Holon Kingdom. On the same day…The talk in the tower happened because the woman was extra sensitive to danger. It was in the afternoon…
Back in the Count"s opulent residence, although faint, she managed to perceive one when a guard suddenly opened the door and reported some nonsense. As expected the count, who was angered for a sensitive talk was disrupted, heavily rebuked that person. Agatha also showed displeasure and even wanted to punish the other. However, not long after, she realized that something weird then remembered that her senses had actually warned her of some sort of danger a while ago.
So why was it so? Where was the danger?
"It"s odd… If the guard only wanted to be heard, there should have been no need for him to create a wide gap through the door…" Back then, she mused.
Afterward, she fell into silence. So was the Count who saw her reaction and then arrived at the same conclusion. She momentarily closed her eyes.
For almost an hour, there were not only two people in the place, but three… It was actually very funny.
The two of them were so engrossed in their conversation that they failed to notice that an intruder had been in the same room and perhaps, even sat on one of the vacant chairs while listening to their talks. Nonsense! Since the topic of their conversation was very sensitive, none of them, of course, slacked off for even a moment. What if the servants or any random person overheard and then reported them to the authorities? They couldn"t allow that, could they?
And thus, from the beginning, they were very alert and monitored even the little insects coming and going in the room. Yet, in the end, they still failed to detect the presence of that intruder!
Agatha, with the Count"s permission, immediately scattered sleep poison in the whole mansion causing everyone apart from the two of them to fall into a very deep slumber. Their thinking was that no matter how fast the other party was, he or she would still at least take a minute to get outside the count"s residence.
But to their dismay, they underestimated the trespa.s.ser.
With cold faces, the two split up to scour the city for that person. Depending on the situation, if ever they found him and discovered that he was very strong, then retreat. If not any stronger than the Count, then kill.
Through some luck, Agatha managed to find the suspect in the semi-abandoned observatory a hundred-meter east of the royal palace. There were still guards there. However, it was very easy to pa.s.s by them as she could simply scatter some powder to knock them down. It was in this way that she reached the top floor of the tower.
Yet in all the time that she was there, or in actuality… from the time she began ascending the last two flights of stairs, she felt a very unsettling feeling eating her heart. And it intensified upon laying eyes upon the mysterious person standing before a huge open window.
The strangeness in her chest was probably the reason why she unconsciously called, "Milord". Even though in this world, only the king was worthy of being addressed that way by her.
"May I know what"s in milord"s mind?" This was what she specifically asked the youth.
When she saw the calmness in his eyes, she felt cold sweat running down her spine. The reason for the unnerving feeling was this. The youth had purposely guided her there!
A bit frightened by the realization, she hurriedly took back her words. "It"s not my intention to be presumptuous. If milord does not want me to pry, please pretend that I, this insignificant woman, did not ask."
She received a laugh and a very carefree reply from the other, "Hey, I"m but a youngster. This kingdom, although only strong in military and stupid in the rest, always has a good tradition to respect the old. You"re obviously older than me. So don"t act around me like that, Auntie."
"Auntie…"
If not for the dangerous feeling she was getting from the other, she would have poisoned him to death or had him executed. Now, she only dared to be resentful in her heart. On the outside though, she said, "Okay, milord."
"Inflexible," he remarked. She didn"t reply, her mind busy guessing why this kind of person would eavesdrop on two witchcraft users.
"Is it true that you, a respectable Royal Consort, went to Borley? To coax the royalty there to pry some secrets from the Pope of Penemue?" All of a sudden, the other asked.
"Yes." She chose to be honest.
"Fool," he said while crossing his arm and sitting on the windowsill. He seemed to not mind his dangerous position, that if the wind strongly blew over and swept him away, he would fall from a height of more than ten meters.
He disdainfully looked at her and continued, "Once you hand over the method, do you believe that shameless bunch will not delay giving you your needed information with the excuse that they will first have to verify its validity? By the looks of it, you are so desperate and in love with that king that you won"t dare swap the information with a fake. But then, once they have a genuine Nephil, do you think they"ll still hand over the cure or that whatever they got from the Pope of Penemue?"
"It"s the honor of two royal houses put in line."
Hearing her reply, the youth acted as if he just remembered something. He exclaimed in an exaggerated manner, "Oh my goodness, I just remembered something. That even if they have it, all they will tell their inquirer is this; the cure to infertility is to grind up pig t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es and mix it with boiled wine before drinking it. Are you aware that its effectiveness is very suspicious? That in all of history among those who took it, only one of out a thousand managed to get cured? And it"s for males."
He seemed to be enjoying her expression. He chuckled before adding, "Oh, wait. I just remembered another thing… That you"ll put the honor of the Holon royal house for that kind of answer…. May I ask again, really, will you?"
The shocked woman couldn"t give an answer. For a long while, her open mouth moved but no understandable word came out of her rosy lips.
For the past years, all she had been thinking about was to get a child and put herself in a throne. She had done so much, even committing the taboo of disclosing to outsiders a secret that only elders of her coven could have known. Why? No… How? How could she accept that kind of answer?
"He must be lying." For people who didn"t want to accept the truth, denial would always follow. "Yes, he must be lying."
Agatha"s mind denied accepting what he just said, and through that, she regained her calm.
"Milord, I know you are more powerful than me and my colleague. You might even be more powerful than my coven leader. But it"s not absolute that power means knowledge. I implore milord not to tease me like that."
"How can you be sure I"m not one of those with both power and wisdom? I even guessed about your problem. I can, of course, know what"s going on between you and the Borley royals behind the scene."
"Isn"t it because you have heard my exchange with my colleague?" she cautiously asked.
"Oh, I see. So that"s why my words sound suspicious. Then tell me. Are you only going to believe it if it is said personally by that old man?"
"Yes." Without a change in her expression, Agatha did not hesitate to reply.
The youth dressed like a rich merchant"s heir stared at her quietly for a long while. The air between them seemed to have become stagnant. His silence was making it hard for her to breathe.
But then a reaction came from him, a hearty laugh actually, and then a feeling of panic rose from within her. Why was this person laughing? Because his lies were found out? Or because he was finding her funny?
"Sorry. I just found your answer laughable," a minute later, the youth stopped laughing but the unnerving smirk on his lips stayed.
"It"s honestly not comforting to know what made you laughed. It"s indirectly, it"s me." she thought in her mind.
Still smiling slightly, the other person said, "You can believe whatever you want. If you prefer, you can also go ahead with your transaction with the royals of Borley. Anyways, it won"t be long before you realize your mistake."
"Who are you, milord?" she asked after seeing him stood up on the window sill. The height of the window was just perfect for him, so he did not have to bend even a little bit.
"Those who refused my oracle are not fit to know even my t.i.tle." That was what echoed for almost ten seconds in her ears.
Before she knew it, the person whose back was facing the direction of the sun disappeared. When Agatha rushed over to the window and looked down, her eyes widened.
The villainess found no person falling from there. He vanished without a trace, as if he was not there all along.
While furiously thinking how could a person right before her eyes could disappear just like that, a piece of paper fluttered in front of her. She grabbed it thoughtlessly.
"Tonight, you"ll get diarrhea."
That ridiculous line was the first thing she read there, making her feel it was hard to breathe again. It was followed by a meetup place, a date, and a name that was perhaps, an alias. James.
That time, none of the information contained there was taken seriously by her.
It was only this evening when she really experienced some problems with her bowels that she remembered the piece of paper. By then, due to feeling so uncomfortable and taking a few trips in the bathroom that she would a.s.sume that the man was truly somebody with a predictive ability...
The suffering woman was totally unaware, he only made his wife jealous to achieve that effect...