"Promise me that this won't happen again."
The empress demanded from her husband, making sure that he should try his best not to get involved into a fight.
"I, Emperor Charles, promise to not engage in any dangerous conflict, if necessary."
Emperor Charles answered with seriousness in his face. He knew that his wife isn't someone whom he can easily fool with. That is one he is definitely proud of his wife, her strong personality which hooks him up the most.
Empress Jasmine rolled her eyes but as well as felt relief upon hearing the answer of her emperor, however, she still wanted to know who are these people trying to hurt her husband and what possibly they wanted from him. With no possible ideas coming through her mind, she decided to brush it off.
"So, how did the meeting go?"
She asked him as they walked their way to the emperor's office. The emperor's face turned stern from Empress Jasmine's question.
When the empress saw her husband's expression, she asked, "Is there a problem? Did they averse to your condition?"
Emperor Charles shook his head and answered, "No… Everything went according to plan."
He sat on the couch followed by Empress Jasmine, "That's a very pleasant thing to hear. On the contrary, to your face."
Before the emperor could say anything, his personal secretary along with a few maids went inside and served them some tea. After they handed them the tea and snacks, they all headed to the door to give the empress and emperor some space.
However, Emperor Charles stopped his PS and asked him to tell them again the details of the meeting. The secretary marched a little closer to the royals then told them what were the conditions and what happened during the meeting.
"During the meeting, the hunters filed a proposal towards The Royal Highnesses. They stated that they will help us find what us vampires desire…that is our Female Bloods. The Highnesses didn't find the whole contract satisfying." He said.
"So, Grand Duke Arthur accepted their proposal, however, he added three more. The first one was to investigate the matter regarding the forbidden bottle. Next, was to start collaborating together. And lastly, was Grand Duke Arthur's undecided condition, Your Majesty." he added.
"What do you mean by undecided?" Empress Jasmine asked him.
The PS immediately replied, "Grand Duke Arthur planned to use it in the future. And also, the Royal Highnesses found out that the hunter's tracker specializes for their Female Bloods is a human."
The empress was in disbelief of the whole situation. She couldn't believe that they let a human into their world. Engaging themselves to humans may all put everyone in danger that made her think what made the hunters welcome a human to such an extent.
"This is preposterous. What exactly is happening, right now? And why did Arthur want to keep this last condition to himself?" she asked Emperor Charles.
Unfortunately, he himself didn't know what was going through his brother's mind. Emperor Charles only knew of the first condition, other than that, he knew nothing about the other two either. It was so different from the conditions they had agreed upon. Nonetheless, he trusts his brother's decision of whatever it may be.
When he was about to answer the empress, the door opened revealing Grand Duke Arthur. The grand duke welcomed himself in and answered the confused empress.
"It's true that there's a human working for them."
"Although, I only saw this human's past from the time they saw the Female Blood being choked by one of our people till he and Head Benjamin fought because of this Head hunter's recklessness. It was quite a funny scene. You should see it."
He added as he slightly laughed from reminiscing about the scene he had envisioned back then.
"Then what's with the other two conditions we haven't heard of?" Empress Jasmine asked as she slightly raised her eyebrow.
"Oh that?"
Grand Duke Arthur scratched the back of his head and continued, "The second is still related to the first one, though. It's just that I wanted to get more and more information from them. Collaborating means we exchange information and help each other from now on."
He then added, "As for the last one… It is mine to keep."
Grand Duke Arthur immediately excused himself and left them without turning back. Empress Jasmine was slightly dumbfounded and felt unsatisfied with his explanation. She stared at Emperor Charles who was also left dumbfounded as her. This made her come to the conclusion that her Emperor is having the same feeling as her. She didn't know what her brother-in-law was thinking.
"What is going on inside his mind?"
When the empress asked her husband, the emperor's PS already left together with the grand duke because he was needed by him for some reason. Emperor Charles didn't know what to answer since he himself was dumbfounded. He didn't know what was going on with his brother. But all he knows there must be a reason he wouldn't tell them yet.
"I don't know as well, My Empress. Nonetheless, all I know is that he will tell us everything in time."
He replied with a bit of disappointment in his tone. He then changed the topic to avoid confusing themselves anymore.
"Anyways, I still have a meeting with the board member's tomorrow. So, why don't we rest in our chamber?"
He offered to her which the Empress accepted.
"Alright."
And their day ended with curiosity and non-satisfaction in their minds.
The next morning, Emperor Charles and Grand Duke Arthur went to the car while Empress Jasmine bid them farewell, just her usual routine whenever they went out of the villa. And the Adonis brother's bid to her as well then forged their way to the company, the AD Enterprises.
The empress decided to go back to her chamber and try to organize the emperor's things first before going to her office. She walked her path towards their chamber followed by a few maids to help organize her and Emperor Charles' things.
When they arrived, she immediately dispersed them according to their assigned task. She watched the maids as they accumulated their task. Then one of the maids held the emperor's clothes from yesterday. As she tried to fix it to put it inside the laundry basket, a piece of paper fell on the floor.
The maid took the paper and read the content inside it. She gasped from the shock upon reading the words which made the other maids and the empress look at her. Empress Jasmine signaled her to go near her; she then followed Her Royal Highness's order and gave her the paper.
When Empress Jasmine read the content of the paper, her temple wrinkled from it.
"What is this?" she asked herself as she found the words preposterous.
Later in the afternoon, the emperor and the grand duke returned to the villa from the meeting and work. They got out of the car and were greeted with a cold expression by the Empress. The Adonis brothers stared at each other, not knowing what wrong they did again.
"Is there something wrong, My Empress?" Emperor Charles nervously asked her.
Grand Duke Arthur, who did not want to be involved in the fight, greeted the empress and immediately excused himself. However, Empress Jasmine stopped him as she showed them the paper.
"What is this?"
She asked them what made the two brothers gulp when they almost forgot the paper. Grand Duke Arthur glared at his brother for being reckless and of all the heroes, the empress, herself found it.
"A-a paper?" Emperor Charles said as sweat slowly dripped from his face.
"The content?" Empress Jasmine asked again.
And this time the Grand Duke Arthur answered, "You'll pay for this."
"Better explain this to me." The empress demanded the Adonis brothers.
The grand duke offered to her that his brother would be the one to explain to him then excused himself and escaped from the empress ceremony.
The emperor tried to stop his brother but it was already too late. His inner conscience made him say as he clenched his fist., 'You'll pay for this brother.'
He then faced the empress and said, "I'm sorry, I planned to tell you. And I promise you, I will handle this properly and carefully."
"You better be. Because I am worried that the both of you will get hurt."
She demanded with worries in her tone and the emperor nodded in response then tried to console her worried wife. Suddenly, someone spoke out of the blue as he headed downstairs to greet them politely.
"Stop making Mother worry, Father." He said.
"I know, I know. I'll be careful next time, my son," Emperor Charles responded.
Then another voice sighed in disappointment and added, "When will you grow up, Dad?"
Emperor Charles rebated back, "Speak for yourself. When will you grow up?"
"Until you stop collecting your favorite toy cars." The voice replied as he laughed at his father's mini car collection.
Another one went down the stairs and said, "Where's Uncle Arthur? He promised to train me after he gets back from work,"
He looked around to see if Grand Duke Arthur was around.
"Are you serious? He's the first thing you're looking for instead of your father? Is this how you guys are going to greet your father?"
Emperor Charles complained as he placed his both hands on his hips that made Empress Jasmine chuckled at the sight of her family.
She then happily said, "Won't you greet your father, My three Princes?"
The three princes looked at each other and smiled together then greeted them with courtesy, "Greetings, to our dear parents, the Emperor and the Empress."
...