All I can say is this – at least it’s not turning into heck a long fic like CCA!
Pika-chan: You say that like it’s a bad thing!
Ash: Lots of people liked CCA!
Phantomness: Also got quite a bit of flak for it, but hey, it’s over… er… except for the sequel(s) I’m procrastinating on
Lance: …
Anyways! Next chapter!
Chapter 30 – Revelations
Within five minutes, Dragonair dropped Ash in through the open window of his bedroom – the front door was mobbed with a million screaming reporters – and then flew back off again, leaving Ash alone. He raced to Delia’s room.
“Mother!”
“Oh Ash! I was so worried about you!” Delia sobbed. “What if something had happened?”
“Mother….” Ash sighed. “What happened?” He felt bad, considering that he had gone off and lost his virginity while his parents were facing such trials.
“As we both know… your father’s Council inquiry…”
“Yes…”
“Well, I went with him. I had to support him, you know. I firmly believed that it was just a malicious rumor concocted by some self-important thief. And the fact that the source was murdered attempting trying to rob the Count of Monte Cristo days after his initial declaration cast the die in your father’s favor. Oh, his many friends offered support during these trying times, and so it was quite favorable when the Council convened.”
Ash nodded.
“Now your father immediately pulled out the official documents he had been given during his service in Janina, and quite favorable they were too. He charged that the Grand sultan had charged him with keeping his favorite wife and daughter safe, but that he had lost them in the time of conflict and they were told to be dead. Everything was proceeding quite smoothly, and as there really was no tangible proof against your father, and indeed, many other soldiers came up and talked of his honor in the military field, the charges were to be dropped.”
“Something new came up then?”
“Yes. A veiled woman came into the courtroom, claiming that she had important proofs to add. Well! As there were still a few hours before the session officially ended, she was allowed to enter.”
Ash winced.
“When she had removed her veil, it was seen that she was young and very beautiful, dressed in dark blue and diamonds, accompanied by a mute female servant in light blue livery…”
“Claire and Lorelei, then.” Ash moaned. This was not sounding good. Although he still didn’t know how Princess Lorelei had wound up as the Count’s slave-girl, he had a nagging suspicion…
Delia nodded. “Yes. She introduced herself by that name. She gave proofs of her birth – her identity, her birth and baptismal certificates, but worse of all, a slave-trading document, detailing that your father had sold her and her mother for the sum of four million francs…”
Ash blanched. “No!”
“Yes, I fought of course… I told her that it was a malicious joke completely unbecoming of a lady. She… how can I ever forget that look of utter loathing in her eyes? Oh! It haunts me still!”
“Mother!”
“Pity me, Ash! You are still young1 you have a future! Oh, but what am I saying? I must tell the rest of the tale!”
“Please, stop…” Ash begged. This wasn’t like his mother at all. Something was wrong…. Had she gone mad? That was a frightening thought…
“She…. She removed her diamond choker, and all around her neck, there was a horrible red slave-brand…”
“No!”
“Yes! And that was when I realized… that it might have been truth…”
Ash cut her off before she could say any more. He did not wish to know. “She denounced my father, didn’t she?” Tears were starting to gather in his eyes.
“Yes, she did, but if I could have, I would have hated her, but I couldn’t! Not when I considered what she must have suffered!”
“What… what did she say?”
“Your father… he did not recognize her at first. And then she began to talk! She said that she remembered *him*, Giovanni diRocketti, oh, she did! And that if she ever forget his face she would remember his left hand with its ‘R’ scar, and indeed, he is the only man I have ever seen with such a scar…”
Anger bubbled up inside his heart… oh father, how could you?
“And then… and then, she said that this was not the Count’s fault, that Monte Cristo did not know she would do this…”
Ash bit his lip at that. True, and Lorelei had probably waited until her master was gone before embarking on this mission, but even so!
Something was wrong….
Delia sighed. “That was all. After her full and complete confession, detailing the events… it took a while for them to write it all down, but it was proven truth…. Afterwards, your father came home, and kissed me goodnight, like any other night… but then this morning, I found out that he had…” She dabbed at her eyes with a delicate lace handkerchief
“Father is…. Is he dead then?”
Delia nodded.
Red swam before his vision; he was on the urge of swooning again, when suddenly something else stopped him cold.
“Mother…. I have one more question.”
“Yes, Ash?”
“When you said that the Count of Monte Cristo might be an enemy….”
Delia met Ash’s eyes, startled. “Yes?”
“Did you mean he would do this to my father?” Rage was beginning to race in Ash’s veins. The Count no doubt knew of Lorelei’s story and then he had taken Ash away to Normandy to prevent him from discovering the connection to his father!
There must be a plot!
Yes… hidden him away so that he would not discover what the man was really planning to do to his father!
Brown eyes were confused. “I never implied…”
“Mother, now I know… why I always felt different around him… I should have known he was planning to destroy us…”
“Ash!”
“I should have heeded your warnings… I never thought…” Eyes glittered with anger. “I… he…I’ll – I’ll kill him for this! How dare he!”
“Ash!”
“I trusted him!” Ash screamed, before he left the room. * I fell in love with him! I… oh god, I slept with him… he took advantage of me… *
I hate him….
“Quiet.”
Janine stared at the strange man who had just materialized in her room. “Who are you? Why are you here?”
And how had she woken up? She had remembered a feeling of dreamlike sleep, and she had slept…
Surely…!
“I woke you from you coma. Listen.”
“I’m listening, sir.”
“Your life is on the line and we both know it. Surely you don’t think your grandparents died normal deaths, along with your own condition?”
The girl nodded shrewdly. “Tis my stepmother. She wishes my younger brother to gain the inheritance.”
“I know.”
“What can be done then?”
Steel grey smiled. “I shall send you away with your cousins Koga and Aya in Marseille. Would that be to your liking?”
“Of course.”
“Then…” He pressed a small, four-pointed star into her hand. “Be swift now.” She pressed the carved insignia in the center and vanished.
Lance sighed, letting his façade as Lord Wilmore vanish as he teleported away. Not two minutes later, footsteps came, hurriedly.
“She’s gone! My daughter is missing!”
Innocent children ought not to suffer…
The family – Lorelei and Koga, Aya and Brawly, happily welcomed their distant cousin to their home.
“Of course you may stay here for the time being. I’ve heard rumors….”
Janine nodded. “Violet killed my grandparents. I was next on the list. I could not stay there any longer.”
“Perfectly reasonable.” Lorelei smiled, recalling her Jynx. The ninja star had concealed a poke ball, and Jynx had teleported them here.
The ice pokemon smiled.
Brawly offered Janine his arm and began giving her a tour of the house as Aya watched with interest.
Maybe…!
Well, if it got the former sailor to quit hitting on her, it would be worth it.
She remembered something Koga had heard from Lorelei…
“… You said something about an Englishman with flaxen hair? Who calls himself Sinbad the Sailor? He’s an eccentric named Lord Wilmore, an English tourist…”
Maybe she’d meet him again and thank him properly? He had saved her father’s life and honor after all…
End Chapter
Completed