The Dragon Queen and her mates.
Chapter 283: How deep the trap is

Chapter 283: How deep the trap is

Soon they were seated in a small room that was stuffed with so many magical instruments and devices that Bree didn’t know where to put her arms or legs.

On top of that, two mages were staring at her without even blinking; though there was no animosity in their gazes, it made Bree uncomfortable. Secondly, Blaise sat right next to her, and he wouldn’t stop touching her. For the love of God, he was pretty much stuck to her as he rubbed and nuzzled against her. And now that they were sitting around the table, he was playing with a lock of her hair.

"What do you mean you cannot decode it? I called the Empress because you told me that you can do it, Justin," Blaise questioned with an annoyed growl.

Justin looked more annoyed than Blaise. He slammed his hands down on the table and stated, "What do you think I am trying to do? I told you that I was almost done, but you took it as completely done." He then turned to look at Bree and apologised, "Forgive me, Your Majesty. But what I do is not as easy as it looks. Though I only need to rewrite these transcripts by breaking the black magic, it’s not that simple. I am doing my best, but it will take a little more time."

"There is no need for you to apologise," Bree shook her head and sighed. Though she had asked Blaise to decode this scroll as soon as possible, she never asked him to do it so quickly. In fact, she never asked him to bully the mages working in his magic tower.

Even if he took his time to break the code, Bree wouldn’t have said anything.

"However," Justin pushed a bunch of scrolls that he had collected in front of Bree and stated, "I did find a little information on the pack that is helping the Death Riders."

He passed a magical scroll to Bree, who picked it up and saw the portrait that appeared on the paper. "This is Alpha Lancelot. His pack was based in the city of Goodwill but it moved just a few weeks ago. As their identities are not clear and they are wanted criminals, they do not stay in the same place for a long time. And from what I found out, Alpha Lancelot had a lot of alliances with the officials in the court."

His voice softened by quite a lot of degrees as he looked at Bree awkwardly. "Of course, we don’t know if he is still involved with them or not, as there is no evidence to prove it."

Bree clenched her fists; though her expression remained blank, she was wondering if she needed to clean the court from the start. She thought that she was done with the cleansing. It turned out that it was not enough.

"Are they really not involved with them?" Blaise asked with a sharp gaze.

"Like I said, there is no evidence that would indicate that the ministers are involved with them," said Justin. "However, there are some traces that prove that Minister Jon, Albert and Quinn were involved with Lancelot before they were declared as traitors. Quinn even met with Alpha Lancelot just a few hours before the decree was passed down."

"You should question them," chimed in Goldie as he glanced at the scroll.

"I think I will do just that," Bree muttered as she tapped her fingers on the table. She was not a fan of questioning ministers, especially ministers like Quinn, who were known for being cagey. That man liked to play games instead of talking straight.

"Don’t worry, I will make him talk."

Seeing that Bree seemed a bit annoyed, Blaise patted her on the back. She raised her head and cast a look of disbelief at him. She asked with a curl of her lips, "What? Do you mean to say that you are going to make that man charmed up by your flirtatious talks? It might work on women but I don’t think it will work on men."

"Does it mean that it works on you, your majesty?" Blaise asked with a chuckle and Bree rolled her eyes at him, which made the man laugh even harder. He said to her, "I have my ways to make that man talk; don’t worry."

As he spoke, he got to his feet and asked, "Do you want to interrogate Lord Quinn today, or shall we wait for an official decree to be passed down?"

"No, let’s do it now." Bree stood up as well. Though she knew that she needed to follow the proper procedures for inviting the ministers to the palace, she really couldn’t be bothered at the moment. They received all kinds of comfort and honours by following the predecessor of this body and yet they showed no guilt when betraying her.

She wanted to see how deep the trap was.

"Very well," Blaise held her hand and then snapped his fingers. The two of them vanished and appeared in the middle of a study. Good news: they were back in the palace. Bad news: they were not in her study.

"...For the last time, De Luca, I cannot give you an extra push," an exasperated voice spoke from outside the room.

"You are being too harsh on me, first consort," said Ahmar as he watched Yakov walk in front of him with a bunch of paper in his arms. "I am not asking you to give me extra money for my own personal expenses. It is for the army."

"And you think that I would have said no if I had the power to do it?" Yakov turned his head just as he pushed the door of his office. "The scholars have objected to the increase in the budget of the army again and again. They want to establish an academy—"

"What’s the point of establishing an academy when there will be no empire to stay in? The army needs funds for protecting the empire."

"Are you saying that the scholarly endeavours are useless —Your majesty? What are you doing in my office?"