CHAPTER 340: DO NOT BLAME ME

The following weeks, the castle became busy with investigation. Through Helena’s thorough work with the rest of the ministers they were able to uncover the traces of Morgana’s "doctor" being a witch.

A special room was made for Alice under the castle and in it were witches crests and magic spells written but had been hastily destroyed with fire.

Lastor and Atlas only managed to gather a few leftover documents written while the rest were burnt to ashes.

There were other ministers who had been put for trial, mainly due to the fact that they knew and had turned a blind eye to Morgana’s work with the witches.

The King himself had turned away to spend the rest of his life in a countryside as his illness deemed him unfit to continue his reign.

Though no one had truly seen the king ever since Morgana’s runaway, no one had let out an objection as all the households has unanimously agreed that Cassius would be more fit as a leader than a king who was fooled into marrying a woman whose plan was to destroy the kingdom for within.

That was why Arabella has spend the past morning being fitted into clothing.

The woman busily fitting her clothes was a tailor named Emma. Her eyes were sharp as she pointed out, "The lady only fits bright color, adorn her accessories with gold! Her red hair looks the best with them."

Arabella softly sigh when Emma looked away and a new maid who had been taking care of her rushed beside her.

The girl smiled when her eyes met Arabella and she mouthed without a voice, "Would you perhaps take a rest now my lady?"

Arabella smiled at the mute maid named, Barbara.

A week ago ever since the castle had been busy, Karnala rose rank into the head of the maids across the castle. Her hands were tied most of the time and as it was an urgent timing someone else had to take her place.

The one taking the place was this mute young girl.

Cassius told her not to worry as this maid was trustworthy and so far, Arabella found her rather adorable. She was quite bad as a maid as she had broke four cup this morning but her sincerity touched Arabella.

Especially with how caring Barbara was and how Cassius had ensured her that Barbara was good in medicine.

A knock then resounded from the door, "Lady Arabella. Lady Genevieve wish to enter."

"Of course, let her in," Arabella answered at once, standing up with the tight corset that made her wince.

"You should sit, Lady Arabella," Aunt Genevieve spoke as she sat down. Her face looked marred with more line of stresses rather than delight. "After all from now on you will be seating in a rank far above everyone else. To protect Cassius’s pride, you have to learn how to stop being too humble and meek to others."

Arabella could hear that though her tone was as strict as ever, she wasn’t truly angry at her.

"I understand," she spoke to the lady with a smile. Her daughter and son might be a kind that’s full of trouble but the woman herself was always loyal to Cassius and that was enough reason for her to treat her civilly.

"I’ll need your wise knowledge from now on, I hope that you could teach me how to behave in the right rank," she continued gently while Aunt Eve stared at her.

"I wish that I could, unfortunately we will be returning to our own kingdom after Cassius’s ascension ceremony."

Hearing that Arabella was taken aback as she had heard that lady Eve decided to stay in the castle if Cassius was crown as the king.

Lady Eve looked at the tailor and maids who gathered and seeing this, Bella raised her hands, "Let us resume this for the evening."

Knowing that a private conversation was needed everyone was quick to flee, leaving her with Barbara beside her.

"Is it about Lucien?" Arabella inquired and Aunt Eve nodded her head before letting out a loud exhale.

"I have always been ambitious as my sister. We were brought up to become someone special, a queen or a king, if we aren’t successful, we would ensure that our children would be. But Lucien, he isn’t quite bright. I knew that but I never thought that he would be utterly idiotic to go as far to harm Cassius through you."

"I haven’t heard what had happened," Arabella confessed.

It has been a busy two weeks and the only time she had meet Cassius was when it’s night and usually instead of talking, they would spend time kissing each other and making love...

Her cheeks flushed at the thought but she managed to remain cool in front of aunt Eve who nodded as a response.

"It has been a tiring week, I understand if you hadn’t heard. I don’t wish to talk about it either, so perhaps it’s easier if I summarize it as Lucien being tricked by Morgana into serving him a potion to Cassius’s food last Monday."

Last Monday?

That’s odd because she had eaten with Cassius without noticing when the attempt was made. Now that she thinks about it, Cassius did return one of his food after looking at it. Was that when?

"But Morgana wasn’t in the castle anymore," how could Lucien be so foolish...

No. That’s exactly the time when Lucien thought he would succeed. He thought that now the King was exiled by Cassius and Morgana has escaped the castle, he thought poisoning Cassius with a potion given by Morgana before would succeed.

"Exactly as you have thought, Lucien has worked hand in hand alongside Morgana and Rueben ever since he stepped to the castle. Even though I have warned him..."

But how could someone like Lucien heed to warnings? That was the last thing someone like Rueben would be willing to do and that eventually dug his grave.

"Is it normal?" Arabella who had long held her tongue finally questioned.

At this, aunt Eve raised her eyebrows, "It’s a vampire world, perhaps you will find everything abnormal."

"No, no," Bella shook her head, "I have spent the past few days learning about vampires and I have noticed that they all are quite similar to us humans. The tailor earlier, miss Emma. She has a close relationship with her sister as they have built a tailor shop together. They dislike the idea of feeding off humans and take them as a customer without batting at their races."

"They could be lying to you-"

"They could but it is a fact that many vampires love their families dearly. But you, you don’t."

Aunt Eve frowned severely, her expression turning grim at once. She glared at her, "Are you accusing me of not caring for Cassius? Before you were there, I was his only ally."

"Ally and not a family," she pointed out why she had felt so wrong all this time. "You have always known from the start how Lucien covet Cassius’s throne and you have never stopped him. I thought it was because that’s simply how vampires were, but I knew for a fact that isn’t true and many vampires would protect their family even if it means losing their life in the process."

"Lucien does covet his throne but to make him strong that’s why I have allowed him to do what he wants. Cassius understood that’s how to toughen him," insisted aunt Eve.

"But as a family member you wouldn’t have had the heart to simply watch as your own nephew murdered by your son. Unless deep down you wish for the throne yourself-"

"How dare you!" Aunt Eve slammed her hand on the table, causing for the woods to rupture. "You dear to smear my name to cause rift between me and Cassius!"

"Is it not the truth? How could Cassius ever breathe for just a second when he knew that his own aunt wished for her son to steal the throne from him? That is why he could never loosen his guard to anyone else but me. He couldn’t trust anyone, he couldn’t confide in anyone."

Aunt Eve let out a sharp scoff, "and isn’t that why he is the strong man he is now? Don’t you know what it took for him to lead? Someone like you could never understand."

"Yes," Arabella nodded, "perhaps I’ll never come to understand why someone would hurt their family to make them stronger and I wish that I will continue to never understand it."

Aunt Eve gritted her teeth, "So now you wish to cut me completely from Cassius’s life?"

"No, of course I wouldn’t," she firmed her words. "I wish that you would continue becoming his aunt but this should also remain as a warning to you. I respect to those who respect him. I also make an enemy of those he found as an enemy."

Aunt Eve could see then that the once meek girl was gone. After enduring losing Cassius to the dungeon, Arabella has had enough.

"In the future forget about taking the throne of Versailles. Because if your son or daughter began to covet what is not there, do not blame me for being vengeful."