Betrayed By The Hero, Loved By The Lord
Chapter 174: Dangerous game (2)

Chapter 174: Dangerous game (2)

"The queen enters."

"What does she want now?" Darius muttered.

Darius leaned back on his chair, watching the servants rush out of the room as Vivienne entered. He noticed her eyes searching the room for a woman she believed was in his company.

How disappointing it had to be for her that he was alone.

"What do I owe for this visit? After our last talk, I thought you would want to avoid me. What has your father sent you to do now?" Darius wondered. He still failed to believe this was all Vivienne’s idea.

"You must stop thinking this has anything to do with my father and our last talk did not end so badly. I thought we had a little understanding that I was not going to sit quietly anymore. I have a little gift for you. Consider it as me making peace between us," Vivienne said, taking a seat on the table before him.

Darius didn’t like the sound of this. "A gift? The last time you said you had a gift for me, you threw something at my head. I am not in the mood to argue with you. I have urgent matters to take care of."

Vivienne looked down at the papers spread across the table and noticed most of them were about attacks. "I am the queen," she said after Darius started to collect them. "I should know what occurs in my kingdom. Wasn’t this brought to our attention long ago? It is getting out of hand now."

Darius continued to collect all of the papers to put them away. "It is under control. This is simply another reason why I should go forward with my plan to round all of them up and put them in a closed area so they don’t live amongst us. We could take their blood as we like."

"Are you sure about that? There are far too many of them for you to group them in one place. It sounds like we will be on the verge of another war if this continues. No one wants a war," said Vivienne.

"It won’t come to war because, like the past, we will control them. You don’t need to worry your pretty little head about this-"

"I must worry since I am a pureblood and a royal. It is clear who their next targets will be. This is why there are so many questions about you as our king. You must handle this matter urgently to show that your place on the throne should not be questioned. Why can’t you see that is the answer?" Vivienne wondered.

Vivienne knew Darius was clueless but to let this matter go on for so long placed him as a bigger fool.

Vivienne continued to say, "They will notice you do not care about the mixed-bloods they are attacking and then move on to purebloods. It will be hell for you if the purebloods start to get upset. You will lose your place as the king and you should know very well no one in this town will let you forget."

"I said I wasn’t in the mood to argue with you and you do this," Darius said, annoyed he thought they wouldn’t fight.

"I didn’t come here to argue with you and I am not arguing with you now. I am trying to help you, Darius. If you get replaced as king then I am no longer the queen. I’ll be the wife of a man removed from the throne. I cannot do this now," Vivienne muttered, touching her face.

Trying to talk sense into Darius wasn’t an easy task since he always believed his way was right

Vivienne hoped her father or anyone else keeping track of the attacks would put pressure on Darius to deal with this matter sooner.

"This isn’t what I came here to do. I said I had a gift for you and I meant it. She is waiting for us so we mustn’t be late," Vivienne said, standing up from the table to walk with Darius.

Darius immediately thought of Natalie being in the palace. His entertainment was finally getting started. Darius forgot all about their minor argument and stood up to walk with Vivienne. He was awaiting the moment when her plan would backfire and Vivienne would realise he had been in bed with Natalie many times.

Vivienne noticed his sudden excitement. Of course, having another woman to sleep with would have him this way.

Vivienne took Darus right to the room Juliana was placed in and entered after the servants announced their arrival.

Darius frowned, puzzled by Juliana standing before him. "What is this, Vivienne? This isn’t what we agreed on. Where is your other friend?"

Juliana’s smile quickly fell, confused by Darius’s reaction. ’Other friend? Does he mean Natalie?’ She realised.

"There has been a change in plans. I selected Juliana for you since she will suit the palace more. When I last spoke to her, she accepted becoming your mistress. Has your mind changed?" Vivienne inquired, giving Juliana one last chance to back out.

"It has not. I am honoured to have been selected. I will treat you well," Juliana promised Darius.

Darius didn’t care about her treating him well. When he looked at Juliana there wasn’t anything about her to excite him. "You should have informed me about your change in the plans."

"Why does it matter that my plans changed? Is there a reason why it matters that I went from Natalie to Juliana? Please let me know now," Vivienne said, suspicious of his interest in Natalie. Had he been eyeing Natalie all along and she almost handed him what he wanted?

"It is a simple matter of who I might be attracted to. I look at her and feel nothing," Darius said, refusing to spare Juliana a second glance.

If Darius thought of Juliana as a woman to take to bed then he would have approached her instead of Natalie.

Juliana held her head down in shame. It was embarrassing to hear Darius say he was not attracted to her to her face. It was even more embarrassing to find out that Vivienne had offered Natalie first and Darius wanted it.

Juliana gripped her dress. If Natalie replaced her then she wouldn’t escape this shame. She would live knowing that she had fallen short of Natalie. "I will do anything to stay!" Juliana declared, surprising herself.

Juliana faced Darius who now appeared intrigued. "I will do anything to show this wasn’t a mistake. I can be better than Natalie if you would only give me a chance."

"Anything?" Darius asked.

Juliana nodded her head. Her confidence grew upon seeing that she finally captured his attention.

Juliana was certain she could please Darius in ways that Vivienne and others could not.

Darius laughed, finding Juliana to be a fool since she didn’t know what she was getting herself into with the offer. "Well, now I am suddenly interested. Will you stay, Vivienne? Maybe it will be fun for you as well."

"Certainly not," Vivienne replied, heading toward the door.

Vivienne planned to return later to see if Juliana was still willing to do anything to stay in the palace. While she waited for Darius to get well acquainted with Juliana, Vivienne had an order to send out that Natalie wasn’t welcome in the palace anymore.