The Ministers were shocked to hear the King question the mother Queen almost like an accusation, they turned to the woman who locked heated gazes with her step son.
"Why would I?" She retorted sharply.
"I met Sven yesterday and he told me he received letters from the castle to release the vampires."
"Coincidentally, one of your personal guards had had arrived to deliver another letter," Sebastian said and the room went silent for a brief second before murmurs start to go around the Ministers.
"Are you implying it was the mother Queen who sent the letters?" Carl, who was sitting on the right hand of the King asked.
"You don't expect it to be the guard, do you?" He questioned back nonchalantly.
"You can't accuse me of that just because it was my guard who delivered the letter. It could be anyone who had paid him," Queen Rohesia defended herself.
"You must have caught the guard, why don't we question him here?"
"True, but there's no one who has the royal stamp except you and me, Queen Rohesia," He reminded her. "And we don't expect a dead person to answer our questioning, do we?"
"How then should we believe it was the mother Queen who had sent him if he is dead?" Sebastian wasn't surprised to know some of the ministers helped the Queen and he took note of each of them. Surprisingly, the Vizier was quiet and he casted a glace at his direction.
"I only killed one of her guards and she has two of them," he said and raised his hands to the guards who stood at the door and they opened the door to bring in a battered vampire who had surely been tortured too many times.
Queen Rohesia's face hardened learning Sebastian had killed one of her guards and captured the other but she had seen this one this morning after he returned to tell her he couldn't find his second, how had he been caught and tortured so much.
As the guard was brought to kneel in the middle of the room, Sebastian stood up and walked towards him. The guard looked frightened when he met his gaze and he bowed quickly.
"What was contained in the letter you sent to the test house few weeks ago?" Sebastian questioned, looking down at the man.
"I-i do not know what the letter contained, milord."
Sebastian crouched beside him, his long index finger went under the man's chin and he raised his head up to lock eyes with him as he asked again.
"Who sent you to the test house?"
"I-it -was the mother Queen," The vampire stuttered, intimidated by the King's piercing gaze.
Queen Rohesia clenched her jaws and furrowed her brows as she watched the guard from her seat. Though the man was also loyal to her as he had carried out one of her secret works but it was the second guard she had sent at the first time and also yesterday to deliver the letters. She didn't look away from the guard even when she felt eyes on her.
Sebastian turned to look at her before he stood up, walking back to his seat. After breakfast, he promptly escorted the guard to the dungeon while the Queen remained in her room. During the initial interrogation, it became apparent that the guard possessed no knowledge of the letters. Despite subjecting him to torture, he only admitted to the minor tasks the Queen had assigned him, which paled in comparison to the greater scheme at hand. Understanding that the ministers would demand evidence against the Queen, he made the decision to eliminate the guard who could have potentially confessed. Therefore, he resorted to torturing the current guard in order to obtain testimony against her.
Queen Rohesia knew the guard was lying and it was her step son's doings. However, she wouldn't be able to tell it was the other guard she had sent, leaving her in an entanglement, one she tried to escape from.
"Do you really think I could that?" She asked.
"There's nothing you aren't capable of doing, stepmother." Though she felt a surge of pride as he said this, it wasn't the time to be proud of herself.
"You deny asking the guard to deliver the letters but Leif heard you talking about it." Everyone turned to the Queen and then her son who was sitting beside her.
"I was coming to your room yesterday when I overheard you talking about it with Oriana. I didn't see the need to inform the King since he was going to Sven already," Leif said, surprising the people in the room except for Sebastian.
"You've been let off all your mistakes, step mother," Sebastian said, drawing the woman's attention from her son.
"I did that for the kingdo-" she tried to say but he interrupted her.
"For your selfish reasons, step mother, you've never done anything for the Kingdom. And it makes me wonder why you are still the Queen." His tone was sharp with his words weighing suspicion in the vampires' mind.
"Your decisions are self-centered and rash, not bothered about my say."
The mother Queen looked pale at his words and she blurted, "You can not strip me of-"
"You are no longer the Queen of Howvale, step mother," Sebastian cut in harshly, his deep gaze piercing into her soul.
"Your Highness, you should take another decision, stripping her off the title is heavily placed than what she did."
"You can also leave the Ministerial position if you feel my judgement is unfair. After all, I don't need either of you guidance to rule the kingdom," Sebastian said to the man who gulped.
He bowed and settled on his seat looking at the Queen once and shook his head. The woman pursed her lips as she turned to her step son.
"You are not doing this just because of the attack in the human kingdom," She said to see him smile as he returned her gaze.
"It is good that you are not always dumb, step mother." He agreed to her words and she glared at him. She would pass through the very humiliation and pain she made his mother suffer. He had thought he should save her punishment for later but Eve had unknowingly changed his plans.
He stood up from his seat and walked out after which Leif followed with some ministers, leaving behind the former Queen with her loyal pawns.
"He is doing this for the human." Vizier Markus said.
"He is and your son is even with him. Didn't you say you will have him on your side?" Carl asked.
"He has planted some trust and loyalty in Leif and for the human," lady Rohesia pursed. "I got away with Roselani's death, same with the witch. The human would be easily discarded."