Pampered by the Villainous Tyrant King

Chapter 6

A/N: I own nothing but plot. Enjoy!

************************

Upon hearing Grover's report, Percy had Rachel and some other aides inspect the food coming for dinner. It would not do to be poisoned again. He had guessed from Rachel's reaction that the poison three days ago had not come from her father's side. So, Rachel dutifully took on this task, forgetting that she had ever been slightly unnerved by the king personally escorting the future queen.

Percy's lips curled. In truth it was to make sure no one else would be around to know the results of the investigation.

Percy slipped into his personal office. No one but Grover knew of the secret entrance that was behind the painting of his father. It had been a rule that only the rulers of Eldoris and one trusted companion could know of the secret hallway. Percy had been lucky that he had chosen Grover to be the other companion and no one else.

Grover removed the painting, and the king pressed on a particular wood paneling to reveal a hallway behind the paneling. The king walked down the chilly stone hallway for a few minutes before arriving at a secret prison located deep within Gardenia Palace. This prison was one where if you entered, you could not walk back out on your own two feet.

In five cells of the prison were the bandits, the assassin disguised as a Kiran knight, and the woman called Dame Lune. All were looking disheveled and barely clinging onto life. It was easily seen that they had gone through some torture.

The one called Dame Lune tried to say something to Percy when he went into her cell, but her tongue was gone. Percy gripped her chin and stared at those beady eyes. In the span of a couple days, the matron had gone from a spitfire to someone much cowed and subdued. It had only taken these couple days for her to crack, but Percy felt it could not have compared to the mental and physical torture Princess Annabeth had gone through. This woman was weak in mind and body. Bullies who barked the most usually were.

"So it seems that the Kiran royalty don't really care about whether you're alive or not, now that your use to them is over. But at least you had some use to me. I thank you for that," Percy mocked.

The one knight had not cracked under pressure, but this woman untrained in military tactics had, along with the mercenaries who felt their pain and lives were not worth the loyalty to their employers. As suspected, it was someone from Kiran who had sent out the order to send the wrong princess to Eldoris and then attempt to assassinate her to spark a war. The Kiran bastards had deliberately cut off trading relations and sent out the bride as compensation as a trap for him. But the mercenaries could not say who had given them the Eldorisian weapons, only knowing that someone from Kiran had provided them the tools.

This was not enough evidence to lure out the evil doings of the dowager queen in public nor could Percy use it to demand full compensation from Kiran. Unfortunately, he had only been on the throne for half a year and thus didn't have the monetary or military support to do so. But he would wait until he baited out the vultures circling inside his own court instead of focusing on the hungry hyenas outside of his country. Otherwise, he would be stretched far too thin like in the past and lost his life as a result.

Percy clicked his tongue and a prison guard held out a water basin for him to wash his hands in after touching such dirty things.

"The ones from Kiran encountered an unfortunate attack from Kiran bandits and cannot accompany the Kiran princess as they perished from their wounds." Percy stated. "The bodies of Kiran bandits were found around the carriage of the princess, and her brave nanny gave up her own life to protect the princess."

"We hear and obey, Your Majesty."

The prison guards bowed as the king left. The prisoners in the cells who still had their tongues began to wail for mercy, begging that they had told the king everything they knew, but it was no use. If Princess Annabeth had begged for her life before them, would they have given her mercy?