"Is she receiving special treatment right now?"
"Wow, they gave her a separate glass of wine!"
The murmurs intensified among the noble ladies. Some were jealous, while the others, who were pure and kind to her, swooned at the event. The maids waited for her to grab the glass.
Their bodies remained rigid, and they prayed internally that she would pick up the wine. Meliora stared coldly at the words on the screen.
[Analysis complete: The wine is poisoned.]
Meliora clenched her jaws, but her face appeared calm as she picked up the letter. If it were the real Meliora, she would have screamed out of fear, but she was rational enough to remain calm.
When she opened the content of the letter, she scoffed. It was clear that the king himself didn't write this letter to her, so she turned to Ashtarte.
"Read this letter, Ash!" She slapped the letter into Ashtarte's hands. The latter caught it, surprised. She opened the letter with furrowed brows and began to read out loud.
"Greetings to the flower of the empire, Meliora. I, Azel, have sent this wine to you personally to bid you good luck in the challenge to become my bride. Do drink the wine, as it is with a full heart that I prepared it for you." Ashtarte finished reading it, her chest tightened.
Her brows knitted together, forming a frown as she tossed the letter to the floor, only for Meliora to catch it in time. "Don't, Ashtarte. This is the king's letter; you could be whipped!" Meliora warned with a stern expression on her face.
"I---" Ashtarte was about to defend herself, but Meliora placed a finger against her lips, shushing her. Ashtarte understood immediately and nodded to her.
She turned her attention to the glass and waited for Crucifix.
[Detoxification complete. You may drink the liquid, master.]
Meliora smiled triumphantly but made sure it wasn't visible. She grabbed the glass and lifted it. She didn't notice the two maids as they snickered at each other, but she surely noticed their shoulders trembling.
The glass was already on Meliora's lips, and the liquid was about to drop into her mouth when the two maids, with vicious anticipation in their eyes, peeped at Meliora.
Then, all of a sudden, as if the wind blew, an arrow whooshed, shattering the glass into pieces just before the liquid could drop. Meliora shifted back, and the liquid dropped to the floor.
The crowd scattered as the ladies screamed in surprise. Meliora looked at the arrow that was lodged in a pillow on her left side and then looked to her right to find Kaid standing there with a bow in his hands.
Every noble lady stopped to swoon at Kaid as he walked towards Meliora, with an icy glare in his eyes. Meliora felt like she was looking at the devil himself, unlike the Kaid she knew.
That night, he had a lazy look on his face, but now he had the look of a crazed dog. He walked with stealth, and the air had become so heavy that everyone couldn't help but hold their breath as he approached.
"How dare you!" he thundered as soon as he reached Meliora. The two maids slumped to their knees, quivering. The tray shattered to the floor, and their faces turned pale as they finally realized their fear.
"Who sent you?" he ordered in a cold tone that even made Meliora flinch, but she coughed and walked closer to him. He flashed her a glare from the corner of his eyes, and Meliora flinched once again, frozen in her step.
'Maybe we should tell him to cool down later.'
Meliora was afraid he was going to kill another person in front of her again, but now she couldn't help it. Kaid looked like a cold murderer who was craving blood, even the veins on his hand and neck bulged.
She felt this warm feeling in her heart. She was of no importance to Kaid, so why would he be this angry that they tried to poison her?
"Don't make me repeat myself!" Kaid suddenly pressed on, pulling Meliora out of her daze just in time to realize that Kaid had removed his sword and pressed the tip against one of the maid's heads.
The smell of piss haunted the hall, and the noble ladies soon scrunched their noses in disgust while some threw up on the spot. The girl who had the sword pressed against her forehead had pissed herself.
"We don't know anything, kind sir! The king specifi---" Before the maid who pissed herself could say anything, Kaid had swung his arm, and the maid's head rolled off her body.
Meliora, who had predicted this beforehand, had turned around and hugged Ashtarte and Lucie, who patted her back and looked away too. Meliora tried her hardest not to throw up.
The other ladies in the hall widened their eyes in horror, while some threw up and others, as if they had seen this scene before, just kept quiet.
The other maid, seeing that her friend had been killed, widened her eyes in disbelief. She raised her head slightly to look at the demon, and she stiffened once she met his cold blue eyes.
Kaid had always tried his best to control his people, but this time, someone interested him, and under his very own eyes, they wanted to kill it. Kaid had never left an injured cute animal; instead, he took it in to take care of.
Meliora was one of the cute, injured animals he would love to protect and keep as a pet.
"Don't make me repeat myself," he growled, and the maid trembled. She was not only pale, but she was dripping with sweat, her eyes popped open, and there was this look of horror on her face.
Meliora knew something was going to happen if she didn't intervene, so she rushed forward and circled her hand around his waist, raising shocked gasps and widened eyes from the crowd.
Even Ashtarte and Lucie were surprised when she lunged forward like that.
"I know you're trying to clear the king's name, but you shouldn't keep killing them off like this. It's the Queen who sent them. My stepmother." Meliora whispered, and of course, Kaid heard, but he still raised his sword to kill the maid.
Meliora had no other choice. She swerved her body and stood in front of Kaid.
"Are you deaf or something? I know that it's poisoned, and I know who sent it! So instead of killing her by slicing her neck off, just punish her and let her die slowly!" Meliora yelled as she glared at Kaid, rendering him speechless.
His sword froze in midair, and he locked eyes on her in surprise. "Why are you so reckless!" he roared at her, but she defiantly glared at him with her hands on her hips.
"If you have the balls, kill me right here." She dared him, and Kaid widened his eyes in surprise again.
"Princess!!" they both echoed in unison, already crying as if Kaid was going to do it. But the latter just dropped his sword in surrender and sighed heavily.
"Come." His voice suddenly thundered calmly. Meliora thought he was calling her despite not looking at her, and she took a step forward towards him. But then a man in black landed beside Kaid, halting her steps.
She mouthed an "O," realizing that she was not the one he was talking to. Her cheeks flushed red in embarrassment, and she turned to the maid and glared at her. She was a quivering mess.
Meliora tried her best not to look at the other dead maid and instead focused on the one in front of her.
'Crucifix, give---'
"Take the maid away and lock her up in the dungeon, and for the dead one, send people to clean up this mess." Before Meliora could instruct Crucifix to give her a detailed rundown on the maid, Kaid instructed his right-hand man, and the latter immediately moved to action.
He grabbed the maid by the shoulder, and even after she squirmed and begged for mercy, the man didn't even flinch. With smoke, he disappeared from the hall, leaving everywhere eerily quiet.
"Who was that man?!"
The hall became noisy again as they began to question the identity of the man who left. They couldn't even see his face because he was wearing a mask. Meliora, too, was suspicious because she felt like Kaid wasn't a normal bodyguard.
'Crucifix, do you think Kaid is a noble from the kingdom of Arcania?' She asked the pressing question that popped up in her mind.
\[He is not.\]
He vaguely answered, and Meliora mused on his answer. She intensely gazed at him until it pricked his skin, and he turned to meet her gaze, quite surprised.
"Is there something on my face?" He touched the sides of his face, checking for any bloodstain. The bloodthirsty look in his eyes had disappeared, and even the blood that sprayed on his face had dried on his skin.
Yet Meliora was too deep in thought to realize what he said, and she then voiced out what was on her mind.
"Who are you exactly, Kaid?"