"What bullshits are you spouting, you old fuck?" she said angrily. The king struggled, his breath giving out as Scarlett's grip grew slightly tighter around his neck.
"Ack— I'm sorry," he apologized instinctively while flapping his legs in the air like a helpless child.
"Do you think I forgot all the humiliation given to me by your people and how you all tried to kill me?" Scarlett added, her voice a low growl.
"But that wasn't me," the king said in a weak, choked voice.
"Doesn't make much difference!" Scarlett said, but with a final, disgusted look, she let go of him.
The king fell to the ground with a thud, coughing a few times as he desperately caught his breath.
"If not for Aoto, I would have already caused a greater disaster here than anything you could imagine," Scarlett said, her voice cold. "So consider yourself lucky!" With that, she walked back and opened the door.
Her angry expression immediately vanished, replaced by a calm look as if nothing had happened at all.
"What were you talking about?" Aoto asked, a little confused.
"Nothing much, just some trade deals. But I guess this isn't the right time for that!" Scarlett added with a faint smile.
"Yes, yes, I deeply apologize!" the king immediately came out of the door with a smiling face, as if Scarlett had never grabbed his neck at all.
Scarlett's gaze swept across all the people in the hallway. "I think I should go now. Aoto, take care of Richard and Xao... Li Feng, take care of Aoto and the others!"
"Wait, I'll also come with you! I have graduated from the academy too!" Irish interrupted immediately.
"Ohh shit, I forgot she was here too!" Scarlett immediately felt her body shudder with dread.
It's not like she didn't want Irish to go back with her. Actually, she missed her very much, despite spending so little time with her. But the current situation was too chaotic, and she didn't want another problem to arise.
Seeing the troubled look on Scarlett's face, it only took a moment for Aoto to realize what was wrong. He immediately interrupted.
"There's no need for that. I'm going to DreadHaven in a few days anyway. You can just come with me then. Scarlett will also get time to make some preparations for you to live there," he added with a dry laugh.
"I think Aoto is right. Going all of a sudden will only cause an unwanted burden on her already busy schedule," Ingrassia also added thoughtfully, not knowing she had accidentally saved Scarlett from a difficult conversation.
"N-no, I don't want to be a burden. I'll wait. It's just a few days anyway!" Irish said with a sigh, trying to hide her disappointment.
"I'll be going then!" Scarlett added and hugged Irish for one last time, holding her close for a moment.
They all followed Scarlett to the balcony. Scarlett let out her six beautiful wings and floated in the air, waving her palm at them in a final goodbye.
"I guess it is almost time Irish will find out everything," she thought to herself and sighed. "I should be ready to face the consequences. It's kind of my fault, too!" With that heavy thought, she flew off into the sky, disappearing from their sight.
Scarlett went back to DreadHaven. The first thing she did was gather everyone to talk about the situation. By that time, Reiza and Lunatic had also come back from Gwarga and told her about what happened there.
Yet, there was still no clear answer as to why the Holy Knights were doing this. Scarlett also contacted Kroenen to ask about the situation in the Kingdom of Victoria, and he replied that everything was fine there.
"We should wait and see what happens. I have maximized the security around DreadHaven, so there's no need to worry about it!" Cryptus said in his usual, idle-like cute voice.
"Yes, I'm also planning to meet Avion and talk to him about the situation. As for now, we should be prepared for the unexpected," Scarlett said.
She later dismissed the meeting and walked down the long hallway towards her bedroom with Reiza and Lunatic. No one talked.
There was a heavy silence, except for the sound of their footsteps echoing in the hall. But Reiza and Lunatic's eyes kept darting towards Scarlett again and again, filled with unspoken questions.
And then, both of them said at the very same time.
"Is Irish coming here?"
"Xao..." Scarlett's lips twitched as she thought of Xao Feng, letting out a dry, silent laugh. There was no doubt about it; Xao had already informed Reiza and Lunatic about Irish's arrival via telepathy.
Scarlett nodded. "Yes. Although the situation is tense, we should try to make a welcome celebration for her. It's not like she's the only one coming!"
"Yes, yes, of course, of course!" Lunatic and Reiza laughed nervously and looked away, both saying the exact same words. Before this, Scarlett never thought there would be a time where Lunatic and Reiza's words and reactions would match so perfectly.
----
The next day, sunlight pierced through the windows of Scarlett's bedroom. She was sleeping in between Reiza and Lunatic, who were on either side of her.
The bed was way bigger than even most master beds, especially its length. It was specially made to fit Reiza's tall height. They were all sleeping under the same bedsheet, sleeping peacefully.
But their peaceful sleep didn't last long. Yumi came running towards their room and banged her hand against the door, knocking it multiple times.
Scarlett immediately woke up. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, trying to shake off the sleep. "Stop banging, I'm coming!" she said as she stood up from the bed.
Lunatic also twitched slightly; her sleep was disturbed a little, but Reiza was still sleeping soundly.
Scarlett walked towards the door and opened it, only to see Yumi standing there with a newspaper in her hand.
After being announced as a friendly kingdom, many major things had started happening, like humans coming to DreadHaven, along with merchants and trade, as well as news. Although there was only one newspaper branch here, it was the most common type of newspaper, with branches in all kingdoms for spreading news.
Scarlett immediately realized what had surprised Yumi. "Prez, it's only common sense that everything happened yesterday will become a breaking news!"
But then Yumi shook her head.
"No no, it's the whole opposite! Just look at this!" she said, and directly slammed the newspaper into Scarlett's face.
Scarlett took the newspaper off her face and read through the content. There was one shocking headline after another. The content was written in a way to make her look like a monster:
"Queen Scarlett Showed Her True Colours!"
"With her subordinates, she caused attacks on all kingdom's rulers. She managed to kill Almeida's king and its first prince while kidnapping its second prince, Richard, as well as killing the king of Gwarga in a single night!"
"Queen of Victoria and King of Darwitz are likely to be working with Scarlett for world domination!"
"The mass amount of human disappearances is just another work of the Monster Queen!"
Scarlett read through all of it with her eyes wide open in disbelief.
"What the fuck? Why am I the villain here?"
-----
Meanwhile, an hour ago, in the Kingdom of Armament, its intelligence agency spotted a person flying towards them rapidly through the air, moving like a missile.
The Kingdom of Armament wasn't open to outsiders. Coming here was the same as provoking them to attack you. Not to mention, this person was flying directly towards the headquarters where Auren usually stayed. It was as if this person was challenging them, daring them to attack.
Inside the headquarters, in a completely white room with dozens of monitors attached to the walls, Auren was sitting on his seat, watching them.
Every single monitor was displaying the person coming towards them. It was none other than Arthur, the Vice President of the Holy Knights. He was flying calmly with his hands behind his back, his face emotionless, radiating pure confidence in himself.
"Kill him!" Auren ordered, his voice cold and sharp.
The next moment, hundreds of auto bullet cannons emerged from the ground and the walls of the headquarters, revealing themselves and aiming at him with deadly precision.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Thousands of bullets rushed at him with astonishing speed. All the bullets hit him directly. Yet, they couldn't truly touch him at all.
It was like there was still a tiny distance between them, a barrier they could not pierce. Meanwhile, Arthur kept flying towards them without a single moment of hesitation.
BOOM!... BOOM!...
Multiple missiles shot at him, blasting right in his face, but nothing was happening. The explosions were huge, but Arthur remained unharmed.
The next moment, multiple metal balls were shot into his area. They weren't aimed directly at him. But as they reached about twenty meters away from him, multiple beams shot out from them, all aimed directly at him. The lesser beam was enough to cut through dragon scales like a knife through cake, yet nothing was happening to Arthur.
"Hmmm..." Arthur looked up and saw that the clouds, which had gone dark because of the multiple blasts, were now cleared away. They revealed a big satellite hiding in the sky.
Splash... Splash... Splash....
A huge beam crackling with electric energy burst forth from the satellite, heading directly towards him. It was so powerful it consumed everything in its path. Even the ground beneath Arthur was shattered and crumbled from the sheer force.
But as the burst of energy settled down, Arthur was still floating there, not a single scratch on him, his expression as blank as ever.
Watching all of this, Auren sighed and stood up from his seat. He walked out to the rooftop of the headquarters.
Arthur quietly arrived there and floated down. There were many soldiers in white suits, but no one shot or tried to attack him. They just watched, their faces filled with awe and fear.
Auren looked up, holding his sheathed sword in his hand. Arthur also floated down, landing softly on the ground just in front of him, inches away.
They both were looking into each other's eyes without blinking, a silent tension building between them.
"You think I don't have any method to cut space?" Auren said solemnly, his voice low and challenging.
"You are free to try!" Arthur replied while adjusting his glasses, his voice calm and collected.
"What do you want? Thomas's soul? Then it's already too late!" Auren said, being half serious and half mocking.
But Arthur shook his head. "I came here to make you join us. Or you can die."
"Join in what?" Auren asked, his guard still up.
Arthur then explained the entire situation to him, laying out the plan.
"A third-class plan!" Auren spat, his voice dripping with disgust.
"It's not like you have to be into it," Arthur said with a faint smile. "Just do your part, and you'll get your land, new knowledge, and specially... the coordinates!"
"Coordinates?" Auren's expression slightly changed, a flicker of interest in his eyes.
"Yes. Your home world's coordinates. Back on Earth, I was great at science, you know. Although others don't know it, it only took me a moment for me to realize who you are!" Arthur replied with a dead serious tone. It didn't feel like he was lying or anything.
Auren was silent for a few seconds, the weight of Arthur's words sinking in. And then, he nodded.
"Okay, I accept!"