Chapter 34

34 Brave

After getting a good scolding from Anastasia, Vincent was standing outside the physician’s house with a glum look on his face.

Everything that happened in his trance slowly came back to him, the way he was about to attack that patient, and the way Anastasia had hit him with her shoe while yelling at him.

‘How am I going to face Caspian? He trusted me to look after Her Majesty and I...’ Vincent face-palmed himself and heaved a sigh.

Inside the room, Anastasia, Carl, and Ruby were still in a state of shock.

Anastasia was still holding her shoe and was breathing heavily. Carl was looking at Anastasia and at the door. Ruby was utterly stunned from barely escaping death today, not just once but twice.

Carl finally broke the silence and asked the Queen, “Your Majesty, we need to treat Ruby fast. Why don’t we wash our hands and resume the treatment?”

Anastasia dropped her shoe to the floor and nodded.

After washing their hands, Anastasia held Ruby again and Carl started to clean Ruby’s wounds.

Ruby clenched her teeth and tried her best not to scream. She didn’t want to attract that vampire again and end up getting killed for real.

.....

Like Carl had promised earlier, it didn’t take much time for him to clean the wounds. The burning sensation that she was feeling in her stomach was soothed greatly the moment Carl applied the cold ointment over it.

“You may leave her now, Your Majesty,” Carl said to Anastasia while putting a bandage over Ruby’s wounds.

He also applied the ointment to the scratches on Ruby’s body.

While doing so, he tried to indulge the ladies in a conversation. “Ruby,” Carl pointed his brows towards Anastasia and introduced the ladies, “She is our new Queen. She came to Sorvando as a tribute bride two days ago.”

Ruby gave a smile to Anastasia and greeted her, “It is my honor to personally meet you and get help from you, Your Majesty.”

“I’m happy that I could be of some help,” Anastasia politely returned the smile to the lady.

Carl further expressed his gratitude towards the Queen, “I would like to thank you for saving our lives, Your Majesty. I’ve never seen a human bravely standing up against a hunger-driven vampire, that also against one of the fearsome trios.”

Even though Anastasia was in the physician’s place and even though her body felt warm, Ruby had failed to notice that Anastasia was also a human.

And when Carl said that, Ruby’s respect towards the Queen increased greatly. She appreciatively glanced at the Queen and whispered through her pain, “I will also aspire to be as brave as you, Your Majesty.”

Anastasia gave a nervous smile to Ruby because she knew she was anything but brave. It just happened to be her sheer luck that Vincent followed her order. Else she was ready to face her inevitable death a little sooner than predicted. She was ready to end her suffering once and for all.

After finishing the treatment of Ruby, Carl bowed to the Queen and apologized, “I’m extremely sorry for my impudence, Your Majesty. I made the Queen of our Kingdom assist me.”

“It is nothing to apologize for, Mr. Carl. It is my duty to help my people,” Anastasia said with a polite smile.

Anastasia’s gentle demeanor, her brave nature, and her kind words enchanted both Carl and Ruby. Never in their wildest dreams had they thought that their Queen would be the complete opposite of their King. And to add to that, she was a human. As fellow humans, they greatly admired her.

Carl smiled at the Queen and expressed his wish, “I hope you will always stay the way you are, Your Majesty. Innocent and brave. This Kingdom is in the desperate need of a Queen like you.”

“I will try my best,” Anastasia wasn’t even sure if she would survive another day or what they meant by ‘their Kingdom needed a Queen like her’. But she still replied so as not to be rude.

Carl cleaned up the table and then took out his pocket watch to check the time. It had already been two hours since the Queen arrived at his place.

“I need to perform another check on you, Your Majesty.” He asked the Queen to lie down on the bed and did another round of inspection on the Queen. And he finally confirmed, “There is no poison in your system. You can rest assured now.”

Anastasia let out a sigh of relief. “I appreciate your help, Mr. Carl. And I also wanted to thank you for taking care of my handmaid. She is doing well, all thanks to you.”

“That is nice to hear.” Carl then took a quick glance towards the door and asked, “You are free to leave for the castle, Your Majesty. Will you be going with Lord Vincent or will you wait for His Majesty?”

Anastasia was already exhausted and all she wanted to do was curl up in her bed. “I think I will go with Vincent.”

Anastasia got down from the bed and prepared to leave.

Before she walked outside, Carl said to her in a worried voice, “And please be mindful of your surroundings, Your Majesty. You live in a very dangerous place.”

“I know,” Anastasia gave a polite nod to the physician and glanced at Ruby to say, “I wish you good health.” And she walked outside to find Vincent.

Vincent was standing a little further away from the house. When he saw the Queen walk out of the door, he rushed to her side and asked, “Is it okay for you to leave?”

“Yes. The physician said that I was not poisoned,” Anastasia glanced at his cheek to see if he was hurt but she couldn’t see anything in the dark. “I’m sorry for hitting you earlier.”

“Please, you don’t have to apologize to me. It was me who was at fault.” Vincent bowed to Anastasia again and asked, “Will you forgive me for trying to attack you?”

After a moment of silence, Anastasia softly spoke, “I am no vampire but I already know by now that it is hard for vampires to control their urge, especially when encountered with blood.”

Anastasia then started to walk ahead in the dark road while saying, “And I also know that you bear no ill will towards me. You also saved Tilla the other day. So, I haven’t held any grudge against you.”

Vincent was closely following Anastasia. Upon hearing her, he let out a quiet sigh and smiled. “I’m glad to hear that.”

Vincent kept on following Anastasia for a while thinking she would stop. But she kept on walking as though she was thinking of walking all the way to the castle.

So Vincent asked the Queen, “Your Majesty, it will take around two hours to reach the castle on foot. I hope you are not planning on doing that.”

Anastasia’s feet stopped on track when she heard that. ‘I will faint before I even reach halfway. I think I should have waited for Caspian.’

And as if Vincent had read her mind, he offered, “I can carry you back to the castle if you do not object. Or we can wait for Caspian to come. But he is a stubborn man. He might not return until he captures the criminals. And we don’t know how much time he will take.”

Anastasia took a deep breath in and turned around. “I will trouble you to give me a lift to the castle then. I’m already exhausted and would like to rest as early as possible.”

“Sure,” Vincent swiftly carried Anastasia in his arms and asked, “Please hold on tightly.”

Anastasia hesitantly put her arms around his neck and got ready to bear the impact of getting whiplash.

But instead of running, Vincent turned his head to the side and glared at something in the distance.

“Is there a problem?” Anastasia asked while following his gaze towards the woods.

Vincent shook his head and replied, “No. I just felt as if someone was watching us. But I think it was just an animal.”

Vincent then prepared to run and warned the Queen, “I will start running now.”

And in the next moment, both of them disappeared from there.

From the woods in the distance, a pair of glowing amber eyes were watching those two. And when they vanished from sight, those eyes also disappeared from there.