Charity Event (1)

"Here's the recent report," The man handed over a stack of thick papers, his attitude highly subservient and cautious.

The man kept his eyes lowered, not once daring to look into the eyes of the person in front of him.

The shuffling of papers soon rang out through the gloomy room. At one point, the shuffling paused.

"So he died," A smooth and airy voice resounded through the room.

The man quickly cleared his throat and promptly replied according to his knowledge, "Yes, our intel found that he died in Whitchurch, specifically in one of the alleyways in Orchard Road."

The person continued to sit there quietly, creating a rather suffocating atmosphere for the man.

After a while he spoke up, his voice steady and calm, "If I remember well, he was a dutiful member and was very dedicated and resolute. What a pity."

The man did not add anything on and continued to listen closely to the other person's words with rapt attention.

"Of course, we must not let his sacrifice be in vain. The Order will surely pay his murderers back two folds for we are the hand that wields the sword of justice."

At the sound of his words, the man solemnly stood up straighter and raised his right fist to thump it twice against the left side of his chest, causing two dull thuds to resound in the room.

The person picked up the stack of papers and flicked through them once more while asking, "And what of the other High Lords?"

"Not much has occurred. Everything is running smoothly," The man replied with a low voice.

"Hmm. I heard the charity event is happening tonight."

"Yes. Do not worry High Lord, we have sent one of our members to attend and have adequately prepared," The man affirmed.

The person, rather the High Lord, did not add more on the topic, merely tapping against the golden mask covering his face.

The High Lord sank in to thought for a moment before absentmindedly muttering, "Say, do you remember those witch siblings that caused a ruckus in the capital a few years ago?"

An expression of loathing and disgust appeared on the man's face for a short moment, before quickly morphing back into its expressionless state.

"I wonder what they're up to these days. They haven't spoken for a while."

The man quickly took note of what his master was implying, "I'll immediately get someone to investigate."

The room sank back into silence.

After a while, the High Lord placed the stack of papers on the long wooden table, "That is all, you are dismissed."

The man did not dare to dally around and bowed his head while thumping his chest twice before promptly leaving the golden masked person alone in the room.

On the other side, Olivia sat in the chair as she watched the vampire across the room. Her chin resting on her palm, while she leaned against the back of the chair.

Currently, Alexander was putting on the finishing touches to his outfit. His new and freshly tailored suit, fit his broad and tall body like a glove. His hair was neatly done and glistened under the golden rays of the sun as they peaked through the curtains.

Olivia couldn't help but continue to keep her brown eyes trained on him. This man before her was truly very handsome. His long legs were especially accentuated by the black trousers, while his suit jacket was snugly fit to his broad chest. Olivia could only continue to flit her eyes up and down his person.

"Are you done staring or have you not had enough?" Alexander's deep voice snapped her out of her extremely obvious ogling.

Olivia's cheeks turned slightly red as they burned from embarrassment. She quickly looked up at him only to find that the vampire's eyes weren't on her at all and rather, he was busy fiddling with his cufflinks.

She took the time clear her throat before swiftly changing the topic, "Are a lot of people attending?"

Alexander did not call out her obvious change in topic and merely replied, "Of course. Almost all of the nobles in Whitchurch as well as beyond, will be scrambling to attend."

"Because of the King?"

"Not in particular. Rather, it's a show of reputation and wealth," Alexander explained as he moved his hands up to fix his collar.

"Oh, I forgot that's all rich people care about. Why on earth would anyone be there purely in the name of charity?" Olivia sarcastically mumbled.

Alexander raised an eyebrow, amused, "Indeed."

Soon the pair walked downstairs, one after the other.

Outside the door, two carriages stood by. One was especially large and had the family emblem, which consisted of twin snakes coiled around a silver sword, on the side where every person could view. On the other hand, the other carriage looked pitiful and small, especially so when compared to the grandeur of the other.

Before Olivia could open her mouth to ask, Alexander beat her to it, "The other carriage is for the Givers."

Olivia closed her open mouth. She only gave Alexander a profound glance before stepping towards her pitifully small and plain carriage.

What a joke. Why would she voluntarily torture herself to sit with the De Vere's?

Alexander watched on as the young girl quickly scurried away to her carriage. He could almost guess her thoughts as a small smile graced his face before his eyes shifted over to his own carriage.

His previous smile soon morphed into an indifferent expression and was nowhere to be found once he entered the carriage and faced the other De Vere members.

No one spoke a word. If Olivia sat here, she would definitely feel that the silence was extremely suffocating and intense. Thankfully, she had cleverly chosen to sit with the other harmless Givers.

In the other carriage, once Olivia stepped inside, she found there were only two other Givers sitting there. Quietly, she sat on one side alone as she sat across from the other two. Both were pale, just as Olivia had first seen them. One difference between the two, however, was that one of them had a white glaring bandage wrapped around their neck, while the other didn't. Once she had finished observing the two, her eyes shifted away.

The carriage ride was silent. Only the sounds of the wheels rolling over the gravel on the road resounded through the small box they were sitting in. It was not that Olivia had never interacted with the two, it was just that there was not much to talk about so all that she could do was to lean against her seat while she rested her eyes for a while.

Not long after, they had finally arrived. The two Givers stepped out first, leaving Olivia to be the last to leave.

Once her feet stood firmly on the floor, she looked up to find that Alexander was staring back at her. Not wanting to delay, Olivia quickly walked over to him. The De Vere members already a few paces ahead.

In fact, it was not only the De Vere household that had arrived at this time. Hordes of carriages continued to pull in every few minutes.

Olivia looked up at the building in front of her. No, she should correct herself and say palace rather. Indeed, the palace in front of her eyes was exactly what she had imagined to be, if not even more grander than her simple thoughts and imagination could ever muster. The walls adorned in gold, silver and white were quite dazzling to the eyes as if one was staring directly at the sun. As if to show off to the whole world, not one inch was plain or unimpressionable.

The large golden gates were wide open as it welcomed the trudging of the horses pulling the carriages chock full of people behind them.

Olivia could not help but look around, lost in her observations.

Alexander looked down at her and made sure to keep an eye on the girl lest she wander off in a daze, "Shocked? Astonished? Envious?"

Olivia stopped glancing around and quickly looked up at the sound of his voice.

"Would envy make me the queen?" Olivia quipped.

"Tsk, tsk. Dear, such things should not be said out loud or before you know it, your head would be rolling," Alexander's expression remained stoic yet his voice had a teasing tone hidden within.

"I'm afraid I've already tried that yet, here I am talking to you," Olivia retorted back with a silly smile on her face.

Alexander looked down at her and could feel his expressionless face almost crack. Nonetheless, he tightened his jaw and forcibly held down the corners of his mouth that wanted to smile along with her.

Soon, the pair finally walked into the room where the charity was being held. Countless people were standing around while servants were weaving through the crowds trying their best to serve everyone refreshments. Inside the room wasn't any different than the outside. All in all, Olivia realised something. The country of Esnaria was truly the country that birthed gold.

Quite a lot of nobles came towards the De Vere members as they exchanged greetings and pleasantries. As usual, Olivia silently stood behind Alexander, except this time she wasn't alone as the other Givers also stood beside her albeit with lowered heads.

"It's been a while," A middle-aged man came to greet Alexander. His wife smilingly held on to the crook of his arm.

Olivia looked over the man when he walked closer only to find him familiar. A crease formed between her brows as she racked her brain to recall who he was.

Once she caught sight of the young man trailing behind the husband and wife, she suddenly remembered a face that hadn't popped up in her mind for a long time. The same face that had somehow, inadvertently, brought her freedom.

The young face of the late Hervey Greville.

If so, the young man who looked similar to him, must be his brother Collin. The same man she had seen in the Greville household a few months ago, who had barged into the room to talk disdainfully about his younger brother who just had passed away.

Therefore, the husband and wife that stood there, talking cheerfully with Alexander, must be Mr and Mrs Greville.

Olivia's gaze roamed over Collin's, the face that looked most comparable to Hervey's. She could not help but remember his cold corpse that was dragged out by Glenn once it had run out of its uses.

Except, selfishly she was thankful. Thankful in that, if not for Hervey's death, she would've never had the chance to clinch an opportunity to escape. From this, she could already tell how twisted her mind had become over the years.

"Once again, thank you for working on the case of our son's death. It's all thanks to your hard work that our son is able to rest in peace," Mr Greville took the chance to bury Alexander in verbal flattery.

The pureblood, however, did not reply and merely nodded his head.

Of course if one saw this, naturally, they would bid farewell and walk away yet this did not seem to be the case.

"Recently, I had the fortune of coming across some good news. I heard from merchants that the salt trade has hit a new boom as of late. Perhaps Mr Alexander would be inter-"

"Mr Greville, I believe such things are to be discussed at the appropriate time and place," Alexander harshly interrupted, causing Mr Greville to swallow the rest of the words that lay at the tip of his tongue.

The expression on the old man's face looked as if he had swallowed a fly.

After a few more pleasantries, the Greville's awkwardly shifted away, walking to another crowd of people.

Looking around the room, Olivia did not of course, recognise many people. It had only been a few short months that she had spent around Alexander, and that alone was not enough to be familiar with even a third of the people roaming around the room.

"Alexander and Miss Olivia!"

Eli walked over to them with a smile on his face. He wore a grey suit matched with small silver cufflinks. His blonde hair was neatly combed, so much so that Olivia could not find even one strand out of place.

Olivia returned his greeting along with Alexander.

"I just noticed the Greville's earlier and thought to wait for a while before coming over," Eli's eyes flitted down to Olivia as he mentioned them, as if rousing deep memories of the day he first met her, his eyes glazed over slightly.

Olivia gave a perfunctory smile but did not say anything.

Meanwhile, Alexander continued to look at Eli who was preoccupied with trying to make conversation with Olivia as she smiled back at him with her radiant eyes.

As they continued to talk, no one had noticed that the wine glass held in Alexander's hand slowly began to form a small crack at the base.