Chapter 28: Late Night Discussions

“You met the Queen again?” Elsa asked, surprised.

Adam gave a single nod in response. They were in his room; lately, they almost always were. They went to bed together, woke up together. Aside from changing—her wardrobe still in her own room—Elsa all but shared the space with him. But he had no complaints whatsoever. He liked having her close, more than he’d expected, and the realization still surprised him. Before he arrived in this world, he liked his space, preferring his own company more often than not. Now, that inclination seemed distant.

It seemed he had changed in more ways than he realized.

Elsa perked up immediately at his words, her eyes narrowing as she shifted her weight on the bed where she was sitting. Her gaze held his for a moment, worry and concern clear in them. Adam couldn’t really fault her reaction. She knew about his last encounter with the Queen where he had pressed his sword to her neck, and she worried there might be consequences in the future, even if things seemed fine now.

“I don’t understand. Were you summoned?” she asked slowly.

Adam folded his arms across his chest, leaning back against the wall of the room as he met her gaze. “Invited, actually,” he answered. “She invited me for tea.”

Her brows tightened further in confusion. “What?”

“Yeah, I was surprised too, but she really just wanted to talk.”

“About what?” Elsa asked, brows still tight.

“Apparently, she wants me to work for her,” Adam said, his jaw tightening. “In return, she’s willing to offer information about who was controlling the Hand.”

Elsa fell silent, and her gaze flicked away momentarily in thought.

He knew she’d been searching for that exact information for the past two weeks and getting nowhere. There was no trail to follow, except for Julius. But that was her final, desperate option because of the overwhelming risks involved.

“I see,” she murmured after a while. “Somehow, I’m not surprised she knows.”

“There’s also something else,” Adam added with a weary sigh, letting his arms fall to his sides. “She says they’re interested in me now, it’s why nothing has happened these past two weeks. They’re observing me ... they want something.”

Elsa shook her head, eyes drawn close together, both confusion and worry now fighting for space on her face. “They want something? What?”

“I have a few ideas, but I don’t know for certain yet. She doesn’t seem to know either ... or at least, she’s not saying,” Adam replied thoughtfully, then pushed himself off the wall and approached the bed. “Can you tell me more about her?”

Elsa hesitated for just a moment, as if trying to recall and neatly line everything she knew about the woman, then she drew in a quiet breath. “She’s not from here,” she began slowly. “The Queen came from Lorndale, a kingdom in the west.”

Adam frowned slightly. “A foreign queen?”

Elsa nodded. “Yes. It was a political marriage, meant to ease tensions and bring stability, since our kingdoms weren’t on friendly terms at the time. Even now, there are some who still call her a foreign queen ... and not always kindly.” Her gaze lowered a fraction, her tone careful. “There are nobles as well, powerful ones, who never approved of the marriage. To them, she’s an outsider who sits too close to the throne.”

Adam recalled what the woman had told him, that she didn’t have a lot of power because there were factors restricting her. Was this the real reason? Because she was a foreign queen? And these nobles, were they the same group now after him?

“That sounds like a political nightmare,” he muttered.

“It is,” Elsa agreed. “But she’s managed it somehow. Despite rumors constantly swirling around her, there’s been no scandal that stuck, no open opposition or threat that lasted. Anyone who moves against her either fails ... or just becomes irrelevant.”

Adam’s eyes narrowed slightly. Anyone? That was impressive, honestly.

“And then there’s the other part,” Elsa continued, her voice quieter now. “She’s extremely secretive. Even within the castle, very few people truly know her. She keeps information about herself tightly controlled. No one is certain of anything, not even her likes and dislikes. Most only know what they’ve heard in rumors, and I’ve always had the thought that she creates them herself to confuse potential enemies.” She looked back up at him, her green eyes steady. “She’s not someone to take lightly, Adam.”

That was a lot, but Adam couldn’t say he was surprised. He had already realized how intelligent and quietly dangerous she was on their first meeting. It was why he couldn’t simply let his guard down around her, even though she hadn’t actually done or hinted at anything that could be interpreted as a threat to him.

“Yeah, I kinda figured. But I’ll be fine, no need to worry,” he said quietly.

Elsa let out a deep sigh and rose to her feet, her nightgown brushing the floor as she crossed the space between them. “What does she want you to do exactly?”

“She wants me to destroy a smuggling ring in the lower district,” he said and saw her head tilt slightly, a confused frown on her face. “Yeah, I thought it was odd too.”

“Did you agree?” she asked, stopping in front of him.

Adam nodded. “I need the information she has,” he replied simply.

Elsa’s brows drew together. “Then I’ll come with you,” she replied at once.

Adam shook his head before she could say anything more. “No.” The refusal was immediate and left little room for argument. Still, Elsa didn’t back down. She studied him for a moment, searching his face, as though unable to understand his decision.

“Why not?” she asked, a sharp frown forming on her face.

Adam hesitated, wondering what excuse he should give. In truth, there were two reasons he didn’t want her to come with him; the first was that he didn’t know what this smuggling ring actually was, and if there was more to it—there probably was. He didn’t want both of them to walk into something uncertain, he wanted to keep her safe, and it was utterly ludicrous because she was stronger than he was.

The other reason was darker, more sinister. The Queen wanted the smugglers to be destroyed ... not stopped or arrested, but destroyed. Her words had been clear, and she definitely wasn’t someone who made mistakes with orders she gave. Elsa was a knight, an honorable one. She would offer them a chance to surrender, and given who she was, her status as a Gold-Rank knight, they might take it. They were just smugglers, after all, not hired killers like those at the warehouse she’d killed several weeks back.

But their surrender wasn’t what the Queen wanted...

Adam intended to carry out her request exactly as it had been given, with no option for mercy. They were going to be destroyed. He wasn’t doing this because he was obedient or loyal, far from it. He just didn’t want to give her an excuse, even the smallest one, to claim that he hadn’t held up his own end of the bargain.

If it was going to be a massacre, then that was what it would be.

He had no qualms about it at all.

Those were the reasons he didn’t want Elsa with him, partly to keep her safe, and partly to ensure there would be no mercy. And beneath those, there was something else, a quieter reason ... he didn’t want her to see him committing ugly and heinous deeds.

“I just think I should handle it alone,” he replied finally, giving a shrug.

Elsa shook her head. “Adam, dealing with crimes in the kingdom are the knights responsibility. I can’t let you just go handle it as you see fit, without any supervision.”

“I thought adventurers could do stuff like this,” he replied.

She folded her arms across her chest. “Was this sanctioned by the Guild?”

Adam paused to consider. “Fair enough,” he said. “But you wouldn’t even know about this if I hadn’t told you. Besides, there might not even be a smuggling ring, maybe it’s some kind of weird test. I really think it’ll be best if I went alone, Elsa.”

She said nothing for a while, just studying him. Then, after a beat of silence, she spoke up. “Are you just trying to keep me safe?” she asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Adam angled his head slightly. “Is that a bad thing?” he asked.

She shook her head, smiling. “It makes me happy that you feel that way, but you know well that I can protect myself. You remember what I am, don’t you?”

For a moment, Adam said nothing. At her words, his mind flickered unbidden to a very different image of her. Not the composed and competent knight commander she usually was, but something else entirely; an image of her undone, shaking, her naked skin flushed with heat, her breath ragged, and her composure broken so completely. He did remember what she was ... it was why the contrast always struck him.