To His Hell and Back
Chapter 38: Rebellious Crown Prince

Chapter 38: Rebellious Crown Prince

"..is the concern we have received from the magistrates in the south of Dravail. This amount is extremely worrisome," Queen Morgana spoke as she cut through the piece of steak that was still spilling out fresh blood.

At the grand dining table of the castle, the King whose face was made as if cut from an ice sculpture had listened to her words without making a single change in his facial expression. Beside him is Princess Marissa who had suddenly made a return back to the castle even though she had distanced herself from the royal palace for years ever since her fall out with Cassius. On Lady Morgan’s left side is the only human of the family, the quiet Malvo.

Queen Morgana’s eyes then drifted toward Princess Marissa who seemed listless as she cut through the meat, then instead of eating the perfect cuts, she turned toward her glass of wine and downed the full glass of blood that stuck to her tongue, leaving a sweet aftertaste.

"However since this is a rare family dinner we should put our royal matters aside, and go back to Marissa. Dear, apologies for my lack of words. I should have welcomed you warmly for your return," Queen Morgana uttered with a sweet smile that curved her lips upward, her hair coiled around her ears while countless pearls were made to circle her head so it would sparkle and give her an effect similar to a halo. "Though we talked earlier, it was boring to talk about how you have been and whatnots, extremely boring. I hope we can have a heart-to-heart talk even more now that you are back home."

Princess Marissa’s raven lashes blinked and she posted a smile to Queen Morgana, "I have never left Mother, I merely return now since something has caught my eyes."

Queen Morgana narrowed her eyes as she was curious. She became bolder and asked, "So tell me, my sweet daughter. What made you decide to return? Especially ever since that unfortunate incident where you were kidnapped by humans, you decided to leave the royal place. You don’t know how much it had worried me."

Worry...

Princess Marissa eyed Queen Morgana whose face was colored in the fakest smile. There was no ounce of worry written on the woman’s face. In the past Morgana was as bold as now. She was a human maid after all. When the king laid eyes on her, she knew she had to act fast and change all her appearance and taste to suit the King. She even exchanged her humanity into a vampire, something that most humans would have struggled to do. It shows just how dedicated this woman is to her desire, ready to sacrifice anything— even her humanity— to climb to her current rank.

Only pure-blood vampires could turn humans into vampires, but even then they only became half-vampires.

Half vampires like her usually held a brownish red eye instead of the piercing crimson color. They are usually classed as lower rank, much weaker than pure blood like her, her father, or her brother, Cassius. Perhaps this is the reason why Queen Morgana was always so fearful of her or Cassius. She was worried that the heir would never fall into the child inside her stomach as they wouldn’t be as strong purebloods as Cassius.

Princess Marissa’s red eyes went to study her father’s face, something she could never figure out until now. As she expected, nothing can be seen from her father’s face, not even any reassurance that the heir to the throne will always remain to be Cassius’s.

Queen Morgana was clear that never liked them from the start. So Marissa wasn’t surprised when Queen Morgana would suddenly talk about the horrible past that had made her run away from the castle. Perhaps this woman wanted her to be upset and leave the castle, so she would feel more at ease trying to convince the King to take her unborn baby as the heir to the crown.

However years have passed and Marissa wasn’t as shaken as before, although her body did flinched at the mention of that old scar.

"I apologize for worrying you mother, you should have visited my manor to see how I have been faring, but you must have been very busy which could explain the lack of visit you owed me," Princess Marissa could hear the heartbeat of Queen Morgana quickening. Even though she’s now a vampire she couldn’t control her heartbeat as well as them.

"Oh, I was worried you wouldn’t welcome my presence," Queen Morgana answered with a faint laughter to hide the awkward air. "I also heard Cassius going to check on your manor. Then you came here back to the royal palace so can I assume that he was the one who had convinced you to come back?"

"Hardly," scoffed Marissa. "When has Cassius cared for anything other than wars and birds? I heard rumors about an odd... event and came here to check."

"Odd event?" Queen Morgana frowned as she clutched her fork. Malvo, her son, beside her, studied this movement. He made up a thought but remained quiet the entire dinner. As the only human in this dining room, he knew better than to talk and upset these vampires even if they had become a "family".

"It seems that we have taken the late human tradition of having a hunt? However, I heard this hunt will be done by hunting human slaves instead of... animal?"

Queen Morgana chuckled, "Oh I see your point dearest, you have always been worried about humans, unlike your peers. Did you come back to say that you disagree with the idea of human hunts?"

How could she be a human once when her heart seems so merciless to her old kind?

Marissa shook her head, ignoring the Queen’s words that were always filled with dangerous traps. Both she and the Queen know well how the King despises her affection towards humans.

"I want to see how that hunt is, I’m not here to stop it as I have learned my lessons. Your Majesty, am I allowed?" She then turned to her father, her words polite and hardly held the warmth of a family.

The king eyed his daughter, gouging her before answering with the cold cut tone, "It does not matter whether you decided to partake or not. One person to add isn’t a bother."

"My deepest gratitude, Your Majesty," she lowered her neck to show her gratitude while hearing from the side her stepmother chirping in,

"So you would only stay until the hunt is done, dear?" Queen Morgana has nothing against Marissa. This is because Marissa unlike Cassius was stupid to her eyes.

The girl was stupid enough to believe in human kindness, going as far as to disobey the king for humans’ sake which caused a fallout between the father and daughter relationship. She might have come around now but Marissa is still the same foolish and innocent girl, Queen Morgana was sure that the servants taking care of Marissa still all consists of humans unlike them who prefer vampires as they’re clever and much quicker in feet.

But just because Marissa isn’t as much of a threat to her as Cassius, she wasn’t going to simply close an eye on Marissa’s presence. She had planned to keep a close eye on Marissa, making sure that she wasn’t here to suddenly partake in her birthright as the heir to the throne.

"I will be staying—"

Marissa’s breaths were cut off when the large door plunged open. Cassius had come inside the room with his marching footsteps. With arms crossed, he had a wicked smile as he eyed his family members, and spoke in a greeting, "Oh dear me. Did everyone start the dinner without me? That really... saddens me," Cassius lowered his eyelids, like a puppy in the rain when those bloody eyes were as cruel as ever.

He said saddened but Arabella behind him could see how the corner of his lips had instead raised even higher in delight. How was he sad? He seemed so happy as if he was going to stir another problem to the mix!