Retrieve the Kingdom

The Ladies' Sight

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, but that headmaster always pisses me off before. Like everything about him. Maybe I now know why.” He said as he takes a breath and puffs it out. He was still not in the mood, but he is slowly recovering. 

“I guess… That’s nice.” Phoebe commented to keep the conversation going, she doesn’t really know what can she say about it. “I mean, it’s good that you have now an explanation of hidden anger. It’s really bad that you can’t explain your feelings, they can pull you down.” 

“Anyway, see you later, I guess.” Andrei wave his left hand to them and went upstairs. Phoebe and Belle went straight to their classroom. They took their seats and waited for their teacher to come. 

It was just a normal class day, nothing really new happened despite that the student councils seem really on alert right now. They just shrugged it since they knew what is happening. 

“Isn’t a bit too paranoid that even the student councils have to roam the school while lunch? And, I think the headmaster is already abusing them, it’s the time of lunch, eating, you hear me? These are still humans and they get hungry.” Belle said as she eats some of her steak which she strangely brought from home. 

“Lower your voice, Belle. They will say that you are rebelling.” Belle chuckled in both laughter and disappointment. “Why they want to protect us? The mysterious veiled lady is not a serial killer, somehow. She will not get us here and just say, ‘Hey, I got one of your students. I am rebelling!’ of some sort. This is just so ridiculous.” 

Phoebe sighs as Andrei kept his silence the whole time. “Even our professor is somewhat lowkey trying to ridicule what they are doing. Everyone in the class noticed that, or at least others think sir Eric meant something in his words ‘Sometimes, some people don’t know how to react to things, which resulted in worst situations’ or something between those lines.”

“I mean, they are really absurd. We don’t even know if this veiled lady is true or they are planning another thing.” Belle just shook her head and stuffed her mouth with more steak. “It’s true. The veiled lady is true.” 

Those words made the two girls turn to their male companion. “Da-I means the king has been worrying about that veiled lady for already a month. Unc—Dad told me that he kept scolding his underlings for these past few days. She is true, not a hoax, not a facade of something that will make the kingdom burn.” 

“She’s really a threat to your uncle huh. Well, she’s just a mere lady—” Andrei cut her. “Uncle describes her to be a small little pesky mouse and they can’t reach her on her mouse hole. Even she’s alone, she is the biggest headache my da—uncle has ever taken the business to.” 

“Does she have an army? Or even some armed forces or something in between? I mean, how can she still wander around the kingdom without her getting tackled by the king’s underlings? That’s pretty odd for someone who has experience on taking people down in just a snap.” Belle said as she drinks her lemon juice. 

“Whoever she is, she may know the king very well. She may have a connection with one of the high positioned people in the monarchy. I doubt she is one of the councils or even in the high monarch too. She is risking herself way too far.” Phoebe commented as she finished her fish fillet. 

“How could you arrive at that? Maybe she just knew how the king moves because maybe she was a former maid, or whatever.” Belle said as she and the prince looked at Phoebe. “I don’t know. But it’s a great idea that you will have a strong connection to one of the investigating people or even the ones who are on to you. So that you can trust someone to cover up whatever you did.” 

“We could take that. It’s been an old or even ancient idea, it’s so rusty that you could already foresee something with it. The question is, who? Who is doing all of this?” Andrei said as they noticed he slowly is recovering, maybe his mood, but they don’t know how’s his emotional relationship with everyone around him.

“Speaking of, we don’t even know what the veiled lady does, so why does the king so into her?” Phoebe said as Belle’s curiosity raised. “I don’t really know… Maybe we can ask my dad.” He said as his mood seems went down a bit. 

“Oooh! Before that, my aunt really wants to meet you. She wouldn’t able to yesterday since she was out working for her job.” Phoebe looks at her, “She has a job?” Belle laughed, “Phoebe, maybe you are already stressed with all of these situations we are in. Of course, since the money she inherited from her parents and her husband wouldn’t provide her for eternity. I guess I haven’t told you, she works at the finance office of the kingdom, as the representative of Lalonde.”

After school, Belle and Phoebe met at the gate as she finished the meeting she has with the other class officers again. They decided to walk to the house as Andrei took the carriage and went straight to the archduke’s mansion. 

They look at the home, it was painted white and had a lot of arched windows with plants in front of them. The house was elevated which explains why there is a 5 step stair in front of the door with some shed. Belle knocked 5 times as the door opens. 

There revealed a tall woman with a great body curve and long straight brunette hair hanging on her back and shoulders. With her brown eyes, she looked at the two teenagers in front of her. “Is this Phoebe, Belle!?” 

The pitch and tone of her voice almost sound like Belle’s. The woman in front of her has a sweeter voice tone than her niece. “Yes auntie, this is Phoebe, the friend I am telling you a lot about.” 

“Anyway, come in. Come in!” She said as she opens the door wide. Both of them entered the house. They got a nice one even they are the only ones there. It’s a bit big for them, but Belle said that they have a servant and sometimes they are visited by some relatives, so the house is just enough. 

“Welcome to my house, I am sorry I am not actually prepared. Do you want some bread rolls for snacks?” Both Phoebe and Belle nods as she went to the kitchen and prepared them some snacks. She came back with a tray of butter bread rolls and some orange juice. 

“Oh! I forgot to introduce myself, I am Mila of Hawthorne, Belle’s aunt.” Phoebe smiles at Belle’s sweet aunt. “I am sure my niece here has told somethings about me. This little girl loves to tell stories.” Belle playfully rolls her eyes as Mila giggles with her niece’s act. 

“Well, you aren’t wrong, Mrs. Mila. She has told somethings about you, I hope you don’t mind if I ask, why do you want to meet me?” Phoebe grabbed some bread rolls and ate them. “Well, Belle told me about you, and I am very interested in talking to you. You seem embodied a mature person, since someone that on your age is surprisingly aware.”

Phoebe gulped a bit, well, her soul is a mature one, or her conscious, whatever it is. She was nervous if she knows anything about reincarnations or rebirth happening in the kingdom. There are cases, like the books she has read before that some claim that they were reborn. “What do you mean?” She asked to confirm her thoughts.

“Well, you seem so mature for me. And I like that, I am sure your parents have raised you so well. And, for young people like you, the thing that is marked on your minds is a king is good for his people and stuff like that, I am just amazed. Of course, I want also to meet my niece’s friends, wait, you told me that you are friends with Prince Andrei, right?” She looked at her niece. 

“Well, he decided to go home. He is not really feeling very well, especially of what happened just a few days ago.” Phoebe explained as she eats her snack. “Oh, yes, I remember. That is a dangerous thing you did. Please, even it’s for the kingdom, don’t risk yourselves, those guards have a lot against you, while you, you are just a bunch of teenagers trying to save a lady.”

“I promised father about it, okay? Don’t be so worried about it, at least we made it out alive.” Her aunt sighs, “What if you didn’t? I will be the one who will take all the scolding your father will make.”

They talked and talked as Phoebe decided to go home. She took a cart bus on her way home. She was welcomed by Andrei who is reading by the stairs in front of the mansion. 

“Why are you here?” He looks at her, “I am just gonna take some fresh air, I don’t really want to talk with uncle right now, anyway, aunt Naia is here.” Phoebe was confused as she enters the mansion and saw a familiar figure talking to Bermin. She looked at her, “Phoebe?”

“Your majesty, how was your trip?” 

The king glared at one of his servants. “Could I have a context why are you angry, if you may, y-your highness?” Dougal sat on his throne tired and pissed off. “I guess you need to know what happened to me when all of my servants are fools and stupid!” 

“I met her.” Three words, but it made the servant’s eyes widen. “Like, her, her?” The king nods. “If then, what happened? Where is she?” The king sighed as he squeezed gently the bridge of his nose. “I am surrounded by fools!”

It was dark, he can’t move. King Dougal tried to move around but he can’t. “Where am I!? I don’t play games!” He was tied up. “How could this happen? Let me go! I will drop your salaries if you didn’t take me out of here!” 

He stopped as some stumps of high heels slowly emerges. He doesn’t know where he is still, but he can hear a woman approaching him, he just snickers. “You are making your downfall easier.” 

No one answered. Later, a swish of a knife was heard, it made him tremble. Minutes later, his blindfold was pulled out. It was dim, but he can see the silhouette of a woman in front of him. “Are you seriously presenting yourself to me?”

A giggle responded to him. “You are so vulnerable.” It was simple, but it made him pissed. “How did you do this!?” The woman turns her back at him. “Simple, I use my mind.” The king gritted his teeth. “I know you are on to me, I feel mutual.”

“Who are you? Do I know you?” He asked, still trying to struggle. “It depends who is in front of you. Do you know me?” Whoever is this woman, she is great at pissing the king off and wanting him to grab her and smash her head somewhere.

“What did I do to you? We can talk this out.” The woman’s fist clenched. “You did a lot of things, so many, that it is so overwhelming, a lot of reasons why I should wipe your existence in this world.” 

“Why you don’t do it now huh? You caught me, good job, now what?” The lady snickered, “Do you think that I will end you just like that? Even your life doesn’t pay for the things you have done, you have to suffer. And thinking you are this vulnerable makes everything easy for me, so I don’t have to worry.” 

“Everyone knows you, one day your veil will not hide you anymore. Everyone knows the mysterious veiled lady.” She just shook her head as she approached a corner and grabbed something. 

“You can tell everything, I love the attention anyway, especially if I can make you bad at them. Anyway, let me correct something.” The king was confused, she approached him, and he doesn’t like what’s coming for him. 

“Call me the Mistress.”