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However, it turned out that such was far from the case. Even now, she hated the look on Darius’s face whenever his eyes landed on Xenia. And that same glow as well… She swore that the Princess also had the same spark in her eyes whenever she looked at Darius.

And she hated that she still somehow felt some sort of camaraderie with her new rival.

“The competition is getting rather exciting, isn’t it?”

Hearing another familiar voice from behind, Clara almost seethed with annoyance. Yet another woman was trying to get under her skin?!

Clara composed herself before she turned around with usual her poker smile, “Bella. You’re back.”

“Hahahaha! Oh please, don’t try too hard in giving me that smile. I bet it’s always a struggle whenever you do that,” Bella teased out with a grin.

“Clara, my dear… I would love to give you the same smile. But you see, I hate it whenever I stretch my jaw wide for someone I don’t like. This competition for the throne is something I’m looking forward to… And His Majesty’s mate is interesting as well.” she added as she looked at Xenia and her mage.

“Tell me, are you aware that His Majesty even made a royal edict not to address him as ‘My King’ simply because he only wanted his mate to call him by that?” Bella mumbled out with a frown. “Who would’ve thought that our aloof and ruthless king will turn into this tame being around his mate?”

Clara inwardly counted her patience. This woman just wouldn’t stop annoying her. She could only watch as Bella laughed maniacally as she walked away from her.

“Crazy bicce…” Clara cursed out with a frown on her face. It really felt as if things were already falling apart around her.

‘Should I grab Gilas’s hands now?’ she weakly thought before shaking her head and clearing her mind. No. She would never betray Darius no matter what. Even now, Gilas seemed to be cooking up something against Darius, and she would never let herself be a part of it.

Letting herself calm down, she walked back to the training grounds. There she saw Leon walking about.

“Have you seen Gideon?” Clara quickly asked the man.

“Hmm… He’s probably still on his bed,” Leon helpfully answered. “He got knocked out last night, and Bartos said we should let him be since it’s been a while since Gideon had a proper rest like this.”.

Clara nodded at his answer. She then questioned further, “Do you know who His Majesty has tasked in regards to the investigation about the rumors surrounding Princess Xenia?”

Leon’s eyebrows furrowed as he countered, “Aren’t you the one handling it?”

Clara flinched at the reminder. “Not anymore. Go back to what you’re doing,” she tersely instructed before turning around to look for Bartos instead.

If she wanted answers, perhaps he was the one to ask. Bartos was with the infantry as the head commander of said division. They were having strict training regimens as instructed by the king.

‘Should I…’

After a few seconds of deliberation, Clara sighed deeply as she turned around. On second thought, it wouldn’t be good to ask Bartos. And she wouldn’t dare ask the King directly, or else she would look even more suspicious.

She bit her lower lip as she whispered, “Maybe I’m just worrying too much…” It was safe to assume that Darius didn’t exactly task someone to investigate it. He probably just said it in front of the court officials so that they wouldn’t try to launch their own investigations.

She had made sure that the one she tasked to spread the rumors already left the kingdom, so there should be nothing for her to worry about. ‘I should focus on my own training,’ she inwardly consoled herself.

Surely, the small tinge of guilt growing within her should stop any time now.

******

Meanwhile, Darius was in his personal study when Caro arrived to give him the latest reports about the task he asked him to do.

“Did you find who is responsible?” Darius casually asked as he went over some appeals on his desk.

“Your Majesty, we managed to track down the one who started the rumors…” Caro reported. “Unfortunately, he’s already outside the kingdom, and…”

Darius lifted his head to look at Caro. He frowned upon seeing the hesitation on his face.

As soon as he heard about the negative rumors, he immediately tasked Caro to look into it. While he trusted Clara to look into it, another set of eyes had a way of uncovering some things that the main investigator might’ve glossed over.

“What is it?” he asked once more.

“Sire… He mentioned Lady Clara,” Caro reported.

Darius’s frown deepened. This was something he didn’t expect. Why would Clara do such a thing? This kind of scheme was far too below for her to do.

“Are you sure about this?” Darius asked. “Are you sure he isn’t just framing Clara?”

“I doubt that, Your Majesty,” Caro hesitantly refuted. “There’s strong evidence against her… That emblem… Princess Xenia’s identification emblem was with the survivors, and the kid said that a man took it. It then came out that the man the kid identified was Gilas. Like in my previous reports, Gilas often visited Clara’s chambers while you were away…”

Having heard enough, Darius signaled for Caro to stop. He then authoritatively instructed, “Let’s keep this between us for now, Caro. I would like to speak to Clara about this privately.”

“I understand, Your Majesty,” Caro nodded.

With that, Darius immediately dismissed him. Closing his eyes, he weakly rested his head on his chair as he pondered on this recent revelation.

“Clara… Why did you have to do something as petty as this?” he helplessly whispered out.

Even now, he was still not fully convinced of what he just heard. Until he confronted Clara directly about this, he would withhold his own judgment. She was like a sister to him, and he knew Clara enough in the same way he did with Freya.

He pondered. “There must be more to this…”