17 2030-08-05: What would be his fate?

Josh travels on foot and arrives at Hinchinbrook Island early afternoon. Unlike the Shadow yesterday, he doesn't have to obscure himself from everyone. He walks to the mansion and enters it in an insouciant way. No one can easily feel his presence except when they catch sight of him. 

Strangely, he feels a lot of vampires in one of the private rooms and none in the Empress' room. So he decides to wait in the lounge area near the study room. When he gets close to it, he starts to hear the meeting inside clearly.

The Grand Elders and the vampire king extend their gratitude to Milla altogether while slightly bowing to her, "Thank you for approving the laws, Empress." The excitement and surprise are evident in their voices because no one anticipates that she will agree to everything after they present all of it to her.

They plan to finish making the constitutions in the shortest possible time and end up completing it after three days. It wouldn't be feasible without the Grand Elders giving their full attention to it and the vampires who send their laws suggestions. Obviously, vampires can work faster than humans, and what really helps them this time is that they've all been waiting for this opportunity as far as they can remember.

"Empress, please excuse me for asking. But, do you really not support the idea of me accompanying you on your travels?" Frederick inquires with real concern in his voice and his worries are all plastered on his face.

With unnoticeable respect in her tone, Milla answers back after involuntarily giving out a single nod, "Yes, and don't ask me again." No one can rebuke her decision, after all- she is none other than the Vampire Empress.

She stands up from her seat and walks toward the door. Then stops in front of it, she authorizes them without looking back in their direction, "Ensure that no one will be left uninformed of these laws and the consequences of breaking them, starting right now. Oh, and I'll be glad to show them what would happen if they did."

Milla leaves the study room, not bothering with their replies. Already used to this kind of situation, they all still bow to her disappearing back, "We are delighted to comply with your orders, Empress."

She has to pass by the lounge room to continue on her way, more importantly- pass by the waiting Josh and she does. But she doesn't bother to stop or look in his direction and proceeds walking. Realizing this, he calls out to her, "Empress, can I talk to you?"

Milla lazily turns her head to the left even though he's behind him, "Oh. You're there." These words are spoken by someone who's surprised but her tone gives it all away. She says it as sarcastic and emotionless as possible.

Josh can't help but comment in his mind, 'Huh… really. Does the Empress really think that I could possibly believe that she didn't see nor sense me? That's beyond impossible.'

"Let's talk in the living room," she unhurriedly goes down the stairs from the third floor. Josh follows after her while the vampires who hear them decide to stay inside the study for their own good.

Sitting on her favorite seat by the hearth, she gets to the point, "What is it?"

"I want to clarify that you might be mistaken that the package was from me. Honestly, I was ordered by Lionel to instruct a Shadow to buy these things. Another thing, he is expecting to be with you when you travel."

'This man knows how to keep his emotions in check, good for him. Do you really think that I would fall for these lies you said? Despicable.' But Josh acknowledges from the very start that it wouldn't be simple to put these two together. There's no harm for him to try, right?

"You heard what I told them earlier and that's indisputable," Milla gets up from her seat as well as him, she stops on his side with their shoulders slightly brushing one another while she looks ahead. Surprisingly, she aims to do this but for what reason. She speaks once again and still sounds unbelievable with that voice of her, "If you say that it's from him then do extend my appreciation."

All his life, he never lets anyone- especially women to be near him and he detests it whenever they attempt to touch him or the likes. However, for some unknown reason, he's rooted in his position and he can't even move his arms. If he can, he would avoid getting into this situation. Her presence isn't causing this because he can tolerate hers due to the years of being around Lionel.

After she disappears, Josh remains clueless but he can freely move now. He has some guesses as to what the explanation behind this could be. These are merely assumptions without any proof so he finally leaves the mansion.

Milla lingers inside her room while he's still on the island. Then she orders a servant to summon Steve while she's eating a chocolate mousse ice cream cake in the dining area. It truly is a rich and decadent dessert with the semisweet dark chocolate ganache on top of the creamy chocolate mousse filling over a chocolate cake base. Slices of strawberries as its toppings and a large plate full of it seem to be her favorite in this dessert since she keeps eating them.

The vampire prince smells the cake when he's on the stairs from the second floor so he runs to where it is- forgetting that someone is waiting for him there. He comes to a full stop upon discovering that she's eating, "Oh… Empress, uhh, why did you call me here?"

"Take a seat."

He quickly obeys while a servant serves him with a slice of cake. One thing that can mirror this situation is the fairy tale with the title of 'Hansel and Gretel'. These two kids are given food by a blind witch before she decides to eat them. In the prince's case, what would be his fate?

'Steve, you didn't do anything to earn her wrath. Calm yourself.' Steve keeps saying to himself as if it's reassuring him or it's totally working.

'Why do they always think of the worst whenever I summon them? I wonder why…' If anyone could hear what's Milla thinking, they would want her to reflect on herself or literally look at the mirror and see for herself.

He starts to eat while doing his best not to look in her direction. He hopes that she only wants someone to eat with her if that's even possible. Less than five minutes have passed when he begins to feel comfortable and at ease because she doesn't talk for a while. 

It's a mistake because he ends up dropping his fork in surprise when she finally raises a question about yesterday with a slightly curious tone, "So- as I was saying, what was Lionel's reason for summoning you to his mansion?"

After hearing her question, Steve feels like he's about to sweat because he remembers the warning Josh told him. He decides to tell the reason and nothing else. This way will make him safe from both sides, "He just inquired about the reason why the Empress was in my room and I gave him an honest answer."

"Is that it? Nothing else happened that I should know of?" Milla senses that he's starting to feel nervous and he's undoubtedly hiding something from her. She doesn't need him to respond but he has to think- for her to get the answer. 

Lucky for her, his thoughts are a mess and he clearly hasn't had the time to move on from yesterday's incident. It's obvious from the panic he's now feeling. 'Why does she have to ask me this?! I can't possibly reveal what happened after they threatened me not to share it with anyone. 

I mean- I would prefer it if I could talk about this with somebody because I still can not believe what I've witnessed there. But who would believe that those two vampires have powers?!!! I wouldn't believe me either, if and only if, he didn't try to kill me without lifting his hand. 

Then Josh- that man, I didn't expect him to be that powerful too! He saved me while he's surrounded by unstable air, it was like he's inside a tornado. I don't want to risk my life by telling her all this. Speaking of- why can't I hear her talking?'

Steve slowly glances in her direction, expecting a furious Empress looking at him but that isn't the situation. She is still devouring the cake and strawberries, it's as if a normal vampire is in front of him and not the expressionless being who's invincible. She's not smiling but her eyes are bright and happy while looking at the foods around her.

This image of hers shatters in his mind after she looks back at him with her eyes that are seemingly blank, "What's taking you so long to answer? It's a simple yes or no question."

"I apologize, Empress. Yes, nothing else happened." He does his best in hiding his emotions because he's worried that she will notice if he lies. His relief is immeasurable after hearing her next words.

"Good. You can go after you are done eating." 

"Thank you, Empress. I'll be excusing myself, then." Steve stands up after getting a wave of a hand as approval from Milla, not looking back even once. He can no longer endure his own perturbation whenever he's around her especially now that he's hiding something from her.

'Huh. So those two have special abilities too. Fascinating. Now, I'm curious about what will be the result if the three of us battle against each other. I bet it would be fun and exciting, hmm.' It's a good thing that no one is around to see her smiling. At this moment, she's devastatingly gorgeous but they will also feel fear besides awe.

Little did the unsuspecting Steve know or he might not have guessed that Milla has special abilities too. Unfortunately for him, she can certainly read minds and so much more. Maybe they will soon get to witness her in action.