She looked up at him completely flabbergasted. Did he want her to say it?
"Did we do… that?" She tried to get the words out. He came closer and she backed up against the headboard.
"You spent the entire night in my room with me. What do you think happened?" He asked as he sat at the edge of the bed. The elderly maid that had been there when Olivia woke up looked disapprovingly at the king. Olivia suddenly looked sullen and devastated. She did not see his reaction because she was looking down, but King Adarian frowned when she looked that way.
He did not expect that reaction from someone who had drugged him in order to seduce him. He sighed, "I never touched you."
"But... these are your quarters?" she asked to confirm. She looked up at him unsure. "We're innocent?"
"If we had done anything at all you would definitely remember it," he said confidently. You had a high fever, and I needed to ask you some questions. I had to be here when your fever broke, and we were surrounded by Doctors and maids the entire night. Leaving aside that I won't touch a sick person, I wouldn't touch a woman in front of others eyes to see."
Olivia's countenance visibly improved. Though she didn't notice, the king furrowed his brows a bit. Olivia Heaved a sigh of relief, and the elderly maid also relaxed her face.
"Don't look at me like that Nan-Nan," The King said to the maid.
"Then be proper to the lady," The elderly maid scolded the king. "This is a castle. It's not like you lack rooms to place her in. I told you to place her in a different room. She's unmarried and unaccompanied. The only reason we will be able to dispel any rumors is because the two of you were never left alone for a moment."
Olivia suddenly looked hopeful. Her face lit up. 'My reputation doesn't have to be ruined!? This is great!' Olivia Carter was paying attention to everything though. She was able to watch the king out of the corner of her eye.
"Who said we weren't alone for a moment?" King Adarian asked. "If I say she spent the entire night in my bed chambers' but didn't touch her, what will happen to my reputation?"
Olivia paled, and the elderly maids face darkened. "Your little highness…" the maid began but stopped. She had wanted to help Olivia save her reputation, but now… there was nothing she could do. The damage to Olivia Praxis's reputation was already done. Even if she was a virgin, if the king said she was not, then she was not.
Olivia Carter remembered a line from the novel. The king who was upset that Olivia had drugged and seduced him had said this line to her after Olivia kept trying to place the blame on the innocent Graciella. He didn't believe her because the waiters had confessed that he was bribed to drug Lady Lowenheim by Olivia. He confessed that the king was not supposed to be the one who was drugged. Olivia still had the audacity to lie to him in spite of the evidence and eyewitness accounts, this had upset the king. Olivia Carter said the line the king told Olivia Praxis out loud in her head.
"Now I can't wear a white wedding dress,'' she said it out loud! She wanted to say more, to explain that this was still just a dream, and she would wake soon. But her mouth wouldn't move! The King looked at her in shock. He had not expected her to say that! But his plan was already in motion. There was no way to stop it now. When the maids went off duty in the early morning, they were to go and spread it around that Olivia and the King both spent the night in the king's bed chambers. He didn't have time to feel bad about this decision now. If she didn't like it then she shouldn't have tried to drug people. What's more she shouldn't have taken recreational drugs.
"That's not my problem," he said to her. "Do you regret it?"
Olivia looked at him confused. 'Regret? What does he want me to regret?'
"You drugged me, and tried to seduce me." He stated in an unconcerned tone. "I have eye witnesses and evidence that you were also intending some very bad things for Lady Lowenheim. As if all of this wasn't enough, you also took drugs yourself. Was it because you were nervous? It's obvious you've never taken them before. Or you would have noticed that you are allergic to it." He waited for a response. She breathed a little harder becoming nervous with the weight of being framed so easily. She knew he wouldn't believe her.
'Olivia Carter, Is it true that he will eventually kill me if I tell the truth?' Olivia Carter was surprised at this thought that came through. 'Did you think you were just hearing me and that I couldn't hear you? I was already drugged yesterday, and I was confused. Now I need to know for sure… What will he do if I tell him I was framed.'
{The evidence is solid. The eye witnesses have proof it was Olivia Praxis who made them try to drug Lady Lowenheim, and he also arrested the men that were hired to violate her. Olivia Praxis was the one who ordered the drugs from the apothecary. The seal definitely belongs to Olivia Praxis. }
'Wait Graciella hired men to Violate her!? I thought she just wanted Lady Lowenheim to make a fool out of herself! Either way I won't admit to something I didn't do.'
"Well?" He asked her impatiently for an answer.
Olivia sighed, "I did not choose to take recreational drugs. I also did not drug you or Lady Lowenheim. But I did know of the plan to do so. I was trying to warn you. You have no reason to believe me though. So just pretend it was all my fault." She had said in a roundabout manner that she was framed.
"Are you claiming you were framed?" King Adarian raised an eyebrow.
Olivia smiled dispondently. 'No one has ever believed me when I said I was framed. He had tight evidence against me, and my reputation precedes me. Does he really think I will admit to being framed, knowing it will just make him angry?' She looked away from him to the wall. She could never lie when looking someone in the eye. "I did not say I was framed."
He narrowed his eyes. "Look me in the eye when you speak to me."
She turned to him slowly and asked, "What are you going to do to me?"
"Nothing," he said. "For now. You will eat breakfast, and then I will send you home. You can deny that we slept together all you want. But you should know that I did sleep next to you for a little bit, so if you deny it, it will be a lie."
Olivia was trying to calm her heart. She was so angry. And now she was sure she was blushing, she couldn't tell if it was out of anger or embarrassment. Did this man have no shame? Seeing her face blushing made him remember her drunken face from before. She threw herself on his lap when she tripped on his shoe. He was so certain last night that she had done it on purpose. Looking at her face now, he thought that she must be a great actress. He had all the evidence stacked against her. If he didn't have all of that in advance, he might have believed her.
Olivia really wished she could just leave right that minute, but she was still on his bed in her bedclothes. Or...someone's bedclothes. Suddenly her stomach growled, causing her even more embarrassment. 'Why now? Did this have to happen now? Olivia Carter couldn't you have warned me?'
{No. I really couldn't. The book glossed over this part. It even led everyone to misunderstand and think Adarian really slept with you. It will probably be revealed later that you had an allergic reaction to the drug you took and didn't get to sleep with him.}
'Did you just call him by name!!! You can't do that! He's the king! Address him as your majesty'
"Hungry?" The king asked. He turned to the elderly maid he called NanNan, "It's late. Bring her some food. I'm going to my office. Send her home when she's done." With the instructions given out he left. Just like that he was gone.
Olivia ate her breakfast, and put on the dress she wore to the party last night, with the help of the Elderly maid. Once she was dressed she was sent by carriage to the Praxis home.
On the way there Olivia Carter and Olivia Praxis had a conversation about various things. Olivia Carter was curious about a good many things since she had never seen them. Then she admitted she had never seen magical jewels. Olivia Praxis was instantly curious.
Olivia Carter: {I come from an entirely different place. There's no such thing as magic where I'm from. What's really weird is all the magical novels I've ever read about magic has people fill up the stones with mana. But in Graciella's Dark Days, that's the title of this novel, mana stones get filled by putting the stones in a mana pool. I thought that was weird.}
Olivia Praxis: 'What you just said about people filling up mana stones sounds weird. We're humans, not dragons. Dragons died long ago and the earth covered them up creating pressure and turned the dragons into mana.'
Olivia Carter: {I wonder if mana isn't actually plant based instead of crushed up dragon juice. }
Olivia Praxis: 'Please don't call it crushed up dragon juice. And how could it be plant based? '
Olivia Carter: {Where I'm from, we have oil that comes from the ground like your mana. We can't charge magical stones in it or anything, but we turned it into fuel to power our vehicles and other stuff. }
Olivia Praxis: 'Powered vehicles? What kind of power?'
Olivia Carter: {One thing at a time. Let me explain oil first then we can get into other things. We used to believe oil was made from dinosaurs that was covered by the earth, pressured and heated. But eventually we found out it wasn't dinosaurs, but ancient plant material. So my theory is that your world might not be too different, but at the same time is... very different.}
Olivia Praxis: 'That does sound weird. But what's a dinosaur? And explain powered vehicles. Your world sounds like a fantasy land. I'm almost afraid that whatever Graciella had me drugged with is slowly driving me insane. Oh no! I'm not hallucinating this whole conversation am I!?'
Olivia Carter: {Calm down if anyone is hallucinating it's me. I was reading this story, and then I fainted causing me to black out, and dream this up. The only problem is that this is a really long dream. I hope I'm not in a coma or anything.}