Undead Beast Master: Living Solely for My Desires

After a few minutes, the dance ended, and Althea stepped back, her chest rising faintly as she struggled to catch her breath.

Zaroth in turn looked at her with a warm smile.

"Thank you for the opportunity," he spoke.

Althea nodded a bit as she took a few steps back,

"Are we not going to continue?" Zaroth asked with a hint of sadness.

Althea's words seemed to catch at her throat for a moment, "I… would love to but I am too tired so will have to retreat to my room to take a breather."

It wasn't going to be a lie to say that Zaroth was a little disappointed, but he didn't object.

"Well, one more time, thank you."

"No, thank you," Althea spoke between her ragged breaths as she took hurried steps out of the ball.

Seeing her gone just like that, Zaroth took a deep breather. By this point there weren't that many eyes on him, so he could just slip past easily if he didn't want to be seen.

"I hope this worked, now for the last step," he muttered under his breath.

*****

Taking hurried steps, Althea made her way to her room. The moment she entered, she shut the door loudly and leaned her back against it.

Her chest was still rising and falling fast as her heart felt like it was about to explode.

She put her two hands over her face as she sat on the ground against the door.

"Did that just happen?" she asked herself.

What she had experienced now was something that she had only dreamed about.

He spoke to her and addressed her with respect! He didn't fear touching her, he had danced with her! He had… treated her like a human being... like a woman.

She gazed at her hands that were still trembling, part from shock, part from exhaustion.

It might have felt like a dream, but it was in fact true. This really just happened.

Not wanting to embarrass herself further, she got up from the ground almost falling, as she approached one of the chairs in her room and sat on it.

She rested her still trembling hands on the table, closed her eyes as she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

But it didn't help, no, in fact it made it worse! When she closed her eyes the first thing that appeared was Zaroth and his smile. The way he spoke to her, the way he held her firmly…

"Did I really just fall for him?!" she muttered under her breath, her voice was tired, shocked, baffled, and filled with many more emotions.

She of course had noticed how the man had looked at her before from a distance, but she just thought that he was curious, not that he wanted to dance with her!

"...he called me beautiful…" she moved her gaze to her hands. They were reddening in color as well as most of her body due to her curse.

She was one of the furthest things away from beauty and yet he had called her beautiful.

"Is he… maybe into me? But… he looked so young…"

She closed her eyes again.

Only for the image of Zaroth to appear again, leading her to curse in frustration.

"Goddamn!" she shouted as she buried her face in her hands.

"... I want to go back and see him… I want to see him again so bad…"

In that moment, she regretted leaving the ball. If she hadn't, she could still be watching him, but her emotions had overwhelmed her, and in her panic, she'd rushed out as quickly as possible.

Now, even if she wanted to go back she couldn't. After the dance and rushing all the way here, she was too exhausted to move, her muscles had almost reached their limit and there wasn't anybody that would consider helping her.

"I'm so stupid!" she shouted, slamming her fist onto the table. But the impact was so weak that the table didn't even budge.

With a sigh, she rested her back against the chair and gazed at the ceiling.

"Why did I have to lose my composure at this very moment?!"

Her self-pity was short-lived, however, as she heard a knock on the door.

'Is this one of the servants? Why would they visit me so late in the night?' she wondered.

After a moment of hesitating she spoke, "It is unlocked, you can come in."

At her words, the door creaked open.

Althea's heart, that seemed to have calmed down a little, began to beat even faster than before as she saw who had entered into her room.

"Hello, my Queen, would it trouble you if I enter?"

Zaroth had decided to pay her a little visit.

*****

Most of the music and chatter had stopped by that point and now Draconis was standing in his throne looking silently at Elysia.

She was not alone, however, as she had come with several of the family heads—Alexander was here as well.

"What is the meaning of this?" Draconis asked.

Elysia didn't appear fazed as she answered, "I have found numerous instances of where you have broken the law and have acted against the good of the empire and the great families. Not to mention that there is a large amount of people that have been detained in your castle and have yet to see the light of day."

Draconis raised an eyebrow. "So in short, you are judging the way I lead my empire?"

Hearing that, Alexander scoffed, "Your Majesty, with all due respect, you may be in charge, but if not for the support of the great families the empire would have fallen a long time ago."

"We are dependent on one another, and yet you have proved yourself to be incapable of leading—first, the case with the war, where even losing a little ground was too much; then the unnecessary big tournament that wasted too much tax and manpower; not to mention the fact that the Purifiers left because you couldn't resolve the issue with the mysterious disappearance of their staff."

Elysia joined in, "And this is only a part of the evidence I have against you—that you have acted too many times in your interest and not the empire's."

She threw him a copy of numerous papers and Draconis threw a glance at them.

He instantly realized that this kind of information was strictly kept secret. The only one that could access it would be a member of the royal family.

'Oh I see… Althea must have helped her immensely when it came with gathering intel against me.'

It was going to be a lie to say that Draconis didn't feel a bit worried, but everything was going to be resolved anyway. He had just been informed that the salesman had completed his task.

All Draconis would need to do is go to the basement. The only problem now would be that he needed some kind of distraction.

Exactly at that moment the doors of the ball burst open.

"We are under attack! The elite forces of the Crimson Sun Empire have reached the capital and are about to assault the castle as we speak!" a exhausted guard shouted with a worried voice.

Hearing that the capital was under attack, and especially his castle, Draconis could only smile at the news.

'Bingo.' It seemed that he had found his distraction.