101 Ways To Tame The Emperor

Chapter 12: Behind The Mask

(Malik)

“ALL of you only had one job. That was to find one girl. And yet, you all failed. It’s been six days and you still could not find her? Why don’t you all just quit? You are wasting my time here.” The investigators winced but I did not give a damn. They were being paid thrice their average salary but they were not doing their job right.

Usually, if I wanted to have someone investigated, I would get the result within twenty-four hours. This was the first time that they took this long to investigate. And to think that there were three of them doing it.

I took a deep breath. I am having a tough time trying to understand myself lately. I have never been this frustrated over someone before.

“We apologize, Your Majesty. We assure you we are doing the best that we can.” One of the investigators said in a shaky voice. “We have already sent an illustration of Lady Catherine to our Knights over the towns to quietly search for her. According to the data that we have gathered, there are less than a thousand women who have the same name as her in Morven. We have narrowed them down to two hundred based on your description of her. Right now, there are still six towns left that our Knights are yet to investigate. Within this week, we promise that we will hand you the result, Your Majesty.”

“That means I will have to wait for two more days. After that, I will no longer give you any extension. If you fail, don’t ever think about coming back here anymore. You may all go back to your job now.” I said in a dismissive tone. The investigators stood up and rushed towards the door as if they were being chased out by a demon.

That was how I must have looked like to them. But their opinion of me is the least of my concern right now. I loosened my tie. The moment, I closed my eyes, I saw Catherine’s face popped in my mind again. And like a fool, my heart began racing again. These days, whenever I close my eyes, I would see her face. I would see her smirk, that beautiful but arrogant smirk of hers. And then I would hear her soft but authoritative voice.

I keep seeing images of her. I thought I would eventually forget about her once I start working. But I did not. Even in my dreams, she was there. I could not sleep as peacefully as before. I would wake up in the middle of the night with an intense craving to see her and then my chest would tighten. I have summoned physicians to do a check-up on me but those fools had the same diagnosis. When I told them the symptoms, those quacks looked so surprised and told me that I was experiencing a different kind of virus. That was after they asked a bunch of questions about Catherine and my encounter with her.

“I knew it!” I remember feeling relieved. I thought this was caused by a wicked spell. It turned out it was a virus. “Something is really wrong with me, right? What kind of virus is this? Do something so I can get better right away.”

The physicians threw glances at each other as if they were hesitating to answer. My expression hardened. “Why are you all suddenly quiet? Are you refusing to treat your Emperor?”

“We are afraid that this is not something we can cure, Your Majesty. We believe that you are currently experiencing the love virus.”

“What the hell are you talking about? What kind of illness was that?”

The old physician gulped before answering. “You are not sick, Your Majesty. You are just in love. You have fallen in love with this Lady Catherine.”

That was the craziest thing I have ever heard in my entire life. The physicians all had the same foolish diagnosis. If only they did not serve the Imperial family for so many years, I would have kicked them out of the Castle the second I heard about that love crap. I thought they were just trying to find an excuse because they did not want to cure me but as the days passed by, I realized I only needed one thing to get out of this situation.

And it was Catherine. I don’t do love. I am not a fan of that four-letter word unlike the silly romanticists around me. Falling in love at first sight? That was gibberish. Still, I wanted to see her. Every day, my curiosity about her kept growing more and more.

“That’s it? Are you sure that she didn’t say anything else? Try to remember some more, Doctor! She must have left some clues about her identity at least.” I recall telling Luis when he arrived at the Castle last week. I wanted to shake his shoulders out of so much disappointment upon seeing him alone at the carriage. If only I did not get an urgent request from Matthew about the sudden arrival of the Ministers, I would not have left Catherine’s side. I would have stayed until she woke up.

But I did not want to add more insult to Luis’ wounded pride. Luis already came looking so defeated after Catherine knocked him down. He was still in deep shock. I glared at the two Knights who were supposed to escort her and the doctor. They both avoided my eyes. I would have fired them if not for the countless years we have spent battling together.

“Lady Catherine did not really say anything much about you, General Montebello. The last thing I remember before I passed out was that she wanted me to relay her gratitude to you.”

Catherine had a strange way of expressing her gratitude. It was through knocking someone out, not even bothering to leave a single note. She just keeps on surprising people.

I could not believe that Catherine succeeded escaping from the Knights, from the two men who valiantly fought with me many times in the battlefield. They lowered their defenses because they thought she was sleeping. I could not also believe that she would wake up sooner than we all expected.

To normal people, the effect of the drug was supposed to last for seven hours or so. But Catherine woke up four hours earlier. It was odd how even her body showed resilience to such drugs. I would have wanted to check if she had the same mana as me just like what Luis had predicted, but I did not want her to have that kind of test in the hospital without her consent.

“Show a little mercy, Your Majesty. The investigators all look so pale and so stressed. At this rate, I’m worried that the headlines tomorrow will be about them passing out in one corner and dying. And the cause of death would be you and their excessive fear towards you, Your Majesty.”

I opened my eyes and saw Matthew, my cousin, my advisor, and also my right-hand man all rolled into one. Matthew was the only person in the Castle who can speak comfortably to me no matter what I say or do, saying that he was immune to my personality since we grew up together. I forgot that he was still at my office. He came during my meeting with the investigators.

“Shut up, Matt.”

Matthew looked as unaffected as ever as he stood in front of me with an envelope in his hand. He grinned. “Congratulations, Your Majesty. You are on the road towards becoming normal. You never remembered the names of the women who came into your life. But for the past six days, all we can hear from you is about this Lady Catherine. Admit it, Your Majesty. You are acting this way because you could not believe it, could you?”

“Could not believe what?”

“You could not believe that there is one woman in this Empire who is not curious about this General Malik Montebello that you have been portraying for quite some time now. Your pride could not accept that there is one woman you failed to tame and actually ran away from you. You were her savior and yet, she’s not even curious about you. It’s been a week and that badass chick did not even try to find any means to meet you and express her gratitude. She treated you like an average male despite knowing your extremely high status as a General. I have not met her yet but for doing that to you, I think I like her already. She’s not your average woman.”

I took my mask off and glared at Matthew. “It seems like you have a lot of energy to spare today, Matthew. Do you wish to spar with me? I think I can spare an hour or two. Go, get your sword and meet me in the training room in ten minutes.”

Matthew’s face became a little pale. He stepped backwards. “I’m just kidding. I still love my life. Besides, you know that I could never win against you, Your Majesty. I’m just making up for all the troubles you caused me when you suddenly disappeared again last week without informing me and your decoy happened to be on a day-off when the Ministers came here. I had to entertain the guests and sent someone to fetch the decoy. I thought my lifespan just decreased by ten years that day. I have the highest salary out of all the employees in this Castle but sometimes, I feel really tempted to quit, Your Majesty, especially whenever you would come out to play around the Empire dressed as a commoner or a playboy General.”

Only a few people knew about my favorite pastime. And contrary to what Matthew said, I don’t do it to play. I have corrected this brat many times before but it just would not stick in his thick skull so I gave up explaining in the end. Whenever I’m fed up with the paper works, I visit the towns using a disguise. I do it in order to freely observe how the officials rule in each town. I get to see things and hear news that I would not normally see and hear in the four corners of my office.

That was the reason why I hid my true face to the public. I used the fire incident in the past as an opportunity to conceal my face so I could watch my enemies’ every move without them noticing. Whenever I would pretend as the War General Malik Montebello, there would be a decoy who would act as me, the Emperor of Morven. It was the easiest way to know who are on my side and who are not. I have lost count about the number of times the Ministers paid me in order to betray the ‘Emperor’ and join them in their mutiny.

“Then why haven’t you quit? I’ve been itching to sign your resignation letter for many years now.” I shot back after a while.

Matthew applied as my right-hand man after graduating. He chose to work for me even if he could have become an official because of his noble status. But Matthew was aware that if he did become a government official, the Ministers would flock to him to use him against me. I know that there are many who showed willingness to assist him to usurp the throne ever since we were children. But Matthew declared that he was too lazy to rule Morven.

“I am just a simple man. I don’t have any grand ambition. You know that. I just want to live a simple life and have a family of my own. But I do want this Empire to have a strong and brilliant ruler. I want you to keep your position simply because I don’t want the past to repeat again. I don’t want innocent people to suffer because of the greedy Ministers again. Therefore, you have to stay alive so you can continue to rule Morven, Malik Aldis Salvatierra. I trust you. I believe in you. And I will support you until my dying breath.”

That was Matthew’s speech thirteen years ago. That was also the last time he called me by my real name. I recruited him out of a whim after we sparred and he lost. Out of all the royals, he was the only one I know who sucks at swordsmanship. He was not into swords. He does not appreciate them. But he likes books. He would rather read than train which makes him one of the most brilliant people in the Empire.

It was not his first time losing to me in a sword fight that’s why I did not know he would take our bet seriously until he showed up at my office the next day along with his requirements.

At that time, I hired Matthew right away because I got tired hiring employees only to fire them after a couple of weeks due to their incompetency. Most of them resign on their own, though.

Only Matthew could handle the pressure of being my right-hand man. He may be extremely playful and talkative at times and he likes to pester the hell out of me but he was efficient and he gets the job done quickly. He knew that I would not fire him that’s why only he had the guts to annoy me some more when I am already so pissed off like this.

Matthew raised his chin, the mischievous gleam in his eyes remained. “You think I didn’t want to resign? For your information, I wanted to. What kind of person would last with that temper of yours? But I am your only friend. Whether you admit it or not, you will get lonely without me, Your Majesty. This is also the former Empress’ fault. She made me promise to stay by your side even if you are being a royal pain in the ass. She might rise from her grave if I don’t fulfill that promise. But in case you are feeling guilty about what you did, you can just raise my salary again, Your Majesty.” He winked. “After all, I’m about to give you three good news.”

“This royal pain in the ass just raised your salary two months ago, Matthew. I also gave you a week off last month so you can have an out of town trip with your latest fling. So that ‘pretending to be pitiful tactic’ of yours won’t work on me this time. If what you are going to say turns out to be some worthless piece of s**t, rest assured, I won’t get mad. But I might be tempted to deduct your salary.”

“You would not do that after you hear my third news,” He said confidently. “The first one is that the envoy of the third daughter of Count Quentin Peiris is now on the way to the Castle.”

I yawned before I went back to signing the documents on my desk. Thanks to all the spies the Ministers sent in the Castle, my reputation as a tyrant skyrocketed. I have been branded as the murderer who kills innocent women. The nobles wanted to trap me in a marriage and use it to pull my neck. Since they could not make me their puppet the way they did to my father and the previous rulers, they wanted to use the Empress instead to do their bidding.

“I didn’t know that it was supposed to be good news. Don’t you have better things to report to me?”

“There is. I heard the strangest rumor, Your Majesty. For the first time, Sir Lancelot did not make a fuss when he was sent to prison.” Matthew added. “In fact, he demanded for some management books and according to the warden, he’s been busy self-studying ever since he was confined. It made his father really happy despite the situation because Sir Lancelot promised Count Bradford that he will take the Official’s exam after his release which is six months from now.”

The amusement in Matthew’s voice cannot be denied as he went on, “I also discovered that he cut ties with all his friends who were with him at the tavern and that he sent a letter of apology three days ago to the waitress he offended along with a gift. That’s why apart from you, Count Bradford is also silently searching for Lady Catherine because he believes that she was the one responsible for the positive changes in his son. If she’s still single, he was hoping that he could pair his son with her. I sent someone to confirm the news and it turned out to be true.”

Matthew’s last sentence finally caught my attention. As far as I know, Lancelot barely passed his grades in the University. He had always been lazy. I thought he wanted to spend his whole life just bumming around. After graduating, he never applied for work. If it was true that Lancelot was reviewing now and was considering taking the Official’s exam in order to work in the government, then there really was a possibility that it was Catherine who influenced him to finally do something meaningful in his life.

She must have riled him up so hard that he now wanted to prove his self to others. But there seems to be more to it than that.

My forehead wrinkled. “What do you think happened? Lancelot may have suffered an injury because of Catherine. But that injury is too far from his brain for it to get messed up and for him to be acting this way now.”