The Dragon Queen and her mates.
Chapter 34: What do you want?

Chapter 34: What do you want?

Of course, they were.

Bree wished she could drag this Duke Cilantro by his hair around and throw him in a trash can, she might be new to being a Queen but she could still sense that he was actually trying to force them into a corner by this action of his. He knows that she cannot force him to abdicate his title as the Duke of the territory and as long as he was in power he will be able to do whatever he wanted without any concerns whatsoever.

She turned to Dion and asked, "What did the shadow guard write in his report again?"

Dion looked a bit awkward as he handed her the report which she briefly skimmed through and the more she read it the more her brows scrunched up. " What is the meaning of this?"

According to the report sent by the shadow guard, everything was fine in Duke Cilantro’s territory and the situation of his territory was indeed according to the letter that he has sent. There were far too many orphans and for the sake of taking care of them, he needed to increase the revenue of the taxes so that he will be able to build a few more orphanages. It also subtly mentioned that he wasn’t trying to smuggle the extra revenues into his pockets.

No matter how she saw the report it was more of six-page long praise of Duke Cilantro instead of a report of the situation of the territory. It was so partial to the point that even a novice like Bree could detect that something was off with the report, she turned to look at Dion with a serious expression. " Did the shadow guard return from the Duke’s territory?"

" That’s the thing, your majesty. I have sent many letters to the guard but except for this one report he did not send any reply back, a few days ago even the leader of the shadow guard team lost connection with the guard who was sent to Duke Cilantro’s territory, I and the leader fear that maybe something unfortunate might have befallen on the guard," Dion did not miss a chance as he reported back everything that he and the leader of the shadow guard team have found out till now.

" Then what about this report?" asked Bree as she flipped through the eight pages and threw it on the table. " Is this not the handwriting of the guard?"

Dion shook his head. " According to the leader and the squadron members of the shadow team, this is indeed the handwriting of the shadow guard. They don’t know how such a biased report was sent back though——-"

" Pfft," Yakov who has been silent till now laughed with his hand clamped on his mouth.

Frowning Bree looked at him. " Do you think that this is a laughing matter?"

" No, I am not laughing because I take this matter lightly, your majesty." Yakov bowed his head respectfully as he swiftly replied. " But what I am laughing at is the naiveness of your shadow guards, they are too loyal and never even thought about the Ditto quill have you forgotten that a few years ago there was an upheaval of letters with your handwriting that approved ministers of this and that, and that caused a huge uproar until you found out that a mage who created that Ditto Quill was behind it."

Bree, of course, had no recollection of it but thankfully, Dion who seemed to have understood her predicament immediately came to her aide and explained. " Five years ago after you took over the throne, a mage magically created a quill that could copy the handwriting of almost anyone, as soon as it touches the fingers of the person whose writing it needed to copy. Back then one of your maids was hired by the ministers and she would replace your quills with magically altered ones before handing those quills back to the ministers, those ministers then used the quills for the benefit of their territories, it caused an uproar big enough for the office to be filled with memorandums, but later on, that mage was caught and so were the ministers so everything returned to normal and you even banned the use of Ditto Quill in the Empire, declaring it as illegal."

Once Dion worked her memory, Bree was able to wrench out that one memory that was hidden in the previous’s Queen head. " But wasn’t the batch of Quills burnt back then?"

" There is always a possibility of a second copy, Your majesty," said Yakov. " Maybe Duke Cilantro found another mage to make one for him, or maybe a few of quills were stolen before the Royal army burned them, there are of course countless possibilities that can happen after all we are not omnipotent and won’t know what’s happening in the Empire all the time."

Bree hated to admit that he was right about it.

With one of her brows raised, she looked at him. " So, if Chancellor Sceptre has thought about so many things already, I believe that you might also have come up with a solution for the situation?"

Yakov placed his hand on his chest and bowed in a dignified manner. " Certainly, your majesty I do have a solution for this situation that will end the trouble with Duke Cilantro once and for all."

" And what that might be?" asked Bree.

" Your majesty, as you already know, my aide Aileen is a basilisk...no magic or poison unless the blood of a dragon and tears of a phoenix can kill him, similarly no magic weapons can work on him as long as the blood of the basilisk clan flows in him," said Yakov with a patient voice. " I believe that if I send my aide to Duke Cilantro’s territory, not only will he find out about what is wrong with him but he might even get hold of the Duke Cilantro’s weakness that we can exploit."

The plan was swift, easy and simple —— Bree knew that sending Aileen was certainly better than sending another shadow guard and endangering another life but she also knew that she couldn’t command the aides of her consorts for they were loyal to their masters alone. Which means——

" What do you want?" she asked with her eyes narrowed.