The Dragon Queen and her mates.
Chapter 199: Hunt

Chapter 199: Hunt

Dedicating todays Chapter to Evil_Momster_Flexx.

The drugs that Duke Cilantro added to Bree’s food were not something that could be easily trifled with, it was something that he has brought from the Black market auction for at least a million gold coins! The drug was called the Song of the midnight tamer and anyone who used would become a victim of the debauchery that happened late in the night, of course, the drugs were rather expensive to buy but as long as it made the Queen indulge in the carnal desires of her instincts and let him off, then Duke Cilantro wouldn’t mind wasting his money to buy something like that.

He rubbed his hand on his thigh nervously and looked at Bree who was calmly eating her meal, good thing that he didn’t think of saving the money and brought the drug that was hard to detect or else his head would be rolling on the ground already!

" Your majesty, do you like the dishes that have been prepared for breakfast?" Duke Cilantro asked with a voice that was filled with greasiness while he looked at the Queen fondly, this was good as well, as long as the queen was under the effects of the drug he would be able to take advantage of the situation and move those Phoenix offspring’s to somewhere else, a place where no one would be able to find them. It was a risk to take but leaving those kids in the orphanage was even more of a risk.

" I like it," Bree answered with a smile that didn’t show off just how angry she was inward, last night was one thing but the Duke dared to drug her food in the morning as well, was he just looking for a way to drug her or was he looking for a way to kill her, how can he ask his staff to add these unidentified drugs in her food continuously?

But Bree couldn’t say anything to him, hell she couldn’t even question why he was doing this.. even though she was the ruler of this Empire, she was no more powerful than a puppet with a crown on her head, if she wanted to dispose of Duke Cilantro then she needed perfect pieces of evidence to have him discarded or else no one would be willing to listen to her, maybe the elders of the Dragonire empire would even make things difficult for her once she returned.

It was funny, that she had the crown, the throne and the power to rule over this entire place but at the same time, her hands were tied by the Elders who sat in the palace doing nothing but looking for new ways to make things difficult for her.

" You have really gone to great lengths to make this trip enjoyable for me Duke." She wanted to shove the fork in her hand down the throat of the Duke but she couldn’t do it, even though she would have loved seeing him suffer, at the moment she could only stretch her smile and act like a foolish woman who didn’t know any better. But this was her chance to take advantage of the situation, as long as she was the bumbling woman who was inferior to men, Bree would be able to make the Duke guard his guard.

It was embarrassing to do something like that but it was a chance to survive this ordeal and Bree didn’t care about anything other than her survival. She wanted to live, maybe it what something to do with her sudden death but she was obsessed with the idea of staying alive, she didn’t care how she made it past these tough times but she would make it past these troublesome times, no matter what, no matter how and no matter what the cost.

Sure enough her smile that in no doubt resembled those women who wanted to please men, eased the Duke’s mind because a second later he took a big bite of his steak and then hummed with a jolly tune. " Your majesty, I don’t know whether or not to tell you this but the Cilantro territory has more than just beautiful harbours and sea, if you want then we can do something that is more fun than looking around the harbours."

He wanted to keep her away from the harbours, Bree of course understood the Duke’s motives. Even though the Duke was the only one whose territory had a harbour closest to the ocean and many territories sent their goods to his territory to be exported most probably the Duke might have done something like taking advantage of the other territories by smuggling a box or two of their shipments.

The Duke wouldn’t have wanted her to find evidence of his corruption now would he, that was why he was trying so hard to keep her away from the harbour as much as possible.

He was really treating her like a fool wasn’t he? Bree calmly cut the steak in front of her that was still seeping blood and for once was glad that she didn’t have to eat the bloody meat, the previous Dragon Queen would have wanted to eat something as awful as bloodied steak but Bree wasn’t someone who was used to eating something like this.

" Of course just as the Duke said, there are a lot of fun things that I can do, so what is it that you have in mind, Duke... I believe as my trustworthy official, you would have come up with a perfect plan to keep your queen entertained, right?"

No matter what the situation was, she had no choice but to act in her role. That’s right, she was a woman who had nothing better to do but have fun, look at her, see how sleazy she was being!

Bree hated the smile that came on the face of the Duke as he saw her expression, she really hated it when men looked down on her. She was no feminist, nor was she a fighter of justice for women’s rights either, she just hated the sense of pride with which men were born. Her brother was good for nothing but just because he could carry the bloodline of her family, he was treated like a little lord.

If he was to fail a test then her mother would simply blame the school, the teachers and everyone else that were a part of the educational system and so did her father, he would say that he didn’t want a pansy boy as his son either, that a man needed to be stronger and not wiser yet she was punished in case she scored a B grade. To her parents sending her to the school was the biggest favour that they have bestowed upon her who was born as a useless woman, one who would be married away sooner or later without giving them anything in return.

But in the end what happened? Wasn’t she the one who had to pay for their expenses? But even then she was not as good as her brother who would gamble every day why? Because he was born a man because he was superior to her in terms of gender even if he was good for nothing and the only good thing about him was that he could give birth to an heir of her family.

Just because of that he had everything and she didn’t.

The Duke reminded her of her brother and all those men who thought that they were better than her all because she was a woman.

" I was thinking of going on a hunt," replied the Duke with a flashy smile as he placed his silverware on the table and then looked at Bree with eyes that could be counted as nothing but contemptuous. " I have long heard that your majesty’s skills as a swordswoman are something that is praised in the entire continent, I was hoping to witness that wonderful scene with my own eyes."

Bree clenched the fork in her hand, she knew that it was a trap. The Duke has been adding something wrong to her meals these days, wasn’t he? If so then there was a chance that he knew that she shouldn’t be able to wield a sword, so he was deliberately asking her to join the hunt and see for himself whether the things that he added to her meals were working or not, a perfect plan if someone was to ask her.

If she wanted she could have swung her sword and ended the life of the Duke here and now to make sure that she would be able to survive past this plan but she knew that it wasn’t an option, so she placed her silverware down and said with a crinkling smile, " Ah hunting? I sure love a nice hunt. What are we going to bet on this time duke? An elk or a mountain goat maybe a lion will do as well."

" Those are things of the past your majesty," Duke Cilantro smiled at her with a sly smirk on his face and added, " I was thinking of competing with a hunt of magical creatures."