The Princess With The Jet Black Hair

[Fiore's castle, Library]

"Have you found anything?" The queen asked as she walked into the room gracefully to meet Anna.

Anna raised her head and turned to meet the gaze of the prestigious figure. Her expression became slightly downhearted as she processed the queen's question. She then bent forward to give a sincere yet apologetic bow, "My apologies, your majesty. I still can't find anything related to this symbol."

The queen nodded as to acknowledge Anna's apology, before sighing to herself. "No worries, it's fine. Did you find anything else?"

Upon hearing the question, Anna quickly pulled out a thick book under the pile of reports and notes. "Well, even though I didn't find much, I'm sure that the symbol is a seal of some kind. Since I can't find a similar symbol, I'm guessing that this might be an ancient seal." She concluded.

"I see. If that's the case, then I think it's time to ask him about it..." The queen said almost silently.

"Your majesty, do you mean Noct?" Anna questioned.

The queen smiled and replied, "Yes, you're right. He is coming back soon. I think he wouldn't mind if we ask him for a little help. If I'm not wrong, he should be at Rosavalley as we speak. So, he should be able to drop by the Library there to do a little research."

The queen then stood up and headed for the door, "I'll send the information to him myself."

"Your majesty, I can do it if you want," Anna suggested as she went forward to open the door for the queen.

"It's fine, I can do that on my own." She replied as she retained her smile, "You should get some rest now, you didn't get a wink of sleep since yesterday, right? Well, even though you can't find much, you still did well, so good work."

Anna then bowed courteously before sending the queen out, "Yes, your majesty."

[Fiore's castle, hallways]

Emily walked briskly through the hallways, trying to find Jai. However, she was just walking nowhere.

She did not know where should she start searching, so she ended up pacing back and forth in the hallways of the second level.

"Okay Emily, think! Let's see... the last place I saw Jai was the garden... Nah, they might already be done with breakfast. BUT, there's still a little possibility that they might be there... Right? I mean, Ben said that I have good intuition, so I should be right." Emily thought to herself as she headed to the garden.

After a couple of minutes of walking, she reached the scenic garden.

Sadly, she was greeted by no one. There was not a single living soul in the garden.

With her last ray of hope broken, she was back at square one. "Ooookay, maybe I don't have great intuition... Now, where should I go? I need to hurry up too, otherwise, something bad might actually happen this Erik guy."

Just then, a calming breeze grazed against her face as if it was trying to keep her in check.

"What are doing here, Emily?" An alluring voice called out from behind.

"Oh, hey... Ben." She greeted awkwardly as she remembered her rather sudden burst during breakfast.

On the other hand, Ben walked nonchalantly towards Emily, as if oblivious to her behaviour earlier in the morning. "What or who are you looking for? You seem a little anxious than usual."

Just he asked, she replied almost instantly, "Where's Jai? I need to find him as soon as possible. The phantom who you guys caught might be Zack's cousin. I'm not a hundred per cent sure myself, but I think there's a high chance that he is indeed Zack's cousin. So, we can't--" Before she could finish, Ben stopped her, "Wait, slow down, princess. How did you know all this?"

She listened to his advice and did what she was told. She cleared her throat and answered, "Damian told me everything already and Zack told me about his cousin as well. His name is Erik and if I remember correctly, Zack did tell me that he knew a couple of Jackson clan techniques."

"Ah, I see. I figured out that much. I was a little shocked when he used them when we were fighting." He replied casually

.

"If you want to look for Jai, he should be at Zack's room. I think the two might already be done." Ben said as to answered Emily.

"Done? ...Done with what?" She asked with curiosity.

"Well, I've nothing to do now. So, I'll follow you. I'll tell you as we go." Ben replied as he took the lead.

As the two walked to Zack's room, Ben told Emily everything. "The king wanted Jai to bring Zack to the torture chamber, where that phantom member is, to verify his identity and if he was involved with the Jackson clan in the past. If he was, then he would be released as he might be a valuable ȧsset to us. However, if he was not, there's no point keeping him alive as we could not get a single piece of information out of him. In other words, we'll execute him."

"Taking a twelve years old to a torture chamber? That's just plain insane. Why did no one stop that from happening?" Emily questioned with her voice raised slightly louder than usual.

"Well, Mary tried. However, ultimately we figured that Zack needed some experience since he is currently the leader of the Jackson clan." Ben answered.

"That's just... too much for a twelve years old boy to handle." She muttered under her breath.

However, those words were picked up by Ben's sharp ears, but he said nothing. The two then continued walking in silence for the next few minutes. After making a few turns and walking up a flight of stairs, they spotted a familiar figure walking towards them.

It was Jai.

Once Emily saw Jai, she immediately rushed towards him. "Jai, where's that phantom member?"

Jai was a little shocked when he heard her sudden question, but he quickly regained his composure. "I'm sorry, Emily. But, why did you asked that question? Is there something wrong?"

"Don't do anything to him. He is Zack's cousin." She replied instantaneously with her eyes fixated on his.

"Well, I know. However, it's too late. He will be executed tomorrow. Even though he is Zack's cousin, he wasn't involved with the Jackson clan. In other words, he was just an outsider, he wouldn't be valuable to Fiore whatsoever. So, the king has already decided to take action." Jai explained with a somewhat apologetic look.

"What...? He's being executed because he is not part of the Jackson clan... What kind of logic is that?" Emily thought as she froze momentarily.

Just then, Ben's words penetrated her thoughts, "That's strange, I could've sworn that I saw him using some of Jackson clan's fighting techniques when I fought him. I don't think that the previous clan leader would teach an outsider those techniques, right?"

Jai nodded and sighed, "Exactly, Erik lied. He lied about everything."

"He... lied?" Emily repeated as she and Ben shifted their gaze to Jai, wanting him to elaborate.

Jai nodded and continued, "He said that he was not involved, but I could tell that was a lie. He also said that he killed 'two other survivors from the killing', but that's impossible. If I'm not wrong, every dead member had their body retrieved, including those two members who he claimed he killed."

"Wha—? Why?" Emily asked, "...I don't get it, why would he do that?"

"It was strange to me at first, but I realised that the only reason for that is—" Before Jai could finish, Ben completed his sentence, "He wants to be executed, or in other words, he wants to die."

Jai looked over to Ben and nodded, "Exactly."