The Royal Revenge
Chapter 200: Waging War Part 1

Chapter 200: Waging War Part 1

Aleksander frowned the moment he realized the person knocking wasn’t the one he wanted to see. The door opened even before the young king could even deny entry. Elys turned her head to see who it was, and a brow arched upwards.

"Marquis Lanz, now is not the right time," Aleksander scowled at the vampire. "How dare you intrude when I haven’t even called for you?"

The Marquis bowed his head several times, rubbing his hands as if it could actually appease the young king. His efforts were entirely useless – Aleksander was actually even more annoyed, if not insulted.

"Forgive my intrusion, your majesty," he apologized, "but there has been something that Sir Wiriam had informed us about."

"Sir Wiriam?" Elys and Aleksander said in unison.

"What did he say?" the young king asked. "Be quick, Marquis Lanz, for I have other important things to do."

His trusted secretary rummaged through his coat’s inner pockets. His hands shook as he procured a half-crumpled scroll. Marquis Lanz’s eyes raised from his bowed head, and caught Aleksander’s uninterested expression.

"Speak up, Marquis Lanz," Elys prodded the vampire.

"Aherm, yes, about the information," Marquis Lanz cleared his throat. "Sir Wiriam has informed us there has been suspicious activity on the Eastern side of the kingdom. There seemed to have been a huge accumulation of wild animals and monsters in the nearby forest."

"Is this supposed to be something urgent, Marquis Lanz?" Aleksander waved a bored hand, "If this is just a report of a wild zoo, then I don’t have the time for this. Get out of my office and tend to some other issues that needs more attention – such suppressing the oppositions to my queen’s recent decree for her human subjects."

Elys raised an indignant chin and seconded Aleksander’s opinion, "Yes, Marquis Lanz. As what I have heard from your report, Sir Wiriam’s information doesn’t seem to be that urgent."

The young secretary’s eyes darted back and forth from the king and queen. He was afraid to go against their insistence that he scrammed out of his office, but Sir Wiriam’s letter seemed to be urgent for him.

"Do you want me to intrude your mind, Marquis Lanz? I am getting impatient here," Aleksander threatened his secretary, "I am more than capable to dig into your head without mercy."

"You seem to have something else to say, Marquis Lanz," Elys noted, "Spill it out already. Like what your king has said, we have important matters to attend to."

The young secretary steeled himself.

King Aleksander’s mood seemed to turn darker and Queen Elysianne was getting upset too. This didn’t bid him well at all, and even though Aleksander had actually gotten fonder of the young vampire, Marquis Lanz doesn’t want to keep his neck too exposed to an angry king.

This was his only chance now, or else if he wasn’t going to speak up, the Western Kingdom’s King and Queen was going to throw him out. Who could tell when he could be able to get an uninterrupted audience with King Aleksander, right?

"Your majesty," the Marquis started to speak, "Sir Wiriam noted that the congregation of animals and monsters were specifically attacking the fauna endemic to the Western Kingdom."

"A specific target, you say?" Elys hummed under her voice.

"Yes, your majesty, Queen Elysianne," Marquis Lanz nodded vigorously.

He was happy that the young queen was riding in the idea he wanted to convey. The young vampire steered his eyes towards his king, but then Aleksander just seemed to be too uninterested to give attention anymore.

Marquis Lanz was about to add more, but then suddenly Elys had an epiphany.

"Wait..." she gasped, "what kind of animals and monsters were those exactly that are attacking our own?" she asked the Marquis.

Aleksander was suddenly curious where his queen was going with things. He gave half of his attention back, but his mood wasn’t any better. His mind was preoccupied with an explanation on Elys’ incident a while ago that he didn’t really pay much attention to Marquis Lanz and Sir Wiriam’s report.

"They were gigantic in sizes, your majesty," Marquis Lanz added. "Sir Wiriam mentioned that they seem to be attacking in a certain pattern. Like efficient hunters, they would stalk their prey and then quickly kill. They don’t even eat the dead, they just leave them lying around – rotting carcasses litter the eastern forest."

Elys whipped her head towards Aleksander and the look on her face brought the young king to his feet. He stood up abruptly from his lax seat on his armchair, and then reached out to Elys.

"What is it, my queen? Why do you look so distressed?" he asked her.

"Aleksander... I think this is what Sir Noa had meant," Elys whispered under her voice.

The young king’s brows knitted together and his nose scrunched at the mention of the Eastern Adviser’s name. They had let him get away without even touching a single hair on his head. He left the Western Kingdom of the vampire’s unharmed, and yet...

Aleksander couldn’t suppress his dissatisfaction.

"Do you think this is the Eastern Kingdom’s doing?" Aleksander asked Elys.

She nodded slowly, "They do have a great relationship with their animals inside the kingdom. It isn’t a farfetched hunch that those animals and monsters were sent on a mission to create disarray with the Western Kingdom’s ecosystem."

"My queen... this is it, right?" Aleksander spoke in a hushed tone.

"I don’t know, Aleksander..." Elys responded, "but if my hunch is right, perhaps this is the war that we have been trying to prepare for when we denied Sir Noa’s request."

Marquis Lanz strained his ears to listen in on the king and queen’s conversation.

They were speaking way too fast and barely in a whisper that he couldn’t really tell what they were murmuring about in each other’s ears.

The young vampire had always been insecure about his weak hearing ability. Most vampires no matter the affinity would always manifest great hearing capabilities during their younger years. But for Marquis Lanz who was born to not so esteemed noble family, his hearing was just about average in comparison to a human.

Nobody really knew of this except the Marquis’ immediate family, and Marquis Lanz swore to never expose his weakness. Knowing the way the vampire society worked, any hint of weakness was immediately frowned upon and discriminated.

However, Marquis Lanz did develop a knack for reading lips when he couldn’t hear a conversation he wanted to listen to.

’Eastern Kingdom, disarray, Sir Noa,’ Marquis Lanz read silently. ’War?!’

The young secretary’s heart started to race inside him. He took a step back, and somehow Aleksander was able to notice that his secretary has become extremely nervous.

"Marquis Lanz," Aleksander loomed over the young vampire. "You have been one of the vampires I put my trust into, I don’t want to think that you would start blabbering important details to the other nobles when I don’t tell you to, right?"

It was clearly a threat to Marquis Lanz.

"But of course, your majesty," Marquis Lanz said immediately. "I would follow your orders to the letter!"

Aleksander smiled and continued, "Good. At least we have an agreement on this."

Elys tried to stay calm, but the thought of the Eastern Kingdom waging a war against them at this moment was far too problematic. She had barely even started to make her people’s life better within the kingdom.

How could war begin yet again?

The very thought of it made her blood boil. She couldn’t care less anymore.

She had tried to defend the Eastern Kingdom’s philosophy from Aleksander’s wrath back then, but now that they had turned around and disregarded their anti-violence belief by attacking the Western Kingdom indirectly, Elys wouldn’t even disregard the idea of fighting back.

It wasn’t only just about the Eastern Kingdom against the Western Kingdom now.

The situation has escalated and brought danger to the humans in the Western Kingdom, and wherever her people were, Elys was sure to defend them. If the East wanted a fight, then a fight she shall give them.

"Marquis Lanz," Elys spoke after a long awkward silence.

"Yes, your majesty, Queen Elysianne?" the Marquis replied.

"Might you send out a letter to all the knight commanders about a warning regarding any foreign animal and monster attacks? Also, Sir Wiriam must be notified as well that his post would probably be the hotspot for such an attack, as it had begun there apparently."

The Marquis jumped to his feet and nodded vigorously, "Yes, your majesty. I will do just what you have ordered me to do."

Aleksander smiled at Elys, and then turned cold as he paid Marquis Lanz his attention.

"Do as you were told by my queen, Marquis Lanz," Aleksander said. "And remember, do not alert the nobles, especially those that are obviously on the opposition side. Not even the vampire clergy."

Marquis Lanz nodded once more, and then promptly went out of Aleksander’s office.

He had a mission to fulfill.