The Royal Revenge
Chapter 136: I Chose You Because...

Chapter 136: I Chose You Because...

The human queen of the vampires grinned from ear to ear. Elys couldn’t help but to be amused, and a soft giggle came out of her.

Eyebrows were raised, but the noble ladies were civil enough not to speak ill of it.

Elys would not have let it slip past her anyways. After all, despite being human, she was still the Queen of the Western Kingdom. Aleksander chose her to be his Queen, and so, she will exploit it to the most she could.

For her people, for all of the humans who were taken into the kingdom previously ruled by a crazy king and that of his forefathers.

’If they value their status, then they must know when and where not to cross the line with me,’ the young queen thought at the back of her mind.

She was surrounded by women of the night, vampires of high society with magical affinities well and above average. Two of them showed promise, while the rest were yet to be determined. Baroness Ekaterina’s placid nature was interesting, and Lady Azalea was outspoken.

The young queen’s mind was racing with how she could exploit such characteristics. She donned a calm mask on, and then smiled at the rest of the women. She held herself in her most excellent manners. The whole kingdom knew her only as a slave, and then as someone who had a terrifying magical affinity, but her chosen ladies in waiting must see past that.

They were expecting her to speak up any moment, but she wanted to tease them a bit to test their patience.

"You ask why I chose you specifically? Well, I think you are all wonderful ladies that deserve a chance to return to the palace," Elys began.

"I-Isn’t it a b-bit unusual for us to be dismissed and then recalled in less than 24 hours, your m-majesty?" Lady Penelope asked. "I-I d-don’t think it has b-been heard of at all f-from p-p-previous queens."

"Mhmm..." the queen hummed in response.

Elys noted that the lady was a bit jittery. She stuttered more than a few of her words. Every time she flinched, there was a bit of electric energy that she would accidentally release from her.

Although she looked like she was a pushover, Elys chose Lady Penelope due to her various connections.

"If all of you had been present during last night’s court meeting, I already spoke about my stand regarding that question," Elys smiled at the lady, but addressed all of them in front of her just to remind the ladies.

"Ah... y-yes, you did mention t-that too," Lady Penelope casted her gaze downwards in an awkward manner. "Pardon my stupid question, Queen Elysianne."

"Don’t be sorry, Lady Penelope. We all get nervous and forget things sometimes," Elys consoled the vampire.

The lady smiled sheepishly at the young queen, but then realized her family wasn’t entirely supportive of the human and her bastard husband as their monarchs. Lady Penelope’s violet eyes swept downwards in humiliation.

She was supposed to reject the queen, not smile at her kind words.

’Penelope, you stuttering idiot!’ she chastised herself.

Lady Azalea sneaked a reassuring hand to squeeze Lady Penelope’s arm, and the noble vampire calmed down just a tiny bit. Elysianne could tell that the two of them were close by the way the first-born daughter of the Igniss family treated Lady Penelope.

’Perhaps they are childhood friends,’ Elys assumed. ’Another thing to take note of, just in the case things get complicated.’

The young queen thought of Lady Azalea as a great asset should she take Elys’ side. She was already popular with the upper and middle class with her beauty and wits. Her brave and frank character would be an advantage should Elys need someone to pave way for future decrees of the queen and king.

To top that off, the Igniss family has a balanced relationship with most nobilities. Neither a friend nor a foe, their family were mostly the ones serving in magistrates and court rulings.

"Your majesty," another girl spoke out, finally taking the same courage as the other three, "I don’t want to degrade ourselves, but it is with no doubt that with the late Queen Zephyrine’s ladies, most of us had been the ones who were less favored. I had thought that a queen would always choose the best, but again, why us?"

"Countess Rusiana, am I right?" Elys addressed the vampire.

"Yes, your majesty," the noble lady replied.

As the Countess Rusiana spoke, Elys noted that her glass of blood was already empty. The Countess set the empty glasd on the table, and the young queen called out to a servant stationed outside her chambers.

"Bring us another round of fresh blood," Elys instructed.

The servant bowed down and retreated. As the doors closed, Elys addressed the ladies.

"Ah, right, my husband never preferred human food, but if there is anything all of you would like, then please tell me so we can have it prepared," she said.

"As we were asking, your majesty," Countess Rusiana cleared her throat, "why us?"

Elys tried her best to keep herself from rolling her eyes in response. She couldn’t help but be annoyed at the number of times she had been asked why she had chosen the ladies.

Quickly regaining her composure, Queen Elysianne immediately smiled a bit and then proceeded to explain further.

"It is not merely on a whim that I chose you six," the young queen spoke with calculated words, "My husband and I chose you specifically because I see that all of you could bring radical changes within the Western Kingdom."

"Changes?" Baroness Ekaterina repeated, clearly curious of what Elys meant with such a word.

"Pardon my impertinence your majesty, but there is only but a tiny fraction of the whole kingdom that wants things to change," Countess Rusiana whispered, her back hunched as she leaned forward.

"Agreed," Lady Tabitha seconded, her thin fingers covering her mouth as she added in a whisper, "Most certainly not the nobilities."

Elysianne laughed at the ladies talking. She was not entirely expecting them to change their minds on the first meeting. Her only goal was to know them and see who had the potential to be used as tools for her grander plans.

Plans involving the liberation of her people and entire species from the tyranny of the vampires.

"Oh, but hadn’t you ladies ever thought of anything you didn’t like about the kingdom?" the young queen asked them.

Elys finished her tea and poured herself another cup. The warmth and flowery taste of the drink made her mind calmer to the point she even forgot for the meantime that she had other problems too.

She was thinking straight and she didn’t want to blow things up by coming off as too overbearing. She wanted the ladies to see her as someone who wasn’t just anybody.

Elys knew her previous status as a slave and the fact that she tried to escape her own execution wasn’t the best background for a queen.

Elysianne would have to win their loyalty through pure wit – and perhaps a bit of bribery and some dash of threats too if needed be.

For now, her priority was to get her circle of nobilities she could farm information that would not be available in any book or records.

Interacting with them would also create a sense of stability in her position as queen of thw Western Kingdom. One wat or another, even if a handful of the nobles were against her and Aleksander, they could still control them through direct interactions.

"No? Not even one tiny thing that you disliked from the previous king’s whimsical rules?" Elys asked after taking a sip of her tea, "If you pledge your loyalty to me as your queen, I would make sure to grant your wishes should it be in my power."

"Well, perhaps a few," Lady Tabitha agreed, her forehead wrinkled in contemplation.

Curious jewels stared back at her ruby eyes. An array of colorful pairs that were piqued by her tempting offer.

From the corners of her eyes, the lady who still hadn’t spoken a word glanced at the other vampire nobilities she was with. Greed and power were what made the previous queen’s ladies in waiting a chore to be with, and Lady Beatrice wasn’t the type to bother climbing too high.

It was tedious if not a bloody war of backstabbing – sometimes even the literal stabbing too.

In her midst, the ladies that the human queen picked herself were diverse in a particular way.

Baroness Ekaterina has almost the same attitude as Lady Beatrice. Lady Azalea was bold with her words, while Countess Rusiana was probably just a meek noble with lesser self-confidence than the stuttering Penelope. Lady Tabitha was easily swayed.

It was clearly a weird mix.

But Lady Beatrice did agree with one thing that the human queen spoke about.

The Western Kingdom surely had a crazy monarch before them.