The Villain's Redemption

"When I told the king that you wanted gold, he couldn't believe my words. But when he heard you asked the Queen for compensation, his jaw dropped on the floor." Mo Li smiled. "You should have seen your father's face."

"I could have asked for more if you didn't arrive."

"The King was worried the Queen would try to hurt you."

"She couldn't." Lucinia shrugged.

"He was afraid you would hurt her if she says something not pleasing to your ears."

Lucinia frowned. "Killing the queen would be better for him."

"Having a Queen is better." Mo Li said. " If he lost his queen, many ministers and people from other kingdoms would urge him to find one. He doesn't have the time to deal with that."

She nodded. That actually made sense. "I have asked the Queen the properties surrounding your estate. You should take care of it."

"Hmmm. Come here." He pulled her towards him as the carriage continued rocking beneath them.

"I don't want to get embroiled in any political warfare." She stated. Lucinia was not confident that she would survive that.

"How did you manage to survive from that tea?"

"So, you know that it was poisoned and you still let me drink it?" Her expression turned sour. "Do you want me dead?"

"Hey, don't give me that look. When we arrived you already took the tea."

She rolled her eyes. If her guess was right, the king must have stopped this man from approaching her. What a treacherous father. For some reason, Lucinia's displeasure with her father slowly increased as the day passed by.

"I don't like staying in that place." Lucinia always felt that she was being watched every time she visited that palace. It was like, all of her movements and words were being recorded. Of course, this was a part of her ability to overthink things. Lucinia started to notice her paranoid self slowly showing its claws. A strong instinct that she found very hard to turn off.

"Prince Gavril's banquet tomorrow is going to be big. Some envoys from another kingdom will show up, especially his friends that were mostly princes from other kingdoms." Mo Li narrowed his eyes. "We shouldn't go."

"I should." Now that Mo Li mentioned it, Lucinia immediately realized another problem for tomorrow's banquet. The female lead was going to act as a servant along with the male lead. With the appearance of many nobles and royalties from other kingdoms, Lucinia needed to protect both of them.

In this world, Vampires were considered above humans. While some of them, helped humans by protecting them, some vampires also loved to torture humans for fun.

This would explain the sudden disappearance of women and children from time to time. However, this was only common to vampires with lower statuses than royalties. Some of them were barons who loved to inflict pain and enslave people. While some were just… normal vampires who had been traveling while raping women and children— a crime that was hated by the Royal family.

Of course, the throne had been doing something about this matter. They have been assigning knights to check on the other noble's actions and chase those vampires who had done such crimes. While this action had been considered effective, there were still vampires who managed to get away with it.

She sighed. The leads were bound to attract some problems in every world. They were like magnets. Always attracting all the jealous females and heartless antagonist. Now that Lucinia thought about it, the leads are actually very miserable people. She wondered if they could sleep knowing that their enemies might attack them anytime.

That life— That is something that she doesn't like to have.

"Why would you want to go there?" Mo Li frowned. "Why not spend some time in the mansion with me?"

"I needed it."

He pursed his lips at her words. "Then… I will come with you."

Of course, he would. She was already expecting this. At least this time, Mo Li won't ask the prince for the female lead. She glanced at him. "Don't you dare look at other females in the banquet." He shouldn't look at the female lead.

"Of course, I wouldn't. Hey… I know a secret place in Prince Gavril's palace. It will be— "

"I can't leave the banquet." She said, seriously. Lucinia hasn't spent a lot of time with Mo Li. But she knew that this man had some big appetite… for everything. If she would let him do whatever he wanted, she was certain that Mo Li wouldn't hesitate to keep her in a place where they can be alone. If that happens, she wouldn't be able to defend the female and male lead from the eyes of the other vampires.

"Is that so?" Mo Li lifted an eyebrow. "You do know that showing your interest to someone would only put them in more danger, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"Right now, people are watching you. Everyone, including the king and the Queen, was trying to understand your changes. If you show interest to other people, they would immediately overthink things and might conclude that you are planning to overthrow the current rulers."

"Your point?"

"You can't show any interest to other people other than me."

"…"

"Why are you looking at me like that?" He smiled, his eyes sparkling as if he wanted to silently tell her that she would be stuck with him for a long time.

"If I stay with you… people might think we are planning something sinister."

"I am a very kind person. They would never think that I have was thinking of something sinister."

"That is not my point."

"I know," he beamed. "But who cares? Even if you stay with me, no one would think something bad. You are my wife. You are supposed to stay by my side forever."

She squinted at him. At first, this man told her that they are going to use this marriage to protect her. Now, he was using marriage as a reason for her to stay with him. Why does she feel like this man had planned this all along?