373: Breaking the Ice

Breaking the Ice

The guests from Mihir entered the throne hall of the Court in an orderly fashion. Everyone's eyes fell on the King who was sitting on the Dragon throne. He was exuding such a confident aura that even the vampires were intrigued by the old and fierce-looking King.2

Reginald, on the other hand, was fascinated by the young and beautiful Princess who was standing below the platform. She was wearing a gown that had been dyed with a hint of orange color. Reginald thought to himself while his lips curled up, "She is radiating like the morning sun."

"That red-headed bastard!" Adeline screamed in her mind.

She was dumbfounded when her eyes fell on the man who was walking in the middle of his Royal Guards. "He is the same vampire that I stumbled upon in the market! He is the Vampire King?"

No matter how shocked she was to see him, she still tried to keep a straight face as his eyes were not moving away from her. "What is he staring at? Does he also recognize me?" Adeline thought to herself while gently tapping her foot under her gown.

The guests stopped a little further away from where Adeline was standing. All of the guards bowed their heads towards the King. And Reginald greeted the King while meeting Dragomir's eyes, "Your Majesty, I hope that you will forgive me for coming in unannounced."

Reginald glanced at his Royal Guards and then gestured them to present the gifts that he had brought, "Please accept these souvenirs that I brought from Mihir for Your Majesty, and…" he glanced at Adeline again and continued, "…Her Highness."

"And he knows me!" Adeline thought to herself as she gave a soft smile and a slight bow to King Reginald.

King Dragomir gave a nod to King Reginald and spoke, "I'm sure that Your Majesty had your reasons to visit us earlier than we expected." Dragomir then glimpsed at his Royal Guards and then gestured them to accept the gifts brought by Reginald.

While they were taking the trays from the vampires, King Dragomir walked down from his platform and then stood in front of King Reginald. "All of you must be tired from the long journey. Why don't we go in for some refreshments?"

"I would love that," Reginald happily agreed.

"Please," Dragomir gestured towards the direction they were supposed to go and then led the guests to the meeting room that was pre-prepared.

Adeline also quietly walked beside her father and Reginald kept on smiling and watching her from behind. "I hope she will join the meeting without me asking directly," Reginald thought to himself.

Rebekah was also all smiles as she walked beside her brother. Now that she had seen Adeline herself, she could understand why her brother had been mad about her. She even thought that if she was a man then she would have loved to have Adeline as her wife.

"She is so pretty! Like an innocent doll," Rebekah was internally squirming as she watched the elegant walk of Adeline. "I wish I could tease my brother right now… I so want to hear how he would put forth the marriage proposal. I hope he does it the romantic way rather than being too political and blunt."

Reginald noticed that the further they went in, the more heavily guarded the area was. All the guards bowed their heads to the Royals of both the Kingdoms as they passed by.

Reginald didn't think much of the presence of way too many guards though. He was practically a King from the enemy state. It was a given that the Wyverndalians would heavily guard their King.

The guards pushed open the door to the meeting room after which Dragomir and Adeline went in first and Rebekah went in after them. Reginald waved his hand to his guards and signaled them to wait outside the meeting room.

After the four of them were inside, Dragomir motioned his hand towards the sofas where Theodore and Azriel had sat the last time and said, "Please, take a seat."

After Reginald and Rebekah settled themselves, Adeline and Dragomir also took their respective seats.

To break the ice, Dragomir took the initiative to ask Reginald, "King Reginald, how is your term going on as the King of Mihir? I hope that it is sailing smoothly."

"Yes, King Dragomir. It is indeed going very smoothly, apart from small protests from the villagers every now and then." Reginald replied while comfortably leaning back on the backrest of the sofa.

"Ah! Protests sure give us some headaches. I hope that the issue has been resolved by now." Dragomir was genuinely interested to know if the internal conflict was anything serious or if the issue was something minor that had already been taken care of.

Reginald stole a quick glance of Rebekah and then smiled at King Dragomir. "Yes, I've already solved the issue from the very root."

Rebekah gulped lightly and a content smile appeared on her face. And she thought to herself, "That lot sure had a lot of tasty ones…"

Reginald then glanced at Adeline to strike a conversation with her. "I had heard that Princess Adeline was announced as the Future Queen of Wyverndale. I hope it is not too late to congratulate you."

Adeline glanced at the blood-red eyes and forced a smile and replied confidently, "I'm still the Future Queen so I guess it isn't too late for that."

Reginald liked how straightforward she was. "Congratulations! I hope that you will be a great ruler when the time comes."

"Thank you! Your Majesty. I sure hope that I will be able to walk on the path my father has shown me." Adeline replied while giving a grateful smile to her father.

A few of the maids bowed from the door and walked in while carrying the trays of a teapot, cups, and a variety of pastries. One of the maids brewed the tea on the spot and a few others served the Royals. After making sure that all the Royals had their teacups and their desired pastries, the maids left the room and locked the door behind.

Adeline was curiously watching Reginald and Rebekah to see if they would touch the food or not.

Rebekah would have opted out of the pastries if she was not noticing the frequent gaze from Adeline. Just to make sure that she looked normal, she ended up eating a whole piece of pastry in one go.

Reginald, on the other hand, enjoyed the hot sip of his tea. And he took the silence as an opportunity to steer the conversation in his own direction. "King Dragomir, I'm sure that you are wondering why I came here so urgently. First and foremost, I want to say that this matter concerns Her Highness Adeline."

Reginald successfully grabbed the attention of both the father and the daughter.

And King Dragomir asked, "What about my daughter?"

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