“Kings, queens, princes, princesses, ladies and gentlemen.” Seo speaks slowly deliberating, emphasizing on the ranks of royalty among us. “I have managed to find a blood link in the beast murders across three great lands and more than seven different regions.” She hands a memory card to a Darth Vader court official who slots it into a clean, sleek, metallic box. And a complicated-looking science chart appears on the walls to the left and right of the emblem.

“This shows the deliberate attempt by a group of people to upset the fragile peace that we have.”

“This is a bunch of moronic rubbish,” snaps Olympias.

Seo points to the haphazard lines leaping all over axis X and Y. “See where five of the lines meet. That, in scientific terms means the five test subjects, in this case, the dna from hairs found on the victims, are produced from one source. That leads us to the conclusion that someone wealthy and powerful beyond imagination has managed to buy a breeder vanguard. Or the possibility that someone has stolen one. The latter is less likely as there has been no reports of such thefts. The perpetrator is also too smart to steal one as this might raise unwanted suspicions. So the more viable option is to purchase one from the black market.”

Seo snaps her fingers and the screens flash picture of a logbook. “Now, black markets don’t deal with receipts or invoices but the people who run black markets keep a logbook. This logbook”—another snap zooms in a particular purchase made—“has a record of one mysterious buyer of a herd vanguard. In case you are unaware, a herd vanguard is a female queen vanguard that will produce anything from four to six vanguards every three months, if used to its maximum efficiency limit.”

“How does any of this relate to our trial today,” says a man in a blue and white striped shirt and a double-ed vest of crimson red.

Seo pays him courtesy with a nod. “Sir Vandyke, this purchase proves the intent to breed vanguards of an origin that is not known to the Sovereign. Therefore, the owner of the vanguards used in the cold-blood murders will be untraceable. Why would anyone need to keep their identity a secret? Unless they have a motive that is unjustifiable in a place like this.” The word ‘TRUST’ appears on the screens. Capped and bolded. “The culprit seeks to undermine the foundation of our treaty. But what would they stand to gain from it?” Seo holds up one finger. “Distrust.” Two fingers. “Unrest.” Three fingers. “Greed.” Seo lowers her hand. “They will stand a chance to rise up amongst the war between the supernatural and human realms. The humans will bring our existence to light and hunt us down. The supernatural beings and beasts will come out and kill without restraint. In this chaos, the culprit will ascend and assume leadership that promotes destruction of the other kind.”

“This is a far-fetched fairy tale,” says Charles.

Seo shakes her head. “Haven’t you felt the increasing tension as the brutal murders of humans increased and spread? Would you deny the increase of visits paid to the Federation by members of the Parliament? These are all logged. In the past month alone, the number of meetings between Parliament and Federation had doubled that of the same month a year ago. The concern is real. The unease is palpable. The things I say here are not far-fetched and I can only wish it were a fairy tale.”

“Still, you have no proof,” says Olympias.

“I do.” Seo turns to face the Sovereign and Parliament. “I have found the location of the herd vanguard.”

A collective gasp echoes in the room. “Where is it?” asks Edith, dropping the cloth, my wound forgotten.

“Deep in the vault of Grey Enterprise.”

A louder collective gasp rings out. “W-What?” Sesgo cries out. “They are the traitors?”

“They smuggle in a male to breed with the queen in their vault vans. Those are used to transport the vast amounts of cash revenue they rake in each month but every three months, there will be one extra trip made by one of their vans. We have surveillance on that.”

Edith picks up the cloth and hands it to me, gesturing for me to apply pressure to my wound. I do as she says and she rewards me with a kind smile. Meanwhile, chaos is breaking out amongst the Sovereign. Several of them have stepped to a side and are glaring at Bella. Bella, the flawless beauty I had imagined was a kind soul.

“You—” says Glazia as her bloody eyes narrow in disgust, “I knew we shouldn’t have trusted you. But you used your beauty to sway the votes and claimed this seat. Now we know why a vainpot like you would bother hold a position that requires you to spend time attending meetings instead of going for another beauty session.”

“I . . . see . . . darkness . . .”

“Shut up, Moho,” Bella barks. “You see darkness everywhere. You’d better have proof before you start accusing me of being part of this ridiculous plot.”

“That is not all,” says Seo. “We have also found evidence of an attempt at uncovering Taeyeon’s power. The culprits at that time were wary of Taeyeon’s unknown power, attention which would not have been paid to Taeyeon had they not been suspicious of Princess Pan Ni’s efforts to investigate the murders, evidenced by Praneso’s attempt to kill both Princess Pan Ni and her claim.”

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