Law of Space and Time

Chapter 24-2: Shocking Assassination (2)

Her legs finally gave out from under her, and she collapsed onto the ground. Her face was already completely devoid of color, and she began to throw up mouthfuls of blood uncontrollably. At the same time, she was glowering at Jeff with a furious expression, wondering why he was so intent on killing her. She then grabbed onto the hilt of Black Blaze before pulling it out of her own body and tossing it aside with an agonized groan. Cold sweat was pouring down her face, and blood began to gush out of her stomach once again. At this point, the entire bottom half of her black dress had already been soaked in her blood.

She looked up at the sky and was overcome by a rush of dizziness. Her vision began to fade as a huge wave of exhaustion washed over her, but thankfully, Master Piro was able to catch her right before her head hit the competition platform.

Even though Jeff had already been restrained by several administrators and there wasn't a single part of his body that had been left unharmed, he was still frantically trying to claw his way toward Onean with all his might.

Master Piro took a glance at the grievous wound on Onean's stomach, then raised two fingers and fired a few spells directly at Jeff's spine and the back of his neck.

Jeff had already been severely wounded by Onean's magic, and after being struck in the spine by Master Piro's spells, he immediately collapsed to his knees and fell unconscious.

As for the spells that were flying toward the back of his neck, they were blocked by Prince Lazaar. Master Piro turned to Prince Lazaar with an expression of intense resentment, and Prince Lazaar looked right back at him with a hostile expression of his own.

Lana frantically shoved the administrators aside, then instantly burst into tears at the sight of the terrible condition that Jeff was in. His entire body was riddled with wounds and burns, and aside from his eyes, there was not a single part of his once-handsome face that was still recognizable.

Meanwhile, King Cameron hurried over to Onean's side, and his heart was filled with thunderous fury as he inspected the terrifying wounds on his daughter's body.

"What is the meaning of this, Lazaar?" he roared as he turned around to face Prince Lazaar. "Why was your son trying to assassinate my daughter?"

"The blame should fall entirely on me, Your Majesty." Prince Lazaar immediately fell to his knees. "I am willing to accept any and all repercussions of this unfortunate incident."

At this point, Governor Jenkins had also arrived on the scene, and he said in a grim voice, "Attempted murder on royalty is an extremely severe crime."

Lazaar knew that it wasn't wise to argue at a time like this, so he lowered his head and didn't say anything.

"Your Majesty, this is an extremely complex matter that must be treated with the utmost care. If you ask me, we should take Onean back for treatment first, then decide what to do about all of this once we return to the palace," Master Piro said in a low voice as he approached King Cameron.

King Cameron nodded in response. What Master Piro was implying was that Prince Lazaar held control over an extremely formidable army, so this incident really did have to be treated with extreme care and caution. He turned to Prime Minister Fuller with a meaningful look, and Fuller immediately understood what he wanted, calling the royal servants that accompanied the king onto the competition platform. The servants knew that their services would be required, so they were already waiting by the side of the competition platform.

Thus, Princess Onean was carefully carried out of the venue by a group of experienced royal servants, while Master Piro supervised the entire process. Prime Minister Fuller had already arranged a royal carriage, which was waiting outside the passageway.

None of the spectators present dared to utter even a single sound. Even as Onean was being carried away, she was dripping blood onto the ground. Thankfully, she was wearing a black dress, which made it quite difficult for the spectators to clearly see her terrible wounds.

King Cameron quickly departed from the venue, followed closely by Governor Jenkins and Prime Minister Fuller. Prince Lazaar offered Lana some words of gentle reassurance before also following along.

Lana knew that her father wanted her to stay behind to look after her brother. Truth be told, she was also extremely perplexed. Judging from Jeff's attacks, it was clear that he really had been doing everything in his power to kill Onean. As his sister, she was naturally extremely familiar with Jeff, so she was well aware of his attack patterns.

But why would he do this? There's no way Father would've instructed him to carry out such a blatant assassination attempt!

Lana couldn't understand why Jeff would suddenly decide to try and kill the princess in front of so many people.

All of the spectators were discussing the incident quietly among themselves when an administrator announced that the day of competition would draw to a conclusion here, but he made no mention of how the incident was going to be dealt with.

...

Erwin only woke up from his unconscious state at nighttime, so he completely missed the shocking incident that had taken place earlier in the day.

"Thank god you're finally awake," Larwood exclaimed with an exasperated expression.

Erwin got up and took a look, upon which he discovered that he was still in the same treatment tent, and Chase and Kaiba were both present as well.

"Something massive happened while you were unconscious," Chase said in a grim voice.

"What is it?" Erwin asked with a curious expression.

"During the match between Her Highness and Jeff, Jeff stabbed her twice, and it's still unclear whether she's dead or alive," Chase said.

"What?!" Erwin was so shocked to hear this that he almost fell out of the bed. "How could he do something so brazen?"

"We don't know. At the time, it looked as if Jeff had gone insane and wasn't going to rest until Her Highness was dead," Kaiba said.

"Where is Her Highness right now?" Erwin asked in a frantic voice.

"She's been carried back to the royal palace for treatment, and there haven't been any further updates," Larwood replied.

"What about Jeff?" Erwin asked.

"He's been locked up in the Fander Royal Prison," Larwood replied.

Erwin nodded in response as he came to understand just how serious this incident was. Generally speaking, all of the prisoners held captive in the Fander Royal Prison were political criminals who had committed extremely severe transgressions, such as treason, and being put into that prison was essentially the equivalent of a death sentence.

"So this is being treated as a political crime? Attempted murder on a member of the royal family?" Erwin asked.

"There's been no official verdict on what crime Jeff is going to be charged with. Prince Lazaar is currently still at the royal palace, and I heard that his manor has already been surrounded by the palatial guard," Chase replied as he turned to Erwin.

"What about Lana?" Erwin asked.

"We don't know what's happening with her. Maybe she's looking after her brother at the royal prison, maybe she returned to Prince Lazaar's manor. In any case, as she was departing from the tournament venue, she was escorted away by a bunch of administrators," Chase replied.

Erwin fell silent upon hearing this.

"This was an extremely suspicious incident," Larwood mused as his brows furrowed slightly.

"How so?" Erwin knew that Larwood had always been the most observant member of their group.

"Just like what Kaiba said earlier, it was as if Jeff had gone insane at the time, as if his objective was to kill Her Highness!" Larwood said as he thought back to the incident. "During the match, I saw him take many of Her Highness's spells head-on without even bothering to dodge. Isn't that really strange?"

"It is. By the time he was carried away, he was completely disfigured. I couldn't even recognize him anymore," Kaiba chimed in.

"That's why this is so suspicious! I've seen some fierce matches between people with prior bad blood during past editions of the Pillow Sword Tournament, but I've never seen someone carry out a suicide attack like this," Larwood said with tightly furrowed brows.

"Really? You've never seen anyone carry out suicide attacks? Why don't you take a look at Erwin over here? I can't seem to recall any match where he wasn't half-dead by the end!" Chase said with a cold smile.

Erwin could only heave a resigned sigh in response.

"That's not the same thing. Erwin's sole objective is to win, but Jeff didn't want to win, he wanted to kill Her Highness! Isn't that really suspicious?" Larwood countered.

"Exactly! There's barely been any interaction between them, so I can't see how there could be such a huge vendetta between the two," Kaiba said with a puzzled expression.

"Even if there is some type of hidden vendetta between the two, surely you'd have to be an idiot to carry out a revenge hit job during the Pillow Sword Tournament!" Larwood said.

"You're right. Could it be that Prince Lazaar is already so brazen and deranged that he instructed his own son to kill Her Highness during the match?" Chase asked as his eyes widened with shock.

"That makes even less sense! There's no reason for Prince Lazaar to do something like this," Larwood analyzed with a contemplative expression. "Even if he really does harbor some sinister intentions, how does it benefit him in any way to kill Her Highness?"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that. At the moment, the two most promising young magicians in the entire kingdom are Her Highness and Lana, so wouldn't it make sense that he would want to kill Her Highness so that Lana could be the undisputed number one young magician in the land?" Chase asked.

"If Prince Lazaar is that foolish, then he would've never been able to reach his current position. You think he would instruct his own son to attempt murder on royalty just so his daughter can be seen as the number one young magician in the kingdom? Even if we assume that's true, Jeff is no less powerful than Her Highness, so it would be far too massive a loss for him to sacrifice Jeff for this cause." As always, Larwood's analysis was very thorough and reasoned.

"Then why do you think Jeff suddenly tried to kill Her Highness as if he had gone insane?" Chase asked.

"How do you know he didn't actually go insane? If you ask me, he really did look like a madman during the match," Larwood said with a serious expression.

Erwin was becoming more and more frustrated as he listened to their argument. He wanted to know what condition Onean was in, but no one had any information for him. He wanted to know where Lana was, but no one knew the answer to that, either.

"I'm assuming there aren't going to be any matches tomorrow, right?" Erwin suddenly asked.

"Of course there aren't going to be any matches! Everyone from the tournament committee is investigating this incident," Kaiba scoffed. "Even if that wasn't the case, who even cares about the outcome of the tournament after something like this?"

"That's true," Erwin sighed.

"So what do we do now? Go back home?" Larwood asked.

Everyone else remained silent, and no one had any better ideas.