Melina's life was utterly stressful. She moved from one problem to another just when she thought the other was solved.
It was an endless battle for her as though trouble followed her like a shadow.
"What are you saying, Your Highness?" she asked him as she moved back slowly to maintain a safe distance between them.
Albert noticed this and before she could get out of his reach, he yanked her by her wrist, pulling her inside the bathtub and water splashed out of it to fall on the floor.
Melina's heart leapt in terror as she struggled to stand up from the tub but the soap made it slippery and she only found herself getting drenched in the warm water with Albert beneath her.
"Your Highness!-" She kept splashing water out in an attempt to get out but Albert's cold gaze was fixated on her.
Her face turned pale when she remembered what he had threatened her about.
What was she lying about? She asked herself. She didn't know but she was sure this man was mistaking her for something else... someone else even.
"You haven't answered my question." Unlike his earlier playful tone, this one was deadly and without emotion.
"I-I don't know what you're talking about, Your Highness. You might be mistaking me-"
"Drop the act. I am restraining myself from killing you. What are you doing here?" he questioned her and seeing her reaction, he still refused to believe that she was as innocent as she seemed.
Her type knew how to play the innocence card pretty well, especially with their beautiful face.
"I don't know what you mean!!" Melina snapped and yelled at him in anger, startling him and making him release her wrist as he didn't expect her to drop her facade so fast.
That had only made him believe that she indeed had an ulterior motive for being here.
With the little opportunity, Melina immediately rolled out of the tub with her wet body.
The oversized uniform dress that she had managed to pin up had turned loose and the uniform now hugged her body, revealing every curve she had.
Albert didn't notice this. He wasn't the perverted type to take note of such a thing. Instead, his gaze was on her for a different reason and with a different motive.
Just as she fell on the wet floor, she got up in panic and ran out of the room, almost losing her footing because of the slippery ground.
It was now obvious to her that this king was mistaking her to be someone else and before he harmed her, she needed to get out of here.
She reached the bathroom door and turned the knob before sprinting out of the bathroom, ready to run out of the room itself when Albert grabbed her wet hair and pulled her to the wall nearby to face him.
She winced slightly in pain and before he could do anything to her, she immediately spoke,
"I'm not whoever you're looking for! I don't even know them." her voice came out pleading.
Albert paused for a moment and took in her expression before his face etched with displeasure.
This only convinced him that she was whatever thing he had assumed her to be.
He raised his brow, "But you are related to them? Are you not? So what do you want and what are you doing here?" he asked her again, this time, he didn't pull her hair but gave her a chance to speak.
Melina's eyes widened as she realized he had mistaken her words for something else again.
She sighed in frustration, fighting the urge to hit this king and start running again.
Why did trouble always go after her? She wasn't even doing anything to attract it anymore. She had changed for the better so why?!
"I already told you I'm not who you're looking for and I grew up here," she explained but seeing his expression, she knew her explanation did nothing to convince him.
Her face turned sour again and she looked exasperated.
Suddenly, Albert saw her look at him in realization and he mistook it to be her finally figuring out what he was talking about.
He waited for her to speak but she only turned confused again before she tugged a strand of her hair and asked him,
"M-my hair...what does it mean...?" Her question had Albert confused as he stared at her, wondering if it was one of her kind's tricks.
"Don't put up any stunt with me, Melina," he warned with his eyes turning darker but she only shook her head, still willing to understand the problem with her having red hair.
"I-im serious, Your Highness. I truly want to know. What does having red hair mean for me? What am I? Am I different?" her eyes turned curious.
"Please, Your Highness, tell me!" she begged as she gripped her wet hair in her hand.
"You... don't know?" Albert found that hard to believe.
"No. I don't," she answered still waiting for him to speak.
She remembered Nabal's shocked expression when he saw her hair that day and it only made her inquisitive.
Albert slowly began to think she was telling the truth as he tried to put two and two together.
Any redhead who was well aware of what they were wouldn't have foolishly let him interrogate them. They were very smart and were never in the open like this unless they had a strong backing which this one here obviously didn't have.
She was just a servant and maid who could easily be preyed on so that only meant she didn't know.
Instead of giving her an answer, Albert placed his hands on her hair and gently tugged it, wanting to be sure that it was her hair before he spoke,
"Red hair belongs to warlocks and witches." he deadpanned and Melina's eyes widened at the abuse.
"What? I'm not a witch!" she fired back in annoyance. What type of insult was that?
"Hmmm." he hummed as if he was thinking. "You're not. You're something worse," he said again as he observed her and she didn't bother to hide her irritation this time not caring if he was a king.
She glared at him before pushing one of his hands that held her hair away from her.
So this was why most people were always gaping at her? Because they thought she was a witch? What a stupid mentality!
"I'm not a witch," she told him once more as she locked her eyes with his, sure of what she was saying.
He gazed at her in scrutiny, "If you are not yet aware that you are a witch, it only means you're something more dangerous," he replied to her.
Her eyes narrowed, "Which is...?" even though she was certain she was none of that, she was curious to know what danger the people who carried her type of hair had.
'Maybe... I could avoid them that way?' Her naive mind thought.
"A-" he was about to say when...
Knock!!
A loud knock was heard on the door.
"Come in." Albert didn't hesitate and the person pushed the door open while he spoke,
"King Albert, I have been searching for" Leon halted his words when he saw the unanticipated sight before him.
His dilated eyes drifted to look at the girl and the man who were up close with each other, their wet bodies making their clothes stick to their body to expose their body shapes.
His eyes widened seeing Melina's curves...those curves that had been haunting him since ever which he had tried to cover up for her before anyone would see it.
That was the same curves that were bared in front of another man at the moment and she didn't even seem bothered.
He saw Albert's hand that stuck to her hair like he had been playing with it and he noticed how he seemed to be caging her between himself and the wall.
The proximity made his eyes darken and his jaw clenched before he turned his full gaze to the girl who now looked scared as she didn't expect to see him.
What the hell was she doing here?