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And the more he thought about it, the more restless he began to feel. Thus, he called one of the maids and ordered her, “Go and see if the Queen’s health is alright. And ask if she is ang– Ask if she needs anything.”

The maid immediately went to find the Queen. And although she didn’t take long to return with her answer, Caspian was already pacing back and forth in the room wondering if he should have gone to meet Anastasia in person rather than sending someone else.

“How’s the Queen?” Caspian asked the moment he saw the maid at the door of his study.

She bowed her head and replied in a polite manner, “She is in good health, Your Majesty.”

“Did she say anything else?” Caspian asked, wanting to know if Anastasia gave her the reason for not coming to see him during the afternoon.

The maid kept on bowing her head and answered the King, “When I asked if she needed anything, she said that she had everything that she required. Other than that, she didn’t say anything to me.”

“She didn’t say anything, huh…” Caspian nodded his head and mumbled to himself, dissatisfied by the answer he got. Nonetheless, he dismissed the maid and sat back on his chair to continue his work.

He grabbed the file on the table and began reviewing it. But his mind wandered around and he was back to wondering why his wife was mad at him.

.....

‘Or am I simply overthinking it? She could have fallen asleep during the day and missed my usual tea time…’

He subconsciously began scribbling on the file that he was holding as he fell down the rabbit hole of his thoughts.

‘I should have gone to see her myself instead of sending the maid. At least I would know what Anna is thinking. But now that I sent that maid already, I can’t go and see her. It might make her feel as if she is under constant surveillance.’

‘Argh!’ He suddenly slammed his fist on the table and collected his scattered thoughts. ‘Just stop thinking already! You can go and ask her directly when you complete all the tasks. It will be nighttime by then.’

That was his way to motivate himself to focus on his work instead of constantly thinking about his wife.

Somehow, he managed to put his mind to his work after consciously forcing himself to focus on the files on his desk. And after working tirelessly for several hours, Caspian raised his tired eyes to look at the clock again. It was already half past 9.

“I didn’t realize it was already this late! I guess… the spies won’t be here tonight,” he mumbled to himself. His expectation about getting to know the real mastermind behind the attack in Xanmar by tonight crumbled apart.

“Argh!” He grumbled in frustration and pressed his fingertips over his closed eyes. Now that he had given up hope about the arrival of the spies, he regretted not visiting his wife in the afternoon and not going to her chamber sooner.

‘I should have gone to see Anna at least once rather than burying myself in the files. What if she is even angrier at me for not checking up on her during the day?’

Worried about his wife getting angry at him, he was ready to retire for the day. ‘I hope that she won’t explode as soon as she sees me. Or worse, ignore my whole existence for days!’

Just when he grabbed the door handle to open the door, he heard a knock from outside.

“Zenon?” he asked, thinking that no one else would be outside his door at this hour. When he saw that it was indeed Zenon, he further probed with a subtle hint of curiosity in his eyes, “What is it?”

And to his delight, Zenon held out a file saying, “We have a report from Xanmar.”

“From our men?” Caspian asked while raising his brows and grabbing the file from Zenon’s hand.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Caspian sprinted back towards his table and took his seat, followed by Zenon who stood in front of the King’s desk.

Zenon saw the King already going through the contents of the report. Thus, rather than explaining what was written in the report, Zenon let Caspian read everything himself.

Caspian’s eyes moved at a great speed while going through the file, almost giving an illusion that even the whites of his eyes were blood-red in color.

After finishing going through the whole report in less than a minute, Caspian abruptly closed his eyes and held his breath. His mind was trying to make sense of everything that he had just read and was trying to associate the names mentioned in the report with accurate images of people.

However, there were several names in the report that he didn’t recognize.

‘Just who the hell were those people? Graham… Slayer… Romulus… And what was their end goal?’

Since he didn’t personally know those people in the first place, there was no way he could accurately speculate their end goal.

In the end, he opened his eyes and asked Zenon, “Did you read the report?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I did.”

Caspian threw the report on the table and said while pointing at it. “It says that the main perpetrator behind the attack on me and the others was the alpha called Romulus. But they didn’t mention his reason behind doing so.”

Zenon nodded his head and explained what he understood, “Since the alpha, as well as his close associates, were assassinated, their motive behind that attack also died with them. Our spies could only uncover that the alpha was indirectly controlling the person called Graham and orchestrated the attack that day.”

Although his spies had done a great job in digging out who the mastermind was, there were still so many holes in the story that Caspian couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the whole mystery.

He intermingled his fingers and mumbled out in confusion, “Let’s assume for the time being that the dead alpha attacked us just because he hated our presence in their Kingdom. Let’s say he did it because of his natural instinct.”

Caspian heaved a deep breath and narrowed his gaze at the file. And he kept on weaving his own theory.

“Then who killed him and the others? Everyone who was directly or indirectly related to the attack was killed. Is someone deliberately trying to hide their crime by killing them and pinning all the blame on the dead? Or is the killer actually on our side? If not on our side, then not against us.”

Zenon could sense that the King still had some suspicion that King Everard was the one who was behind everything. However, since he had analyzed the report countless times before finally presenting it to the King, he was sure that King Everard was not the one to blame.

He held his arms behind his back and pointed out, “The man called Graham was apparently killed by King Everard without holding a fair trial. But there is no single piece of evidence that points out that King Everard was the one who murdered the others as well. In fact, he is yet to figure out that the dead alpha was the main perpetrator behind the attack. So, it is highly unlikely that he is their killer.”

Caspian rested his head on the headrest of his chair and gazed at Zenon. When his advisor pointed that out to him, the doubts that he had about Everard were slowly disappearing.

He also knew how skilled all his spies were in terms of digging out information.

Thus, he decided to believe that Everard was indeed not guilty. He decided to believe that the apology letter that he had received from Everard was indeed not deceitful; that there was no hidden agenda behind sending that letter apart from stopping the unnecessary war.

“Okay then.” Caspian slammed his palms on the table and then said to Zenon with finality, “Since the main culprits of the attack are already dead, I will put this case to rest.”

Zenon was happy that the Kingdoms had avoided entering a full-out war with this.

Caspian got up from his chair and ordered Zenon, “Arrange my meeting with Crown Prince Alexander. I bet he would love to hear that his childhood friend was not after his and his sister’s life.”

“I will send a messenger to Orsenia right away,” Zenon replied, without caring that it was very late at night.

Before Zenon could leave the King’s study though, the King gave another order to him. “And Zenon, also try to find out who assassinated those werewolves. If they are on our side or if they are neutral, then it isn’t a problem.”

Caspian started to walk towards the door and said with a deep frown between his brows, “But if they are against us then it will be a problem in the future. Someone could have killed those mere pawns to cut off the link to protect themselves from being exposed.”

Zenon bowed his head and agreed. “I will order the spies to keep on looking for the assassin.”

He followed the King and replied with an equally grim expression on his face, “Considering how those werewolves were killed in cold blood, I would like to believe that the assassin is greatly powerful. If that person decides to go against us, then they might create some serious problems as you said.”