me. I- "

Seraphina was also about to cry. Where are we headed for this?

"Jayden, please take Taliyah to her room." She immediately nodded, Evyanah was about to follow but I stopped her. he sat down immediately.

"I never thought she would think of me that way. I treated her like my own sister too. " Tears filled her eyes and sat in front of us. Is she faking her tears? I think I have seen that before, when I accidentally hurt her in the past.

"I s-swear I didn"t do anything to the bread. I don"t even know anything about-

"Stop lying, Seraphina." I was surprised when Evyanah interrupted Seraphina. She was like a complete different person. "Y-you did it, didn"t you?"

"S-sister?" Seraphina was also surprised. But immediately calm down and smiled like she thought of something.

"Lets get this over with, you gave me a bread that contains the potion spell and puts a spell on me. You ordered me to go to the tower and deliver something-

"Of course not. Why would I? I was just giving you something to eat? Why would you blame me of something I didn"t do? " cut by Seraphina.

"Are you sure you didn't do it yourself? I mean I heard you have a thing for the Prince too. Yet you passed the blame on me. "

We were all silenced by what Seraphina said. Evyanah likes Alistair?

"I have a thing for the prince, but I won"t go that far. Hurting the princess is a big no no! " Seraphina added. "Why don"t you show them your true colors?"

Evyanah looked at us all. She was looking down right now. She was shaking, I think she was shaking because of something. A hidden word?

"No, stop! I I didn"t! "

"What was that again? Cat got your tongue? Did you forget that you all told me that you liked the prince and you also wanted to be in the Queen Candidate? " Seraphina stoop up and act like she was thinking. "HUUh? Don"t tell me you forgot that? "

We were surprised when Jayden suddenly came in holding a potion bottle.

"I saw this under the bed in Taliyah's room." Evyanah was still looking down.

"Evyanah, did you do it?" I asked. Alistair was still silent and still staring at Seraphina while Gray, Jasper and Art stopped going around the room.

"The room is clean" –Art said.

"Yep, no bottles of potion or anything here." –Jasper added. Gray nodded like he agreed that they really didn't see anything.

"Then there"s a possibility that you lied about what you said Evyanah, first there is no one else who witnessed Seraphina except you. Second she"s a political course student and magic isn"t her expertise. Next is the motive, there is also a possibility that you want to hurt June. Last is maybe you were just acting? Not sure." Gray said whle writing on his notebook.

"N-no. Wait. I do like the prince but I- I didn"t do it! Evyanah pleaded. She was looking at me, her eyes wasn"t lying.

"This investigation is over, we're telling the teachers." Alistair intervened and walked right outside. Gray followed. We were left in Seraphina"s room dumbfounded.

****************************************
(Author"s POV)

"Hah, I can"t believe they fall for that shit" Seraphina was at her room laughing. "Are they that dumb? Damn, good thing Evyanah didn"t make a huge fuss about it. "

"Well what can I say? I have her sister"s life. She can"t do anything about it and she cant even ask for their help. Poor Princess "she added as she stood with the window open.

But what she didn"t know is that Gray was right outside her dorm, listening to what she"s saying.

"Good thing Alistair thought of this." Gray whispered. Remembering what Alistair ordered him to do.

‘Investigate on Seraphina more, even if she"s the culprit. We will not first prove that he is at fault. She planned this kind of incident neatly. She might have something bigger off her sleeves, let it slide this time so we know what she's really up to in the future. '

To be continued...