Long, long, ago, the Kingdom of Saveria was ruled by an ambitious King. He was selfish and greedy. His greed of power cannot be measured, even with a family of his own he never paid attention to them, he was more fixated on something else that can give him he so greatly desires - the extraction of Etheria.
Etheria is known as the Earth's life force and with it, he learned that by using Etheria he can manipulate other things such as control over other elements and the creatures with it. With Etheria he can create a Kingdom so powerful that no other countries will try to oppose him. It was his greatest discovery and he dedicated his life to studying its mystery and for years of research and experiments, he finally created a system that can manually extract Etheria and use it to run things inside his Kingdom.
But the King was only human and soon he will die along with all his knowledge, it's such a waste, he thought, then it suddenly hit him, among his failed experiments one certain subject arises his curiosity, he tried infusing Etheria to animals and most of his test subjects were mutated violently with the mindset to only kill and eliminate other living things. What he also noticed aside from becoming mindless zombies was its genes was created anew, like some kind of new species but because the brain cannot handle the change thus becoming mindless and violent. He stopped the experiment for his safety but if he wanted to make it succeed this time he needed someone else, someone who had the same vision as him.
"Dr. Vincent! My, what a surprise! What brings you here?" Mary jumps from excitement when she sees Vincent along with Caleb.
"You're highness" He bows in front of her "It's good to see you again, and I see your pregnancy is going well, that is good"
"Hahaha, my, such a charming man you are but I'm sure I'm not the one your visiting right?"
"I apologize, I will make sure to visit next time but for now I needed to see his majesty"
"He's inside his studies, let my husband guide you there, I'm pretty sure he might need a visitor right now, he was given a lot of paper works today"
"Thank you, your highness, then we'll be off"
Mary bid them farewell cheerfully.
"She's getting healthy, when is her due?" Vincent asked Caleb
"Two months from now, Your Grace"
"Caleb, I told you not be formal with me, call me Vincent"
"I'm still not used to it since your family and this family goes a long way and I'm just the King's Chancellor so ..."
"You are now family too you know,..." the doctor smiled
"I'm grateful His Majesty did not strip off Mary's title as a princess even though she married me, a commoner"
"Claude will never do that, he loves his sister and because Mary loved you, he respects that. He never believes in titles and rankings, to begin with, he's such a softie, though he hides it most of the time"
Caleb gives him a reassuring smile "You're Right" They finally reached Claude's studies "May I ask the purpose of your visit today?"
"Oh, actually I had a patient that's currently in his care. I just want to check on her"
"Her?"
"Stop it, how many times have I told you I don't care!?" They heard Claude shouting from inside his room and when they opened the door they see him sitting on his chair with arms crossed looking angry, Tseng was behind him as usual and a woman in front of them carrying a piece of paper.
"You!" Vincent gasped
Tayne points at herself "Me?"
Vincent rushed to her and starts checking her arms and observing her "H-how?"
"Who are you?"
"Miss Tayne, that's not the way to treat the Duke" Caleb lightly scolds her
"Eh? He's a duke?"
"And a doctor as well, I was the one who did your operation when you fell from the hospital"
"Oh! So you did! Wow! Thanks, Pal! You saved me!" she pats Vincent's shoulders
An angry nerve appears on Caleb's forehead and his brows furrowed "Miss Tayne, I believe I should be teaching you manners on how to treat nobles and superiors because it seems to me you don't know any of it"
"Tell me about it" Claude sighed "What brings you here Vincent?" the King's expression softens when he sees Vincent and Tayne notice that.
"I just want to ask how Miss Tayne escaped from the hospital and also if she's fine" He looks at Tayne again "But I guess I don't need to check that seeing how lively the two of you were a while ago"
Claude closed his eyes trying not to get agitated by Vincent's statement "Yes, yes, she looks fine and healthy she can even lift a huge massive sword as big as her and about the escaped part ---"
"I'm sorry, did I broke something? I was really on a hurry that day because I might be late for work" Tayned explained
"Late for work?" Vincent looks at Claude, the King just shrugs his shoulders.
"Hahaha, well that's new, here I thought you kidnapped her, your majesty"
"Why would I kidnap someone like her? Do you want to take her back inside the capsule? Please do! That will make me very happy"
"No need, the capsule did its part. I still could not believe you healed fast despite the heavy damage you get from the fall, why did you want to kill yourself?"
"Oh, no, no, no, that's not the reason really and I'm sorry, I don't remember much about what happened that day"
"It's fine, I'm glad you're doing well, everybody inside this palace is so lively, isn't it Claude? Both of you must already be close for being so comfortable yelling to each other" Vincent smiled
"It's not what you think! That woman there is already out of her mind I tell you!" The King lost his composure
"What is he talking about?" Vincent asked Tayne.
"Yesterday, Sir Caleb reported about a group of bandits rampaging a small town south of the capital and we went there."
"Did you meet the bandits?"
Tayne nodded "Yes, their leader a brown-haired man escaped from the chaos leaving his men killed themselves by drinking some liquid poison that kills them instantly"
"Really?"
"Then you were arguing because that man escaped?"
"No, no, I just want to tell the King that we should go back there to check on the people, most of them were pretty affected by the raid"
Claude sighed "I told you many times that they are not my problem anymore? Do your job and investigate that man who escaped and find out who they were working with, I'm sure they will attack again"
"I told you, I'm doing that! But please, can't you at least check on them?"
"They are criminals Tayne"
Their argument went for a few more minutes but in the end, Tayne failed to convince the King so she finally gave up and left the room.
"Wow, she's a feisty one. Are you okay?" Vincent asked Claude, finally seated on the chair in front of him.
"I'm sorry you saw that. I really don't know how to control her, my father was the one who hired her did you know that?"
"Really? I thought he's retired already?"
"He said it'll be his last"
The two were talking casually that Caleb decided to leave them as well "Well, I'll be leaving you two then, your grace, your majesty" he bows
"It's Vincent, Caleb, Vincent" Vincent smiled
"Yeah, and you're calling me your majesty again, you're my brother in law"
Caleb gave them both a smile "I'm still the chancellor, so please pardon me" he left the room.
When he's finally outside he saw Tayne pouting, reading the piece of paper she's holding. Caleb approaches her and took the paper from her and read it.
"Hey!"
Caleb raises his hand to stop her from yapping "What is this?"
"It's my proposal letter to visit the people of the town, when I gave it to the King a while ago he started scolding me"
"That's only natural because any documents that go to the King must be validated through me first, and reading this proposal of yours, I will certainly reject it"
"Why? You were the one who reported it to him that they were attacked by bandits"
"That's because of the black flag, any issues regarding that must be told to the King and you as the head of security shall help him with the investigation especially when you let a man escaped"
"Why do you want to reject the people there? Aren't they part of the Kingdom too?"
Caleb becomes quiet "Not all Kingdoms are perfect Miss Tayne, it has been for a thousand years, those people hurt other people and they will never change, so let it go and do your job"
Caleb returned the paper and leaves. Tayne was disappointed and as she walks to her office, she was greeted by an unusual person.
"How are you, my child?"
The surprised Tayne approaches the man happily "Your Majesty!"
It was Claude's father and he was listening to her and Caleb's conversation. "That was kind of harsh but Caleb is not that kind of person, I heard you engaged into battle yesterday"
"Yes, Your Majesty but don't worry the King is safe"
"Hahaha, I was not worried about him, come let this old man walk you to your office"
Tayne smiled and together they walk. The former King of Saveria was just like his son, tall, handsome, they both got beautiful golden hair and beautiful blue eyes, although the former King is already an old man, he still gives off a presence of a ruler.
"How are you coping up?" He asked her
"I-I'm good but everything is new to me, the monarchy stuff is, I didn't know you have to address someone like this and that, I made Caleb angry" she confided
"Hahaha, it must be tough knowing where you grew up"
"Hahaha, your right but don't worry it will be fine, a promise is a promise, by the way, your son is good, I mean he knows how to protect himself, very independent and hot-tempered" she paused and looks at the letter again with a sad look.
"What's that?"
"It's a proposal I plan to give to your son but he just scolded me"
"Let me see it," King Blythe asked for the paper and read it "Hmmm... I understand why Caleb was like that as well"
"Is it really wrong to help?" She asked
"How do you plan to help them? Give them money? Then what happens when the money's gone, they will go hungry again and will do bad things for food again, it's just like a circle, it can go on and on" He said to her but his tone was different than Claude's. It didn't bother her.
"That's what I will say to you if I'm still the King" he laughs
"But as an old man and I see this Kingdom grew and grew so much that I got blinded by its power, I never want my son to experience that blindness"
"That's why you hired me right?"
He nodded, "Go, do what you think is right, I won't stop you"
They reached an elevator that leads below the palace "I guess this is my stop"
"Thank You, Your Majesty"
Tayne could see King Blythe's warm smile slowly disappears as the elevator closes.
----
Later that night Claude was still working inside his studies, he had been working all day with a pissed attitude. It was good for a moment when Vincent visited him but their conversation was not all how are yous'. When Tayne left the room Vincent told him about what he had discovered during his operation on her.
"It was nothing like I saw Claude, her genes, her DNA, all damages that her body has taken were healing itself. I was certain she was about to die back there but she didn't, and her brain who had taken the most damage was protected quite well" he explained
"What are you trying to say to me? That she's a monster?"
"No, Claude, she's not, she is as human as she can be, but different at the same because it runs in her blood"
"What runs in her blood?"
"Etheria"
---
It's almost past midnight and alone in his studies Claude sighed. He has been sighing a lot lately, it's not even a week since that woman arrived in his custody and she's already a spoonful.
She even dares to talk him out about going back to that run-down town.
*Knock* *Knock*
"Come in"
Tseng comes in with a worried look.
"What?"
"It's about Miss Tayne"
"What about her?"
"She's not in her office your majesty, she's not even inside the palace grounds"
--- End Of The Chapter.