Yed leveled a suspicious glare at Ned just then, snapping sharply and bluntly, “Not everyone can get their hands on such a terrible poison, and we all know how affable my father is—no one has a motive other than Ned. Dad was in a room alone with him for over an hour last night. I’m sure he did it at that time!”
“Do you have evidence?” Lothar asked, shooting Yed a look.
He was no fool—Yed was the most ambitious in the family, while Ned was always cowering and never straying out of line.
No matter how Lothar thought about it, he was not convinced that Ned would ever go that far.
Instead, it was Yed who was the most suspicious.
“I-I didn’t poison Dad,” Ned braced himself and argued his case. “Why would I do something like that? Don’t try to slander me, Yed…”
“What, are you talking back to me?!” Yed’s eyes flashed dangerously and he strode up toward Ned, ready to beat him up.
“How dare you snap at Daddy, eunuch!” Hal chimed in.
“Enough!” Lothar bellowed, his expression icy. “No infighting until we found out what happened, Yed! If you insist it’s Ned, then show some evidence! Coercion won’t help your case!”
Yed laughed coolly right then. “But I have evidence, Uncle Lothar!”
Ned looked up, taken aback—Yed had evidence!
At the same time, Yed whipped out his phone to show a security camera recording of Paula walking through the hallway.
She was carrying a tray with a teapot, and Ned came up to her, taking the tray eagerly and saying he would take it to his father.
He then disappeared into a dead angle before reappearing and bringing the tea to Ciril’s room.
“This is slander!” Ned cried in agitation after seeing the recording. “I was coming here to speak with Dad about the Sunblazers!”
Yed strode up and seized him by the collar. “Then why did you disappear from the cameras?! What were you doing there?!”
“I-I didn’t do anything!” Ned cried. “The cameras missed me, that’s all! I’d never poison Dad—what good would that do for me?!”
“Hah! What good, you say?!” Paula snorted as she chimed in. “You’re just jealous he chose Yed to be his successor and wanted petty revenge!”
“What…” Ned was frustrated but had no way of arguing back.
In the end, it was Lothar who stood up for him, grabbing Yed by the wrist and growling icily, “Boy, the video might work as evidence, but it’s not enough. Yes, the cameras didn’t cover every angle, but the duration between Ned appearing and disappearing matches the pace he was walking in. In other words, he never hid there.”
