His Queen From Two Worlds

CHAPTER 4: INVESTIGATION

“Sorry to keep you waiting, grandmother,” the crown prince’s voice said as soon as he stepped into the large dining room.

The queen was waiting for the couple at the head position. She turned her head; her grandchildren came into her view. Yes, she considers Zelda as her grandchild too. They walked towards her holding hands; their fingers interlinked.

After the initial greetings, the were seated close to her. They waited until the servants left before Lilian started talking about the incident.

“I’m sorry, Grandma,” Zelda said, “But it was my fault, grandma. I was acting stubborn.”

“It was not. With the locket that I gave you, it is impossible for someone to recognize you” Ray budged in, unable tot see that disappointed look in her emerald orbs. He glanced at her before continuing, “If anything, there must be something wrong with the locket. By the way, leave it in my room. I will take care of it later”

“Protective much” Lilian said with a hint of a smile on her face, eliciting chuckles from the couple. Lilian smiled, a thought suddenly passed through her brain, after watching their worn-out faces. She was sure that Ray was exhausted and Zelda would be too, after tonight’s concert. “Right! How about you two taking a few days off from work? Starting tomorrow?”

Ray and Zelda looked at them before they both exchanged glances. Queen Lilian, noticing the facial expressions, understood that they might need some time to think.

They waited till the queen took her first bite of the new dish, then followed her. Both the queen and the future queen were enjoying the lunch, speaking in hushed tones to get a certain someone in their thoughts.

“Yes, grandmother. I guess they will ask me to perform for the year-ending concert this time. I wonder how it will go through. I mean we still have many months left” The redhead spoke, before taking another bite. There were many rules about the lunch etiquette but they only care about it when it was official lunches.

“I wish you all the best, honey” The queen wished, her old gray eyes softened seeing Zelda enjoying the lunch.

“Thank you, grandmother” Zelda was determined to perform her best. She debuted as a singer when she was eighteen. Now she was twenty-five. Seven years passed since she took this path but these people who were never bonded to her by blood always supported her, going against every rule that was written.

“Maybe the day after tomorrow” Ray suddenly said, earning confusing gazes from his grandmother and his finance.

“What do you mean, Ray?” Zelda and the queen stopped eating. Ray went out of his thoughts and turned his head to look at the ladies. They had that inquiring look on their faces.

“Sorry,” he said and gave an overall glance. “I was talking about your suggestion, grandmother. That few days off work”

The queen looked visibly happy when she heard her grandson mentioning the small break she thought of for the couple.

“So? What do you think? After today’s concert, Zelda would let the real exhaustion sink into her body. You just returned from an exhausting business trip”

Ray nodded his head in agreement to his grandmother and waited until her grandmother finished. “I agree, we need some rest but maybe from the day after tomorrow if my investigation and interrogation continue.”

The words investigation and interrogation brought sober expressions to the cheerful faces of the queens. Right. Zelda almost got killed last night and if it wasn’t for her quick thinking and reflexes, they might be waiting for her in the hospital wing.

They needed to investigate this matter privately because it was just an accident in the eyes of the public. In addition to that, they didn’t want to alert their enemies.

“First, we need to find out whether the car was damaged before or if it was deliberately tampered with”, Zelda suggested, because she wanted to think positively and that it was a simple coincidence.

“Too much of a coincidence, Zelda”, Ray looked at her. “It is as if it was planned. Overreacting to a simple comment? There are worse things than a simple comment in a car racing club. As if they know, you wouldn’t back down from a challenge. You would never back down from a challenge, and they did exactly that.”

“But I was in my disguise. Less than ten people know how I look in my disguise. If they did target me, how did they even recognize me? All the people who know my disguise are people who know the royal secret and all these people are fiercely loyal to the throne”, Zelda said freely when she finally noticed the other servants were no longer in the room. They were ordered to leave by Butler Albert.

“That was what I would like to know” A grim look marred on the crown prince’s face and his countenance went dark at the thought of someone trying to kill Zelda. A snowball’s chance in hell.

“Be careful both of you” The queen sighed at the couple and always prayed for their safety.

___________________________________________________________________

After the lunch, they immediately needed to leave because there were still responsibilities waiting for them. After wishing the queen, they immediately rushed out to their waiting vehicles.

Zelda noticed that there were more members than the usual members of her security team. Both of them were walking holding each other’s hands. Noticing the subtle change in her security team, she looked at the crown prince when they reached her car.

“Is it just me or has the members of my security team increased?” She asked giving him a suspicious look.

Halting in their steps, the crown prince turned to Zelda to face him. Without another word, he pulled her into a hug, hiding his face on her shoulder. He didn’t want to let her go. If she agreed, he would turn around and march into his room without looking back, but he knew it was just his wishful thinking.

“I don’t want to take any chances” he mumbled on her shoulder. His breath was on her exposed shoulder.

“Come on” Zelda tried to pull herself from the hug, but he just hugged her tighter. “You’re acting clingy today, Ray. We both have matters to attend to.” She wanted to complain about the extra security but after pulling up a stunt like that, she knew she wouldn’t be able to escape this.

The bodyguards were surprised by their crown prince. Normally, it was their future queen who would act clingy and stubborn. Their crown prince rarely acted like that. And in those rare situations, it was their future queen who would scold him and this day was one such rare day.

Ray, knowing he couldn’t let her have any more delays, pulled back himself and gave her a quick peck on her lips. He couldn’t give her a full kiss because they were sore. Everyone turned around, giving them privacy.

“I hope the day ends soon,” he said, looking forward to the small break his grandmother suggested.

“Me too,” Zelda said, her eyes shining with happiness at him.

Ray, with a small smile on his face, pulled himself away from her and opened the luxurious car door for her. He helped her to get into the car. Once she was in, she opened the glass door, looking at him to continue.

“I will attend your show and I will try to end these things soon” He really doesn’t want to leave her.

“Hm,” Zelda nodded her head, satisfied.

He stepped back and waited till her car and the security were away from his sight. His light expression turned dark as he hissed “Let’s go, Ralph!”

He had some pests to kill in the meantime.

“Updates from Zelda’s side,” The crown prince asked, his head lowered, scrolling through the iPad. When Zelda fell asleep, he informed his head of security to start the investigation regarding the incident before night and while they were asleep, the results of the investigation were already mailed by his head of security.

“Lady Barclay has just ended her final rehearsal and is now on her way to getting ready for the actual performance” Ralph’s monotonous voice reported from the co-driver's seat.

“Inform me once the concert starts”, the crown prince instructed, without raising his head from the device as he kept checking his mails. Since he was planning to take a break, he might as well complete some of his work in advance.

“As you wish, Your Highness,” the chief of security replied, noting himself mentally.

It might look like Ray was overprotective, but he had to. He was a royal. The heir to the throne. She was a noble and his fiancée whom the petty and old-minded nobles never liked because of their old-fashioned thoughts. Many so-called nobles would kill her and send someone who acts like a ‘lady’ from their family as the crown prince's fiancée just for power. For them, more than money, power matters.

After he woke up, he noticed a new mail from Ralph. According to the results, the four who provoked Zelda and challenged her for the race were about to run away. But the interesting thing was, there was another party who was waiting for them. Whether to help them escape or to assassinate them so that there would be no evidence left. As for the other group, they left after watching the four getting caught by the crown prince’s team. They thought no one had seen them, but the crown prince's team acted like they didn’t detect any other suspicious people.

The moment Zelda left the palace, he had been asking for updates from Ralph, who was getting them from the pop star’s security team. Ray knew it would take him some time before he calmed down. That was why the thought of this short vacation looked even more special to him now. He decided to finish this incident by the time Zelda’s show started because he promised her to attend her concert. He wanted to finish his investigation, take a few days off and reassure himself that everything was going normal in their lives.

“PLEASE!!! LEAVE US!! MERCY, YOUR HIGHNESS!!!” One of the four men who were caught cried out in desperation, watching one of his partners being thrown onto the wall by the crown prince.

They were in a small mansion owned by the future king where the prince’s team brought the four men who tried to assassinate the future queen. They are currently in the basement of the mansion. Men in black suits stood all around the room without even flinching at the prince’s anger. Their chief was behind the crown prince and until he or the prince commanded them, they wouldn’t budge from their positions.

Ray angrily turned around, his black button-up shirt a bit crumpled, his ash-blonde hair out of its place. “The moment you tried to attack her was the moment when you lost every kind of mercy from me!” He glared at the man who begged him for mercy.

“But we didn’t do anything, your highness! We didn’t even know why you kidn*pped us!” The guy yelled again.

Everyone froze. Even the bodyguards started sweating inside. While Ralph showed his expressionless face, he felt like punching and applauding the man’s guts to face the angry prince. He wouldn't even dare to face the fully angered prince on his own unless he had the queen or Lady Barclay by his side. Quite childish but very advantageous.

Ray let out a mirthless laugh, glaring at the man. He slowly stepped towards him, his every footstep started reverberating, the thumping of his heart suddenly increasing. There was no other noise in the room, even the groans of the man who was the second one to get beaten by the prince were silenced by the heavy tension in the room. His gut was telling him that it was all over. That his life was in the hands of the prince who was akin to a devil right now, walking towards him.

Ray, while standing, grabbed a fistful of the man’s dirty and unwashed hair.

“AHHHHHH!!!!!” The man screamed in pain but couldn’t do anything since he was tied up. His hands were tied up to the back of his torso.

Normally, beating people up or torturing someone would be done by the security team, since they were the prince’s subordinates and couldn’t let the prince dirty his hands. If the incident was a plan and if there was a mastermind behind it, Ray would still let his security do things for him. But for these bastards, they were directly involved in the issue. While the mastermind was the one who gave orders.

Ray pulled his head and said in a low growling tone “But you didn’t seem surprised to get kidn*pped by my men.”

The man’s eyes widened in fear when he realized that it was over. They couldn’t disguise themselves anymore. He understood what the prince meant.

If someone were suddenly kidn*pped by a group of people, their first reaction would be to ask who they were. But they said that they didn’t do anything to anyone.

Their second mistake was that they were expecting the prince. After all, they did the crime and since they got the information that the royals knew the truth about the incident, they guessed the crown prince would try to capture them.

Their third mistake was mentioning the car when the crown prince himself didn’t talk about the topic.

He knew they were done for. No one will save them. Not even them.

‘My life

My game

My rules

Who are you?

Don’t you love to put a sticker on me?

Cause you say you know who I am

But really,

Who you are?

Zelda’s unique voice mingled with the fan’s loud cheers and chorus could be heard even outside the dome where the one-day concert was taking place. Many fans who couldn’t buy the tickets, were enjoying the live stream.

Winter was going to come soon. The air was getting chillier every day. The day was warm, but the night was just becoming colder and colder. When Zelda found out that her fans were outside and waiting, she ordered some hot beverage services for the staff and the fans.

On the stage, in a bright red outfit, showing off her excellent vocals on stage with the side dancers dancing in the background. Her beautiful crimson hair, a bit darker than her dress shade, was tied up in a high ponytail.

The fans were singing along with her in her powerful performance. It was getting harder for the concert security to control the hyperactive crowd. It was as if they were going out of control or trying to push the security away because they all knew not to offend this half-royal lady and the dotting crown prince. They were just singing, dancing, cheering, and jumping in that small area where they were standing. It was getting harder for the security to see if someone was getting hurt.

Zelda, on the other hand, was giving her best so that her fans could enjoy the show. Zelda was not just popular in her country. She was an international star, singer, songwriter, musician, and producer.

In a country that was still living in the thoughts of restricting women to very limited careers, the retired queen who took the throne again when the former king died and the future queen who would rule the kingdom along with the future king, was a fresh breath of air. Queen Lilian, because of the family power behind her, was able to pressure the king about women's rights and liberty. Thus, she was able to give half of the freedom the female population deserved. After her son became the king, everything changed. For good, of course. When the responsibility of the throne fell into her hands once again, she constantly supported women's empowerment and married women's education. The result? Every girl was able to choose a career of her choice, not just restricting themselves to art and health fields. To strongly show her stand, every time her future granddaughter-in-law released a new album, she attended the first day of her tour in their country.

The common public accepted the change positively and supported their queen at her every step. Even the nobles who had been loyal to the throne were also happy with the queen’s decision. Many of them were open-minded people who felt pity when they saw their smart daughters, limiting themselves and losing their self-confidence.

“UGH!!!”

He was the third member of the four men who were captured by the crown prince. He fell to the ground because he couldn’t take the punches anymore.

Ray was sweating because of continuously beating and torturing them. He puffed after the person fell to the ground. Ralph looked like he wanted to stop the future king, but he knew the crown prince had to let it out. He could only sigh without showing much emotion in his face and walked towards the crown prince, to hand him some tissues.

“Your Highness,” he said, showing the tissue box in his hand.

“Hm,” Ray nodded, taking some tissues and wiping his hand with them, hatefully glaring at the last guy. The one who begged for mercy which he wouldn’t get no matter what.

Slowly wiping his hands, the ash-blonde-haired prince sat on his heels in an intimidating manner looking straight into the eyes of the last guy. The last person was quivering in fear and bent his head down without looking at the daunting electric blue eyes glaring at him.

“If you spit out what they were going to do, I might show you some mercy” The prince offered in a low threatening tone.

The moment he saw the four of them, he read them. The three whom he beat up would not open their mouths, and he knew they would rather die than let their plans be spoiled. To frighten the last guy, he tortured them in front of his eyes because he could sense that the last man treasured his life. His life was more important than anything.

The man’s eyes widened in surprise when he heard that. It was such a tempting offer, but what was the price? Even if the crown prince let him escape, would he be able to escape from them? But what else could he do now? He was done for. There was no way out. When he saw his partners getting beaten up, it left him with trauma. He had recently joined the gang. In one word, he was unfamiliar.

“You know you don’t have much time, right?” The prince reminded him again.

“I.......I...... I....I.... don’t know much about this” The person hesitantly spoke up, slowly raising his head but still couldn’t meet his eyes.

“We are but only a small part of the gang. Someone offered us some money and showed us a picture of a blonde woman. They asked us to make it look like it was an accident due to her recklessness. That was what we were ordered to do. The first person whom His Highness beat up was informed that if the plan was to fail, then he would be informed by the gang head the next plans. I heard it by mistake that they were planning to do it when his highness was away from the lady. We don’t even know who the lady was, since the crown prince is engaged to Lady Barclay.”

Ray’s eyes turned colder when he heard the part away from him, as he stood up. Right now, he was away from her. The thought made him go crazy inside his head. He controlled himself and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He still needed to dig deeper into these bastards.

“Ralph” His voice was heavy and strained from controlling himself.

“Your Highness”. In the next second, Ralph was behind the crown prince to accept any order given to him.

“Go and protect her along with your team,” he said in a deadly calm voice.

Ralph was not at all surprised by the order. Every time there was an accident or any information regarding the attacks on Lady Barclay, he was ordered to protect her when his highness couldn’t be by her side. But it was never as serious as they were facing now.

“But your highness, your safety--”

“You should know by now,” Ray said, his tone still having the calmness but with a hint of emotion. “She is my life. Without her, I wouldn't be able to survive.”

Ralph bowed his head. Of course, he knew. He saw the prince growing up. He knew where and how the future ruler's story started. How distressed they both would be when they saw the other in bad health or danger.

“I will protect Lady Barclay with my life”, Ralph agreed. “But don’t leave the mansion until I return, Your Highness.”

“Fair enough”. Ray was okay with it. After all, he knew, Ralph was playing with his job right now.