Villainess Of Hearts

Nobody was permitted to leave the castle.

"This is outrageous! What right you have a mere soldier to prevent me from leaving as I please?" The Lord Marius glared at the number of soldiers gathered at the Castle's main entrance and exit. "I'm only out to go on a walk through the gardens—how dare you men hold me back?"

While some of them wanted to kick this Noble—one of them spoke up, "My Lord, forgive me for speaking up, but this is unfortunately the King and Queen's orders. If you have troubles with their decision, then it would be best to bring it up to them."

Never in the Lord's wildest dreams did he assume that he would be told to shut up by a mere soldier, but like a peacock affronted, the man turned around with his small entourage—escorts, really—and strutted down the hallway.

Once they were gone, one of the soldiers caught his breath and threw a look at his friend. "Dang, Colin, I did not expect you to make the man walk off at those words. Pretty smart of you."

The red-haired soldier rolled his eyes and waved the comment away. "It was nothing, Ace."

"So you say, but that guy would have still tried to escape if it weren't for you."

"It can't be helped. The Trial of the Joker is tonight, and if you don't find an alibi—well, I guess it's another 'Off with your head!' again."

"Unless the King of Hearts stops it."

"I heard that he allowed it to be pushed—but now's not the time to be gossiping while on the job." the soldier muttered to his partner and other soldiers. They would resume guarding the door until a servant arrived and beckoned for them forward.

"The Sir Knight is looking for the both of you."

Both young men exchanged glances.

.

.

.

The meeting was not held in the Queen's chambers. Even she still had a reasonable amount of dignity she wanted to uphold, and so it was at the Queen's office and drawing room where she and Julius met with two of the soldiers who had been ordered to look after Nicholas and Harold.

"Greetings to Your Majesty and long live the Kingdom of Hearts!" one of the men spoke first, and was quickly followed by another.

Ace thought it was already hard trying to gain favor with the Knight, but with his fellow soldier around, it just made things harder for him. But he was prepared with answering questions and felt he was more capable—

Rosalyn Lockhart's gaze held on him for a second and his heart already quaked.

While the Knight was somebody he respected, he on the other hand only felt his palms sweat when it came to the Queen. Scary women… were scary. He gulped and only then registered their Queen's words.

"—Report to me." A firm expression was on her face, holding both seriousness and a hint of sorrow. It was unlike anything he had seen before.

Through the dangers of fighting through the assassins of the night before, he and the others had stumbled and staggered to find that the Queen of Hearts had a dagger in her hand and plunged it into another person.

"The man known as Harold returned to his residence after frantically waiting for this woman known as Mallory, or perhaps Nicholas to return," Colin said. He reported without missing a beat, confident enough.

"Thank you." The Queen of Hearts never thanked people a lot unless it was Mary Ann. "As for you… Ace? Report to me."

She remembered his name; she remembered his name—

Ace cleared his throat, looked the Queen in the eye, and then quickly looked away before her Knight could stab him. "When I arrived at Nicholas' home, the man was nowhere to be found and thus my fellow soldiers and I saw him enter his workshop late at night."

"I see…"

Julius shot him a look as if he said something wrong, but he was telling the truth! It wasn't as if he could say that he saw the man resting in his house or anything like that. He was simply adhering to his duty as the soldier.

.

.

.

She wanted to see him.

Rosalyn Lockhart-Hartsmichdt had the desire to see not Nicholas, but Harold. While she was worried about the man… her guilt was because of Harold. She, the Queen who was selfish enough to restrain herself from doing anything for a slim chance to bring Mallory back to life.

A thought came to her mind.

So sudden.

She had already died before, countless times over—would it mean that those worlds still existed? She liked to think that it was not so, for the Time Man returned time for her to restart. But what if that wasn't the case? What if, in another time and place, both Mallory and Harold were still happily living together?

Alice was reunited with her brother, both serving the throne—

Thoughts she had never considered at all before. Somehow it was only now that she cared about it. Ever thought of it at all… she smiled and turned away. Lost in her thoughts this time. Would it be possible to leave?

She had not allowed anybody to leave—and while that might have restricted the freedom of the Nobility; it was to prevent anybody from escaping. It was best for her to turn her attention to the Joker instead of Harold and Nicholas at this hour.

Ask for advice?

Seek help?

The man was already choosing to act as a judge for the trial tonight. He was going to act like the perfect—no, far from perfect. She had never considered it now, only thought it was odd and annoying for Alexander to act like a perfect King, but still be pathetic.

And yet… she also knew why that was so.

Too many options swirled around her head that she couldn't even pay attention to the two soldiers who looked oddly at her. The Knight gave them a look and dismissed them; he felt it was not apt for them to see the Queen in the hour when she was pondering.

It was a side he wished to protect, keep for himself—

"Gine, I need to talk to the Joker—Mister Rosswall." she caught herself, and then noticed the expression on the Knight's face. Also unpleasant, not as much as Alexander did whenever he and the Joker met, but surely someone who also disliked the man.

She did not understand why.

While it was true that the Joker acted a bit snobbish, arrogant and even only caring about his self-gratification. He also had a gallant side that made her younger self look forward to his visits.

"... Is this meeting necessary?"

"Unless you can figure out the one responsible for all of these crimes and incidents… yes."

It wasn't often that the man went against her orders, or spoke up against it unless it was truly foolish or something along those lines. But thankfully the man bowed and proceeded to head out just like she wanted to.

There were too many things she had to worry about than simply this one.

But naturally, she wanted to confront the Joker when he arrived at her office. He was able to be summoned and wasn't as hard when it came to this aspect, even while he sat down without asking and lounged on her sofa. "Greetings, Your Majesty. What may I do for you today?"

She might have wanted Gine to leave, but for now she simply focused on the Joker. Perhaps if he listened, then the Knight would understand her past turmoils that begot this situation in the first place.

"You understand why you're here… Mister Rosswall," she said and eyed him with a fixed stare. "There are important matters that need to be handled, and I thank you for your expertise and willingness to help."

"This is within my jurisdiction, after all."

"So I heard." Rosalyn Lockhart folded her hands together. "Does it include capturing young men and women and bringing them here for your little party games?"

A flash appeared in the man's eyes of wonder and then bedazzlement. "My, my—so that is where you ended up last night. Fascinating, enthralling. How was it?"

The mirth in his eyes took the Queen aback.

Made Julius narrow his eyes suspiciously—he knew nothing.

And for the Queen of Hearts to sit back and nod her head. "It was a strange and fascinating world, as you say it. When I came there, I saw buildings that touch the skies, and lights even brighter and sharper than most shimmering crystals available in the Diamond's mine. It was a splendor of both big and small..."

Her thoughts flickered to a young man and Rosalyn Lockhart caught herself before she could say anything further.

It was easy to get carried away. 

Somehow it was almost reminiscent of the days where she would animatedly tell this man her days, but now wasn't the time. "I digress from my topic, however, what you've done is—"

"Returning them to the place where they ought to be," the Joker chimed.

"What?" Rosalyn Lockhart narrowed her eyes at him. It sounded familiar, as if the Time Man had already said it before, or someone else… but she still didn't like to think of what it was this man was implying.

"Once banished, or simply thrown away into a distant land, or simply their own choice of leaving our world—wars had made them grow tired, choose to be fugitives in a world not their own. But some of them do hold the bloodline of our people here and I simply returned them."

"But that's—!"

"Only fair. While I admit there are some interesting sights there—some people still need to fulfill their blood's oath and it is where the Card Trial occurs. The most fitting ones to handle the responsibilities of being part of our world once more, especially when we were low on some people because of wars, crimes and other disasters.. Royals, for example."