The Royal Revenge
Chapter 45: Suspicious Knight

Chapter 45: Suspicious Knight

The princess swore if she wasn’t even in the midst of vampires in another kingdom right now, she would have definitely clawed out the eyes of the woman in front of her this instant.

"My queen, you need not to worry," King Raxus assured his wife, "you will always be the star in my skies. You shine so brightly it would be the death of this vampire."

The queen covered half of her face with a feathered fan, a blush tinting her pale cheeks.

"Oh, your majesty," she said, "you always had powers in your words even without commanding anything."

Elys caught herself almost rolling her eyes. She had heard from Henry the queen was nothing but a trophy wife to the king. Now, every romantic interaction between the king and queen looked fake to her.

In fact, the sweetness between the two was so fake the taste of her sweat might as well be sweeter.

The king continued to laugh and then noticed how Aleksander hasn’t spoken since he greeted them before his announcement.

"Son, speak to me," he demanded from the prince.

Aleksander had wanted to shut his mouth, trying as hard as he could to contain all the tactless things that he was on the verge of blurting out.

But with the king’s magic, he was forced to open his mouth and out spilled words not meant to be spoken to a monarch, "You motherfucking piece of shit," the prince said without remorse in his voice.

Elys’ jaws almost dropped to the ground.

She didn’t imagine the prince to speak those words to the king of all people. Her eyes darted to the powerful vampire and prayed he would just take the prince’s words as something funny.

Luck may have been on her side as the king merely leaned on his chair, his hand propped on the golden armrest. His face looked amused.

"Go off now, Aleksander," the king dismissed him, "run along with your out-of-place costume and attitude before I decide to send you somewhere you won’t be able to find your way back."

"With pleasure," the prince replied sourly.

The bastard prince yanked his hand away from Elys and stormed off into the crowds, creating a divide of vampire nobilities whispering as he passed by.

Elys quickly curtsied and excused herself, running off to catch up with Aleksander. Her lithe movements weren’t left unnoticed by the king, and a smile crept into his face as he followed them with his eyes.

"Aleksander," Elys called out to the prince.

He was almost into the exit of the ballroom now, his steps quick and his stride long. If it weren’t for Elys’ quick feet, she wouldn’t have been able to catch up and match his pace.

"Where are you going?" Elys asked him in a tiny whisper, "aren’t we – aren’t you – supposed to show them all that you are more than just what they think of you?"

Aleksander continued to walk out of the doors, down the long hallways, his shoes clacking on the shiny marbled floors. Elys grumbled. She was at her wits’ end with his instability.

"Aleksander Ardorlean you coward!" she called out to him.

The prince stopped in his tracks and quickly turned to face his wife. He raised a hand, intending to slap the insolence from Elys’ mouth.

The princess saw how quickly he moved, she was about to counter him when all of a sudden, a hand came in between them and Aleksander let out a low guttural growl to the intruder.

"You shouldn’t do that to a princess, much more to your own wife, your highness," Teo spoke calmly.

The knight swiped Aleksander’s hand away from Elys’ face and then turned to her with kind eyes, "Are you alright?"

"I could’ve handled that myself, thank you very much," Elys replied, her pride bruised.

She wasn’t some damsel in distress.

She couldn’t understand what was the deal with Teo. He was a knight that served the king. Why was he so interested to put himself between Elys and the prince?

Was he sent by King Raxus to spy on them?

’Suspicious,’ Elys thought silently in her head.

"Keep out of this, bastard," Aleksander hissed at the knight, "you aren’t welcome. This woman is mine. I will do what I want with her, and you have no right to step in however you like."

Teo bowed down as he held his arm across his chest, "Forgive me your highness, it wasn’t my place."

"Why did you follow us, Teo?" Elys raised a brow at the knight. "You surely wouldn’t just come and defend me out of the blue."

The vampire flashed a dashing smile as he turned to the princess, "I would just like to say that the king had appointed me to accompany the prince and princess. Tomorrow’s journey to the Eastern Kingdom would need at least one knight for safety purposes."

"Tch!" Aleksander clicked his tongue, "Of all the knights, the king sent someone new such as you. He deliberately wants us to be killed."

"Don’t say that your highness," Teo defended the king, and then smiled playfully, "if his majesty truly wanted you dead, he would have had you killed a long time ago. King Raxus thinks of your well-being too, my prince. Fear not."

The knight waved goodbye before Aleksander could even throw him a punch.

Elys crossed her arms in front of her, shifted her weight on one foot and cocked her head, "Are you really going to be this volatile with every provocation that they throw at you?"

"This idea was pathetic in the first place," Aleksander muttered under his breath.

"You aren’t answering my question, Prince Aleksander," the princess scowled. She grabbed the prince’s hand and practically dragged him out of the castle. "If this is how you would act then we might as well return to the manor right now."

The prince wrestled his arm away from Elys and glared at her. She returned the gesture with her own grimace.

"Let’s not fight right now," Elys said with a heavy sigh, "this isn’t going to get us anywhere. Let’s return for now, and prepare for that wretched journey."