Felicity: The Sixteenth Life

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Confrontation

"What?" Count Herald exclaimed as soon as Sir Eric's hasty report had been relayed to him.

As he already sent the knights to scout the area around Felicity's cabin, he was in the middle of making final preparations of meeting his daughter and finishing orders to Sir Merill and Madame Clementine to receive her properly when all of a sudden, Sir Dimitri sent an urgent message about an emergency.

The knights arrived back to Sapphire mansion almost immediately after the said message was received and Sir Eric reported to the Count about the recent occurrences for the past several minutes.

Apparently, whilst scouting the cabin, Sir Zeke had some suspicions that there was something buried underneath some flowers on the cabin's back yard. The Count remembered seeing those flowers several times through the surveillance crystal.

Fueled by their curiosity and thinking that they could get the job done before the Duke or Felicity arrives in the cabin, they hastily dug up the area and found the corpse of a woman whom they suspected was the missing Lady Dalia. However, Felicity arrived just as they were about to fill up the grave once again and reacted with hostility.

"It was my fault, Your Grace... I should've waited until the meeting with the Lady was over with before voicing my suspicions," Sir Zeke apologized as he bowed down with one knee on the ground.

"No, it was my fault, Your Grace. I was hasty and mobilized the knights to dig up the area after Sir Zeke voiced his suspicions. Thus, it should be my responsibility as the leader," Sir Eric said, also going down on one knee.

"We were all at fault," Sir Dimitri added as he and the other knights bowed down beside their leader.

"I'm not concerned as to whose fault this is. How's the child?" the Count told them with a serious face.

"Well..." Sir Eric said and looked at his fellow knights. He looked extremely guilty and upset which told the Count that Felicity did not take the matter well.

"Show her to me," the Count said and they all hastily went to the projection room.

On their way, the five little Acker heirs who were on their way to bid their father good luck, saw the Count, the knights, Sir Merill and Madame Clementine walking through the hallway with serious looks on their faces and they stopped their excited chatter. The children looked at each other before running towards the adults, intercepting them.

"Father, is there something wrong?" Hazel asked.

"Aren't you supposed to be on your way to Felicity right now?" Ryder added.

"Not now, children... Make way. There's been an emergency," the Count answered. He looked so serious that none of the kids tried questioning any further and let the adults go on their way.

Liam took hold of Sir Dimitri's hand. "What happened?" he asked the knight.

"I'm sorry young master..." Sir Dimitri replied. "Later. We'll tell you later..." he added.

Unwilling to wait until later, the siblings looked at each other and with resolute nods, unanimously agreed to follow the adults. They ended up in the Sapphire mansion's projection room, the only room in the mansion aside from the Count's study equipped with a surveillance crystal.

The exact happening was shown on the screen of a surveillance crystal, starting from when Felicity started showing instability at the front of the butcher's shop. The Count gripped his fist tight and said, "Was she feeling ill? She looked really pale for a moment..."

However, Felicity went on walking after downing a glass of water. Her plans seemed to have changed. On that day, she usually visits the coffee shop to look at some materials to buy for her products but the turn she made was towards the way back home.