The Crown's Seduction
Chapter 192: Fake Name

Chapter 192: Fake Name

It was something that Mineah had been meaning to talk to Laura about. It had been a while since she saw her friend, so she wanted to spend more time with her for old times’ sake.

"You look like you’re missing me lately," Laura smiled as she sat back on her chair.

"Of course, I do," Mineah chuckled back. "Come now. Spend a few more hours with us. How about a bit of alcohol to drink?"

"Mine, it’s still early for alcohol," Nikolai suddenly scolded.

"Who said that there’s a right time in drinking?" Mineah pouted as she complained to her husband. She then turned to Laura and winked at her as she encouraged, "Go ahead and order something, Laura. I’m sure you know what’s best in this place."

The latter’s eyes shone, and Mineah could already tell that her friend’s mind was already turning. Among her shadow maidens, Laura loved drinking. She was always one of the more carefree in them roaming around in different places and mingling with others.

[Don’t drink too much,] Nikolai reminded her through their bond.

[Why are you worried when you’re with me?] Mineah casually replied. [It’ll be fine. I’m also curious about my alcohol tolerance anyway. I haven’t tried drinking alcohol before, and I might as well try it now.]

It was true. She had a weak constitution, so she did her best to avoid drinking since it would affect her health. That wasn’t the case anymore, however. She was way stronger now than she was before.

"Will it be fine, mi-" Laura was about to ask before she stopped herself from addressing her formally.

"I’m with him, so it’ll be fine," Mineah reassured her while smiling at Nikolai, her husband simply shrugging at the attention. "Now let’s get hammered. Well, not much, but you get the point."

Chuckling, Laura then started ordering a lot of food with Mineah simply nodding in agreement. Ah, food... She had never tried some of the menu items her friend ordered, and she was already getting excited just hearing their names.

"You’ll love all of them, I’m sure!" Laura beamed.

"Why do I feel like I’m being a third wheel right now," Nikolai nonchalantly commented.

Mineah laughed and suggested, "How about bringing a friend with you?"

"Right, Fritz is around," Nikolai casually remarked. "Let me call him over."

Mineah’s eyes widened at that. She hasn’t met Lord Fritz in person yet. She heard he was back, but Nikolai told her that he was still roaming around the Capital City for a while now.

"Fritz?!" Laura suddenly burst out. "The one who loves holding a fan?!"

Mineah turned to Nikolai who simply said, "Seems like you met him already."

"He’s the head of the Bureau of Astronomy, Laura," Mineah hummed with Nikolai nodding in agreement beside her. "He’s working on confidential affairs with Nikolai. Maybe the two of you can cooperate. "She then smiled as she asked, "Can you tell me how you two met?"

Laura scratched the back of her head. Mineah frowned. Her friend would only use that expression whenever she did something she didn’t like such as endangering herself.

"Tell me what happened," she sternly demanded.

Laura gulped. She then took a deep breath and sighed before she began recounting all that had happened. The longer the story went on, the more Mineah’s face darkened with what she heard.

"What if Lord Fritz wasn’t there, Laura?!" Mineah scolded. "Have you even managed to master the spell for the teleportation portal yet?!"

Unfortunately, among her shadow maidens, none of them had managed to perfect the spell for the teleportation portal. It was understandable since only powerful wizards could wield such magic. Mineah herself was the only exemption since she wasn’t purely human and as such, was much stronger than the average person.

Still, just because she could possibly bail her shadow maidens out meant that they could put themselves in danger like this. She had strongly reminded them not to put themselves in risky situations... that they should retreat if the situation wasn’t getting any better.

"I’m sorry," Laura weakly murmured.

Shaking her head, Mineah took a deep breath before she sighed, "From now on, focus yourself on the Civil Service Examination. You need to get a high score to attain a higher position in court like you wanted, and ref-"

"Oh! My dear friend Lauro?! It’s indeed you!!!"

A man’s voice suddenly interrupted Mineah from speaking, and everyone at the table looked at the newcomer with mild surprise.

"Wait, what’s going on?" the man with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes asked as he looked at Nikolai. His eyes then quickly darted to Mineah as if recognizing her as he gave her a curt bow. "Ah, my apologies."

"It’s nice to finally meet you, Lord Fritz," Mineah spoke with a smile.

"The pleasure is mine, Your M-"

"Call him, Min," Nikolai interrupted.

"Oh, Min is such a nice name." Fritz casually commented as he sat down on the chair beside Laura and put his folded fan on the table. He then looked at Nikolai and said, "You should’ve at least given me some heads up before you came here."

"You... You recognize Min?" Laura asked with a frown.

"Of course. It’s way too easy for me, like how I recognized your disguise from the start," he laughed before he quickly stopped talking as the servers entered their room with the meals and drinks they ordered. Once they were alone again, he turned to Laura and directly asked, "But why are you here as well? Wait, are you connected to Her Ma-"

"Yes, she is, Fritz," Nikolai pointedly remarked, cutting Friz off. "We’ll talk more about it later. From now on, the two of you must work closely since you have the same goals."

Mineah smiled even as she watched her friend’s expression become more amusing by the second. She couldn’t help but feel more at ease that Laura had Lord Fritz now. She heard how the lord was such a very capable man in everything he did that Nikolai entrusted him with the risky and important tasks that had to be handled discreetly.

"Looks like we’ll be having a feast," Fritz shrugged, answering Nikolai’s earlier order with a casual hum. "I mean, why is there so much food? Since when did you eat like this?"

Mineah’s face reddened as she murmured, "It’s all for me, actually... I want to try them all."

"Don’t mind us all, Min," Nikolai cheered her on as he began putting a portion of each dish on her plate. "Go on. Dig in to your heart’s content."

"You can finish all of this?" Fritz unknowingly voiced out.

Mineah would’ve been slightly offended if she heard what was just insinuated at her. Thankfully, she was already so focused on her feast that she could no longer hear him speak. The luscious aroma of it all made her drool. Just looking at the feast before her was something she missed. It had been a while since she was at this much without much of a care in the world.

"I purposely recommended this tavern knowing Min will like it," Laura proudly spoke as she watched her eat.

Mineah winked at her and said, "Thank you, Lauro."

Laura laughed as she heard her fake name being used.

"You’re welcome, Min!" Laura answered before she also started eating.

By the sidelines, the two vampires could only exchange meaningful looks as the two women both made them feel like they didn’t exist as they talked to each other like they were the only people on the table. They didn’t even care about the gentlemen seated beside them. They were in their own little world, and they enjoyed every minute of it.