Chapter 45: Betrayal V

Originally, he just intended to make Lady Elena turn into a spy by poisoning her. Eventually, she would also slowly turn to his side and become loyal to the Ravenmoon since he had already planted a trace of doubt in Princess Amelia's heart.

However, it seems like the stars have aligned to make the world an interesting place. Lady Elena knew what Princess Amelia was experiencing. The nightmares that they saw had been formed by using the individual's innermost deepest and darkest secrets which would vary from person to person, and this meant that whatever the Ninth Princess had said was something that she had been thinking in her subconscious.

Herbert chuckled and became even more patient as he waited for Lady Elena's decision. He didn't disturb the two and continued to make Lady Elena listen to the Ninth Princess sleep-talking. Perhaps she would once again surprise him by making another genius remark.

"I gave you everything! I treated you well. How dare you?"

Just as he had expected, Princess Amelia continued with her ramblings and became even more passionate in her speech. If her words could dig deep into the ground then she would have already been long gone six feet under.

Of course, it wasn't like Lady Elena had been immune to her words. She was very much affected and her decisions had wavered.

"No, this must be a trick. You- my lord, you did something to her highness, right?"

Herbert merely snorted at her words.

"Listen to her well, do you think that I would do so?"

"Yes, I know that you're only trying to divide the two of us."

In an angry voice, she loudly snapped back at Herbert who continued to look at her as if she was a monkey performing a show.

"You think highly of yourself."

Herbert naturally wouldn't tell her that what she said was exactly the truth. After all, doing so would only be counterproductive and wouldn't suit the current situation.

"My lord, please. I apologize. Please stop this. I swear that we won't be bothering you anymore after this."

"After all this time, do you think that you still have the right to bargain with me?"

"I- no."

As she dropped her resistance, the wall of lies that she had built to protect herself from realizing the truth of the matter had come crumbling down. She was cornered and she cannot do anything but submit to Herbert and play along with his wishes until he is finally satisfied.

"I have made my choice."

Herbert was anticipating her decision. He felt like he had watched a good show which satisfied him and made all the grievances that he had kept in his heart against her had disappeared. Seeing her undergo the five stages of grief was very amusing.

"And your choice is?"

Lady Elena took the bottle of poison and opened it. She then gently placed it on top of a pair of red and luscious lips. After doing so, she then poured all of its contents inside an opened mouth before massaging the throat area so that it could be properly ingested without wasting another drop.

Her meticulous actions impressed even Herbert. In the end, she still showed her true selfish colors. Once she had finished her actions, she then looked at Herbert as if to ask for his permission to open the bottle of antidote.

Herbert then grinned and nodded his head to acknowledge her next course of action.

After repeating her actions, this time with the bottle of antidote, she breathed a sigh of relief. She had finally gotten over it. But before she could relax, she once again heard the detestable voice of Herbert who continued to torture her with his words.

"Oh, dear me. How could I have forgotten? The poison that I gave you cannot be cured with just one dose of the antidote."

Hearing his voice, Lady Elena twitched as she stared at Herbert with a hateful look. She knew that things wouldn't be as simple as Herbert had said.

"But you don't have to worry about it too much. You just have to make her drink the antidote from now on. Right?"

Herbert tossed an Awakening Crystal at Lady Elena which she caught with both of her hands. For a moment, a hint of greed flashed in her eyes but it was soon replaced by a trace of guilt which she soon shook off. After rubbing her eyes with her sleeves, she stood up and hid the two bottles that she had emptied.

While she wasn't looking, Herbert helped the others awaken by giving them the white feathers of purification.

After a couple of seconds, the guards soon got up and saw the large amount of White-Horned Snake corpses that lingered in the area around them. This sight made their scalps tingle. Just by using a rough estimate, they could easily judge that the number of White-Horned Snakes around them was a lot more compared to the Two-Headed Snakes that they had fought off earlier.

When Princess Amelia had awakened, Lady Elena made her way toward her and acted as if nothing had ever happened between them. Her impeccable skill in acting continued to impress Herbert who was watching over them with a smile.

"Princess Amelia, it was unfortunate that you hadn't been able to accomplish your goal to take a closer look at me in action because of the capability of the White-Horned Snakes to create illusions in the mind."

"No, I believe that sir Herbert has surely done his best. Rather, I should apologize for being a burden the entire time."

"Please, Princess Amelia, you are too polite. You were never a burden. If I never had you watching me from behind then I would've never been able to push myself to work harder."

After saying such flowery words filled with flattery, Herbert looked at the sky and exclaimed.

"Oh dear, it appears that the day has quickly passed. We should soon be returning to the Featherwing Fortress to avoid the dangers at night."

Feeling relieved that Herbert had finally decided to return, Princess Amelia agreed and they continued to let Herbert lead the way back to the Featherwing Fortress.