Chapter 19 Loyalty
Blood drained from the maids’ faces. "My lady... please have mercy... please!" the maids cried.
Agnes sighed. "It’s fine, I’ll spare you only this time. But in return, you have to swear loyalty to my son." A mischievous glint flickered through her calm face.
Without thinking twice, the maids nodded their heads. "We swear our loyalty to the young prince." They bowed their heads to the ground.
A small smile tugged on Agnes’ lips. Her eyes shone with both wisdom and cunningness. "Plum, give them a dagger."
Plum tossed a dagger to the maids. The maids’ eyes fixated on the dagger lying just a few inches away from them. The tension in the air was palpable.
’What is White Lotus doing? Does she want them to kill themselves?’ Kaelith watched with amusement, sitting on his mother’s lap.
The silence was so loud that the maids could hear their hearts beating in their chests. The maid who had pleaded earlier to be spared moved, she grabbed the dagger swiftly, slashing the other maid’s throat.
Blood sprayed all over her face, and her body shook like a leaf before the wind. Tears poured down her cheeks. Her chest heaved heavily up and down. She let go of the dagger; it fell to the ground with a clunking sound, its once silvery steel painted with blood.
Agnes covered Kaelith’s eyes. "Imposterous!" she glared at the maid. "How dare you draw blood in front of me and my child?"
’Mother, you are not a White Lotus for nothing. You sound like you didn’t request her to do this, but your silence has been an approval for her action. You are so good at manipulating people’s psychology. You purposely dropped the dagger in front of them because you wanted to see what they were capable of doing to survive.’
"Forgive me, my lady, I thought you wanted me... to..." she trailed off. Her eyes trailed over the other dead maid’s body.