Chapter 7 - Chaos In The Palace
And that was it. His body was surrounded by a dark aura making him invisible to human eyes. He rested his hands on his back and then slowly started to move forward, making his way inside to the Palace. He walked right through the heavy metal gates.
There were no doors that could restrict him from entering, of course except the heaven\'s door because he was banished from there. Other than that, he could practically enter anywhere in the two worlds - Earth and Hell.
He walked inside the Palace to find it in chaos. The maids and guards were frantically running here and there. He kept on walking further and he saw that a section of soldiers were getting ready and gearing up as if they were going to head out for a battle.
Theodore\'s keen golden eyes were carefully analyzing the chaos in the Palace. He was almost certain that those who were running around were looking for the Princess and those getting ready were preparing to go out on a search.
But Theodore wanted to be certain that all of it was not just a façade and that Princess Adeline was really wanted in the Palace. Only then he would bring the Princess back to where she belonged. Else he was determined to let the Princess stay with him for the rest of her life.
Theodore looked around and he quickly found the place he was looking for, the King\'s Court. "The King must still be inside considering how all these people are running in and out of that place." He thought to himself and quickly made his way there.
He stepped inside the Court and quietly stood at one corner of the room, analyzing all the people and their expression. He found that most of the maids were scared for their lives as they were being interrogated one by one.
The Palace guards were on high alert for any signs of intruders. And the King, as Theodore had suspected, was very worried that he was still unable to find any clue regarding his daughter\'s disappearance.
Theodore furrowed his brows and thought, "It seems that the King is worried about his daughter. But let\'s wait for some more time. I want to see and hear him when he is alone. That is when people show their true colors."
After waiting in the corner for some time, the King was finally alone. Theodore was closely inspecting the expression on the King\'s face. He was actually very troubled.
King Dragomir slammed his fist on the table in front of him in his outrage. He was frustrated that even after personally interrogating the maids and guards in the Palace, he still had no clue about his beloved daughter\'s disappearance.
"How can Adeline vanish just like that from the Palace? Was it really Queen Claricia? No it can\'t be her. She never showed any hatred or jealousy towards Adeline."
The King rested his jaw on his hand and narrowed his gaze, "But then again, none of the other Queens or Concubines explicitly showed any hatred towards her. Everyone keeps their mask on while I\'m around them. Who knows what\'s really inside their heart?"
King Dragomir called a Court Guard and ordered, "Ask Queen Claricia to come here. I want to interrogate her as well."
After getting the order, the Guard bowed to the King and left the room.
The King was in a deep sorrow now. He had already lost his lover, the one person whom he married because he had actually loved her and not because of some political reason. And now, the only living symbol of their love that Auvera left behind for him was missing.
King Dragomir turned his gaze up as if he was looking for his dead lover, "I\'m sorry Auvera. I could not take care of our beloved daughter. And now I don\'t have a single clue. I don\'t know where she is and how she is."
He joined his palms and repeated, "I\'m sorry. But I\'ll make sure to find our daughter. I\'ll search Heaven and Hell if I have to. And I\'ll punish whoever it is that tried to harm our child."
A smirk appeared on Theodore\'s face, who was silently watching and hearing the King. This was enough proof for him that Adeline was not abandoned but kidnapped by the King\'s enemy. And in the next moment, he waved his hand around him and vanished from the King\'s Court.
Queen Claricia rushed in to the King\'s Court and bowed to the King, "You called me, Your Majesty?" She already knew that Princess Adeline was missing from the Palace and that everyone was looking for her. But what she didn\'t know was that she was being called in to the Court as a suspect.
The King narrowed his eyes to show anger towards Queen Claricia and then asked in a loud voice, "Is this your doing, Queen Claricia?"
The Queen didn\'t understand what the King was referring to so she was confused by the question. She furrowed her brows and asked, "I don\'t understand what you are referring to, My King."
The King turned his gaze away from the Queen and asked sternly, "Was there your hand in the disappearance of the Princess?" He could not look her in her eyes because deep down he felt that he was barking the wrong tree.
The Queen was shocked to hear such accusation from the King. A soft gasp was heard and she immediately fell to the ground to kneel before the King, "I would never even think about causing such harm to our Princess."
She looked towards the King with pitiful eyes and continued, "Your Majesty, I never bore a daughter of my own so I have always considered Princess Adeline as my own daughter. Prince Nigel also loves her like his own sibling. What would I gain by harming her?"
The King inquired again, "Then why did you call her personal maids to your quarter just when she went missing?"
The Queen understood why he suspected her. "Your Majesty, someone had given wrong information to those maids. My maid told me that they came to see me. But when I asked them why they were at my place instead of looking after the Princess, they told me that they came because I had requested them to see me. And I immediately saw them off."
The King folded his hands and went into deep thoughts trying to make some sense out of the whole interrogation. Then he reached a conclusion in his mind, "If it was not Claricia then someone must have deliberately tried to frame her. If only I could find that maid who had given the wrong information to Adeline\'s personal maids. I think those two maids were not lying after all."
"Okay, you may leave now." The King finally relieved Queen Claricia from the Court.
Outside the court, the soldiers were all set to move out of the Palace in search of the Princess. The squad that previously went in search of Adeline in the outer village had already returned and they confirmed that the Princess was not seen by any villagers. So this section of 40 soldiers was going to search in other areas.
Just before the soldiers set off in their search, a maid came running to the King\'s Court and shouted, "Your Majesty! We found the Princess."