"Miss Rosewood -"
"Ah!" Katherine shouted, and without seeing, she swung her stick as soon as someone appeared behind her, and Maximus who least expected it, quickly grabbed it, looking at the girl with raised brows.
When Katherine couldn't move her hands, she opened her eyes and looked at the man who was standing there with his brows quirked as he looked at her with an unreadable expression.
"If you wanted to hurt me, I assure you that it would take a thing quite heavier and more deadly than a wooden stick, Miss Delilah," Maximus said before he moved his thumb, and the stick broke like a mere toothpick.
Katherine looked at his strength amazed.
Is that why all the soldiers in the royal palace are afraid of him? She wondered before she shook her head. That wasn't the important thing here!
"Y-you, did you hear that? That voice," Katherine asked.
"What voice? I didn't hear anything," Maximus said before he grabbed her left hand.
"Where are you taking me?" Katherine asked when he started to pull her away from the hut with a serious expression.
Maximus didn't stop walking, nor did he answer her until they reached the car.
"I hope I can entrust you with this secret and expect you to not tell anyone that I brought you to the Sandalwood forests, right?" Maximus asked as soon as they were out of the forest.
Katherine nodded subconsciously.
What was she supposed to tell anyone anything when nothing that happened there made sense to her?
"I won't. But can you at least tell me what it was all about?" Katherine asked.
Maximus looked at her coldly, his expression clearly screaming 'unapproachable'.
"It's nothing you should be concerned with. I came to see an old friend," Maximus answered her before he opened the door for her.
"Get inside," Maximus said, and Katherine hummed.
She noticed how his words were now more limited and curt as if he was forcing himself to keep his cool and not lash out at the first person he saw, which happened to be her.
No one spoke anything the entire journey.
Katherine was busy thinking about what that voice said to her while Maximus was busy thinking about what his friend told him.
He looked at the girl from the corner of his eyes before shaking his head.
There was no way it would be true.
Maximus dropped the so-called Miss Delilah at the entrance of the royal palace and went straight to the hidden palace.
"Sir," Jacob rushed to his boss as soon as he saw him entering the palace but paused when he saw Maximus's ashen face.
"Is everything alright, sir?" Jacob asked, taking a cautious deep breath when he didn't receive any reply from his boss.
"Is it about Miss Delilah?" Jacob asked warily, approaching the topic cautiously, and just like he had guessed, he indeed received a reaction from his boss this time.
However, it was definitely now the kind he expected. Maximus's eyes turned dark as if he were ready to kill anyone who would mention her in front of him.
"Why would you ask that, Jacob?" Maximus asked, his voice dropping two tones, and Jacob shuddered in his place before looking down in submission.
"My Highness has been spending quite a lot of time with her these days. And it has started to catch everyone's attention. The soldiers have started to talk," Jacob said.
Maximus looked at his subordinate with an unfazed and neutral expression.
There was no explanation for what Jacob said because that was the truth.
It didn't begin overnight, or was it really overnight?
The first time the girl had caught his attention was when the commander had thrown the food prepared by her on the first day she came to the training grounds.
He was talking to the chief about the strategies for finding more about the rogues when he saw that happening.
He had all the will to scold the girl for coming to the training grounds, but when she turned around and his gaze landed on her tearful face, he didn't know why, but he stopped. He stopped himself from taking action for the first time.
It greatly intrigued him. She was pretty. There was no doubt about it. Though her sense of dressing and walking with zero confidence was highly questionable, he kept observing her making a fool out of herself from time to time.
She was pretty, but he never felt any attraction towards her. She looked like an empty vase with no substance whatsoever, like just a lifeless soul.
Two nights ago, Maximus got intel from an unknown source that he would be able to find something about the traitor in the royal Kingdom if he went to the hills.
It was the same time when he had returned to the royal palace after his meeting in another country and had found out that the commander rejected the girl brutally, humiliating her in front of everyone with his words.
He wanted to look for the girl just to see if that humiliation was enough for her to snap out of her delusion of this peaceful world or if she needed more humiliation to remind her this world wasn't a fair place, but he didn't have time.
Royal duty was more important. It was something they had been looking for for quite some time.
He had left for the hills immediately to see what it was.
It was exactly at that time when he was roaming the grounds when he felt a weird energy around himself. It was just a swoosh of wind, but it carried so much force that he stumbled back, falling on the ground in the process.
When he was dusting his hands, he looked up and saw the sight he least expected to see.
On the edge of the cliff, Miss Delilah was standing. For a second, he thought she was committing suicide. It was hard to believe.
Was that the same girl who talked about living a life no matter what is thrown her way or who used to speak highly of her trust in the mood goddess? The site was worth mocking and scoffing at.
Everyone was like that in the end. They find a way to hide from things in death. Maximus had thought and decided to carry on his search, not wanting to waste his time on the useless girl who didn't have the guts to fight her battles.
However, he stopped when he noticed something.
It was unclear from that far, but the way she kept backing towards the edge with her back facing the cliff, it almost looked like she was trying to save herself from someone.
Her hand was extended in front of her like she was asking someone to stop. Before he could do anything, he saw the girl's legs slipping and she fell.
Maximus quickly changed into his wolf to jump in the air before changing back to his human form to hold her. That was the reason when she had hit her head the second time, it was him who took more than half of the impact.
He saved her that night, but it wasn't the thing that caught his attention.
It was the last look in Delilah's eyes. It was full of peace as if she wanted to close her eyes forever. But the next second she opened her eyes, they had turned golden, the kind of golden that he had never seen before, the one of golden that makes you want to believe in the moon goddess and her magical creations.
It was almost something otherworldly that possessed her. There was no way it was the glow of her wolf since she never found her wolf, then what was it?
"How is that possible?" Maximus clenched his teeth before throwing the mask he was wearing on the ground.
"What is it, sir? Is there something I can help with? Maybe if you share a little..." Jacob trailed off.
Maximus shook his head, remembering what his friend told us.