She Belongs To The Devil

The next morning, Adeline woke up way too late than usual. She had only fallen asleep at the dawn. And she was so deep in her sleep that she didn\'t even hear her maids calling out for her.

The maids assumed that she was really exhausted and let her sleep.

"Hawisa, Osanna, where are you? Why didn\'t the two of you wake me up? I am so late for work." Adeline rushed around her room while complaining.

She opened her wardrobe and picked out a gown at random. She quickly changed into that gown and by the time Hawisa and Osanna came running to her room, she was ready to run to the King\'s Court.

"Princess, aren\'t you going to eat something?" Osanna raised her hand in an attempt to stop the Princess.

But Adeline was already out of her room. And she shouted while running, "Send something to my workroom. I will eat there."

Adeline looked around to see that the Palace was already bustling with people. "Oh, God! Just how much did I sleep? Well, didn\'t sleep much but… damn it! I\'m late for work!"

Adeline was literally running like she was warming up for the training. She was about to enter the King\'s Court when she ran past a man who was dressed as though he was not from around Wyverndale.

Her foot stopped midair and her eyes widened because she could swear that that man had a pair of red eyes. Cold crept under her skin and her heart started to beat as if it was about to cross the normal limit.

She swiftly turned around and ordered two of the guards, "Guards! Catch that man and hold him right there."

That man stopped on his own, knowing that the Princess was talking about him. And he calmly turned around and bowed to the Princess, "Greetings, Your Highness."

Adeline sprinted towards that man and glared at him. "Who are you? What business do you have here?"

That man gave a polite smile and truthfully replied, "I am the Royal Messenger from Mihir, Your Highness. I was here to deliver a letter to His Majesty King Dragomir."

"Letter to His Majesty? Who sent the letter? And why?" Adeline folded her arms and sternly asked that man.

"The letter was sent by King Reginald himself. I am afraid that I cannot say anything more than that." The messenger then gave a polite smile and bowed again, "If there aren\'t any more questions from your side then I will take my leave, Your Highness."

And without even waiting for Adeline to say anything, that messenger turned on his heels and walked as though he was jogging.

Adeline scoffed and thought, "The rudeness! Even the messenger thinks that he is superior to us. They don\'t see us as anything more than their prey, do they?"

The Princess took a deep breath in to suppress her urge to drive a stake through that messenger\'s heart. "I think I should visit my father before doing anything else."

She hurriedly moved her feet towards the King\'s Court while thinking a lot of things, "I wonder what that vampire King wrote to His Majesty. Does he somehow already know about Lillian\'s imprisonment? I hope that he didn\'t write threats demanding her release or didn\'t mention anything about the war that they had planned."

Adeline crossed her fingers and fretted as she ran at the top of her speed, "I hope father has yet to read the letter. I will offer to read the letter for him so that I can filter out if there are unwanted things written there. I don\'t want our father to go into shock again."

She flung the door to the King\'s workroom open without even knocking and stood there while gasping for air.

"Adeline? Why do you look like you just came back from the training?" Dragomir was already holding the letter in his hand and it looked as though he had already read all the contents of the message.

Adeline breathlessly greeted her father, "Good morning, Your Majesty. I\'m sorry I overslept and was a little late to come to work. So, I ran all the way from my quarter."

She then pretended as though she hadn\'t just met the messenger from Mihir and asked while pointing at the letter that the King was holding, "What are you reading, father? It looks like it is a letter from some other Kingdom. But I can\'t tell which Kingdom, I have never seen that seal before."

Dragomir didn\'t suspect a thing even when Adeline was behaving a little peculiarly.

"Oh, this?" Dragomir flapped the letter and replied, "This is from Mihir."

"Mihir?" Adeline tried her best to act surprised.

She walked closer to her father\'s desk and asked, "Are we even in speaking terms? Why have they sent a letter?"

Dragomir passed the letter to his daughter seeing her eagerness. "Yes, we aren\'t that friendly with Mihir. I don\'t know what changed though… Maybe it\'s because the King is new. He has written that he wants to have a meeting to discuss the peace between us."

Adeline scrunched her brows in disbelief and went through the letter. As Dragomir said, King Reginald had written that he wanted to have a meeting to discuss the peaceful future between the two Kingdoms.

But Adeline was in no way going to believe that letter because she already knew their plan to attack Wyverndale in detail. She thought, "Why would they send a letter like this? Is this some kind of a trick that they want to use for something else? Maybe infiltrate the Palace in the name of having a meeting and try to rescue Lillian? Just what are they scheming?"

"Do you really think that they really want to discuss the peace?" Adeline asked her father skeptically.

Dragomir lightly stroked his beard. He also looked skeptical but it felt like he was willing to meet the new King. "Maybe he is planning something in the guise of having a meeting. But I think I should at least meet him once and hear him out. Who knows? Maybe he isn\'t like his father and he really could be wanting to make amends with us."

"But what if the meeting is just a façade for their evil plans? Is it really wise to call the enemy to our place?" Adeline was sure that they were in no way trying to make amends. She was sure that either they were trying to get Lillian out, or they were trying to gather some information that would be helpful for their war tactics."

Dragomir simply smiled and said, "Haven\'t you heard the saying? Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer? I would have probably thought a hundred times if they had called me to Mihir. But if they are willing to come here then I will gladly welcome them with open arms. This is our territory. So we can prepare beforehand for their arrival."

Adeline clutched her fists and thought, "Of course, they would want to come here. Even though this is our territory, I don\'t think we can do much against them… if push came to shove."

Then again, she also wanted to hear what they really had to say. And she also had her secret weapon, Theodore. Even though he wasn\'t allowed to touch them, he would at least be able to scare them away if things boiled down to that.

So she glanced at her father and asked, "When are they coming then?"