The King's Deductions

'Losing Ma and Pa was enough for us, she does not need more guilt and troubles in her life.' Reina thought to herself as she laid in that tranquil room right next to the Vampire King's.

She knew that he was not in his room since it was time for the morning court sessions where the King would meet his supporters and citizens.

Therefore, Reina was not too worried about him and chose to focus on her thoughts.

Thinking back to what had taken place last night, she most certainly was mad at her elder sister, Tanya, at that time.

The book that she had been eagerly waiting for did not bring her the joy that she had been expecting.

Instead, it brought her immense anger and even a sense of betrayal for what Tanya had done.

But that could never be the reason why she would have cut all ties with her only remaining kin in the world.

She was petty but not cruel to do such a thing.

Her anger was just for a while and surely not indefinite.

She was only momentarily mad at the woman who had wasted her efforts.

Not to mention that Tanya's actions had stolen her bragging rights before her friends for having taught the next best-selling author everything she knew about BL.

At most, she would have given her sister the cold shoulder until she explains what the hell had happened to change the course of her initial plans of making a BL-oriented book.

'After that, I would extort a ginormous amount as a bribe to forgive her.' She smiled as this was her MO, her modus operandi, whenever she was mad at her elder sister.

Tanya was doting and even though she would scoff at her, calling her a money-grubbing imp, she always agreed to her demands.

Her sister's grumbling face, as she handed over a cheque with a large sum of money written on it, was what came to her mind.

Along with this happy thought, another appeared in her mind which succeeded in freezing that smile.

Thinking of the possibility that Rein Melk's soul had not transmigrated into her body in the previous world made her stomach churn.

The thought of having her maid, Rozella, find her lifeless body on the floor caused her heart to ache.

'Please let Rein be in my body, please!' She begged that such a scene was not something Rozella and Tanya were facing right now in her other world.

With this pleading prayer repeating in her thoughts, Reina's weary mind which had been put through the blender thanks to the memories that had surged into it, felt sluggish.

Her soul had experienced transmigration, her mind was packed with new memories which she had yet to grasp completely, and according to Doctor Bundt's words, her new body had just been poisoned.

Everything that had taken place to her since last night had finally taken a toll on her.

Thus, Reina Gomez, now in the body of Rein Melk, slipped into a deep slumber.

Hours passed but the lady on the bed made no movement as she rested her exhausted body and mind.

Thanks to this exhaustion, she had not noticed the door of her bed-chamber opening without making a creak that might have alerted her.

The next moment, stern eyes were fixed on her but she had no clue due to her unconscious state.

The person staring at her watched for a second before turning around.

Surprise appeared on the calm face as those golden eyes widened after glancing at the other door which Reina had locked after entering her room earlier.

'He's becoming bold.' A sneering thought entered this person's mind.

Unlocking the door which led to the King's chamber, the figure disappeared as though it had never appeared here in the first place.

Throughout this short encounter, Reina was fast asleep, unmindful of the silent visitor who had already left her room.

____

"What did the Doctor say?" King Zander asked, now seated behind the desk in the personal office attached to his bedroom.

The man standing before him was quick to grasp what he was inquiring about.

"Your suspicions were right, Master." Treegan Molt, the King's trusted aide answered with conviction as that was what the Royal Doctor residing in the Palace had diagnosed.

Earlier this morning, when the King had assigned him a task, it had been thanks to the suspicions that had arisen in his mind.

King Zander had woken up as per his usual routine but the face which he saw each day, bringing him a glass of water the moment he woke up was nowhere to be found.

While seated in his bed, Zander glared at the door which connected him to his other aide, his chamberlain, Rein Melk.

Calling out to the man, he waited for him to hurry up and fetch him his water.

Though the jug was right next to his bed, Zander did not touch it.

He was the King and did not have to bother about it as there was someone who was there to serve him each day.

'He must have slept for longer.' Zander was surprisingly patient with his lazy chamberlain today.

However, instead of hearing rushed movements, he heard pained groans and pitiful sobs.

Rein had never displayed such emotions before anyone and even now he was alone in his room.

Every vampire had heightened senses which allowed them to be faster, sharper, and stronger than the rest of the creatures residing in this great Kingdom of Valanthur that King Zander ruled.

Therefore, it was clear to say that even through the door, Zander could hear everything that Rein was uttering, which were mostly sobs and whimpers.

His brows furrowed but he did not utter a word as he waited for the man to enter through the door.

Yet once again, there was absolute silence and Rein never made a move.

If he was right then Rein was still in bed though the sound of his breathing indicated that he had woken up already.

This made Zander furious and at that moment, he had yelled threatening words of feeding his chamberlain's meat to his dogs which seemed to have achieved their purpose.

The sounds of hurried footsteps fading proved that his aide was up and about.

Losing all interest in drinking his morning water, Zander hopped out of bed and headed to his personal office to prepare certain files for today's agenda.

When he had returned, he found his servant standing rooted in place after seeing him.

There was worship evident in his eyes but Zander thought nothing about it as this was a common occurrence with Rein.

However, this time, he could sense that something was different about the man who served him every day.

The rims of his eyes were red, his face looked paler than usual and most importantly, he smelled different.

This caught Zander's suspicions as he moved closer to his servant to gauge what was unusual about him today.

The closer he got, the smell emanating from his chamberlain's body grew stronger which finally allowed him to comprehend what had caused this abnormality.

'Poison.' He had sensed the odor of poison in his servant's bloodstream.

Zander's nose was more sensitive than most and there was one thing that he could catch even if there were a million scents around him.

That would be the scent of poisons and right now, a familiar scent reacting with the blood was what he had caught.

This ability the King possessed was a tight-lipped secret maintained by those closest to him.

Even Rein was not privy to this information as he had only recently joined the list of people King Zander kept by his side.

This skill was honed from his childhood and there was no one better than him at identifying the scent of poison if it was in his vicinity.

Thus, when Rein entered his room, the scent of poison in his servant's bloodstream had wafted into his nose.

Even when he had gripped Rein's chin, it was to look for the tell-tale signs of poisoning and without a doubt, he found them all present on his face.

His inquiry whether it still hurt was also in corroboration with this theory.

Though he received a negative response, he was sure of what he had noticed and the sobs from earlier were also evidence of this matter.

Thus, he had commanded Treegan to figure out where and how Rein might have gotten poisoned.

To reduce his aide's workload and get faster results, he had revealed that the timeline could be anywhere from after his lunch till bedtime.

This was because, yesterday after his lunch, he had an appointment outside the Palace.

Since he was not present in his bed chambers, there was no way that he could have smelled the fresh poison that had been given to his servant.

When he had returned after completing his task outside the Palace, it was already too late in the night.

His servant was fast asleep and he had not sensed the poison which indicated that it had been a while since the toxic material was ingested.

Therefore, it left only this morning for him to find out what his chamberlain might have encountered during his absence.