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Everard had never noticed this kind of atmosphere before.

Now that he thought about it, he was never at the castle during the nights of the full moon. He would either be in Lavinya, or he would be sent somewhere – either to his cousin’s mansion or on some tour.

And now that he was present in the castle, and finally, in a loop with the secrets, he could sense the tension and gloominess in the air.

“All the staff here aren’t werewolves, are they?” Everard asked Jerome when the two of them were walking down the corridor to the King’s chambers.

He was wondering if the human staff would be sent away from the castle before nightfall or if there would be some kind of curfew imposed on them.

Considering how it was the full moon, he was sure that the castle would be crawling with the werewolves during the night. He was sure that there wasn’t enough space in the dungeon for everyone to go through their transformation in there.

Jerome glanced at the maids who bowed as they walked past the corridor. He then pointed his thumb over his shoulder and replied to the Crown Prince, “Most of the maids and servants are humans. You should be able to differentiate them with their smell.”

Everard licked his dry lips and scratched his chin. He then breathlessly spoke, “But Ruby doesn’t have that smell. So, I was wondering if there were others like her who don’t give off that distinct scent.”

.....

“Ruby...” Jerome heaved a deep sigh and spoke as he exhaled, “...is an anomaly. We never had someone like you, my Prince. Even if someone like you existed in the past, we have no information – neither about them nor about the wolves they created. So, I cannot give you much insight regarding this matter.”

“I understand.” Everard rubbed his nape and scratched his elbow. He pushed his raven-black hair away from his face, and then asked Jerome again, “And all the human staff know about the werewolves that lurk in this castle?”

“They do, Your Highness.” Jerome sounded somewhat guilty because he could guess what was going on in the Prince’s mind.

He was the only one who had no idea about the existence of the werewolves when the others in the castle were aware of it.

Thus, Jerome tried to reason why they knew and why the Crown Prince did not.

“The maids and servants who work here have been serving the crown for generations. Their grandfathers and their grandfather’s grandfathers had been serving the royal family. Thus, they all are raised with the knowledge about the werewolves because almost all the Kings in the past were also werewolves.”

Everard suddenly stopped on his track and then asked in an utterly confused voice, “So... the treaty that we have with the vampires doesn’t encompass these maids and servants? I thought we weren’t allowed to reveal our secret.”

Jerome was also confused thinking about where the Crown Prince got that idea from. “I think the treaty says that we cannot reveal each other’s secrets; we werewolves cannot reveal the secret about vampires. But it doesn’t matter if we reveal ours.”

Everard pinched the bridge of his nose because he was insanely pissed that they kept the existence of werewolves a secret from him when it was clearly not necessary to do so.

“So, you’re saying that for all this while, only I was oblivious to the fact?” Everard scoffed because he was feeling betrayed.

“The King had his reasons,” Jerome looked down and kept his answer short.

Everard couldn’t even be mad at his father because he was lying ill on his bed at the moment.

He gritted his teeth and swallowed his anger, and he mumbled with a bated breath, “You know what? I don’t even care anymore.”

Everard ran his fingers through his hair in a fidgety manner and stormed towards his father’s chambers.

Jerome suddenly had a hint of fear in his eyes when something crossed his mind. He ran to catch up with the Crown Prince and then asked while walking side by side, “Your Highness, you haven’t talked about the existence of the vampires with anyone, right?”

“Why does it matter?” Everard asked without sparing a glance at Jerome.

The two of them were close to the King’s chambers.

Jerome raised his hand and gestured the guards not to open the door for a while.

“Now what, Jerome?” Everard turned to face Jerome and shouted in frustration when the guards stood in front of the King’s door rather than pushing it open for the Crown Prince.

“I need to tell you something first.” Jerome stood in front of the Crown Prince and said in a soft whisper.

Everard leaned his shoulder on the wall. He glared at Jerome while digging his fingernails into his bicep, and he mumbled in monotone, “Spit it out.”

Jerome didn’t mind the rudeness of the Prince. He could see that the Prince was already getting fidgety because of the inevitable transformation that would occur at night.

So, he talked very calmly with Everard, “I don’t know how true it is, but I heard there lived a powerful High Priestess back in the days. They say she was the one to perform the ritual of the blood pact. It’s said that if either of the species snitches on each other, then there are going to be severe consequences.”

“How severe?” Everard asked with a frown on his forehead. If it wasn’t severe enough, then he had some people to whom he wanted to reveal the secret.

Jerome revealed what he had heard, “I heard that whoever you tell the secret to will die. However, there are records of people misusing it in the past. So, eventually, it was circulated that those who tell the secret are the ones who will be harmed.”

Everard closed his eyes and rested his head on the wall. He sighed deeply in relief, thinking about how he didn’t tell Alexander about the vampires.

He felt indebted to Lorenzo because he was the one to emphasize how he wasn’t supposed to ever reveal the secrets about supernatural beings to humans.

‘Lorenzo... I shall talk to him soon. I didn’t even get the chance to clarify things to him yesterday,’ he thought to himself.

“Are you okay, Your Highness?” Jerome was scared by the way how Everard was closing his eyes without saying a word. “You haven’t told anyone... have you?”

“Thankfully, no.” Everard opened his eyes and turned to look at the closed door to his father’s room.

He let out a sigh again and asked Jerome, “Are you sure I need to tell my father now? About that sire thing?”

Jerome also heaved a deep breath, not sure how the sick King would take that new information about his son.

However, at the same time, he believed that they didn’t have much time on their hands to wait and see. “Yes, I think we should tell him now. He might have some information about... you.”

Everard agreed with Jerome. He wanted to learn more about himself, about the kind of wolf he was. “Let’s do this then,” he mumbled while eyeing the door.

He then completed the sentence in his mind, ‘Let’s get this over with before nightfall. I don’t know what I will do or where I will go if I am not chained.’

He didn’t want the incident of the past to repeat again.