Second Female Leads' Playbook

"Not just yet." Ralph laughed excitedly and then he removed the cloth covering the cage. 

I saw Carlisle raising his eyebrow in surprise. 

"Duke, do you remember this?" Ralph walked forward to show me to the Duke. 

The Duke stood up and took hold of the cage. He scrutinized me. 

"You found it?" he asked shakily. 

"No, Your Grace." Ralph then cried, "He didn't deserve to be the heir. This is a spy your dear son, Carlisle, sent to spy on you. Carlisle even planned to poison you! Luckily Mother found out just in time, so this spy knowing that she was exposed, escaped! Finally after days of searching, I captured this treacherous spy again."

Ralph just how quick were you to betray someone? I told him about how Carlisle used a blue bird, whom I said was Georgia, to spy on the Duke and I could pretend to be that blue as we looked very similar. He just had to dye my feathers blue. But Ralph turned it into a failed ȧssassination attempt. Spying on a Duke was a crime severe enough. But Ralph took it even further. 

"What?" One minister asked. "How can a bird spy or even kill someone?" 

"This is no normal bird. This is a guard who works under Carlisle. She has the power to shape-shift into a bird." 

The Duke who was standing in front of the cage began to shake. "Carlisle... you wanted to poison me?" 

Carlisle lips twisted into a cynical smile and walked towards the Duke. No one was fast enough to react and before anyone knew it, he had unlocked the cage and taken a step back. "Why don't we hear from the bird involved."

Fright flashes through Ralph's eyes for one second. What was he thinking when he lied in front of me? Did he think I would go along with his lies? Ralph then sneered and said, "Go and tell everyone what your ex-master did to you! I will plead for you. You're just being used by your master and then he discarded you." 

He seemed to be sure that I would push Carlisle to death because he left me to rot in his dungeon. He wasn't wrong. I hopped forward and out of the cage. I then shifted back into human. When I was about to open my mouth to greet Duke, I nearly chirped. I dug my fingers into my palm. I knew my brain was in the process of descending into the oblivion of a bird mind, but I had to persist till the end. 

Suppressing the urge to tilt my head and chirp, I greeted the Duke. 

"Who are you?"

"I am Arina, a member of Ivory Manor." 

"What's your role?"

"I was a guard for Lady Rosanne." I saw the Duke froze at the mention of Lady Rosanne. 

"Did... Rosanne..." 

I hung my head down the entire time. My palm started to throb. 

"No, Your Grace. It had nothing to do Lady Rosanne. I was under the order of Master Carlisle."

"So... Carlisle... you really..."

"I was under the order of Master Carlisle to spy on Master Ralph and the ambassador from the grassland tribe."

"What?" the Duke seemed taken aback. 

"You!" Ralph shouted in anger. He slapped me across the face to stop me from saying more. If Ralph took some time to think about it, he'd have realized that it simply didn't make sense to send me as a gift to the Duke to spy on him and the ambassador. But my bet was right. He was frightened that I would expose him, so he didn't think and acted rashly to try to stop me from saying more. But this act just showed that he had something to hide. 

He was quite strong to begin with and together with my exhausted body after days of torture, I collapsed on the floor. I wiped the blood dripping from my mouth with my hand and stood up. That was when I realized my palm was also dripping in blood. I tilted my head and stared at it. Then my hand was taken into the hold of another. A silk handkerchief pressed onto the wound. 

"Press on it! Do you want to bleed to death?" I tilted my head and looked up. It's Carlisle. Part of the reason why I tricked Ralph to bring me with him was to see Carlisle one last time. Guess my wish was fulfilled, I smiled wistfully. I pressed onto the wound. I realized my fingers had grown long and sharp. My repercussion was really uncontrollable now. 

He tilted my head up and placed his hand on my cheek. I tilted my head and looked at him. What was he doing? The place where he touched felt warm and the throbbing pain over my cheek seemed to reduce.

That's when I saw Ralph charging at Carlisle with a sword. Before I could warn Carlisle, he turned around and defended himself from Ralph's attack. The two brothers sparred for some time. At one point, it looked like Ralph was winning. But I knew better, Carlisle was just faking it. From the look of Carlisle's face, he looked bored. In the end, with a speed as quick as lightning, Carlisle's sword slashed through Ralph's arm and Ralph dropped his sword. 

Ralph, pressing onto his wound, shouted to save himself for the final time, "She's a liar! She's with Carlisle, of course she spoke for him! Carlisle wanted to kill you, Father!" 

Carlisle turned around and said, "What Arina said was the truth, I was spying on you and the ambassador from the grassland tribe. Your Grace, I found that Ralph was ȧssociating with the tribe leader. They even formed an alliance. He even agreed to let the tribe leader and his army in through the Orion Manor's fortress." 

Ralph's face turned whiter, but he immediately refuted, "Do you have evidence? Why would I do that?"

"My dear brother, you injured yourself," Carlisle said with a condescending smile that indicated fake sympathy. "Your Grace, here's their correspondences." Carlisle took out a stack of letters and handed them to the Duke. 

The Duke's hands began to shake as he read through the letters. After a few seconds of terrifying silence, he ordered, "Drag him to the dungeon."

"Those letters are fake! He forged them and implanted on me!"

"These letters have the chop of Orion Manor and your Manor's specialized ink! I can smell them a mile away! Drag him away!"

When the guards were dragging the struggling Ralph away passed by us, Carlisle stopped them and said, "Are you really under so much stress? Brother, you look so much slimmer! Where are your muscles? I thought you could get out of the hold of such guards easily with your power." 

Ralph looked confused and was quite shocked after he realized what Carlisle was implying. He looked around and tried to shake the guards off again, but failed. 

Carlisle leaned forward and whispered into his ear, "Be careful with what you eat, brother." He smiled. "I wonder what it feels to slowly lose your strength? Your hands, your arms, your feet, your legs..." 

Realization dawned on Ralph's face, he began to scream, but no one seemed to be paying him any more attention. Everyone was discussing the ways to reverse damage potentially done by Ralph. Ralph was dragged away. 

Carlisle turned around and saw me staring at him. He smiled and extended his hand. "Let's go home." 

I looked at my sharpened nails. The instinct to fly drumming in my head. The urge to peck at food and water. My aching heart. These all indicated the impossibility for me to go home. And be used as a tool by him again. 

I lowered my eyes and placed my hand in his. 

Farewell, Carlisle.