Chapter 8: Behind The Closed Carriage (III)

Hearing her father's name, Genevieve felt the sadness she had tried to bury, stir up like an erupting volcano.

Genevieve sadly shut her eyelids, "I-I don't k-know what to s-say, Your Majesty."

She honestly didn't know what to think of her father. She certainly would never see him again and she was sure he would be happy wherever he was.

"You should never have let yourself get entangled with me, Genevieve. Your father should have married you to someone other than I."

Unexpectedly to Genevieve, Maximilian commented.

His tone sounded daunting yet, she didn't know why she felt some sincerity in his words.

"I'm merely a princess, M-milord. I have no say in my father's decision."

Genevieve then heard him 'tsk' "Foolish Creatures. Always wanting to sell off their own for a measly amount of help." He uttered.

She gulped. When she opened her eyes, bitter tears started to form once more, recalling those painful memories in her heart.

And then she asked the king of Darkshire a question he never expected her to ask.

"W-why did you agree t-to the offer, Your Majesty?"

Genevieve suddenly forgot who she was sitting next to. Realizing what she had asked, she bit her lips. However, it was too late.

The king sharply raised his left brow, as if oblivious to her words.

"Agree to what, Genevieve?"

And when she hesitated, she heard him command. "Speak!!"

Meanwhile, Maximilian pondered where the timid girl mustered the courage to ask him such a question.

"Agree to the marriage of alliance," she said without another breath.

The king of Darkshire suddenly let out an eerily calm smile, questioning in a terrifyingly low voice. "You think I should not have accepted the offer?"

She nodded apprehensively in response.

"How naive, Genevieve. I don't think I would have had you sitting right here with me if I hadn't accepted the offer."

For some unknown reason, Maximilian didn't comprehend why he was being benevolent with her. He was sure he would never have treated another person in such a calm manner.

When he earlier arrived at the carriage, his sole intention had been to scare the sanity out of her, but here he was being very gentle and even answering questions he would never have answered.

"B-but I'm very I-insignificant to you, Y-your M-majesty. I'm not w-worth being married to you."

It was true, and it pained Genevieve that he had accepted.

He was the greatest king and she was a princess of the lowest birth. There was an unbridgeable rift between their status.

She couldn't still wrap her head around how her father had gone to make a terrible deal with him and how he had accepted the offer.

She wondered if he actually knew she was just an illegitimate child of the king of Alexandria. However, she doubted her father would disclose her identity for his greed and gain sake.

"You don't expect me to get nothing in exchange for something. Did you? That's not how kings work, Genevieve." He then drawled deliberately. "And no possession of mine is insignificant, Genevieve. You are my possession."

"But I–"

"Genevieve. It would be better if you don't ask what you have in mind. I don't think you would find the answer quite soothing." He cut her short before she completed her question.

She obediently nodded again.

Maximilian didn't want her asking questions about impossible possibilities. She was here with him. Time couldn't be changed about the happening of the past and he would certainly not let her go.

However, he could see her sorrowful countenance, which made him slightly disturbed for that same unknown reason.

"Don't look so sullen, Genevieve." His words which were more of a taunt than emphatical pulled her to reality.

"Darkshire isn't as terrible as you think. We certainly don't have witches flying around on dusty broomsticks." His lips pulled up. "Not in daylight, at least.

'W-witches?' she thought.

Genevieve had never once considered the possibility of encountering them in Darkshire. She had never seen any or heard of them in Alexandria. However, Darkshire was a different place. The Kingdom certainly had to be as dark as its king.

Nevertheless, she knew the Messiah was capable of protecting her from any witch or wizard she might come across.

Somberly, she turned away from the king to face the window.

The cool breeze of the air slapped on her skin, as her eyes keenly observed the trails of buildings the carriage passed by. Darkshire was a lot close to Alexandria. She knew they would surely arrive the next day, but it was something she wished to never happen.

She wished the carriage would drive on forever, with the king being absent from it, giving her peace of mind. But sadly her wishful thinking was futile.

When Genevieve looked back at the king, he was now resting his head upwards on the carriage headrest. But at that moment, she felt time still.

Everywhere should had been bloodied by now by the rumored monster sitting beside her, yet somehow, everything felt ethereally calm.

His eyes were closed. She enchantingly observed his visible thick dark lashes and wickedly twitched lips which were his only visible features, as his face was masked.

Gradually, the carriage turned dim when evening came, and her eyelids became heavy. Slowly, Genevieve inched to the edge, relying on the carriage wall. In a moment, her eyes shut and she succumbed to sleep.

********

Hours had continually passed. The evening grew darker and night surfaced. The eyes of the king of Darkshire snapped open and his gaze which momentarily scrutinized the carriage suddenly paused.

It took him less than a second to feel something...or maybe someone softly gripping his shoulders.

He tilted his head to the side and it turned out to be no one other than the princess whose eyes were closed in oblivion.

"Who knew you could be so daring in sleep, Genevieve?" A crazy glint appeared in his eyes.

The timid girl who had been desperately trying to avoid him was now clinging to him like a koala. He knew if she were awake to see her actions, she would run to the ends of the earth to hide from his wrath.

If it had been another person other than Genevieve, he was sure he would have sliced their fingers for even attempting to touch him.

Nevertheless, in the dark, he used that time to observe those features previously shying away from his villainous gaze.

Her brown her was messily sprawled around, and compared to other princesses, she wasn't pale but possessed a light shade of tanned skin.

Of course, he could never forget the anxiousness in her blue eyes when she had received a resentful look from the king of Alexandria at the altar earlier that morning.

"Poor thing," his tongue clicked. It seemed like her family didn't love her and ended up gifting her to him.

"Don't dream of me, Genevieve. It would be too scary for your fragile heart." He warned with his eyes narrowed at her face.

Suddenly, he felt her shiver in her sleep from the cold and Maximilian closed the carriage's window without a thought.

The next moment, Maximilian did something he had never done. His hand reached for a blanket behind the carriage seat, carefully spreading it over her body.

However...in the dark, the urge that the king had tried to suppress the moment he stepped into the carriage was suddenly ignited while she slept. A pair of grey eyes suddenly switched into red glowing dreadful malevolent ones, where he commented,

"Welcome to Maximilian Blackthorn, Genevieve Campbell."