“What exactly is the meaning of this unseemly display?” Trajan demanded as he glared at Octavius and August, both at least having the self-awareness to look a little chastised.

Octavius’ expression quickly turned combative and he spat, “My brother has seen fit to come to my office and scream his bastard lungs out because I made a sensible call!”

“There was no sense to what you did, only blatant corruption!” August retorted, though he had at least kept it relatively quiet so that everyone outside the office wouldn’t be able to hear.

Trajan rolled his eyes and said, “Both of you can shut your fool mouths!”

August complied, though it took quite a bit of obvious effort on his part. Octavius almost had to bite his tongue to keep from continuing the shouting match.

“What is all this about?” Trajan asked, directing his gaze toward the Spymaster, who had been sitting quietly throughout this whole event.

“Where to start…” Publius muttered with a chuckle of resignation.

Taking his mumbling at face value, Trajan growled, “Start at the beginning.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Publius replied as he straightened up in his chair and looked the elder Prince in the eye.

For his part, Octavius was growing angrier the more readily the Spymaster answered Trajan, but in the few seconds since he and August had stopped shouting, Octavius had managed to compose himself. He walked out from behind his desk, leaned against the edge, and crossed his arms in a clear display of authority; at the very least, it was his office, so he had to present himself as being the most powerful person present.

“I received a few reports from a few of my teams of investigators,” the Spymaster began, “and they had me quite concerned. After speaking with Prince Octavius, these teams recommended that their investigations be called off due to lack of evidence.”

Trajan glanced at Octavius, who flippantly shrugged. Trajan chose to interpret this as tacitly not disagreeing with the Spymaster’s version of events.

“What were these investigations?” Trajan asked. His eyes drifted over to August, wondering how he was involved.

“Mostly corruption charges,” Publius answered. “There are a few Barons that have been accused of tax fraud, an Exarch accused of imprisoning local nobles on false charges, and most importantly, we received a tip that Duke Decimius of Aurelianorum was using his vast lands to grow Silverleaf.”

Instantly, Trajan’s mind turned to his own recent dealings with Silverleaf, namely that the reports Leon and Minerva had given him indicated someone powerful had been working with the Silverleaf smugglers in Ariminium. Duke Decimius could be that powerful person, he certainly had the resources to build the sophisticated network of smugglers that Trajan, Leon, and Minerva had partially dismantled, but there hadn’t been any evidence to indicate that the Duke was guilty of smuggling.

“We began the investigation immediately after Prince August received the tip,” the Spymaster explained.

“Who gave you this tip?” Trajan asked August.

August’s face contorted in discomfort, and he glanced at Octavius, who was staring at him with a hungry gaze. “I’m… I can’t say,” he said.

“There has been an unfounded accusation against a loyal servant of the Crown,” Octavius growled as his mouth turned upward into a subtle smile. “An investigation was conducted, and no evidence was found to corroborate that accusation. That makes the accusations against the Duke slander!”

“We didn’t find any evidence because our investigators were murdered on their way to Aurelianorum!” August countered as he glared at his older brother.

“They were murdered?” Antonius asked, speaking up for the first time. Octavius and August almost seemed surprised to see him, as Trajan had so dominated the room that neither of the two irate Princes had noticed their brother until he had spoken up.

“They were killed on route, supposedly by bandits,” the Spymaster said. “I believe they were about ten miles into the Duchy of Aurelianorum at the time.”

“Bandits killed a team of investigators?!” Antonius asked incredulously. These teams were usually made up of a dozen or so investigators, plus up to another twenty or thirty support staff, and led by a fourth or fifth-tier knight.

“That is the story we were told,” the Spymaster said.

“Given that these people were investigating him, I’d say his word is rather biased,” Antonius said.

“It wasn’t the Duke who informed us of the team’s unfortunate fate, it was the Count of Etruria,” Octavius said.

“… One of the Duke’s vassals,” Antonius said with an eyebrow raised in suspicion. “Hardly the most trustworthy of sources…”

“And what, dear brother, would you know about matters such as these?” Octavius asked as his eyes narrowed in muted fury. “A man who buries himself in books and trinkets of the past is hardly the most qualified to tell me anything about the present.”

Antonius vehemently disagreed, but he didn’t say another word.

“Bring me the reports, I want to know everything about these canceled investigations,” Trajan said to Publius, breaking the tension between Octavius and Antonius, much to the latter’s relief. He was only a few years younger than Octavius, but Antonius and Octavius had barely spoken throughout their lives, to the point of being all-but strangers. There was no love lost between them.

Without any hesitation, Publius said, “Yes, Your Highness.”

“Rather than waste resources chasing down unfounded rumors and blatantly slanderous accusations, Uncle, wouldn’t it be better to spend that money on funding an expedition to the Serpentine Isles?” Octavius asked.

“You ask that like we can’t do both,” Trajan replied. “These are serious charges, and if I agree that they ought to be dropped, then we can drop them. If, however, I think that they have some merit, then we ought to look into them further. Are you going to fight me on this, Nephew?” Trajan stared at Octavius as if daring the younger Prince to challenge him.

“… No, Uncle, I’m simply trying to do what I believe is best for the realm,” Octavius replied, his face the picture of reasonability and cooperation.

“I hope so,” Trajan replied with a weary sigh. “I truly hope that you’re keeping the Kingdom’s best interests at heart, Nephew.”

“Uncle…” Antonius muttered.

“Right,” Trajan said as his rising anger cooled enough for him to remember his priorities. “I’ve called for an emergency meeting of the advisory council. I expect you three to be there.”

The Spymaster immediately replied with an affirmation, though it wasn’t him Trajan was concerned about.

“I’ll be there,” August quickly pronounced.

“As will I,” Octavius stated. “What exactly is this emergency?”

Trajan looked at his nephew and, with all the seriousness that this issue was due, said, “This Kingdom is being infiltrated by vampires.”

---

After concluding his business with Lapis, Leon made his way back to Trajan’s office. As he was shown in by one of Trajan’s assistants, he found the Prince sitting in an armchair with his head tilted back and his eyes closed; he was obviously incredibly tired.

Trajan opened his bleary eyes as Leon walked in and said, “That was quick. Everything all right with Lapis?”

“Lapis seems to be fine, but I’ll be taking… him…? I’ll be taking the giant out with me when I next have to visit violence upon something or someone,” Leon responded.

Trajan frowned at the thought of the giant wandering around the capital, but before he could say anything, he remembered the sight of Leon without his left arm, and he held his tongue.

“Very well,” the elder Prince reluctantly said. “I’ve already decided not to use you except in the direst of circumstances, so it hardly matters.”

“I can’t say I hate that arrangement,” Leon said as he took a seat in an armchair opposite from Trajan.

For his part, Antonius stared at Trajan almost in shock. He hadn’t had much time to witness the dynamic between Leon and Trajan, and it was astonishing to see the man who had, not even two hours before, told the Prince-Regents how things were going to progress without argument turn around and be so accommodating to Leon. If anything, it lent a great deal of credence to Antonius’ suspicions about Leon’s relationship with House Raime, as the younger Prince couldn’t think of any other reason Trajan would treat Leon so much better than his own nephews.

“It’s… about that time,” Antonius stated as he glanced at the clock.

Time had flown by for Leon, as it was now time for the emergency meeting.

“I suppose it is,” Trajan said as he got to his feet, glaring at the clock the entire time.

“Anything I should be doing?” Leon asked.

“Hmm, why don’t you come with me?” Trajan suggested. “It wouldn’t be a bad thing to see how things work in the council.”

Leon frowned, but he responded with, “I… don’t want to, but I understand the opportunity, and I won’t refuse.”

“Good man,” Trajan said with a smile as he shook some life back into his tired bones. “Now then, let’s get this damn show on the road.”

---

Despite Trajan and August both leaving Octavius’ office, Gaius was unable to relax. Octavius was fuming over the whole affair, and his aura was permeating everything within his office, including Gaius.

‘I’m going to have to throw away these clothes…’ Gaius unhappily thought, and he wasn’t quite able to tell if he was being sarcastic or not. His blue and black outfit was made of the highest quality cotton from the Indra Raj, a Kingdom far to the south famed for its high-quality textiles and spices.

Though he was using it to distract himself, his attire was hardly his most pressing issue. He could tell Octavius was furious about Trajan going over his head and looking into the younger Prince’s cancelation of the investigations into various nobles simply from the way the Prince was leaning back in his chair with his chin resting in his hands. Gaius had only ever seen the Prince he served like this once before, when he was informed that two of the Legions in the Central Territories had accompanied August to the Bull’s Horns.

For over an hour after Trajan and August had left, Octavius sat in the chair behind his desk and stewed, not saying a word and definitely not acknowledging Gaius’ presence.

But, when the time came to go to the emergency meeting, Octavius stood up and made for the door. As he did so, Gaius breathed a quiet sigh of relief, both because Octavius restrained his furious aura quite a bit and because he had a modicum of hope that Octavius would do something about the vampire issue that Trajan had mentioned. The elder Prince had declined to give more information, indicating that he would wait for the meeting to go into details, but Gaius was already almost shivering in his boots at the implications.

Finally, as Octavius reached for the doorknob, he turned to Gaius and spoke to the young nobleman for the first time since August had stormed into his office.

“You will tell no one what happened here, understand?” the Prince growled.

Having gotten used to these kinds of orders over the past year and a half, Gaius automatically said, “Yes, Your Highness.”

“You’d better,” Octavius rasped, his smooth, soothingly deep voice taking on the sinister undertones of unstated threats.

As his squire, Gaius had seen Octavius in such moods and behaviors that were, in the Prince’s own terms, ‘beneath the dignity of the Royal Family’. Whenever Gaius had borne witness to the Prince’s undignified anger, he’d always been sworn to secrecy, no matter how subdued Octavius’ fury may have been.

It was a short walk to the council chamber, and most of the council members had beaten them there; everyone waited for royalty, after all, so Octavius always insisted on being the last to arrive. This time, however, both August and Trajan hadn’t yet made their appearance, and though Octavius’ pleasant facial expression revealed none of his anger, Gaius could see it in the subtle tightening of the Prince’s shoulders and the way his head tilted when he smiled, turning it into more of a grimace from Gaius’ angle.

The rest of the council members rose upon Octavius’ entry, giving the Prince some small amount of satisfaction, and he immediately sat at one end of the council table, with the Consul of the Central Territories on his right, and the Countess of Lindinis on his left.

The Countess was an elderly woman, with sharp facial features and long grey hair. She was almost two hundred years old, but her body was still possessed of obvious strength, despite what the wrinkles on her face would say. She sat in her chair, her back ramrod straight, her pale blue eyes glittering with haughty pride as she refused to let anyone else enter her gaze.

Lindinis, her County, wasn’t that large, populous, or wealthy, but it was the last territory that bordered the capital city that had yet to fall into the hands of the Royal Family. Her personal army of an estimated five thousand, plus at least another twenty thousand if she levied her peasants, right on the doorstep of the center of power in the Kingdom made her one of the most influential nobles in the realm, despite her territory’s lack of overall importance in the grand scheme of things.

And she had already declared for Octavius.

Gaius couldn’t help but zone out less than a minute after his and Octavius’ arrival. He stood behind the Prince, just as other squires stood not far behind their knights or lords sitting at the table, ready just in case they were needed for something. Of course, if the council members actually needed something, they would call upon the numerous scribes on the other side of the room, while their squires were mostly there as a sign of prestige.

When Octavius took his seat, the quiet chatting of the council members that had been interrupted by the Prince’s arrival resumed, and it was all boring as porridge to Gaius. Sale of property, the weather, and their fashion choices were what these most august men and women of the Kingdom were discussing. In other words, nothing but small talk.

Gaius only snapped back to attention when the door opened again, revealing Trajan, who confidently strode into the room, followed closely by August, and then by Antonius. Few noticed the fourth man who followed the three Princes, and only Gaius’s gaze lingered for longer than a few curious moments.

For the first time since leaving the Knight Academy, Gaius was in the same room as Leon.