Chapter 400: Father and Son
Inside the palace, in the courtroom, many officials and important figures gathered before the king, who was sitting on the high chair. Below his chair, the duke and the marquis stood with their heads bowed as they spoke.
"My daughter’s death shall not go without it being avenged, Your Majesty. She was killed mercilessly. I want justice for her by killing her killer the same way. I know she is related to you, but what she did is unforgivable," the marquis said, his voice filled with the grief of losing his only daughter, who was to be married in a week to the Baron and had been happy about it, but a black-hearted woman, filled with madness and jealousy, had gone on and taken her life. No father would ever forgive such a crime!
Duke Griffin parted his lips and spoke next, against the words of the Marquis, "I know my daughter has committed a grave crime, Your Majesty, but killing her now, when she is our spy in the enemy land, would be like killing our only weapon. You saw for yourself how the vampires backed away when the wood and sword were held to their chests. That is a sign that whatever she reported was indeed valuable. She has given us ten weapons; creating them will not only be advantageous for us, but we can still use her to get more information about the vampires once she returns to Nightbrook and we start to prepare our attack.
"It was unfortunate enough that Your Majesty didn’t get to question her on how she got that information and what else she knew, but she has already become helpful for our land, and killing her now might set us back."
Duke Griffin was not against sparing his first daughter because he wanted her to keep her safe or because he cared what happened; to be honest, after everything she had caused his family, he would be the happiest man if she were taken from him and left in the asylum.
He was only trying to protect his other family members from the disaster she had brought upon them all so suddenly. If they killed her now, when she had not finished serving her purpose, it would not only make people scorn them and forget that their family was the reason Aragonia would be making their own weapons, but his second daughter might be in danger of being forced into her elder sister’s place to keep the vampires deceived.
This weapon was the only way to restore his reputation; having the weapon to kill vampires was far more important than the life of the marquis’s daughter.
"I do not agree with him, Your Majesty!" the marquis turned to glare at the duke, not caring that he was his superior. "His daughter should face the consequences of her actions. The vampires don’t care so much about who was given to them for a wife, as long as she is precious. We can set a meeting with the mad vampire and make him take the duke’s other daughter! The one who took my daughter’s life must die."
"I agree with the marquis, Your Majesty," Jamie Marchant, who was drowning in fake grief at the side with a handkerchief pressed to his face, interjected. His eyes were red like a man who had been crying his heart out for losing the woman he was to marry, while in fact he was relieved at the outcome of things.
"She killed my wife-to-be; she should also be killed the same way. I will gladly provide the kerosene to burn her to ash, for she has taken away my poor Althea from me. I can’t let this go..." His voice cracked with emotion as he staggered to his feet and came to stand beside the marquis, bowing to the king. "Give me your orders and I shall carry out the duty to see to her execution."
Duke Griffin’s hand curled into a fist, but there was nothing he could do when the officials began to side with the Baron and the marquis instead of him.
The king was silent for a moment, considering what decision he would take. "Has the doctor checked her over yet?" he asked, referring to the young woman who had been taken to the madhouse.
"Yes, Your Majesty. The doctor said she is not stable in the head and will continue to get worse if not left in the madhouse; I saw to it myself," the Baron spoke up with determination. "But I do not believe the madhouse is the punishment she deserves."
The king, who was also a Dawson and, though he had many relatives to care so much about one in particular, was at a loss; however, seeing how his officials were all on the side of burning the young woman, he sighed and said, "Send the report to our best smithy to start crafting the weapons, and Baron Marchant, you have my permission to avenge your wife-to-be tomorrow at sunset in the execution center."
"Thank you, Your Majesty," the Baron and the marquis said in unison as they bowed down to the king to show their gratitude.
The Baron left the hall after he was given permission, smiling to himself as he walked away to prepare for tomorrow’s execution.
No one knew how much he had not wanted to marry Lady Althea, but he had no choice, as she was the only reason he had this title. If he were to marry, he wanted his wife to be a submissive woman who knew how to do things for him, not the other way around like he had been doing for Lady Althea after their engagement.
He had actually been willing to marry her and then have his affairs outside, using the excuse of traveling to gather knowledge for medicine, just as he had always dreamt of to become a doctor. But then Lady Isabelle had made things easier for him by throwing that flame.
He had thought he was in love with Isabelle, for she had troubled his mind for days, but it turned out it wasn’t love. It was curiosity, an urge to know why he couldn’t remember their so-called love letter exchange in the past, and how, from the letters he saw, she was exactly the kind of woman he would have liked to marry, for she did whatever he asked of her.
However, the reality of it had hit him this evening, she was a madwoman with a deep-rooted jealousy. He didn’t want a woman like that.
Jamie thought of this as he looked at the cast that bound his broken arm and the sling that held it up against his chest. His arm still hurt fiercely, all thanks to the madwoman, but no worries, he had been given the opportunity to deal with her.
He would be killing two birds with one stone, and his title and position would not be threatened at all. How fortunate a man like him was in life: a free fortune and a free life to choose what he wanted. His future wife and plans would now be of his own choosing.
"I can’t wait for tomorrow," he muttered to himself, forcing tears back to his eyes as he walked to the hall where some of the guests were still grieving.
Back inside the courtroom, the king proceeded to speak with the rest of the people in the hall.
"Duke Griffin, first thing tomorrow morning, I want you to send for the vampires. We will make other arrangements for your other daughter. What was her name again?" the king asked.
"Genevieve, Your Majesty," the duke said, his jaw clenched.
"Good. Genevieve shall go back to Nightbrook as replacement for the sick one. And about the weapons, I want you to make the vampires stay here longer until the smithy gets the first weapon made," said the king with a thoughtful look.
"What about testing the weapons?" the duke was forced to ask through his choking emotions of losing his daughter to the vampire land, something he had wanted to avoid.
"The test of the weapons will be easy," came the words of the king’s right-hand man. "We will use one of the vampires at your house, the female one if possible. She is the most vulnerable that we can easily get and apprehend. All you will do is make sure to keep their stay here longer until our weapons are crafted; we can use the opportunity of having another wedding to keep them longer."
Duke Griffin frowned. "I do not believe the vampires will let us off if we kill one of them in this land to test our weapon, especially the crazy bloodsucker."
"That’s why we will make it look like the female vampire has gone away herself. They will never know she is kept for experiments. And if we can’t get her, we can have the baby. It will be easier to have the baby and then blame his disappearance on its mother too—"
The king’s right-hand man didn’t get to finish his plans when the high glass multicolored window was suddenly shattered, broken glass splashing inward like falling rain and causing many to shield their heads and move away.
When the shattered glass settled, they raised their heads to see who had dared break into the courtroom through the high window, only for their eyes to widen at the sight of a winged silhouette standing on the windowsill, grinning down at them. They knew he was grinning in the lamplit hall because they caught the pure white flash of his teeth. A child was tied to his front, both of them looking down at the humans from above.
But no matter how dim the light in the hall was compared to the height of the window, everyone knew whose figure looked like that.
"What a plan you humans are forming up behind our backs," taunted the vampire duke, his voice echoing in the high-ceilinged hall as he addressed them casually. "I couldn’t help but overhear your flimsy plan about my family, though I must say you seem to be underestimating the powers of a female vampire and a baby. Apprehending them is not easy, you know; it’s harder than hunting a lion."