The Capture Target Only Loves Magic

1-6. The New Maid

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 ________Annie_______

The maid nervously touched her strawberry blonde hair, trying to tuck away any unruly strands behind her ear. She gulped. Her emotional state partly showed in her expression as she looked at the guards standing in front of the door. They didn't move, looking coldly at her. She stepped back and bit her lip.

"Your name?" One of the guards asked her bluntly.

"It's Annie."

He nodded as he heard her reply. After digging into his pocket, the guard lifted some parchment to eye level, then stood aside with his spear, allowing her to walk forward. He beckoned to his colleagues next to him, giving them a signal. "Let her in."

The guards parted.

Annie stepped forward with apprehension on her brow.

"Her Highness shall be meeting with you shortly." the guard said. His eyes were on her as she knocked. It was a hesitant knock. Annie gulped again and shivered. This wasn't a very good situation. It was certainly not a situation she wanted to be in. Why was she here? She wondered dully.

A sorrowful voice resounded through the air, and then it was silent. As if there was no sound in the first place, it was quiet. It was something that would bring shivers to the average person's spine.

The doors opened slowly.

The inside of the room was very dark, with only dim lighting that looked like candlelight. Annie leaned forward timidly into the bedroom. It looked like a scene in storybooks written to scare little children, almost everything was disorderly or broken. Sitting on the edge of the bed was a figure. It was a woman sitting on the blood red mattress.

She had messy blonde hair and bloodshot eyes as if she hadn't slept for long. Her clothes were beautiful but slightly disheveled, lace rumpled, string poking out of the buttons. The woman's agony showed through her makeup, in her expression and her dead eyes. It was like viewing a dying snake, Annie thought to herself. Scary.

"Your Highness," Annie whispered and bowed as deeply as she could. Seeing a hint of displeasure, she immediately fell to the ground and knelt. She shivered. The queen raised her pale thin hand. The doors closed.

Annie closed her eyes, then opened them again. Her doors to freedom closed shut.

"What is your name?"

The words felt like a heavy ax on her neck. Annie opened her mouth. "It's Annie," she replied. The Queen didn't move for a while, watching her while Annie quivered. Her cold angular face seemed sharp as if it could cut through metal.

The Queen's eyes moved away. Annie relaxed. She breathed sharp but controlled breaths, trying to conceal her anxiety, though she guessed it wouldn't work. And it wouldn't matter at this point.

At that second, the queen collapsed onto the bed, spreading her elegant arms to expose her white wrists and neck. They were really white and delicate, peeking between her sleeves. Annie looked away.

"My maid," she murmured. "Annie, was it? Can I trust you?"

It was a question from utterly nowhere. Feeling startled, Annie started to wonder if the queen was sane. How should she reply? With a lie? Or with the truth? She tensed, ruffling the edges of her maid dress. "I-"

"I can't, can I?" The Queen sighed. "It's expected. Nobody is on my side."

She looked down at the body and gazed complexly at her belly. Was it what she was thinking, Annie wondered. Her eyes also naturally followed.

"Perhaps my condition right now is a good thing. At least I wouldn't have to sleep with that despicable-" her frail voice stopped. A trickle of red flowed from her lip, just a tiny smudge of blood.

Annie twiddled with her fingers. Her condition. The queen, she couldn't be...She had given birth just three months ago. It took for the physicians to be able to detect pregnancy. If she had another child... that meant the queen was able to enjoy nearly no rest after the first birth. This definitely wasn't a good thing.

What should she say? Congratulations to the Queen for another royal pregnancy? The Queen must have a very good relationship with the King? But these were all lies. And looking from the haggard face of the Queen, lies were not what she wanted right now. Annie felt conflicted.

The Queen drawled on, drunk on dementia and depression, "That despicable man. That utterly. Despicable." She covered her face with her hands, giving off a sickly and agitated feeling.

Annie looked around the room, wanting to escape, but finding no exit except the closed door at the front, the way surrounded by broken pottery and glass. What had she called her for? Why was Annie here?

"And as you can see," the woman said, "I cannot take care of my beloved second child in this state."

Annie couldn't guess where the conversation was going. She shrank back, fear wracking her twenty-year-old body. She gulped.

The Queen suddenly smiled. "Take care of him," she said, her voice suddenly turning so much warmer and prettier than Annie felt like it was all an illusion. The illusion was quickly shattered, "Make sure he doesn't die. I have a couple of ah, 'acquaintances' who won't treat him very well."

Her expression was smiling, but her eyes were cold. Annie stared at the Queen, not being able to understand. A maid to a prince? Her?

"What if I fail?" she whispered to herself, but the queen must have caught on. Her smile instantly disappeared. Annie's bones turned cold.

She now had a goal and a job. Annie stepped out of the Queen's chambers with a white parchment scroll in her hand. Her face stunned, she wobbled out with an uneven step, still unable to process what was going on with her life, not knowing it would change forever.