The Royal Revenge
Chapter 123: The High Vampire Court

Chapter 123: The High Vampire Court

The sun has set, and Elys and Aleksander sat on their thrones as several vampires poured into the room. Aleksander had called for a meeting with the palace ministers, knights, and all the other palace officials.

By the looks of it, only a few had heeded his call, and Elys was still confused how he would get his ’plan’ done.

"High Priestess Naya and the rest of the vampire clergy aren’t around," Elys noted.

"Do not worry, my queen," Aleksander squeezed her hand, an act of reassurance Elys didn’t think he was capable of a month ago, "The High Priestess isn’t needed tonight."

"As you say so, husband," Elys said, turning her head towards the vampires that came in.

Several servants were stationed inside the room as well, ready for anything to be demanded of them. Elys wondered if they were humans. She never had the chance to ask Aleksander before, but now she wanted to know.

It was most likely they were slaves as well.

Elys’ thoughts were brought to a halt when somebody came up to her and bowed down.

"Your majesty," a vampire greeted her as they all took a seat within the High Vampire Courts.

Elys’ face twisted with the awkward honorifics.

She was well aware that majority of the vampires were against her becoming their new queen. The vampires that chose to side with them were few, and those were the ones that remained in the palace with them right now.

"Sit down," Aleksander commanded.

The nobilities who worked at the palace and sided with them could only be counted with the fingers of one hand – not all five of them too. Namely, they were Archduke Keane, Marquis Lanz, Count and Countess Farvar.

The rest of the nobles scowled at the new king and queen.

"You have called for us, your majesty?" Archduke Keane asked, peering over his monocles.

The Archduke was perhaps the youngest out of all the Ministers of the High Vampire Court. Rumors said that he rose to power by ousting his own father and brother.

Unfortunately for him, all of his descendants turned to be females. Many of his sons were only adopted from lesser noble families, to which didn’t make his family eligible to present a candidate during last night’s deliberation.

Aleksander crossed his legs. He propped his chin on his palm, his arm lazing on the armrest of his throne. His other hand was close to Elys’ who sat straight beside him, a regal aura emanating from her.

"Yes, I have been mulling about this last night," Aleksander spoke, and then pointed towards the other nobilities he and Elys had marked as enemies, "All of you have stayed despite the initial turmoil of last night’s coronation, and I am thankful for that."

A rush of murmurs started to rise within the Vampire High Courts room. There were a lot of astonished faces, to which Aleksander had anticipated.

The vampires had thought the new king was bound to get rid of them all since hearing about the attempted assassination last night. Lady Catalina had been banished from serving the palace, and all the late queen’s ladies in waiting were immediately dismissed as well.

Only the maidservant that the human queen had brought was the one serving her now.

Glasses clinked, and momentarily the vampires of the High Courts were distracted with another serving of fresh blood. Majority of them reached for their cup, and immediately gulped at the small serving.

There were chatters amongst the vampire court until one by one, the bodies of those that drunk blood turned rigid for a second.

Aleksander felt the corners of his mouth curl into an evil smile – it has begun.

Nobody knew what was about to happen, and Aleksander could only laugh inwardly.

"Drink, everyone, drink," the young king said with a jovial tone.

Elys glanced at her husband through the corners of her red eyes. She could tell that Aleksander had something going on that contributed to his happy demeanor.

’Ah... I guess this is the moment of truth then,’ Elys thought to herself.

"Your majesty... would you like some refreshments?"

Elys’ thoughts were brought back to reality with a servant bringing an assortment of wine bottles. Another servant was beside her, a tray containing two silver goblets.

At a closer inspection, Elys finally found the answer to her questions a while back. The servants indeed were human, but she didn’t seem to feel that they were in the palace against their will unlike that of the slaves back at the outskirts of the kingdom.

The servants themselves emanated a sense of pride as they served the vampires, some even giggling at those that showed them interest. Elys’ face turned dark for a second.

She reached out for one of the goblets, and then produced a dagger from her voluminous dress. She cut herself deep enough to make her bleed into the goblet.

"What are you doing, my queen?" Aleksander asked. "Don’t you like the wines I asked to be brought?"

Elys rolled her eyes. The answer was pretty obvious it need not to be asked at all.

When the cup was finally full, she handed it towards Aleksander and said, "For your own safety."

The young king was surprised by Elys’ thoughtfulness. He smiled at her, and then reached out to her wounded hand. He licked them clean, and the wound immediately started to heal soon after.

Elys dismissed the servants and they scurried over to the other vampires that demanded for a second glass of blood.

"Thank you, my dear queen," Aleksander whispered into her ear. He raised the goblet and spoke to the vampires, "Drink everyone, and thank you again for heeding my call on such a short notice."

"You don’t have to thank us for that, your majesty," one of the ministers said, picking up the glass of fresh blood a servant placed on his table. "It is the duty of the High Vampire Court to support whoever is seated in the throne."

The minister’s glass reached his lips, drinking the blood in one big gulp. He side-eyed the new vampire king and his human queen, his thoughts running a marathon of how they could actually overthrow the bastard.

It was important to note that Aleksander and his wife had decided to stay in their shared bedchambers. This was pretty uncommon for most monarchs, as usually the shared bedchamber was only used for the purpose of securing an heir to the throne.

Was the bastard king trying to sully the pure bloodline of monarchs with the filthy human’s offspring? Surely there was something else to this. Perhaps it was just that he was suspicious of the vampires that served them?

Clearly it was a sign of distrust, and he knew all too well how easily one could backstab him if he didn’t take precautions.

Lady Catalina was supposedly the head of all the queen’s ladies in waiting. She had served for several centuries, and is quite known to be loyal to any queen worthy in her eyes.

Obviously, to the lady in waiting, a human queen wasn’t fit for the throne, hence her reaction last night.

With her banishment from the palace, there was bound to be turmoil and competition within the remaining women officials as to who will most likely take the Lady Catalina’s place.

The minister feared the new king was bound to replace them one way or another.

He bit his nails in apprehension, ’I can’t be too careless now. I have been seated the longest in this position, and I am not going to get kicked out easily!’

Several vampire nobilities had already proclaimed their support for the bastard king, but the minister knew that like him, they were just playing it safe for now. His eyes turned to the Farvars, and he let out a sardonic snort.

He didn’t understand why the Farvar son was picked by the Mana Orbs. Many of them weren’t pleased by it, as the Igniss and Rosso were far more superior in terms of strength and magical affinities.

Aleksander clanked his glass, and all the vampires within the room turned their attention to him.

"Everyone, I have called for all of you to say that I am deeply pleased that you have pledged allegiance to me and my queen," Aleksander spoke. "I am well aware that you are concerned of... things from the past, and I assure you that all of those will stay in the past."

Several vampires within the High Court frowned. They have heard Aleksander speak the same thing a while ago. What did he really want from them?

"In light of yesterday’s success, I would like to announce that I would have a reshuffle all the current officials, knights, and ministers within the kingdom," Aleksander added.

Archduke Keane choked on his glass of blood, and then raised his brows. The rest of the ministers did so as well.

What the hell was the young king trying to play at right now?!