Chapter 130 - The Interview can Wait

Vaughn hit the sack but couldn't sleep. He felt that someone seemed to be monitoring their room. He decided to wait quietly and patiently for any sneak attack. He should also make sure that when Zenia returned to their room, there would be no uninvited guests to mess things up further.

The shadowed figure entered the room with ease. Vaughn pretended that he was already sleeping heavily. The strong smell of blood assaulted his nose, and he nearly puked. The shadowed figure tried to walk without making any noise and followed the path leading to the bathroom.

When Vaughn heard the splashing of water, he knew that the one who entered their room was Zenia.

'Did she get into a fight? Is she injured?'

Vaughn got up quickly and knocked on the door of the bathroom.

"Zenzen, are you okay?" Vaughn was worried, and it was obvious in his tone.

Zenia took a deep breath, "I'm okay. I'm just a bit tired."

"I smelled blood earlier, are you injured?"

"The blood isn't mine."

Vaughn let out a sigh of relief.

"I will get you a robe. The manager sent a pair earlier."

"Okay."

Vaughn went to the cabinet where he kept the other robe. He wore the other robe when he decided to lie on the bed. He washed his clothes and hung them to dry so he could wear them in the morning. He also washed Zenia's soiled clothes.

Vaughn learned a bit about how doing house chores when he was in the academy. Their mentor told them that it was a basic survival technique. They should at least know how to take care of themselves in case they happened to get lost or stranded in unfamiliar territory.

Vaughn knocked on the door once more.

"I will leave the robe here by the door. Just pick it up when you are through."

"Okay, thank you."

Vaughn smiled and went back to bed. He did not light a lamp anymore since they would be sleeping soon. The moment that he had been waiting for had finally arrived – he could hug his wife to sleep. About the other thing… it could wait. It was not the time to perform the married couple's duties.

The Young Duke waited for a few more minutes before he decided to leave the place.

"Come Rodham, I think that the woman is indeed married to that man." The Young Duke boarded his carriage and told the coachman to get moving.

'I'm sure that the man is from Tissuria and the woman is from Ishelon. Why did they get married?'

Duke Gordon shook his head and no longer delve deeper into the subject. He was still interested in meeting the woman and to get to know her better. The reason why he thought that Zenia and Vaughn were not really married couple was that they seemed to lack the aura of intimacy that most married couple emitted. He made a research about married couples and concluded that true married couple should look intimate all the time.

Zenia put on her robe and joined Vaughn on the bed.

"We need to immediately find Zekiah and the rest. They could be in danger."

"What happened to you outside?"

"I just wanted to ease my mind, and the Ninth Prince's men presented themselves to me. I was up in the tree and taking a break when the Ninth Prince's men started discussing something about Verone and killing the Crown Princess. Your hunch is on point. Redivo and grandpa could be cooperating with each other to delay Verone."

Vaughn's face darkened. Until when would the King blindly follow the Left Minister's suggestions? He truly regretted sharing the same blood with the King. If he could only drain half of his blood that belonged to King Tarendino, he wouldn't hesitate to do so. If the King was someone who put a value on his official main wife and his rightful heir, they could resolve their own crisis without asking Ishelon's cooperation. He could easily take care of the traitors from Ishelon.

King Tarendino put more value on the Left Minister than the Queen because he was the father of his most beloved concubine. He could not forsake the Queen because she had a very strong family supporting her. It was that same family that helped him take the throne from his older brother. King Tarendino married Queen Mina to let all the people of Tissuria know that the Queen's family held an important position in the whole Kingdom.

The peaceful life of Queen Mina started to change when the Left Minister introduced his daughter, Concubine Jayda, to the King. He never looked at the Queen in the same way that he looked at Concubine Jayda. For King Tarendino, Queen Mina was nothing but a tool for him to remain in power. He already promised Queen Mina that her son would be the next King, and he could not take it back. He could only give Concubine Jayda his love.

Queen Mina used to compete with the King's concubines and even instilled terror in them. She did not spare any of them, but she also knew that the King had a duty and right to bestow favors on his concubines. She gave up threatening them when she became pregnant with Vaughn. She learned to accept the truth that the King would never ever be faithful to one woman. If she could turn back the time, she would never be the Queen. She believed that no matter whom she married she would still have Vaughn as her son.

"Do you want to travel now?"

"No, we should sleep and get ready for tomorrow. We will leave immediately when we wake up."

"What about the interview?"

"We could do it some other time. I know now where to find him. The most important thing right now is to make sure that Zeze and the rest are alright. Zeze does not know martial arts that well. I'm afraid that he won't be able to defend himself well. There could be other groups that already traced their whereabouts. Those groups could already be on their way there."

"I will follow your arrangement."

They lied down and immediately fell asleep. When he knew that Zenia was already fast asleep, he hugged her close to him. A sweet scent was coming from her body, and it calmed Vaughn's mind and heart. He could not remember when he had fallen asleep.

* * * * *

The Ninth Prince's men who were assigned to monitor Solaria had gathered together for their nightly meeting. Every night, they agreed to gather in one place to discuss the plan for the next day. They were not familiar with each other's name and decided to call each other by their assigned number.

Some would remove their masks during the meeting, but most of them wanted to preserve their anonymity and just kept their masks on. The leader would call out the number to see if everyone was present.

He called out the numbers that belonged to the dead men for so many times, but none came forward.

"Where are they? It's already late."

"They must be drinking somewhere again. They should be here already. They said that they would come immediately." One of the men answered the team leader.

"Tell those three that they won't be able to participate in the next mission when they slack off again. They were supposed to be guarding the camp as we sleep. They won't be able to have a chance to get a bonus when they can't do their jobs properly."

Somewhere down the cliff, the three dead bodies soon became sources of nourishment to the hungry beasts.