Chapter 341 - The Red-Eyed Man
Ida gave all the names and the Royal Guards were sent to bring everyone to the Court.
All of the councilmen, even those who previously supported Lillian, wanted Lillian to be imprisoned as soon as possible. They all got to know that Lillian was not just a helpful witch but also someone who practiced dark magic.
And even though they were unaware of how powerful Lillian was, everyone knew the dark witches were the fire that was not to be played with.
Adeline was overseeing all the process along with her brothers. And that was when she noticed General Osmond entering the Court. She went to welcome her teacher.
"General Osmond, you just finished your duties?" Adeline politely asked her teacher who was already looking a little emotional.
"Yes." His eye rims were slightly glistening with tears. But he gave a wide smile to the Princess and then bowed her out of nowhere.
This was one of the happiest days of the General\'s life. This was the very day Osmond had been personally training Adeline for. He had waited more than a decade to finally see this day. And as Lillian was finally subdued, he couldn\'t express how happy he was.
And he wanted to formally thank Adeline for making this day possible. "Thank you, Your Highness, for finally bringing justice to my daughter. I can tell that her soul is now finally at peace."
A single drop of tear rolled down the General\'s eye. He swiftly wiped his tear and sniffled his nose.
And he further added, "This was one of the days that I was eagerly waiting for. This was the moment that had motivated me to keep on moving even when I felt as though I had lost everything… even when I felt that there was no point in living."
He warmly caressed Adeline\'s hair and said from the bottom of his heart, "Thank you, Adeline, for helping to bring justice to all of the victims and their families. You did a great job. And you finally avenged your mother."
"Yes, I hope that her soul is also at peace," Adeline gave a wistful smile to the General.
In all the workload and the rush that was happening in the court right now, she had forgotten that she was also one of the victims. And when she saw the General, she was reminded of her deceased mother once again.
She took a deep breath in and showed General Osmond where he was supposed to go to give his statements.
Away from all the commotion, outside the gate of the Palace, a pale-looking man was hiding from all the guards and was preparing to scale the high walls of the Palace.
He walked near the wall and then closed his eyes so that he could focus on his hearing. He didn\'t hear any kind of sound on the other side of the wall. So he cracked his knuckles, shifted his trousers upward so that it would be easier to leap, and then with one long jump, he managed to scale the wall that was double the height of a grown man.
He landed on the other side of the wall as lightly as a cat. He darted his red eyes around and as though he was playing hide and seek, he swooshed towards one of the servant quarters.
He went inside the servant quarter like a gust of wind and when he came out, he had already changed into a servant\'s uniform.
And as though he was one of the servants of the Palace, he began to walk around very confidently.
His eyes were sharper than that of humans so he easily spotted the carriages and the guards which he had seen in the Golden Street. "Ah! Found them," he thought to himself and walked towards the King\'s Court while also listening to all the gossip that was going around.
He heard one of the maids whispering to the other maid a little far away from him, "Did you hear, it turns out that the handsome guard that always smiled at you was taken to the King\'s Court just a while ago."
"What? Why? What did he do?" the other maid asked in a stunned voice.
The first maid just sighed and replied, "I have no idea. I am already dying to know what is really going on today. Everyone seems to be in a rush and there are so many commoners flocking in today."
That red-eyed man shifted his attention towards the guards who were guarding a carriage. He noticed that right now, they were being served something. He turned around to check if some more servants were carrying the tray there.
To his luck, one of the servants was carrying a tray full of glasses and he looked as though he was heading to the Court. So he put on a smile and then swiftly turned around while pretending to have returned from the Court.
When the other servant was about to pass, he cleared his throat and spoke as though he was an old employee, "Oh, why are you so late? The guards are waiting for the drinks for so long. Give that to me."
That servant didn\'t think that he recognized that red-eyed man. However, as if he was under some spell, he could not deny that man and passed the tray to him.
The red-eyed man then turned around and elegantly approached the guards.
The servant kept on staring at that man from behind and thought, "How can someone who looks that sophisticated be a servant? Maybe he comes from a wealthy family but the family went broke."
The intruder then offered the chilled juice to those guards who weren\'t holding glasses. While doing so, he was thinking of talking to the guards and asking what was all the commotion about. However, the guards looked really uptight. They weren\'t even talking among themselves and he noticed how the other servants were also not talking with the guards.
He sighed and thought to himself, "Hmm… it looks like something really serious is going on. I need to find out what. But how exa-" he swiftly turned his head towards the carriage because he recognized that familiar smell that was coming off from inside the carriage.
He looked through the crack of the carriage wall and he almost froze on the place. "Isn\'t that Queen Lillian? Why is she… locked inside the carriage? No, why isn\'t she trying to get out? She can easily do that, can\'t she?"
In order to get a closer look at the Queen, he tried to push the window open but unlike he expected, he got shocked as if he was hit by a lightning bolt.
"Hey, don\'t get too close to the carriage!" one of the guards scolded that man.
"I\'m extremely sorry," that intruder gently bowed his head. He looked at the tray and a few of the glasses were still left. So, he walked towards the door of the Court to offer the drinks to the guards standing by the door.
The guards didn\'t stop him and let him get closer to the Court.
One of the guards praised him, "Thank you, at least someone doesn\'t discriminate."
The intruder\'s lips curved up just a little because he found a talkative guard, the perfect one to extract all the information from.
"You are also working equally hard, there is no need to discriminate," he smiled at that guard as the guard sipped his drink.
That red-eyed man\'s smile as well as his face was so appealing that even straight men would be unable to resist him. And he asked knowingly, "So, why are there so many people here today?"