Chapter 122: Consultation In The Dungeon
"It’s you!" Claire subconsciously pointed a finger at him, instantly remembering him as the same person whom Ivan had brought in the other day. Once again, looking into his eyes that reminded her of an early morning coffee made her feel inexplicably strange, and she recoiled her finger, dropping it at her side before darting a suspicious glance at Samantha, then at the unknown stranger who dared to speak for her.
"Do you know who I am?" Claire raised a questioning eyebrow that hinted at her haughtiness. "It is useless defending a fellow prisoner in front of me because you are no different, but let me remind you of something important, and that is the fact that I’m THE princess of EmptyHollow, sister to the future King of this Kingdom, and you, as a lowly peasant, shall not speak to me in that tone! I could have you punished for your audacity to pose a threat to me."
"I don’t care who or what you think you are." Caddel came to stand beside Samantha who was still very much frozen at the sight of him, but the young hunter’s defiant gaze remained fixed on the Vampiress, already irked. "It will be best if you leave to avoid trouble, a dungeon is not a place where a Princess should stay for too long. The pungent smell gets stuck to your skin, and it won’t be gone for a really long time. Being a vampire you should know this already, unless your senses aren’t that profound."
"That profound?? Did you just– AHHH!!!" Claire’s panicked scream resonated within the confines of the dungeon as a rat scurried right past where she stood, and Samantha, who was grieving silently, was instantly compelled to laugh but had covered her mouth with her palm on time. Listening to the vampiress speak as if the world was below her feet had Samantha’s eardrums hurting in reaction, but noticing her frights for rats and how she had screamed as if a knife was pointed at her throat, gave Samantha a little bit of satisfaction.
"I– I will be back! Just you wait and see.. ahhh!! Get away!" Unable to linger around the dungeon as more rats stepped out of their hiding place, Claire immediately exited the place.
Once she was gone, Caddel turned his attention to Samantha who shooed away the rats that were about to enter the cell, and they scurried off in another direction to hunt for food.
"Do you frequent yourselves with miniature animals?" He asked, finding her reaction to the presence of those hungry rats one he hardly sees in females. If he wanted to be hundred percent honest, he expected her to have also freaked out like the vampiress.
Samantha let out a dejected sigh before shaking her head. "They have been an impact in my life story." Letting her shoulders drop at the thought of how miserable her life had always been, Samantha instantly remembered her earlier shock to have found the same hunter in the dungeon.
"How are you here?!"
"Guess." Caddel took his seat beside Samantha who could now see his face without the mask, and she had to admit that he would look more good-looking if he wasn’t frowning all the time. "I can ask you the same thing though," Caddel suddenly added as his brown eyes moved to meet her green ones. "If I’m not mistaken, you wanted to run away, weren’t you? Or did I perhaps read your intentions wrongly?"
"No, you didn’t, and I once did." Samantha responded depressedly before letting out a deep breath, and she gazed at the ceiling. "When there’s life, there’s hope. Isn’t that what they always say? Well In a matter of hours, there will be no hope for me. Imagine spending all your life, feeling yellow, then one day you brush against something dark, and it’s not even black– more like a flick from red, blue, or purple, it all depends, and then viola, the rest of your life you’re green." Her wavering gaze drifted to Caddel as she flashed a wry smile in his direction.
"You’re not a bad person are you?" Samantha dared to ask. She noticed the way his eyes narrowed at her question, as if telling her not to pry in his matter, but then Samantha chose to play dumb as she continued. "Everyone has a reason for being what they are, reasons why they choose to become the bad person in a picture, but in reality, that is only the half-truth. What is your reason?"