The outburst

On hearing the King's words, the Elder realised his mistake and immediately went to his knees in regret.

"Your Majesty, I'm sorry… I beg for your mercy… I don't know what made me think I can talk in such a manner." The Elder said hurriedly with his head bowed to the floor, scared that the King would lash out at and devour him on the spot.

The King eyed him angrily before diverting his gaze away from him before he lost control and pounced on him.

"Get the f**k out of my sight," He said irritatingly.

"Yes… yes… my King. Thank you for your kind gesture, my king" The Elder scrambled to his feet and moved away from the King's sight to the back of the crowd.

As he found a perfect place to stay, a sinister smile crossed his face briefly before it was wiped off the next minute as though it was never there before.

He would have left out of anger and humiliation, but he decided to stay behind to see what would become of the girl.

To him, it would be best if she was sentenced to death because it would save him the hassle of killing her by himself and cleaning up the mess of her being caught as a spy.

He should have suspected earlier when she was behaving suspiciously a few days ago, that she would end up getting caught.

He now regretted not suspecting.

He regretted agreeing with others to use her as a spy.

Luckily, she had no idea of his involvement in the plot and would not be able to expose him if she was interrogated.

But to be safer, he needed to make sure she was executed instead in case she had some ideas on their plans and exposed them to the King.

If not, he must take matters into his hands and dispose of her before it becomes late.

Deciding on that, he moved his gaze to the King and watched in anticipation of his judgment.

Turning his gaze away from the disappearing figure of the Elder, the King focused on the kneeling girl and studied how pitiful she was acting while wondering what could have made her into a spy.

From what he could deduct from the whole situation and what her personality was, he knew that she was not one to do such an act nor have it within her to collide with the enemy and act as she did.

He could only come to two conclusions on the whole situation.

It was either she was forced to do what she did, or during this whole period she had stayed with them, she had been pretending to be who she wasn't in other to infiltrate and spy on them.

It was either the two, and he hoped so badly that it was the latter among the two because it would be such a disappointment if she were truly involved in the whole act.

But if it were the first, he would use her to fish out those behind it and force them to show their face.

He could expose those hiding in the dark, either way, but using different methods.

Hence, he decided to make an appropriate judgment until he confirmed if she was truly involved.

Staring at the girl, he said, "This is my judgment; she will be…." But before he could complete his sentence, he was cut off by a loud "STOP!"

Surprised by the outburst, everyone looked toward where the voice came from and was shocked by who was standing there.

They didn't expect such outbursts to come from him.

They were not even expecting any outbursts, for that matter, much less from him.

But who were they to make a complaint against him?

Instead of commenting, they kept quiet and watched what was happening.

A glimmer of surprise flashed across the King's face for a second when he saw who told him to stop, but he didn't say anything and instead leaned back on his throne as he waited for the person to state why he was asked to stop.

"Your majesty, I beg your pardon for my imprudence in cutting you off, but I want to implore you to reconsider sentencing this young lady and investigate the matter thoroughly instead. This whole thing of condemning her to be a spy without further investigation might be all a farce, and this lady here might truly be innocent or even a victim. Your majesty, I wouldn't want us to sentence her just because we found her in the act. Doing so without proper investigation might lead to us punishing the innocent while the real culprit still roams around freely."

The minute he finished speaking, there were murmurs of protest and agreement from within the crowds.

Some saw reason in what he said, while others were totally against it and were unhappy with how he defended someone they had deemed a criminal.

The person more against it was the Elder and a few working with him among the crowd because they knew that if the King decided to investigate the matter as the Prince had suggested, many of them would be exposed.

They all thought it was better if the girl became their sacrificial lamb.

However, the one shocked the most by the Prince's words was the girl.

She could remember that ever since she joined the Kingdom, the Prince had been everything but nice and polite towards her. It was to the extent that she started questioning if she had, in one way or another, offended him or if he just hated her presence in the Palace.

At every given opportunity, he would pick on her. He did it so openly that she got the message that he didn't, for once, like or accept her presence in the Palace.

Hence, her shock at his coming out to defend her was otherworldly.

All the period he spoke, she gaped at him with surprise and anticipation written all over her face.

Anticipation in the sense that she believed his speaking up for her wasn't genuine and that he had hidden agenda behind his action. Agenda that has nothing to do with her positivity.