She entered the room with her eyes widened with a shock and realization. Seeing her placid face, George speaks up for her, asking the first question. "What is the matter? You are not someone to randomly enter the room to defend your brother? Then you must be here to complain about something. What is it this time?" Folding his arms, he stared down at her face.
"Lewis...did you happen to tell Merrisa about the assassination?" Aefia asked while walking over and locking the door behind her. "And...been mistreating Stephany?" She asked with a seriousness at her face as her eyes narrowed down on him behind the desk. Even George stood shocked still while hearing her soft, her loud enough words. His gaze plastered towards their brother sitting at the table with his fingers wrapping a pen.
"Look I was trying to-"
"Trying to defend me? From Count Lucius?" She spoke while folding her arms, standing side by side to their eldest brother. "Get this...I was planning on using her bullying as an excuse at the courthouse. And you must be lucky enough to not have spoiled the beginning of the war over to the entire family." She added while speaking with the sterness of an elder sister, like she was talking with her own biological younger brother back at Earth.
Turning her gaze over to George, she waited for a reaction. "Isn't that what I was trying to ask him about just a few seconds ago? It seems like he has caused the backlash of this plan. Now what do you want me to do before this soils any further?"
"Are you really thinking of punishment when I am thinking of a more specific part of the plan?" She asked with a cold stare, a little bit of intelligence surfacing at her face. "Get this...In my world, if you reveal the plan before the hit is made, you're the one who ends up in the concrete. Do you have any idea what you've handed to the Count by being 'protective'?" She asked.
"..." A breathe of guilt left his body as he stared back up at her face. "Now...I am not saying you had done something wrong...but rather...I could use this to carve out an alternate way of luring the Count into the trap I have set up." She clapped her hands while flashing an evilish smile. "Is that...Lewis might have just cleared a much brighter and more attractive path for them." Her voice rang coldly as George realized what she was talking about.
"And by that...what do you mean exactly?" Their elder brother asked while staring down at her with narrowed eyes, as she explained her altered plan and how it was going to be placed into orders. "Well...have you ever thought? About inviting him over to have a 'small and friendly talk'?"
"What are you? Trying to turn the palace upside down?!" Lewis shouted while slamming the pen onto his table and standing up. When both of the siblings gaveba questioned gaze at once, he fell silent and slumped back down on his seat. "Nevermind...continue speaking." But in reality, she already knew what he was trying to stay cautious about, seeing how his fingers were already trapping the sapphire brooch with his fingers.
"Don't worry. I am planning on getting a hand-shake with death again." A more softer smile landed on her face with those words echoing in the now silent atmosphere. "And anyway, I have a feeling that he would think we don't know anything about the matter and try to act nice. But then, here is the thing...we need to try and get as much out of his mouth as we can before we submerge him into a much deeper conversation with laughter, and that is where one of you will have to bring in the verdict."
"So...George's que?" Lewis added while bending forward while gaining interest. "What about a drinking-"
"Yeah you could consider that if it were the duchess you dumb piece of grass." Aefia interrupted with sharp eyes. "And assassination is much more easier if you are in a drinking game with someone. Do you want to help him win this fight or are you going to put your brain into this matter."
"Alright! Fine! I will stay silent." He folded his arms and slumped deeper in his chair. "You are the bloodline...act like it, Lewis." George spoke while glancing at him. Hearing this, the middle brother sat up at his seat and placed his arms against the table. "This enough?" With an annoyed tone, he replied.
"What do you think of yourself in the mirror?!" Their elder brother shouted with anger in his voice, while Aefia stood at the sidem just watching the drama. "You know what? I think I have a solution to this." She added while holding her hand in a surrendering position while speaking a few words that out the two brothers in havoc. "Don't worry...it's all simple. I just need to die twice more. Then I will be able to die one more time in the courthouse and have everyone else as a witness...and then you all get to sue the Count and live happily ever after. The end." With that, she clapped her hands as if dusting them and stared at the others with an awkward look. "But looks like it doesn't fit with the rest of you."
"Of course it doesn't!" The middle brother shouted at her direction with wide eyes while slamming his table and standing up abruptly. "Are you insane in trying to kill yourself again?! Your soul isn't a bag of sand that you can just give away one piece of it everytime!"
"Then the least you can do to stop me would be to co-operate." With a calm manner she shrugged. "The most you can do to stop me would be to come up with a much better idea then the ones lurking in your brain. And think twice before saying it out loud...that way you will be able to find it's advantages and disadvantages much easily."
George laughed while holding his stomach and pointing at his younger brother. "You really just got played around by a girl younger then you!" Finally, while calmming down, he snapped his fingers and spoke with a smile. "But honestly...I can already tell that our younger sister here has a better way of playing with people's minds. So I think she should definitely overlook this matter and act as it's mastermind."
"Hey! I didn't know she was doing something like that! I thought she meant it seriously!" Lewis spoke while standing straight. "You don't know when she is going to actually pull that move! She did it the last time!"
"Bingo!" Aefia's excited voice rang inside the room as the brothers' attention spun on her. "What was that for?" The middle brother asked when everything fell in silence. "Well...I was honestly waiting for that approval from George." She replied with a smile.
"What approval?"
"To take over this matter and be it's mastermind." She snapped her fingers with a rythmic tone as excitement hit her with a rush of adrenaline that she might be using a possibly dangerous method into this. "And also...I honestly didn't know about the assassination until the Viscount's guard came in through the window at the cats' room and gave me a last minute warning, while I caught sight of the assassin around that time too. And it being the most indecisive move back then, I had no choice but to move you out of the scene."
"Oh..." A little bit of embarrassment hit his mind as he slowly slumped down and covered his face with his hand. "Nevermind...forget my words." He declared after a split second.
"Sorry...but it has already been saved into my mind as a flashdrive." She mocked him. "And I sort of feel like I could torture you with it by now. So you might want to keep away from trying to argue with me the next time...although I already said that fire is way stronger then water." With the feeling of being able to win the few bickerings between them, she pulled the last strings and announced it with excitement and pride.
"Yeah well prove it!" He continued with a smirk as he folded his arms. "The last time I checked...you didn't even have the courage to do whatever you were going to do with that hair clip of yours!"
"You know...nevermind..." While trailing off she turned to George, who was watching the drama between them with a bucket of popcorn. "You can drop that for now...I think Merissa will be suspicious if I don't return in the next five minutes or so. But here is the thing...you must invite the Count over...and not be armed in full in front of him, unless he tried something. And that is all just to trade hints all while his mind was in a sane state."
"And what about the verdict that you both have been talking about more recently?" George brought out the matter smoothly, as in to surprise them both with the fact that he knows the trial request. Lewis and Aefia shared a single glance, then stared back at their elder brother with annoyed faces. "I think it is to better out this fact that Count Lucius is trying to take this empire down for some reasons...is it something you don't know? Or are you acting like you don't know?" She asked first, while the middle brother followed along a short while later.
"You might also try to consider the fact that the way he has been planning to assassinate us, you could use this fact to place a trial against him. And you know what will be for the best? Is to actually execute him for his doings, because he is going to try his same trick two more times at least. Then, he might just place a sudden charge under the Imperial family's name."
It was something they had both planned in case someone had over heard something from the time they were discussing the next moves. Right when elder brother fell silent due to defeat, they shared a smile and continued the discussion for a short while longer.
"Well now...here is the thing. We might know how to trap him with the way I had spoken about the assassination to one of our classmates." The middle brother opened his mouth. "We could use her as a witness...and when the Count's family intervenes, we have another person to back us up...our school principal."
"Did you threaten her?" George asked a little serious now.
"No...she just knows about my position and about how Lady Stephany approaches me." Aefia grinned while crossing her arms. "All I did was a fair play with the way she treated me at her office that day." And that was also when the eldest brother realized he has to now look after two mischievous siblings who could solve a huge political problem and also who could be a bad influence to the youngest. But he also had trust in their sister, because she didn't seem to be involved into these for any disadvantageous reasons.
I guess...if they are doing this to save the empire, I should let them be.
***
"Sorry...did I happen to keep you waiting for too long?" Aefia asked while entering her room with a smile at her face and acting like she didn't just go out of her way to try and solve the Imperial family's problems despite it basically torturing her at this moment with every aspects of her life. "I just had to go in and check a few documents because I remembered there were a few confidential that I didn't move to the side."
"Oh no it's alright." The naive orange-haired girl smiled as she stood up and bowed her head. "I should be the one sorry." She added, although there wasn't a need to. In front of them, Henry was playing on his laptop while laying flat on the opposite sofa. "Your brother is cute." The girl added as she watched her approach.
"Yeah well...he is the youngest of the Imperial family. And he is also a kid. So basically, every law in the world would say he is cute." Aefia shrugged as she sat down and pulled the pile of homework forward and towards the both of them. "I honestly I am lucky you came. I was struggling with these earlier." Her breathe left her body as frustruation started to take over her mind. "And I totally believe these should be an illegal act to give an unconcious student thie many homework and all to solve during the summer break?! And who puts exams right after the break has ended?!"
Her mind was clearly up in flames as her eyes caught the sight of those math equations on the surface. Henry, who was now distracted by her constant rage-baiting comments against math, sat up while glancing over at the two friends, and the one with the orange-hair was definitely terrified by her behaiviour. "Don't worry...she just woke up today and didn't even eat anything while sitting at this chair and trying to figure out these worksheets with our brother, and she still doesn't get it."
"The funny thing here is...she had sat down to try and solve these right before she thought about grabbing food and a glass of water. So you may have to endure it until her mind has finally decided to take action against her homeworks." The kid spoke while stretching his arms and yawning a bit. "I came home today...and she already seemed malnourished for some reason. I guess that's just the perks of being unconscious for about a week." A smile settled against his face as he grabbed his laptop and walked over to her bed, and plugging it in so that he could watch a movie or two.
"I understand that." Merissa spoke while glancing sideways, and back towards Aefia who turned silent and slumped a paper against her face. She seemed tired, and trying to hide her original expressions beneath a hidden one. "Honestly...I think you need a break...from your life." The naive girl spoke while pulling the paper out of her friend's grasp, revealing an expressionless face, unlike the frustrated one she had on before covering it.