Chapter 55: Ch 55. Briella’s Explanation 2

"Dad, my mother and my entire family were murdered so brutally—it was utterly heartless. Even though it wasn’t necessarily my father’s fault at the time, he was immediately silenced by baseless accusations. On what grounds was my father accused of killing the Queen? We never had any problems with the royal family, but my father was accused of having harmed Queen Fox back then," said Briella with a sob that cut to the heart.

Selena furrowed her brow, looking at the female fox lying helplessly before her.

"I wasn’t alive back then. If you don’t explain it more clearly, I won’t understand how this issue relates to your father," Selena said expressionlessly.

Briella looked at her, then took a deep breath. "From what I heard that night, my father and the Old Fox King were practicing hunting when his wife suddenly died. I don’t know who poisoned her, but all the accusations fell on my father. I know my father as a good man—there’s no way he did it," she said earnestly.

"Even if he did it, what motive would he have? We were living well and lacked nothing; my father held a very high position as Minister of State. Our lives were very good—even my mother was quite close with the Queen. I’m sure someone has made baseless accusations out of hatred for my father, which is why all the evidence points to us. But the Old Fox King, having already lost his temper, is no longer using his common sense to think," she added, choking back sobs, causing Selena to sigh.

This case is truly complicated, because Selena didn’t live during that time and she also doesn’t know who the people involved are. Digging deeper into the investigation would only create more difficulties for her, but Selena also felt it made some sense that the Briella family had been slandered.

"Your problem is quite complicated; there isn’t much evidence or many witnesses here. Besides, based on your own account alone, it’s impossible to determine who is right and who is wrong. The victim’s family or the perpetrator will always claim they did nothing wrong," said Stoner with a blank expression.

"That’s right, there’s no concrete evidence and no witnesses. This case will only make things difficult for Selena if she has to deliver justice to you without a clear explanation," said Jhon, agreeing with Stoner. "Unless the Old Fox King remembers this incident and knows the details more clearly. But that man will most likely not want to admit he’s wrong or be blamed. This will be a dead end if that’s the case," he added, causing Selena to sigh.

She massaged her temples, feeling genuinely dizzy. The case was indeed difficult, but there was something off about it—as if it were calling out to Selena to come and investigate.

"Do you know enough about the situation at the palace back then?" Selena asked after calming down. "Do you know what problems existed at the time? Do you know who your father’s enemies were? And do you still remember who first accused your father?"

Briella was silent for a moment. "There weren’t any major problems back then; things were pretty peaceful, which is why my father and the Old Fox King could go hunting together. As for who might have hated my father, it’s possible there were some—since my father was too close to the king, and many ministers didn’t like that. I don’t know exactly who they were because I wasn’t very involved in my father’s political affairs," she said, sounding a bit hesitant.

Selena understood—after all, Briella must have been very young back then. It made sense that she wasn’t deeply involved in political matters, but her burning desire for revenge—which she was only now seeking to exact—was what made Selena suspicious.

"All right, I can understand that you didn’t know your father’s colleagues or his enemies. You probably didn’t know what the actual political situation was like back then—you were still too young to understand, especially since you weren’t involved," Selena said, leaning back gracefully as she looked at Briella, who had fallen silent.

"I don’t really remember much, and I don’t know much about it. But I’m sure my father wasn’t in the wrong—he wasn’t a bad person..." Briella said, looking at her with teary eyes. "He was a gentle father who loved me very much. Back then, the current Fox King had already been born, and my father often took care of him and played with him."

"If my father was truly evil, why didn’t he kill the Fox King, who was the crown prince at the time? Why did he instead kill the Queen, who had absolutely no significant influence in the political world? That doesn’t make sense..." she said again in a hoarse voice, truly weeping for her family.

"Then answer my last question," Selena replied, watching Briella blow her nose, which had become congested from crying. "You’ve managed to survive and stay alive for decades because you weren’t executed. You know quite a bit about what happened to your family, even if you’re still unsure of the cause. But there’s no way you don’t know who accused your father, right?"

Briella fell silent, deep in thought, while Selena folded her arms.

"For all these decades, you’ve managed to survive and even started concocting poisons, getting close to the Old King, poisoning him, and then convincing him to poison his own son. You were able to do all of that easily and with careful planning, so there’s no way you wouldn’t know or never investigated who first accused your father of poisoning the Old Fox Queen," said Selena, her words clear and forcing Briella to think.

"At the time, the one who examined the Queen first said she found Fox Claw Poison inside the Queen’s body," said Briella, her voice slightly hesitant.

"What kind of poison?" Selena asked, wanting to be sure.

Briella hesitated slightly but spoke up anyway. "Our family develops rare medicines and certain types of poisons for use as weapons. One of our ancestors’ discoveries was Fox Claw Poison—not all fox claws can be used to make the poison; only foxes with a purple birthmark can produce it.

"Our family is the only one with the purple birthmark. Back then, my father personally developed Fox Claw Venom and never disclosed it to the public at all. He even kept the room where he always concocted the poison tightly locked; we weren’t even taught how to make it because my father said it was dangerous."

"But how could a poison that no one else has ever obtained—not even us, my father’s immediate family, who’ve never even seen what it looks like—be found in the Queen’s body and be ruled the primary cause of her death? That doesn’t make any sense..." said Briella, her tears flowing once more.

"My father repeatedly denied the charges, trying to prove his innocence. But the King’s wrath was too great to be contained. On the very day of the Queen’s funeral, our family was mercilessly slaughtered. My sister-in-law was pregnant at the time, and she was brutally murdered. My mother, my older brother, and my young younger brother also perished in the massacre. It feels so unfair, because my father never once felt he had done it..."

"So the one who first accused your father was the doctor who examined Queen Rubah?" John asked, causing Briella to nod. "Do you still remember her name?"

"I don’t remember very well, but if I’m not mistaken, she was the sister of the Minister of Development. He’s from the Fox Clan too, just two ranks below my father. If I’m not mistaken, the Minister of Development at the time was Axov, and his sister—who was the Queen’s doctor—was named Azvia. They’re from the Northern Fox Clan; Axov is still the Minister of Development to this day." Briella explained, her memory a bit hazy.

Selena looked into her serious eyes; she didn’t seem to be joking. In fact, the fox woman in front of her kept digging through the remnants of her memory to explain and provide anything that might be useful.

"Is he still the Minister of Development?"

Briella nodded, causing Selena to fall silent as she thought, weighing all the possibilities.

"Hate sometimes has no reason; just because he’s still the Minister of Development doesn’t mean he’s not involved in this," Stoner said, looking at Selena, who had raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, really? Why do you say that?"

Stoner had plenty of experience with betrayal and fighting against his own clan; perhaps by asking him, Selena would gain some insight or additional knowledge to handle this situation.

"It doesn’t mean someone brings down a colleague just to take their higher position. It could be that he simply hates him—he hates seeing how close the Minister of State is to the King because he feels threatened. So he deliberately made false accusations to get that man removed from the King’s side; if that man is gone, he’ll live more peacefully because he won’t feel that hatred anymore," Stoner explained, a bit convolutedly, but Selena understood.

"Or it could be that the Minister of State knows one or two of his secrets. Worried that his position is threatened, he eliminates the Minister of State first and pins all the evidence on him. Because it’s a bit strange, too—how could the position of Minister of Development be so enduring and long-lasting when he should be very old by now," John interjected with a look of suspicion on his face.