Chapter 327: Queen Carmen
"Like I said, she"s…" Fabio was about to explain, when I stopped him.
"Give us the explanation later. Let"s go somewhere else. Celestine, you will…"
"I can go back on my own to his house. The security should be decreased now since many people are focusing on finding her ident.i.ty. I"ll be going now. Just explain everything to me later." Celestine then leaves the cave.
And as she leaves, Spot entered and wrapped himself around my neck.
"Roy, I"m tired." Spot said.
"You did a good job dealing with two expert level mages. I"ll have Kayla heal you later. You can rest now." I said.
Getting my permission, Spot sleeps around my neck. Carmen, the Queen, looked at the serpent around my neck curiously. Then she looked at me.
"And you are?" Queen Carmen asked.
"Roy. Fabio"s… friend maybe?" I said.
"Oh my! My Fabio got a friend! You"re his first friend ever that he introduces to me! I"m his mother, Carmen." Queen Carmen proudly looked at her son. She"s so happy that his son has a friend.
"Mother!"
"Anyway, let"s get out of here first. I"ll bring us to Albert"s place." I said as I opened a portal to Albert"s office in his palace.
Let"s ignore the confused queen. I have seen too many people with the same expression whenever I opened a portal in front of them for the first time.
In Albert"s office, Albert isn"t here. I thought that just a few hours ago when I returned him to his home, it was at his office. So, maybe he was working. But now, he"s not here. But instead of him, Marie is here.
"Roy? And Prince Fabio as well? Oh! Queen Carmen! It"s been a while!" Marie greeted us as if she expected me to come and waited for me here.
"Marie? This is… Tatrama?" Queen Carmen asked curiously.
"Marie, did you know that we"re coming? I haven"t told Sonia that I will come though." I asked.
"Albert said that in case something went wrong, you will either appear back in your house or here. So, someone always here whenever Albert is not working. It"s just by chance that I"m here. Usually, it would be one of the servants. For now, Albert is taking a break. He will return soon."
Just as Marie said that, the door is opened and Albert entered the room.
Before he said anything to us, he quickly turns around and faced someone I don"t know behind him.
"If you need anything, wait for tomorrow. I will be very busy tonight. Good night."
Albert didn"t let him see any one of us inside his office. He must be someone he can"t trust then. Well, he said that he"s taking care of the kingdom before I finished my mission. He must be doing something with that guy. But I won"t care.
"So… is it about Queen Carmen?" Albert asked.
Then, Fabio pulled me toward Albert, and the three of us talking in whispers.
"Why are we here? Don"t tell me that you don"t even trust my mother?" Fabio asked.
"Not yet at least. Don"t tell me that you forgot that your father has been swapped? We need to make sure of this." I said.
"Roy is right. The cult could even swap the king without anyone noticing. We don"t know if this Queen Carmen is the real thing or not. Or if she has joined the cult thanks to being influenced by the fake king or not. She"s the closest one to the king after all." Albert said.
"I know, but… I just feel conflicted." Fabio said.
The three of us finished whispering and see that Marie is chatting with Queen Carmen.
Seeing us finished whispering, the two looked at us.
"So, just to make sure, you"re the real Queen Carmen, right?" Albert asked.
"I am the real one. Hearing that question, it seems that you already know that my husband has been swapped." Queen Carmen replied calmly.
"Do you know that the Evil G.o.d Cult related to King Harold"s disappearance?" Albert continued asking as if he"s interrogating Fabio"s mother.
"No."
"Are you related to the cult?"
"No."
"What will you do from now on?"
"Kill the man who impersonates my husband and whoever planned it." Queen Carmen answered with killing intent. As she is an expert level mage, everyone here can feel the dread. But we are already used to have expert level mages around us, and Fabio himself is living on the edge. We"re not changing our expression at all after feeling her killing intent.
"Rather than killing the impersonator, would you want to rescue the real King Harold instead?" This time, I"m the one asking.
"If he"s still alive, I will save him. But I will still kill the impersonator. I won"t give that chance to anyone else."
"We might need to wait for years until that happen. I know it"s best to kill him, but we want to make the cult unaware of our presences. At least his presence." Albert said as he pointed at me. We want to keep my presence as a danger to the cult as secret.
Albert also showed me that we can trust Queen Carmen by nodding his head. That mean she will be the fourth expert level mage after Julia in our alliance.
Isn"t it amazing? Almost each country has their own expert level mage with us. Princess Julia in Varadis, Queen Carmen in Arturo, then Celestine can be considered from Consenza. As for Tatrama, Veronica is here. She"s the only one who is not part of any royal family.
"Anyway, can you tell us how and when you realize that he"s father"s impersonator?" Fabio asked his mother.
"It was days after the news of your and Luna"s death. I was depressed, and he come to my room to console me. That night was also my turn to…"
"Wait, no! I got it! Don"t explain anymore!" I said.
I got a bad feeling for it. She finds out that the king is a fake, and that"s that. There"s nothing more to listen!
"What do you mean, Roy? Mother hasn"t finished talking." Fabio said.
As for Albert, he"s thinking of why I need to stop the discussion. Marie seems to know what Queen Carmen want to say as she"s smiling.
Just as Albert looked as if he realized what Queen Carmen about to say, Queen Carmen spoke.
"During our nighttime activity, I can feel his shape was different. It looked similar, but when used, the shape was different." Queen Carmen said.
"AAAAH! I don"t want to hear that!" I shouted.
"I should have known. I should have known." Albert said in regret.
"Uugh… Mother… that"s embarra.s.sing." Fabio said as he covers his face with his hands in embarra.s.sment. I don"t think he will recover anytime soon.
"After realizing, I need to make a decision. Do I tell the others or not? I don"t know anyone I can trust since I"m isolated from the other wives. So, I faked my death. I jumped off the cliff and make them think that I killed myself in depression after my children died. Then, I live on my own. I used to be a hunter before I became the queen, so I"m used to it. And I"m already quite powerful. I was already advanced level in water element. Maybe since I used water element magic to produce water many times, it has improved and now I have reached expert level in my water element." Queen Carmen said.
So, her element is water. the one that raised to expert level. Is it good? Maybe. And that"s also the reason why she can survive after falling off of the cliff. The sea is her ally. She can then swim far away to escape. She did well so far.
"Mother is so strong. I know that you"re a water mage, but I never know that you are so strong. Anyway, we have another information then. The queen has died, but no news at all to the people. Even though I"m a guard, no one said anything about her death. Don"t tell me that she"s also being subst.i.tuted?"
…Fabio ignored the fact that her mother slept with someone else other than his father. That must be too much of a shock that he ignores it. My condolences.
"Maybe you"re right. I need to be more careful when I sneak into the castle. Let"s return now so I can go find your battle-crazed brother. What will you do, your majesty?" I asked Queen Carmen.
"I will help you rescue my husband. Tell me your plan." Queen Carmen said.
"Then we can return back to Arturo again, and have Fabio tell you everything. I will leave after sending Celestine back to the inn we stayed." I said.
Queen Carmen might not believe it if any of us tell her the truth. But if it"s her own son, she should believe him. And the two need to spend their time together after separating for a long time.
We return back to Arturo, where Celestine is waiting in Fabio"s house.
After sending Celestine back to the inn we stayed, I quickly leave the capital to where I can find Fabio"s brother.
…did I forget something?
Oh, right! Spot!
He"s still sleeping around my neck. I guess I"ll send him to Kayla to heal. I"ll tell Kayla to inform me once Spot is awake so I can take him with me again.
…will he be a good boy without me? I can only hope.