To His Hell and Back-Chapter 114: Under Queen’s Eyes

Bella turned to look at the Queen and immediately backed herself to the wall, her head lowered to trained its gaze at the floor as she knew that the Queen was a dangerous person to ever be involved with. Considering how she had refused helping her before, she was worried the Queen holding a grudge against her.

But what was worse were the two men standing beside her, the first man seeming as though he had just retired from the battlefield with wounds over his hands and a diagonal wound across his face. The minister who was a born vampire was named Minister Juan, a calculating kind of man who was strong in battlefield and court.

The other man was a skinnier man with a warm but cunning smile, he had pushed his glasses from the bridge of his nose and while Minister Juan wasn’t the least interested, his eyes had landed on Arabella and when her green eyes met him, she could see the brief change of expression his face. So brief that it felt like a quick passing wind that she couldn’t tell what it was.

Minister Juan inclined his head with the utmost respect. "Once again, I must extend my deepest gratitude, Your Majesty, for personally escorting us outside."

Queen Morgana offered a graceful smile, "The pleasure was mine, Minister Juan. Our conversation was most enlightening. His Majesty, too, was greatly impressed by your report on those peculiar potions." There was a brief pause before she added, "It is very concerning how humans have slowly acquired our weakness and you have done quite well to prevent us from walking blindly."

Minister Juan straightened slightly, accepting the praise with an almost too polite manner, "It is always an honor to serve the crown. To add, I haven’t done anything if not for the Crown Prince’s spotless investigation."

Queen Morgana frowned but she continued her smile with her face tilted slightly toward Arabella, "Indeed, Cassius have always been the flawless child he is. Though it does concern me as a child who had never made a mistake eventually made an even bigger mistake that would caused a lot of trouble."

Minister Juan chuckled, "I doubt that would ever happen, you can be at ease Your Majesty His Highness had never missed a step."

"Oh of course, I wish he would never to the end," said the Queen while Arabella who looked at the ground raised her eyebrows. She was kind of grateful that her expression wasn’t so easily seen by the vampires as if they do, they would easily tell that she had given them the look of someone in disbelief.

"However it is concerning about the rumors that the humans would start to collude with these..." Queen Morgana twirled her hands in circle around the sky, trying to recall what they were called and Minister Paolo answered to it, filling her in,

"Sorcerers," he said as he looked subtly at Arabella whose head was bowed down. He could see the girl’s face almost asking ’Why are you having such an important conversation in the middle of a hallway’.

"Right sorcerer," she confirmed and turned to Renard, "I have heard you went to that human town and saw the sorcerers themselves. What do they look like, Renard Kalem?"

Renard looked to her eyes, his expression very stiff and trained, "They cannot be differentiated from humans. It seems they are also working together with skin walkers."

"Skin walkers, I am aware of them and how humans used to fear them as they would take a human’s skin to kidnap newborns and feed on them," Queen Morgana said as she placed her hand into a cross form before her chest, "How frightening and now they want to work with sorcerers to take over Versailles."

"They seem to be very confident that they could take care of vampires with ease as long as they have the help of their remnant potion. The Crown Prince had shown us how it looked like and for now the researchers are looking into it with alchemy but I suppose it would be a struggle to understand human’s concoction," said Minister Paolo thoughtfully as Queen Morgana nod.

"Though I suppose we have to test the said potion for ourself. Perhaps we could try it on one of the vampires in the dungeon, the ones on the death row for the scaffold."

"Indeed, that wouldn’t be a bad idea," Minister Juan agreed as they began to walk again, resuming their stroll. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

"Though I suppose we should put more concern about the humans who have easily acquired all those potion from the sorcerers. It made me worry that somehow humans are also colluding to start a rebellion," the Queen said, her voice fading but when Arabella who had heard the words she said stared at her, the Queen glanced back at her, "Perhaps we should enact a new law, one where humans would have no choice to comply."

Then the three walked off without Arabella knowing that it hadn’t only been Queen Morgana who had stared as her when she walked off, rather it was Minister Paolo who had kept a close eye on her for a very long time, even after he left.

He muttered to himself, "Seems that the royal blood can’t lie."

Queen Morgana who had dropped them to the entrance of the castle then spoke, "I wish that you will continue your loyalty to the crown, His Majesty are looking forward to your continuous achievements."

Minister Juan bowed deeply, his movements precise. "The Crown will always have my utmost loyalty, Your Majesty."

Minister Paolo, still adjusting his glasses, offered a more measured nod. Once the Queen had left with all her eleven handmaidens, Paolo and Juan had entered the navy carriage and finally dropped their formality.

Minister Juan had sighed, he pulled his collar to loosen it, hating that he had to be bound here to work as a minister when he knew he would have loved to spend the rest of his life in the battlefield instead.

Relaxing his back, he turned to Minister Paolo who was humming with a smile while rubbing his glasses with the cotton handkerchief, "What Juan?" Paolo who sensed his gaze questioned his curious stare."

"Do you know that human girl with the blue dress or something? You were holding a keen interest in her I noted that."

Paolo sighed. He knew that being with Juan was annoying, not only because he was a man who was far too strict that could ruin the fun in every party but also the fact that he had never missed a single change in his expression which made it hard to hold a secret against him.

So he chose to say half truths, "I think that human is special."

Raising his eyebrows Juan became interested, "Special how?"