All of us rushed to the King’s chambers where we found my aunt with her head laying down on the bed, crying. King Luke was already sitting up and trying to console her wife when we all barged in.
King Luke raised his head at us and laughed. “I hope everyone is this lively when I have my funeral.” My aunt immediately slapped him at his joke.
Stella began to run and hug him while Nate, Ace, and I went inside before closing the door behind us.
“Hi there, dear uncle. Your favorite niece is here.” I grinned happily.
“I know. She’s in my arms already.” He joked. But even though it was a joke, I still pouted.
I mean, was that really a joke?
King Luke glanced at Nate and smiled proudly at him. “I heard that you were appointed as king. Congratulations, dear boy. Are we invited for the coronation?”
“Of course. I’ll reserve the best seats for you and the queen.” He promised.
The late king seemed satisfied until his gaze wandered around us and he frowned. “Where’s Renevier?”
“He’s going back to Sanver with his twin. They just left.” Nate answered.
Luke sighed sadly as patted Stella’s head. “Well, I know that one of these days, you children will one day leave us. But I just did not imagine that it would happen while I was passed out.” Luke seemed devastated at how things turned out for him and the fact that he couldn’t even say goodbye to the werewolf prince.
“King Luke, do you remember anything while you were attacked? Any small detail that could help us investigate?” Ace asked.
Luke was baffled when he looked at him. “I’m...I’m sorry but for a moment there I thought that you were talking like your old self again.” He started laughing. “I guess some habits never change. Or perhaps you are starting to regain your memories?”
All of us gave each other a look. Even my aunt joined us. Then, she grabbed her husband’s hand with a smile on her face. “Dear, he remembers now.”
“He does?” Luke threw his head back and laughed. “Congratulations!”
“Thank you.” Ace replied with a bow. Even when Luke is no longer a king, he was still being respectful towards him. “But please, tell us what you remembered when you were attacked.”
“I-” Luke paused as stared at an empty space. “I don’t remember. All I remember was that I was working on something to reverse a sleeping potion. I was using a very strong one as a basis to make it effective.”
“Same theories as poisons.” Stella added.
“Yes, my child. Correct.” Luke ruffled her hair playfully before addressing us again. “But while I was working, I was suddenly blindfolded that I couldn’t see anything. And I think...that was the time that I was forced to drink the sleeping potion.” Then he looked at us. “How long was I asleep?”
“Enough time for the summit to end. 5 days.” I answered. “You could have told me about that potion and I would have drunk it because the meeting was boring!” I let out a groan as I remembered all the times that I wish that I wasn’t someone relevant enough to join the meeting.
Then again, I was the one who insisted on joining in the first place. So I guess, I don’t really have the right to complain.
Even my aunt slapped my hip from where she was sitting at my joke. “I don’t want to hear that from you, young lady! If I lost you and Luke on that day, I don’t know if Stella and I could even manage!”
Oh boy. Why was this conversation heading towards me!?
“Uncle, is that all that you remember? No other sightings? Smell? Anything?” I threw the question back so we can focus on the topic at hand.
“Come of think of it…” Luke started to think back. “While I was being blindfolded, I heard another one rummaging through my things.”
“So there’s two of them.” Ace concluded.
“Rummaging through your things?” Nate wondered out loud. “Could it be possible that they were looking for something from your lab?”
“Honestly? I do not know. I could go and check. But it would be impossible to know because I can only guess that the workstation is already in a mess.” Luke admitted.
Ace’s brows furrowed. “Is there anything in there that is valuable? Something like a highly lethal poison?”
“Lot’s of them. But I store them at the very far corner and up a couple of shelves so that Stella wouldn’t be able to reach it.”
Stella looked at Ace and Nate. “I know where it is. I can come with you and show you.”
“Stella, that would be dangerous. I don’t even know what got mixed in that place after the commotion.” Luke told her. “There may be hazardous fumes in there already.”
“No there isn’t.” Stella says. “When you got hurt, I froze everything in place until we could clean up. And every day I would come and refreeze it again before it melts.” Then she suddenly grimaced. “But now that I think about it, I guess it wasn’t such a good idea considering that I might have tampered with potential evidence.”
“When you say freeze in place, you mean to say that everything was untouched and unmoved?” Ace asked.
“Yes.” Stella nodded. “I told everyone not to touch anything because which batch has lethal poisons. I want everyone to be safe so I just froze the whole place.”
“Even the plants?” Ace asked.
“Y-yeah?”
Ace facepalmed. “Never mind. Still, it was a good idea.” He gave her an approving nod before looking at Luke. “Would you mind it if we go and take a look? We won’t touch anything.”
“Of course. But be very careful of where you step and touch.” Luke warned us.
“Can I come?” The moment I asked, everyone turned to me. I frowned. “But Stella’s going. Why can’t I!?”
“Well…” Luke rubbed the back of his head. “Stella is...more...aware of things.” He smiled at me innocently as if I haven’t got the hidden meaning behind it.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What does that mean?”
“She can come. I’ll watch over her.” Ace sighed making us all turn to him in surprise.
Nate snorted. “And I thought I was a simp.” He murmured, but Ace was standing close enough to him to hear it. The elf prince turned to glare at Nate, which made him hide behind me instead. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I was saying.”
Ace gritted his teeth as he glared at all of us. “Will you all stop looking at me before I gouge your eyeballs out?! Let’s hurry up and go already!” Ace turned back, marched to the door while grumbling, and slammed the door shut behind him.
Nate snickered. “And I thought Ren was fun to tease.”
Because of that comment, I elbowed the new King of Thalia.
****
Stella, Nate, Ace, and I headed to the greenhouse after that to investigate. As soon as we entered the premises, I immediately began to feel cold. Everything was frozen solid in here that it felt like I was inside a freezer.
Thankfully, I have Custard and Viex to keep me warm.
The place was just as I remembered it. Tables and vials were scattered all over the floor and they were all kept and preserved in place by Stella’s magic.
“Impressive, Stella.” Nate commented as he marveled at the ice exhibit that Stella created.
“Thank you!” Stella beamed at him.
“Are you positive that none of these have been moved? Even by a bit?” Ace asked as he stood behind a fallen table.
“Yeah.” Stella nodded. “But for the papers, I kept them with me because...you know. It’s Uncle’s research and I was afraid that I would ruin all the data written there.”
“Can you give those papers to me when you’re free?” Ace asked.
“Sure.”
‘Yuck!’ Custard shifted in my arms and wrinkled his nose in disgust.
“What is it, Custard?” The moment I voiced my question, everyone was looking at Custard.
“What’s wrong with him?” Nate wondered.
‘I smell something foul. Over there.’ Custard pointed at one of the cabinets. I told the other what he said. When Nate and Ace started to go over, Stella yelled.
“Stop! Those are the poisonous chemicals.” Stella yelled. “I’m sorry guys. Ice must be getting thinner in there since there’s this one potion that emits heat. It can burn you with a single drop. Please stand back while I double coat it.” Stella stood in front of the cabinet and began to freeze that particular area once again.
I looked at Custard, who was still rubbing his nose from something that he smelled. “Better?”
‘Kinda. Sorry, master. I guess that was just a false alarm.’
“It’s fine. At least you alerted Stella about the problem.” Then I looked to Viex. “Why aren’t you bothered by it?”
‘I don’t know. Maybe because he’s a wolf. His senses are stronger than mine.’ Viex says as he wrapped his tails around my neck when he noticed that I was starting to shake from the cold.
“Are you cold?” Ace was suddenly in front of me.
“Just peachy. I have Viex and Custard here with me.”
“Right.” He gave me a curt not before he shrugged off his coat and placed it over my shoulders. Then he went and grabbed Viex. “You can take the coat and I’ll take...this one. Fair?”
I was so stunned by the gesture that I almost forgot that I could talk. “F-Fair.” I nodded. As he walked away, I noticed how Viex nestled comfortably around his neck. It would seem like the two of them bonded while they were out on their little expedition.
No wonder Viex didn’t complain when Ace took him.
I followed him as he started to make his way to the plants. He started looking over at them until he found a small potted plant that was frozen on the table. He turned and called for Stella. “Can you unfreeze this?”
“Right now?”
“Yes.”
“And just that, right?”
“Yes.” He said again.
“Alright. Please move back.” As per her instructions, we all took a step back and watched as the ice began to dissipate and vanished in the air as if it was evaporating. As soon as the potted plant was free, Ace carried it in his arms.
“It’s still asleep. Just how cold did you freeze this place?”
“Its-” Stella began to answer.
“Nevermind. I don’t need to know when I can feel the cold. Let’s go.” Ace says and started to exit the place.
“Wait, just like that? You’re not going to investigate even further?” Nate looked up as he was crouching down to examine some frozen vials on the floor.
Ace sighed and turned back to face us. “What more is there for us to look at? Clearly, there were signs of struggle. But I can’t see or imagine that there were two of them. More like there was one but would move from place to place at an incredible speed. We can’t touch anything, nor can we check for any more evidence. All I need is for this plant to wake up so I can interrogate it.”
Something about Ace’s words caught us off guard that he and I exchanged a look. I could already see the struggle in Nate’s voice as he tried to form the words.
My brows furrowed with sympathy at Nate because, among the 3 suspected knights, there were only one species that can move at an incredible speed.
“Y-you’re talking about vampires, aren’t you?” Nate finally asked.
“Yes.” Ace confirmed and I could see that he was also starting to feel sympathy for him. Because among the three knights, there was only one vampire in them.
And that one vampire is Terrence.