Chapter ~ 15

Zylith.

Ding!

Hear that? That is supposed to be the notification of my impending expiration date. Yeah guys, not kidding!

The way Princess Cordelia was eyeing me was very similar to the eyes of an executioner in the gallows. She looked as mad as a fly in a fruit jar, with a severe migraine.

Poor Lord Gilbert on the other hand, looked like he had just swallowed the crazy fly of the fruit jar. Seriously, sometimes it pained me to even look at his contorted face. Its as if he was getting grey hairs right in front of my very own eyes.

But you must know that I'm not the kind of person who creates their own storms, then get upset when it rains. However this time, you cannot blame me for being upset with the rain. This adulterous princess was the one who created the storm and now I have every right to be upset with the rain, you get it? So I was not amused with the entire ordeal at all. I might have been the one to unintentionally sour the situation out of proportion, but I was definitely not the one to start the entire ordeal.

Queen Beatrice let out a little cough to smoothen out the strange atmosphere, "Elizabeth has quite a sense of humour, I see. Very charming." Her tone was very pleasant, though the words sounded more like tacit sarcasm.

Well, it’s not like a person from the feudal era could really appreciate my sense of humour. My only hope was to not get killed because of my awesome sense of humour by the end of the day.

"Yes, Miss Elizabeth indeed has a very unique sense of humour. I must say I am pretty intrigued." Damn it! I don't want you to be intrigued, and don't think I missed your 'Miss' right there. I get that you're crazy for your brother and so naturally want to get rid of me, but don't try to blame me for grabbing onto the wrong leg!! This sister right here is INNOCENT. "We must spend more time with each other and get to know each other better." Princess Cordelia's words contradicted her facial expressions. Fires of fury and hatred were smoldering in the small narrowed eyes of the princess as she weighted the pros and cons of the various and creative means available to her for extracting revenge.

It's not that I didn't understand her state of mind, it's just that I loved my life too damn much to give it away just to appraise her, I was determined to keep living and go back home even if it meant I had to go head to head with this shrewd princess.

No sir, can't do. I can't die like this. I hoped to arrive to my death, late, in love and a little drunk.

So, I arched my head low, and looked at my messy plate of half eaten food with hooded eyes while muttering a perfunctory consent to her insincere invitation.

The man, who was the centre of this entire farce didn't utter a single pipe from the beginning to the end. And the most mortifying lunch of my life ended just like that.

♣..........♣

"Now wasn't that fun." Was what came out of Reuben's stinky mouth when we were finally out of the Queen dowager's den.

I really wanted to grab hold of my shoes and hit him a few times in the face at this very moment, but unfortunately reason didn't leave me yet and I didn't have any wine in the afternoon lunch. So I couldn't mindlessly hit him in the guise of being drunk. With much difficulty, I swallowed up my fuming anger and said, "Your Highness, you really know how to extract fun from every kind of situation, don't you." I could hardly keep the malice from my voice. I think before long, my tongue will be severely bruised and batter from all the bite marks I get while holding back all the words I wanted to scream at his face.

He had a mischievous kind of smirk on his not so subtle lips, the kind that spoke of secrets he knew no one else knew of, "Of course, after all, it's not every day I get to witness my half-sister seducing my wife under the table now, do I?"

I whipped my head towards Reuben so fast that I almost felt dizzy and looked at him with the most bewildered look I had ever worn in my life, "Y-You You You KNEW!!?" I shrieked so loud, Lord Gilbert behind us almost shrieked back in fright, and the maids around us all sharply turned their heads to look at me in alarm.

"Your Majesty, please! Your image!" Lord Gilbert morphed into the hysteric mom the next second and already began his compulsive obsessive nagging, "Your Majesty, you cannot act like a barbaric ill-mannered lady and let people demean you. You are the first consort of this great kingdom of Reveldron and you cannot let people point out your blunder, do you understand?"

"Lord Gilbert, I.... wait, I'm sorry but..."

"There are no excuses Your Majesty, there can never be any blunders when it involves the Royal family. We are the symbol of sophistication and righteousness. People look upto us, we cannot lose face no matter the excuse."

"I... I understand."

Reuben on the other hand, was quiet but seemed really amused with the charade going on between me and Lord Gilbert.

I glared at him like I wanted to stab him with a stake, and he had the gall to smirk in response. I could no longer take this guy's mental assault and so I hauled him into our bed chamber, with a freaking out Lord Gilbert in tow.

"Your Majesty! What is the meaning of this? Didn't I just instruct you about the norms and etiquette of the palace? How can you drag His Highness like that in front of everyone?" Lord Gilbert badgered in a sullen mood, but I didn't pay much heed to it.

Instead I glared at Reuben in infinite grievance and said, "You Knew!? You knew yet you didn't do anything to help me out of the situation?"

"If I were to help you out this time, then what about the next time? What will you do when I am not there to shield you from such storms in the future? You should take it as a learning experience rather than thinking that I did you wrong." He said in a sober tone, "I could've easily helped you out but there will be situations far more grim and arduous in the future, you are not my lover nor are you someone I am obliged to protect. This is your job; you are suppose to help me get rid of the Queen dowager and her faction. It is you who is suppose to shield me from her arrows, not the other way around. You should be clear about that Fake Lizzy."

In far too few words, Reuben became the cold-blooded mummy king from the simple fun-poking man that I knew of. He had shown me my place with a few mere words. I realized then, that somehow in this whole charade, I had forgotten who I really was and what I was actually supposed to do. I had become too tangled up with the easy-going side of his world and hence failed to see the dark side of it all.

And now when he suddenly pointed it all out to me, I didn't know how to react to the whole ordeal. After all, how could I refute him when I knew he was speaking the truth. What was I really? A substitute whose one job was to help him kick the Queen's faction out of the court and country. But for some strange twisted reason, I felt a slight uncomfortable feeling in my chest. As if someone had suddenly dropped a heavy rock on top of my chest and I was a little breathless. It was weird, I didn't know why I felt like that, nor did I know how to make myself feel better, but I knew I didn't like this feeling.

And when I didn't like something, I either chose to bury it deep within me so that even I myself can never find it again or I throw it away to the back of my head like used litter and never look back. So that's what I did. I suddenly became rational. More awake if I might say so myself.

"Yes, I understand. But I would have liked at least some heads-up on the matter that you had an incestual thing going on with your sister. Not that I am judging or anything, and I don't really care who Your Highness chooses to hook up with, but it would've been beneficial if I got to know some spoilers before I dived right into the farce." I said.

"I see. I didn't expect Cordelia to show up today, so I didn't think its necessary to tell you about her. And about our relationship, there is nothing going on between us, if you must know."

I didn't say anything but my facial expressions said it all.

"It seems you don't believe me." He slowly muttered, "I can comprehend why you would feel that way, after all the Royal family is the most immoral family out there to ever exist. This notion, I understand it well." His eyes were sullen with a kind of grimness that was difficult to describe. His aura turned dark in a matter of seconds. "But I am not the kind who would frolic around with the enemy's daughter."

His mallow soft voice held such power, how could I dare to not believe his words. I just wordlessly nodded to his words.

"Princess Cordelia has always had ideas about His Majesty. It is more like an obsession than love. That is precisely why we were in a hurry to hold the wedding. She was in a foreign expedition but was hurrying away when she heard of His Highness's wedding. We feared that she would foil the royal wedding if we delayed any longer." Lord Gilbert explained.

"That's why you guys were in such a rush to hold the wedding." I finally understood the haste behind this shotgun marriage.

"Yes, a part of many reasons of course." Lord Gilbert nodded.

"A part of many other reasons?" I raised my brows to that. "May I know what other reasons you guys had to rush this marriage?"

"It is presently none of your concern My lady." Reuben said in a slurred manner.

"None of my concern?" I don't know why I got angry but I couldn't stop myself from getting annoyed at his frivolous attitude towards me.

"I know you guys think I'm not much help to your cause and hence you wanna keep things from me, but there are some things you shouldn't keep from me, like matters regarding the queen dowager and her past with you guys. Or the plans you have for me. Your Majesty, do not forget that trust goes both ways."

Lord Gilbert seemed a bit offended by my tone and so he groused out aloud, "Lady Elizabeth, do not forget who you are and who you are speaking to."

"Yes, I know exactly who I am and to whom I am speaking with. And that is precisely why I say such things. It is mandatory for me to know certain things to understand the situation and help you get rid of queen Beatrice. After all, she is not a force to be trifled with without grasping the facts." I said.

"Lady Elizabeth_"

"Enough!" Reuben's stern word of silence, clammed Lord Gilbert up and he didn't say anymore.

Reuben looked back at me in a very calm and taciturn attitude, seeming as if he was not at all offended by my words. "Fake Lizzy, if I tell you about my plans of the future and my past with the Queen dowager, can you guarantee you can be useful to my cause?" His normally jolly eyes turned a shade of cold deep aloofness. "Give me an example of how you can be useful to me."

I stared back into his sea-green eyes and asked in turn, "If I can prove that I am indeed useful to you, will you really tell me the plans you have for me?"

There was a shrewd smile on his pretty lips as he responded in accord, "Of course, I give you my word."

I nodded back at him to show that I understood, "Alright then, I shall hold you onto it."

Then I looked at Lord Gilbert and said, "Lord Gilbert, can you get me the pen that was gifted to His Highness by the Queen dowager?" Reuben motioned him to get the pen and Lord Gilbert brought it to me the next moment.

"What are you going to do with it?" Lord Gilbert asked as he handed me the pen.

"Watch and learn." I just winked at him in a furtive manner.

Then I rotated the back cap of the ball pen once and double clicked the back switch of the pen and Voila~ Recordings of the previous conversations when the Queen dowager first showed us the pen and how it worked, started waffling out of the recorder pen as if it had captured that moment when she had demonstrated the work of this baby pink miracle pen to us in the morning.

Both Reuben and Lord Gilbert were beyond shocked and taken aback at first. Looking at the pink pen with their mouths hanging wide open in stunned awe.

"Wha-What is that thing?" Lord Gilbert almost screeched.

"Ah! This? This is what you call a voice recorder." I smiled proudly at the two dumbfounded men before me.

"....Voice recorder?" Reuben puckered his brows when he heard me.

"Yes, a voice recorder." I nodded at him, "As the name suggests, it records a person's voice when you click open the nip of the pen to write and it will record everything around itself as long as the nip is kept open." I said as I watched both men's looks turning from clueless to a morose horrified one. "Yes, you got it right. The Queen dowager doesn't even need to place a mole beside you to know of your plans. She can just send someone at an appropriate time to come steal this pen from under your noses and you guys would be over before you even start." I shrugged in a matter of fact manner, looking very smug if I might add.

Hmph! Who's your Daddy now huh?

"Well? Am I useful enough now?" My smugness was full on bloom now as I watched the constipated look of the two men in my team. Hmph! Try and underestimate this Lithe!? I'll show you who's the real boss around here is.

Reuben coughed to make his awkwardness a tad bit lesser than he actually felt but I was not willing to cut him loose this time. Hmph! You think I'm going to break myself into bitesize pieces to exclusively serve you? This daddy's gonna stay whole and let you choke.

"What? Got your asthma attacks again? Need me to call the big-shot old doctor?"

He almost coughed out blood in embarrassment before I let him off the hook.

Let see if you have the guts to try and mess with this big Daddy again.

"Well, how did you know about the mechanisms of this pen?" Reuben asked.

"Yeah, even if we were to give it a thorough check-up, we would not be able to find out it's hidden functions. How did you find out my lady?" Lord Gilbert pressed further, but I was not going to tell him my trade secrets. Such as this recorder pen, in fact was mine from the very beginning and stuff. Too many loopholes to patch otherwise.

"Ah! I have my ways." I smiled in the same secretive ways that Reuben does whenever he had something fishy cooking inside his head. Take that, you mummy jerk!

Reuben suddenly started chuckling out of the blue and both me and Lord Gilbert looked at him weird. Before long, he was slapping his hands up and down in the air almost involuntarily and could barely breath for laughter. The temperature around the room rose up a couple of degrees as he went about his mad titters and all we could do was watch him in tongue-tied silence. Now, I have to say, this guy found humour even if he was hanging by a thread amidst a life and death situation. I didn't even know what he was laughing at, and from the looks of it, even Lord Gilbert didn't get head or tails of the situation. It’s just that Reuben seemed to have turned back into the jovial playful guy that he usually was at this moment.

"Alright! You win." He said when he finally had enough of his fill of laughter.

"I'll tell you. I'll tell you everything you need to know about the queen dowager and my plans." His smile was unusually warm to the eyes.

By the end of it all, I felt that this guy's mood didn't just swing- it bounced, pivoted, recoiled, rebounded, oscillated, fluctuated and occasionally pirouetted as well.

To be Continued........