Villainess Of Hearts

A loud sigh escaped the lips of the King of Spades. It earned Alfred a look from Olivia as the two of them listened to the King of Hearts, Alexander Hartsmichdt give his testimony and facts—on why the King of Spades was the one behind the weapon.

"The weapon that was retrieved from the Queen of Heart's room is a bloodied dagger, which will be confirmed by Lord Warth Duke and other soldiers, now the dagger is not the type of weapon produced in the Kingdom of Hearts—instead, this kind of weapon is produced in the Kingdom of Spades."

Joker was actually silent as he listened to the man give their facts and details gathered from the incident yesterday. Instead of being the usual dick that he was, the Joker actually took this situation seriously and stayed quiet. Until he coughed and cleared his throat, "Have you considered that the people who wished to assassinate the Queen of Hearts simply purchased the weapons from the Kingdom of Spades?"

Alexander shook his head, "This was the sole weapon retrieved that belonged to the Kingdom of Spades while the others retrieved from the rest of the assassins were from weapons obtained here. It is most likely that they obtained weapons from the cities here, but the assassin who went inside the room of the Queen lost his weapon and was forced to resort to their actual weapon—which is from the Kingdom of Spades. It wouldn't make sense to purchase a single dagger from Spades and then obtain the rest from here."

Olivia Deuce gave a look at Alfred before she said, "You're an idiot." Her eyes flickered to the Queen of Diamonds and Queen of Clovers for a moment. "Be glad that we have our own witnesses." On their station at the defendant's table, an axe lay on their table. She didn't question him about the dagger at all, she didn't even ask why he had to give one to the Queen of Hearts, the woman was simply going to work her way and make sure that Alfred Villeuce walked out of this court with his head still attached to his neck.

Alfred Villeuce tried to smile but his shoulders were heavy. He didn't exactly want to drag his own Queen to this, but as his partner to the throne—she was more than often delegated to cleaning up his mess."Thank you."

"Hah, well—we both know that you didn't do it." The man on his left side muttered as he straightened the papers in his hand. The Queen of Spades was with him along with his own Delegate. Cyan Lucielle had the documents with him… somehow, they were able to be quick enough to prepare documents even though they were caught in surprise in regards to this situation. Reliable people.

And yet he still didn't know how to take this situation.

The King of Spades rubbed his face. How was he to know that giving a gift to the Queen of Hearts would result in a situation like this—

And then the doors to the courtroom burst open as the crack of wood slammed on the walls. Until the woman that was the reason for this mess was finally here, and she was… radiant. Rosalyn Lockhart stole the spotlight at that moment. Her golden hair fell over her shoulders, fair skin was obvious from her face to her ankles. And the Queen of Hearts was garbed in nothing but a sheer rose pink nightgown as she stalked down the middle of the room undeterred.

It even caught the King of Hearts and Joker speechless—

Alfred himself didn't know what to think. He was prepared to fight tooth and nail to escape the Kingdom of Hearts if the Court Trial didn't go as well as planned, but did the Queen of Hearts come here by herself to prove his innocence? He couldn't help but take into account the reactions of the other people in the room, and the King of Clovers had his brows raised. The only expression one got from Ivan Nordskov.

But there was no time for that, Alfred watched Rosalyn Lockhart nearly close to him and he fought back the urge to thank and greet her then and there… because it was obvious that the King of Hearts had hidden this piece of information from her. The way she stormed past him and towards the King of Hearts was a sight to be beheld. Uncaring of the looks tossed her way, she grabbed the man's shirt and then finally opened her mouth—

"What made you think that I wanted a Trial?!" She glared at him and then turned towards everyone. She took into account all of the people in the court trial until her gaze fell on him.

Alfred Villeuce blinked and gave her a sheepish smile. The moment that he saw her, he knew that he liked her. Even if she wasn't as physically strong or battle adept as Olivia, her personality and intelligence were enough to stun him. She would understand that this was all some nonsense and reprimand the King. Her own beauty was something that completed her as a Queen—

"Where's the Hatter?!" The Queen of Hearts turned back to Alexander Hartsmichdt and grabbed the man's collar and shook him.

Alfred Villeuce blinked and nearly fell back on his seat. She didn't come into the Court Trial for him? The reason why she stormed into this place was because of some other person?

"...The Hatter?" It was the Joker who spoke up. Their brows were raised as he tilted his head at Rosalyn Lockhart. The man was seated in the Judge's seat and the ceremonial mallet in his hand was then used. He knocked it against the wooden sound block. "Queen of Hearts, I think you went to the wrong Trial." A light smile was on the Joker's face. "We're here to see if the King of Spades is the one behind the assassination yesterday."

Rosalyn Lockhart's grip loosened from the King of Heart's shirt. "What?" She looked at the Joker before turning to Alexander Hartsmichdt, back and forth until she ascertained that she heard correctly. She took a step back and lowered her hands, she was shaking her head. The woman was caught up in her thoughts, single-mindedly working through her situation. "...So you were not the one who took Nicholas Hatter here? I was mistaken." Her voice was laced in unsureness.

"Nicholas Hatter?" Alexander Hartsmichdt blinked before coughing slightly, he folded his hands together. "...I think I may have encountered—"

A delicious slap sounded within the already silenced courtroom. The Queen of Hearts looked at Alexander with unbridled disbelief and rage, she lowered her hand and glared at him. "What did you do to him? What did you do to m-my friend!" Her voice was shaky but in anger. "Speak right now or else—"

Alexander Hartsmichdt didn't seem to register the slap, but he finally rubbed his cheek.

The man was silent.

Somehow whatever was happening to the Court Trial was now all background and Alfred Villeuce didn't know what to feel about it. The King of Spades could almost feel the stinging pain on his cheek despite not being the receiver. Although he couldn't help but notice that the Queen of Heart's own hand was red… the own slap she did had probably hurt her too. It ought to have hurt because she was unused to resorting to her own strength.

It soon registered to Alfred's vision that newcomers also arrived into the courtroom. The first of them was Julius Ginellevé and soon followed by two commoners from the Kingdom of Hearts. The King of Spades didn't know what truly was happening but somehow, everyone was absorbed into the scenario playing out—the extras coming in were irrelevant. He probably would have liked to speak up, but Olivia Deuce was shooting him a look that said 'he needed to shut up or she'd run the axe through his chest' kind of look. Either way, the message was clear.

Even the Joker wasn't interrupting—and everyone knew that the guy was a dramatic bitch.

A loud sigh escaped Alexander Hartsmichdt as he stopped rubbing his cheek and managed a smile, "I was doing it for—" He coughed and stopped himself from completing the sentence. Instead, he turned to one of the available guards in the courtroom. "Please free the man, Nicholas Hatter from the cell, please. I was mistaken about his identity." He instructed.

The moment the guard walked away, the two commoners quickly followed after him and left the courtroom. Julius Ginellevé stopped and observed from the distance, he didn't move any closer as the scenario continued to play out. The two Royals were looking at each other and didn't even look in anybody else's way.

Both the King and Queen of Hearts were masters at pretending that they didn't have an entire room of people as an audience.

"You imprisoned him." Rosalyn Lockhart's voice was flat. "You imprisoned one of your people, did you know that he was a person from our Kingdom? He was just a Hatter and yet you did this." Her voice tinged with emotion in the end.

Alexander Hartsmichdt nodded, "Yes. Yes, I did. I thought he was one of the assassins—a survivor." He answered back as coolly as was possible when faced with a woman angered.

"I see. You've made a mistake."

"...I did."

"Be glad that you haven't touched a single stray hair on his head." Rosalyn Lockhart narrowed her eyes at him.

Alexander Hartsmichdt nodded again, "Yes. I was not planning anything like that."

The way that the two of them spoke to each other—no love was lost between them.