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“Oh, the breakfast is already here? I just finished my tea.” Anastasia put the cup aside and glanced at the tray.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Martha set the tray on the table and said while spreading out the dishes, “I apologize for what had happened earlier. Holly is a rather eccentric woman. I don’t know what she was thinking when she brought your tea. Now your food will get cold.”

Anastasia waved her hand and said, “Oh no, it’s alright. I’m not full by just a cup of tea. So, I will have breakfast right away.”

She then picked up the spoon and fork and looked at all the dishes that were in front of her.

One bowl, in particular, caught her eyes. It looked like some kind of herbal juice. So she pointed at the bowl and asked Martha, “And what is that, Martha? Some kind of tonic for my health?”

Martha had a look of horror on her face when her eyes fell on the bowl. She quickly grabbed that bowl and put it back on the tray. She then instantly fell down to her knees and bowed to the Queen.

And she apologized, “I am extremely sorry, Your Majesty. I didn’t realize I brought it here along with all the other food. It was right there in the kitchen along with all the dishes, and I happened to grab it in my absent-mindedness. Please forgive me for my incompetence, Your Majesty. I will accept any punishment that you give me.”

Anastasia was grabbing the spoon and fork in front of her chest and was looking at Martha with a very confused look on her face. She had no idea what Martha was apologizing for. “Will you first tell me what mistake you did before you ask to be punished?”

.....

Martha looked at the bowl that she was holding over her lap, and she replied, “This is a medicine for the vampires but a deadly poison for humans. And if you had drunk it, thinking it was a medicine for you then... then...”

Martha instantly began to shed tears. She couldn’t believe how she was about to take the life of such a nice Queen because of her carelessness. “Please punish me, Your Majesty. I don’t deserve to serve you anymore.”

Anastasia sighed noisily and threw the spoon and fork on the table.

The clanking sound startled the already scared maid. She bowed even lower and asked to be punished, “Please punish me for being careless. I deserve to be punished, Your Majesty. I will accept any punishment.”

Anastasia could tell that what Martha did was unintentional. She knew that Martha wouldn’t dare to poison her or cause her any harm, even in her dreams. But even though the mistake was an honest one, Anastasia felt sour upon realizing that she could have died if she had accidentally drunk that thing.

She already had a grim reaper dancing above her head. And an accidental death was the last thing she wished upon herself at the moment.

She glared at the crying maid and asked in a rather stern voice, “Take everything away. I lost my appetite now.”

Anastasia abruptly got up on her feet, scaring Martha again. Then she headed for her bedchamber.

Before she entered the room, she turned her head and asked Martha, “From today onwards, Tilla will be the one responsible for my food and drinks. You and Holly can help Tilla with other things... like how you helped her during my sickness.”

Martha and Holly had never directly served Anastasia when she was sick. And Anastasia indirectly asked them not to show their faces in front of her from now on.

Martha was a little sad to hear that. But at the same time, she was aware that she got off easy. If the King was present in the room at the moment, then she knew that her heart would be beating outside of her body by now.

So she quietly agreed to the Queen’s order. “I will let Tilla and Holly know about your wish, my Queen.”

Anastasia slammed the door to her bedroom and then went to sit down on her bed. She tightly clutched the bed sheet in anger and clenched her teeth.

She didn’t know where all that anger was coming from. But she was shaking with rage now that she had time to visualize her lifeless body lying cold in the antechamber.

The image of her heartbroken husband appeared in her mind. She imagined him hugging her cold body while wailing and screaming.

And she couldn’t help but feel her heart getting crushed into a hundred pieces. She felt a lump in her throat. She tried to hold her tears, but she ended up lying flat down on the bed and crying while tightly hugging the pillow that her husband had used the other night.

Never had she imagined that she would be this devastated just by the thought of her grief-stricken husband.

“Your Majesty?” she heard Tilla’s voice from outside her bedchamber.

But she continued to cry her eyes out without caring that Tilla was waiting outside the door.

Tilla invited herself in and ran to crouch by the bedside. She gently tapped on Anastasia’s shoulder and asked worriedly, “Anna? What happened? What’s wrong?”

Anastasia suddenly lifted herself up and flung forward to grab Tilla for a tight hug.

She was hiccupping and choking while bursting into tears.

Tilla’s eyes filled with tears. Her heart ached to see her friend in such a state. “Anna? Are you this upset with Martha? She didn’t do it on purpose.” She sniffled and asked while stroking Anastasia’s back, “Don’t cry, please. I cannot see you crying like this.”

Anastasia gulped hard and sniffled. And she poured out all of the emotions that she had tried hard to keep to herself.

“Why can’t I have a normal life like all the others? Why was I born with such a stroke of rotten luck? Tell me, Tilla... Why would God give me everything just to take it all away? What’s the point of having everything when I can’t even enjoy simple things in my life?”

Tilla quickly wiped the unruly tears that overflowed from the rims of her eyes. She lovingly caressed Anastasia’s hair.

Even she had questioned God countless times before. She always wondered why he would be so unfair to a girl who had done nothing wrong. “I’m so sorry, Anna. I’m sorry that God robbed you of a healthy life. You didn’t deserve all this.” She couldn’t say anything else to her friend except sympathize with her.

Anastasia hugged Tilla even tighter and whispered while coughing and choking, “I don’t want to d-die, Tilla. I want to live... I want t-to live a long life. But why does death keep on teasing me?”

“Shh... Calm down... We will find a way to heal you. You will live. I won’t let you leave me that easily.” Tilla consolingly rubbed Anastasia’s back. But she herself was now devastated.

The two of them cried in each other’s arms for quite a while.

When the Queen calmed down a little, Tilla pulled away from the hug and asked, “Shall I bring you something to eat? I will have everything freshly made in front of my eyes.”

Anastasia wiped her eyes and nodded.

Tilla patted Anastasia’s palm and then got up on her feet to head toward the kitchen.

“Tilla?” A question had been bugging Anastasia for a while now. So she asked her, “Martha said it was a medicine for vampires. Who got sick? It’s not... Caspian, is it?”