Chapter 40 40
Chapter 40 40
LUCIUS'S POV
Valeria had been following behind me everywhere I go, lamenting about my need to look into the mole matter again. She feared I had the wrong person, and I must look into it with a critical eye. Even though I tried to dismiss her, she wouldn't budge, which is why we are here now, discussing the matter all over again, over breakfast. Thankfully, Axel wasnt here to bug her, or so she said. They were slowly growing on each other.
“How did you know she is the one, you didn't conduct any investigation. You just said she should be picked out and imprisoned. I am scared you are hurting another person for someone else’s crime.”
“Val, I have been in this game for decades, there is nothing that could pass by me without me being able to make out the innermost part of it. I do sometimes make mistakes, that’s alright, that’s human. But when it comes to matters of justice, I can say, with complete assurance, that I have been nothing short of just to every matter that comes in front of me, regardless of mu reputation.”
“I am not doubting your judgment.” She shook her head and put down the glass of wine she was about to take a sip out of. “I just couldn't believe sh…she actually did that. I mean I didn't get to spend that much time with her, but the little time we spent together, I would have never assumed.” Her last statement was a whisper.
I chuckled softly. “I had my suspicions from day one. When the monthly reports arrived regarding the warriors' movements. Her’s particular stood out to me. She kept moving herectically, to areas that were far away from her main post. And although it was only during her resting hours that she did that, warriors always save themselves the stress of moving too far from their positioned area, when they knew they would return there the moment the resting hour ended. But she was headstrong and I had to look into her matter singly.”
“You really are attentive to every single thing, aren't you?”
I only smiled at that. “I figured she was seeing someone, though their conversations were too cryptic for my trackers to understand, so I decided to bring her close enough to see her actual intention, hence why I assigned her to take food to you while I was away.” I tried to make the explanation as simple and direct as I could even though it was much more complex than that and took weeks of attentiveness.
“Makes me wonder just how intense your thought process is” She still sounded and looked confused despite my attempt to make things direct. “I mean come on, how do you end up concluding that bringing her close to you will make you understand what she was onto? Isn't that supposed to make her even more dangerous or something? I mean what if she wanted to harm you, which she clearly did, and you are allowing her to do it freely?”
I laughed at her incoherent rambling even though I do understand perfectly well where she was going.
“Years of experience have taught me the easiest way to catch a suspect is to provide an opportunity that will make them act faster, and then you catch them in the act. Simple.”
“That’s mental, not simple.” She frowned genuinely.
“Well, you can't say you weren't impressed by my efficiency. At least now I get to know who is behind the attacks and also caught her in it. There is no way she can deny now.”
“People are really scary, aren't they?” She sighed, staring silently at a wall. “I could have sworn she was just a random maid doing her job. Who would have known that behind all those sarcastic words was another sinister intention entirely.”
“You learned something from that?” I arched my brow, looking expectedly at her.
“Yes, taught me not to trust anyone unless those who proved themselves trustworthy.”
“Great, because not all lessons are learned in the field with a sword at hand. Some, you learn them at the comfort of your bed with someone you trust as the weapon fashioned against you.”
“When you aren't doing the King shit, you could easily pass for a motivational speaker, someone ever tell you that?” She was grinning from ear to ear as she asked.
“I guess not. But now that you mentioned it, I am actually beginning to think of it. I could write a book some? or better yet,” I pulled her closer to me and landed a kiss on her forehead, my hands around her belly. “I could teach our child to be one. That way, he could be a leader and a motivational speaker all at once, what do you think?”
Her face fell and she asked the most unrelated question. How her brain works would always be a mystery to me. “What if the child ends up being a female?”
“Still a leader and a motivational speaker all the same. No child of mine would be anything short of a ruler, male or female alike.”
“A female king?”
“A female Queen.” I chuckled at her dread.
“Isn't she going to face a backlash or something? I don't want my child to get in the way of trouble.”
It was damn sexy to watch the motherly instinct kick in.
“Not while they have my blood running in them. Not when we are going to raise them together, not when I am still alive, no. Nobody is going to ever stand against our next ruler, no matter their gender.” I assured her because it was really that simple. There was never a rule that says the ruler has to be a male, even if there is, I would cut it off from my own child.
My gaze fell on Eldric standing at the door, he nudged his head to the side and walked away.
It was time.