Chapter Six

The Kingdom of Pres,

The King's Palace...

"It's been over a month, my Lord, and we are yet to find her." The head of the palace guards reported. He was put in charge of the search party sent out to find Elena.

"Why can't you do your job well? Do you know what's going to happen if we do not find her?!" The king screamed angrily.

"We have promised to give her to the Blood king, do you know what will happen if we go there empty-handed? We will all be killed! Our kingdom will be razed to the ground! Do you know what it means to fail your promise to the Blood king!?" He threw up his hands, an expression of outrage.

"You know what, forget it. I'll hire someone better." The king said. The guard knelt immediately and bowed his head.

"Forgive me, my Lord. I promise I will do better next time -"

"No, you have done enough." He faced the servant next to him and called out.

"Write a letter for me. Send for Darukï. Tell him that the king expects his presence in his throne room."

The Kingdom of Neba,

The Red Queen restaurant...

Elena and Mac woke up earlier than usual to prepare for the grand opening of the Red Queen's restaurant. They had filled so many orders the day before that they barely had enough sleep, but that didn't quench their excitement. It even hyped them up the more.

After selecting only the first twenty reservations for that day, they catalogued the rest for the next day and the days after that. They were going to be very busy for the week. They started arranging the tables, and the seats swept the floor, cleaned the counter, and arranged the performing stage.

Back at the kitchen, Elena had cooked and prepared the food, had washed and arranged the dishes and served the food in a heating cooler to keep the food warm.

Mac arranged the VIP room and cleaned it; even though they were not having customers qualified for that place, they still needed to arrange it to intrigue the others.

They came to the main room that would be used to serve the customers and stood, Elena, dusting her hands and Mac folding his.

"Are you ready?" Elena asked him.

"More than ever." He replied with a smile and took a deep breath, heading out of the restaurant towards its entrance. There was already a long crowd of customers waiting for that day.

They had mailed a letter to the people who had ordered of the day their reservations had been placed. The ones standing outside were the ones who were reserved to dine for that day. Once the crowd saw him, they all went silent.

"Good day to you all, welcome to the grand opening of the Red Queen's restaurant. You guys are the first official customers that we have. I hope you have a lovely time dining here." He opened the door to the restaurant wider.

"Please come in, all of you, and take your seats according to the numbers allocated to you." The crowd filed in excitedly, and as they entered the restaurant, they all sucked in a gasp. The restaurant was very beautiful, and it looked like it was built for the elite. If this was how the place for commoners looked like, they all wondered what the VIP room would look like.

They all looked for the seats allocated to them. The number of each seat hung from the ceiling between two candles above the seating tables. After selecting their tables, the people took their time to study their surroundings.

Elena and Mac went from table to table, sharing the menu card for that day. They gave the customers five minutes to absorb their environment and choose their meal when they were done. They went back to each table when the time was up and took their order. Because it was just the two of them working, the serving process was slow.

To make sure that the customers were entertained, Mac climbed up the performance stage and suggested that someone should perform. They already had a harp, flute, and other kinds of musical instruments in place. Feeling hyped up by the surroundings, the crowd began to volunteer to play. Finally, Mac selected a four-man group, and the crowd cheered for them.

When the four-man group began to perform, the crowd was lost and so engrossed in the performance that they forgot about the meal. Fortunately, there was not much work as the meal was already prepared, so all Elena had to do was heat the food a bit before serving it.

While Elena served the food, Mac served the customers, and the customers cheered for the performers. It was a lively environment; everyone was drunk on the food and entertainment. Elena and Mac even gave the performers something extra for their show. It was a lovely experience for everyone.

Finally, it reached the end of the day as all the customers had left. As Elena and Mac cleaned and swept the restaurant, Mac began crying. Elena looked at him, wondering if anything bad had happened.

"Is something wrong?" She asked. Mac sniffed and dragged his hands across his face, wiping away his tears.

"It's just that, I never thought I would see the day when this restaurant would have many customers again. I'm just so happy right now." He faced Elena, a serious Express etched on his face.

"Thank you, Elena. Thank you again so much, for everything." Elena smiled at him. She placed her hands on both his shoulders.

"No need for that anymore, Mac. We are business partners now, aren't we?" She answered with a smile.

When they both were done, Elena counted their income for the day alongside Mac. She knew that Mac trusted her, but she didn't want to give him any reason to suspect her.

They counted up to twenty thousand coins; that was more than Mac had ever made. He started bawling with excitement, his hope already in full bloom.

The Blood Kingdom...

Deep within the dark forest of the Blood Kingdom, there stood a grand palace. It was surrounded by a toxic river that emitted poisonous gases and could only be crossed by a special boat owned by the Blood king. A thick fog surrounded both the river and the castle, and whoever was crossing would have to be very careful to prevent falling to his or her death.

At the castle, the entrance was a huge dark gate flanked by both its sides where the statues of two huge figures, who were bent over with their palms raised, joint together as if in prayers, with a hood over their faces. Unlike the gate, the statue was grey, giving the castle an even more eerie vibe.

In the throne room of the castle were two figures in deep conversation.

"The girls sent over by the other kingdoms? You are telling me that none of them caught his interest?"

"Yes my Lord. He threw all of them out of the palace."

"Hmm." The man stood up, his arms folded together with one stroking his beards. He was the Blood king's father, the former Blood king, a strong and bulky man who looked far too good in shape to be in his mid-fifties. He stroked his beards and started pacing.

"We need to do something." He finally said.

"Yes my Lord."

"He isn't getting any younger."

"Yes my Lord."

"It won't be wrong if I speed things up, right?"

"Yes, my Lord?" The servant quickly raised his head, scared. He was the last king's advisor and the closest person to him, so he knew how the former king's mind worked, which made his latest declaration give the poor advisor a bad omen.

"What exactly are you going to do, my Lord? The advisor asked. The old king smiled deviously.

"Nothing much. I just need you to sit down and enjoy the show."

The advisor gulped.

The Kingdom of Neba.

Red Queen's restaurant...

For the following days after their first grand opening, Mac and Elena had been busy, barely having enough time for themselves. So many people were filling out reservations, and they had to keep allocating dates and keeping them updated. At some point, they became so burned out they couldn't work again. So they decided to post a job vacancy sign outside of their restaurant.

The first person to apply for the job was a young man, 'F.' He had hair as brown as deer hide and eyes so brown it looked like that of a young doe. For some reason, his features reminded Elena of the beautiful animal she named Forest because she found it in the forest; during the time she was running away from the kingdom of Pres.

Mac mostly interviewed him, and Elena just stood and studied him behind. They noticed that he was very outgoing; he was very comfortable to be with, and one couldn't help but want to speak with him more. Elena and Mac approved of him, so he was given the job.

'F' started to work the day he was hired, attending to customers and making an amicable conversation with them. The customers adored him, and possibly all the female customers in attendance fell in love with him. Elena could notice the dreamy eyes and sighs pointed at him, coming from all the girls when he was nearby. She smiled; she had made a perfect investment.

'F' did his work perfectly well, and Mac and Elena were satisfied. There was still much work to be done, but things were bound to move faster now that they had extra help. When they were counting their earnings at the end of the day, Mac couldn't help but ask.

"What does the 'F' stand for?"

'F' jotted down his last count so that it would be easy for him to continue later, and then he faced Mac.

"Forest. My name is Forest." Elena looked up immediately and gave him a strange look.

"Really? That is a unique name." Mac concluded.

"Yes, yes it is," Forest answered, staring directly at Elena. She suddenly had a nagging feeling, something she couldn't place her fingers on.

The Kingdom of Pres.

A hidden cabin...

Deep in the forest at the Kingdom of Pres stood a lonely wooden cabin. Surrounded by tall trees that covered its compound, along with the sounds of strange animals that possibly hid somewhere around the cabin, it had a very scary feeling, something that would make one want to go back and never return. There was the hoot of possibly an owl and a howl of a predator.

Inside the cabin, the sound of the sharp screeching of metal rubbing against metal could be heard as one approached it. Despite its homey look, one could feel not only the eeriness but also the desolation and despair radiating around it.

Suddenly, the sharp sounds immediately stopped.

"Who is there?" A deep gravelly voice called out from the cabin.

"A messenger, my Lord. The king has sent a letter to you."

"And what does the message read?" The voice asked.

"You have been ordered by the King, to make yourself present in his courtroom, Lord Darukï."

There was a long silence. Despite the brave face, the messenger was putting on, he was scared more than he could bear. He never liked the surroundings, and the eerie silence was the worst. It was better when there was the earlier the sound of metals rubbing against metal.

Finally, he could hear footsteps coming from the cabin, and the louder it sounded, the harder his heartbeat was. He was about to see what Lord Darukï looked like. The door opened and revealed the person inside the cabin. Upon seeing the man who walked out majestically, the messenger sucked in a loud gasp.

"The king called for me?" The man said, not reacting to the messenger's expression.