To His Hell and Back-Chapter 263: Castle’s Thorns-II

Arabella stirred from the place she had took a rest at, resting her shoulders at the cold walls when she heard the knocks on the door. A hopeful thought entered her head, making her to wonder if that was Cassius.

Karnala stood first and walked to the door. Her passive expression turned stern as she stared at the face of the person standing outside the door.

"Your Highness," she said which made Arabella to stand but the following name dawned her hope, "Malvo."

"I see that you are awake. That is a good thing, I shall open the door now, walk back, Karnala," said Malvo which Karnala followed. Though she was suspicious to Malvo’s real intentions, she couldn’t exactly denied Malvo’s entry to the dungeon and thought that there perhaps be a certain reason why Malvo had tried to protect Arabella earlier instead of supporting the death sentence.

Malvo who entered the dungeon looked at Arabella for a little and she could feel the slight fear and rejection from Malvo’s eyes which he schooled quickly.

Knowing such expression would be shown more often to her, Arabella learned to control her expression.

She told herself that she wouldn’t hang for long if she keeps getting hurt by the littlest expression showed by the people around her.

Malvo cleared his voice as he bent down towards her, "Does Brother Cassius knew about this?"

Arabella was quiet as she looked back to his eyes, still having no trust to this man at all, not even the slightest.

Malvo ruffled his hair in frustration, "I’m not your enemy!"

"Are you really not?" Arabella frowned as she looked down on his shoes and gritted her teeth, "You weren’t surprised when you saw that I could still breathe after being stabbed by the sword. I wondered why but then I noticed your shoes and how that was the same shoes I had seen before I lost consciousness after being hit on the head by Iliza."

Karnala who heard this was immediately alerted as she rushed to stand between Malvo and her.

Malvo on the other hand, began to look down to his shoes and furrowed his eyebrows in a quiet admission of guilt.

"You," Arabella frowned, "Have you also talked to Hans, no, not the real Hans, but the fake one, the one who was about to leave the castle with Princess Marissa?"

Only at this did Malvo reacted quickly, "No. It wasn’t me. What were you talking about? It was you who talked to Hans. That’s why I rushed to find you, because you were the one who was passing around those potions to the people in the castle."

"No, that wasn’t me!" She frowned as she pressed the place between her eyebrows, "You’re saying that you saw me? That you saw I was the one who had talked to Hans and that was why you just watched after finding out that I was mur- murdered by Iliza?"

Malvo’s expression turned dark and he nodded slowly as a response. His words came out after he exhaled a long while, "I saw you that night a couple of times. It was odd as you had such a wide smile on your lips and it was the same smile I often saw when maids received money from mother after successfully getting rid of people as she had demanded."

Continuing his words, Malvo’s expression turned even bitter, "So I followed behind you and saw how you were talking to Hans. Oddly, you two didn’t seem like you just knew of each other when it shouldn’t be too long since you two had been introduced. Then you said about the potion in an injection, that Hans only need to stab Marissa with the needle and injects the rest of the potion which would turn her into remnant."

That was... that was the conversation Arabella had overheard from the secret passage.

"Did you really saw her face as my own?" Arabella became fearful at the thought of the person with her face walking all over the castle doing god knows what.

"I did. But I saw how you were with Brother Cassius after Marissa’s death and I thought that everything I saw was wrong as I saw you died and made sure of it yet you’re now beside him, so I suspected I must have seen the wrong person."

Arabella still kept her suspicion to Malvo, knowing he wasn’t entirely a person she could put her trust into, especially with how he’s still beside Queen Morgana.

"I didn’t know that you could come back from death but I did have a suspicion. When I saw it by my own eyes, I was surprised but also worried because I don’t know anymore what’s the truth," Malvo ruffled his hair again as he looked at him, "Were you really not the one who had sent Hans to turn Marissa?"

"It wasn’t me," she answered firmly and the two looked at each other with skepticism.

"For now," Malvo said in a tight voice, "We should wait for Brother Cassius to come home. I hope he could come soon, maybe before the morning arrives. He can’t be late for that."

Arabella tilted her head slightly, "What’s wrong with tomorrow’s morning?"

"The human hunt," Malvo squeezed his clothes as he continued, "Due to what had happened to Marissa, they are returning to the old tradition of human hunt. They all have agreed to hunt humans like the usual, killing them for points and crowning the winner. Mother have made sure everything is checked out for tomorrow and I fear that you would be pushed into the hunt tomorrow. If brother comes home, he could prolong you to stay inside the dungeon but I alone cannot do anything to persuade her otherwise. The King... he’s also..."

"What about the King?" Karnala questioned and Malvo bite down his lower lips.

"He’s turning to mother’s puppet. Whatever she says, he agrees. It’s odd, he never usually behaves this way but there’s a change in him that I cannot do anything about. Therefore you have to prepare for tomorrow. I will leave the castle to go after brother Cassius, but I cannot promise you your safety."