Chapter 292: Winning Against The Temple
Chapter 292: Winning Against The Temple
(From Blue's Perspective)
After that lunch with Evelyn, it took me more than three days to get back to my senses fully. Dem had tried to help a lot of times saying that it was common and if I did not like it, he would make sure I would never have to see anything like that. I refused since it would be too much of a hassle and it was natural here. So, it would be better for me to get used to it.
"No news of the dark mages?" I asked tiredly and Dem shook his head.
"It's always hard to track dark mages. And this one, your father or whatever, is more powerful than normal dark mages. He is being impossible to track."
Dem was the type of person who would not give any kind of false hope about something. At least, he behaved like that most of the time, especially about serious matters. He did not say right now we had any hope of finding those dark mages.
It was clear that it was not only one dark mage, rather two or more than that. We understood that when we found Berry's dead body frozen inside a huge ice cube.
"Ugh, it's too much hassle," I sighed.
"You can rest anytime and not worry about anything," he said.
"No, thanks. I need to work. No, I want to work," I said. "Now that I can do this much, let me help you. I don't want you to do everything. That said, I will send a letter to Evan regarding our yearly kingdom visiting team.
They will leave for Lacuna next month. The date is fixed too. I should let Evan know so he can confirm that he wants to help and also can take care of his work."
"Have you written the letter?"
"No, I haven't. I will show it to you after I'm done."
"Rather than that, let me do it."
"You will write him the letter?" I asked, surprised. Usually, he did not like to interact with him much.
"Yeah. I will send it to him too. You don't have to worry," he said, squeezing my shoulders gently.
He had been standing behind me and massaging my shoulders. He did so whenever he came to my office. It felt very good as well. We were chatting while I was working. That was when the matter about the dark mages came. I got quite disturbed whenever this matter was mentioned.
"Ah, and another thing- have I mentioned the dress burning incident? My pink dress that was gifted by the crown prince of Ataraxia was burnt..."
"I know. It is such a small incident that I never thought we would talk about it. Did you like that dress a lot?"
"It's not like that. I mean, it was a gift, so..."
"It was an accident, honey. A gift or not, an accident can destroy anything. Don't worry about it. If you liked that dress too much, I can just get you hundreds of them."
"What will I do with hundreds of the same dress?" I laughed. "It's alright. It was just a dress anyway. Besides, I have too many dresses right now, thanks to your obsession with spending money for no great reasons."
"You are the Queen. You need the best things. Even if you were not the Queen, I would have given you the best things. Well, isn't it because it's you?"
"I can't win against you." Stay tuned for updates on M V L
"Yep, but seeing you try is cute," he smirked.
I could not see his face since he was behind me, but I could picture that smirk in my mind very well. That self-satisfied smile had been just too much of a memorable thing. Since the first day I met him, that face had been engraved in my mind. Well, perhaps he had himself engraved in my mind since the moment he brought me here.
"Don't flirt anymore. I am working," I said.
"I am not flirting. I am just massaging your shoulders."
"Yes, but you are also working your mouth."
"This is not the only thing my mouth can do."
"Dem!"
"What?" he asked innocently.
"Never mind. Is the work less than usual today?"
"No, I just finished early because I want to spend some time with you. You can work. I will just watch you."
'Is that alright with you?'
"Do you want to have a date night?" I asked, thinking he might be bored since all we did was work. The only time when we could be together without worrying about any work was when we went to bed. But that did not seem to be enough.
"Tonight?" he asked, quite excitedly. I might have been right about him being bored. He just wanted to do something fun perhaps.
"Not tonight. But tomorrow night is fine," I said. "The duke and the duchess will come tonight. They want to see Athena. We will have dinner in the magic tower with them."
"Ah, I forgot," Dem muttered. "Then tomorrow night it is."
The duke and the duchess were trustworthy and reliable. We took the duke's help to cover up for the saint's missing case. The temple had actively begun to look for her after that night, and the Royal family was immediately suspected since we visited just that morning. When we decided to bring Athena here, we knew this would happen. But without evidence, they would not be able to do anything.
No one would believe them, especially when the majority of the people liked the current King and the Queen since there were a lot fewer problems in their daily lives than before. At this rate, they would not even be able to start a rebellion even if they knew that it was us who took the saint away.
Thanks to the duke's help, the temple could no longer even blame us publicly. The matter was taken care of within three weeks. I also gave evidence in the court against the temple about the illegal tablet. A total of six priests were caught being involved directly with it. Because of that, the temple was facing a backlash.
But Dem and I were still drowned in work.
'Ugh, we deserve a break after working our asses off like this...! We work all day and night! We are also human... Wait, he is not a human...'
That night, when we went to the magic tower, Dem was pretty shocked to see the place. It had changed completely. Everything looked clean and perfect, just the way they were supposed to be.
"It's Ruby's magic," I whispered to Dem, seeing him bewildered. In his mind, his friend would never ever clean and decorate the tower. Even though Luc had a lot of money, he did not let anyone clean or decorate it either because he hated to be near too many people.
'I thought cleaning and decorating like we see in the Cinderella movie was possible. But I guess not...'
"You don't look like you belong here," Dem said as soon as he saw Luc. "Doesn't he look like dirt in this clean room? Don't you think so too, honey?"
"No, I don't. Don't fight," I said.
"What's your problem, you bastard? You wanna fight?" Luc snarled.
"You will lose anyway," Dem shrugged.
'Well, though his and Luc's power are supposed to be equal, Dem is still more powerful than him because of his black eyes. It is understandable if Luc loses. But it's not like I will let them fight.'
"You two, stop it. That said, are the duke and the duchess already here?" I asked.
"Yes, they are in Athena's room. I will take you there," Luc replied. "The duchess seems to have gotten very close to Athena."
Athena's condition had improved a lot in these three weeks, especially her physical condition. Doctor Dimitri said that her mental condition would take time to improve, but it would if she was kept in a healthy environment. The time that she was in the temple was not too much. That was the reason her mental condition was not that severe.
She would grow up just as healthily as any other child if only she got the love and care she needed.
Right now, Ruby and Luc were not in a position to take care of a child. They had just gotten married after all and other people were not supposed to enter the magic tower. It was not okay for just any person to stay in the magic tower for a long time because there were materials in the magic tower that would affect their health.
Ruby would be alright because she was now Luc's mate and those materials would not affect her. But we were not sure about Athena.
Sending her somewhere else with some caretakers would be dangerous as well. There were spies everywhere. It was hard to make sure that no one else found out.
That was when the duke and the duchess wanted to see her, especially Iris, the duchess.