Charity Event (3)

The woman before her quickly shoved the drink in Olivia's hand before she began to readjust her corset. Once she was done shifting it around as she pleased, she finally gave a sigh of relief before taking her drink back.

"Gosh, I thought this damned thing would choke me!" The woman continued to rattle on as she took a sip from the wine glass.

Olivia felt lost. She silently watched the bizarre woman as she stood next to her beside the wall.

"What a farce," The woman suddenly spoke once more, "Charity event? Give me a break."

Olivia truly didn't know what was happening, neither did she know whether this woman was talking to her or just in general.

"You, what do you think?" The woman abruptly asked her.

"I'm just a servant, I don't have any thoughts," Olivia was cautious with her words as she didn't know this woman nor what her motives were.

"You can just speak your mind. You need not act so cautious."

Although the woman had seemed to give her a pass, Olivia still remained prudent. Instead, she went for a generic answer.

"Well, it is a charity event, isn't it? I think it's good that the king is giving back to the poor and needy."

"Ah, is that what you think is happening?" The woman sneered as she looked directly at Olivia.

Olivia, on the other hand, didn't really know what this woman wanted from her but nonetheless, she nodded her head.

"What a foolish girl. Give back to the poor? Help the needy? Such a thing will not occur," The woman spoke with contempt as she turned back to face the crowd.

Olivia listened to the woman's words and couldn't help but feel perplexed. She too, thought that such a charity event was most likely a huge farce decorated in silver and gold, but one thing she didn't understand was why this woman had the same thoughts, especially when she was a noble herself.

"Why would the king need to depend on a measly charity event when he could feed the poor himself and help the needy from their dire straits just by using what is left in his treasury."

The woman smiled with scorn as her eyes lifted to gaze at the king on his throne.

"No, my dear. This is a show of flattery for the people. To show the poor commoners at the bottom that those at the top do indeed care for them. That the king has gone as far as to organize this 'charity event' to show that he is with them in their plights."

Olivia turned around to face the woman once more. This time she felt slightly awed by her words.

"Do you think I speak of fallacy?" The woman asked as she gazed at Olivia with a humorous smile.

She dazedly shook her head.

The woman nodded in approval, "Good. Do not fall for these cheap tricks otherwise you'll end up being a blind dog for the rest of your life."

Soon, the pair sunk into a comfortable silence, the lull of the conversations from the crowd filling in the gaps. Both of them mulled over their own thoughts.

After a while, a tall man with a charming and handsome appearance stood a few steps before them, he openly gazed at the woman beside Olivia. His amorous never leaving her.

The woman finally moved off of the wall, "Oh, he looks right for my taste."

"Well, I'm going off to have some fun. It was nice talking to you, young girl. Until we meet again, that is… if we ever do," With those words, she walked over to the man, her arms wrapped around him, before leaving the room with laughter and smiles.

After a while, more and more donations were being called out by the announcer, earning a few cries of astonishment and surprise from the crowd.

Having pondered over the woman's words for quite some time, Olivia had somehow found herself standing towards the front of the hall, the kings throne close in view.

"We have a generous donation from Mr Eli Cromwell! He's decided to auction two of his paintings. As everyone knows, Mr Cromwell is well known for his impressive works of art. To donate them to charity is a noble and just feat!"

Eli had once again found himself beside Olivia once more, albeit with a group of people crowding around him.

Listening to the announcer's open praise, he embarrassedly scratched his nose and gave a laugh, looking towards Olivia, "He's merely spouting empty flattery."

Olivia only gave a small hum before looking back at the two artworks being showcased.

And true to his words, the announcer did not act under false pretence as Eli did indeed have a beautiful hand when it came to such things.

The first painting was of a lone cherry blossom tree, sitting quietly within the vast shrubs of grass, its pink petals softly flying through the unseen breeze. The blue sky greatly complemented the petals that flew around, making the scene look serene and calming.

The second was of a small pure blue lake. In this picture however, the main feature did not lie in the lake itself, but rather the white snow lilies that drifted upon the waves. Because the backdrop was of a dark night sky, with the moon overlooking the scenery, the lilies looked even more whiter and exquisite than ever.

Olivia thought that such paintings were truly worthy of the announcers praise. Not only were they pleasing to look at but when one looked at it, they couldn't help but feel that they were at the scene themselves, as if one could actually see the petals blowing through the wind or the snow lilies slowly drifting away on the lake.

"Your paintings are rather good," Olivia sincerely complimented.

Upon hearing her words, Eli didn't even bother listening to the auction as his eyes brightened.

He quickly composed himself before humbly replying, "This is but a few spares. Thank you for being so kind."

Olivia only gave a small smile before looking around the hall again.

As her eyes surveyed the crowds, trying to quell her increasing boredom, she suddenly felt her breathing cease as her gaze landed on a particular person.

Slowly walking up the stairs, one man in simple and humble clothes, approached the seated king. A few of the people in the crowd curiously looked at the man but nevertheless, soon lost their interest as they turned back around to their companions.

But once Olivia lay her eyes on the man, she could not allow herself to act in the same oblivious manner. The man was different to what he looked like previously.

As he walked back down the stairs, having finished his brief talk with the king, his face looked respectable and courteous. He walked towards the crowds, a servant handing him a wine glass as they walked by. His face was plastered with an amicable smile. One that Olivia did not recognise.

She wished she could say that she did not know who this man was, but she knew that she could not utter the words.

This man, the same man that she had seen in one of her visions.

The preacher.

Such a murderous person was now standing around and mingling with these high status nobles. Olivia almost had the urge to laugh out loud when she thought about it. Would they scream and shout in disgust if they knew what he had done as they now shake hands and laugh with him?

As her eyes continued to be glued on him, she suddenly remembered Alexander. She didn't quite know where he had walked off to, neither did she know when he had left. She simply figured that he had other people to greet and talk to so she didn't bother going to find him in the end. But now that there was someone of interest right in front of her, she couldn't find his whereabouts. She felt slightly frustrated but figured that since the preacher was still here, he probably wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.

"What's wrong?" Eli looked down at her.

His eyes then followed where she was intensely staring at before he managed to see a person.

His eyebrows furrowed minutely while his tone went a few notches lower, "Do you know that man?"

Only after a while did Olivia finally leave the preacher's person and turned back around to face Eli, "No… I do not. I was just lost in my thoughts."

Eli only gazed back at her before giving a slight nod, not speaking more on the issue.

The announcer suddenly paused his usual speech, "Ladies and gentlemen, just now we've come to know that our dear friends, The Order, have decided to donate a year's worth of grains to the southern border!"

Immediately, murmurs and whispers broke out amongst the people. Although a year's worth of grains was not much to these nobles, the amount of money it could potentially yield was nothing short of to joke about. The most surprising thing about what was said is the fact that it came from The Order, this mysterious organisation that had recently seemingly popped up out of nowhere.

Olivia's eyes narrowed as her gaze went back to the now politely smiling preacher.

What exactly were they gaining from doing this?

More importantly, where did they get these resources from?

As she thought about these questions, Olivia couldn't help but remember Alban's words.

["Don't go snooping around for those gold masks any longer. And… be wary of The Order."]

She had already seen, first hand, exactly how The Order operated under closed doors. They definitely weren't how they portrayed themselves to the public.

Looking around the hall however, it seemed that everyone else seemed to think that the organisation was rather a good and just establishment. No one looked to think otherwise.

As Olivia continue to stare intensely at the preacher, he suddenly turned around to face her, as if he could feel her eyes on his person. Olivia jolted slightly as she came face to face with two deep dark brown eyes. Except, she didn't yield and look away, opting to continue looking unabashedly at the man.

The preacher only had a blank look as he observed her back. After a while, his face morphed into a rather disturbingly wide smile as he slightly raised his drink towards her before taking a long sip.

Olivia soon moved her gaze away, her face still indifferent and callous.

"The Order seem to be doing good deeds for the people. My cousin told me that they're known for helping poor families out with their rations in order to give them food to eat," One woman standing near Olivia commented.

The rest of them agreed, a few others adding on other examples or rumours that they had heard.

Eli stayed silent, slowly drinking from his wine glass, every so often looking down at the young girl standing beside him.

Olivia, however, was pondering over her own thoughts. She couldn't help but think that The Order had already portrayed such an image, so much so that even the nobles were praising them for their work.

"Ahh!"

Out of nowhere, a scream suddenly broke out.

It was extremely high pitch causing a few people to quieten and pause, looking around the room. But before they could find the source, another scream broke out. And then another.

Soon, everyone began to scream and shout. A small distance away, Olivia caught sight of the colour red.

A colour that she was extremely familiar with.

"Protect the king!"

"Protect His Majesty!"

The royal guards quickly began to shout commands as they immediately got into position in front of the king and queen.

All the nobles had long began to scramble about, stampeding in a rush to get out of the palace itself. Everyone was in a flurry yet, Olivia could not find the cause of this commotion.

Soon however, all had become clear.

In front of her, on the other side, was someone staring in her direction. Rather than describe them as 'someone', she should really saying 'something'. An animal, if anything.

Their pitch black eyes stared directly at where she was standing. Their mouth was wide open, their saliva dribbling down their chin. Blood was marred all over their face, even worse, it's extremely long claws had bits of flesh still stuck there.

Olivia had once seen something like this before. Except, the image in front was more ghastly and gruesome than ever. The claws were longer than what she had seen, and their face no longer resembled anything like that of this world.

All in all, Olivia could only describe it as one thing. A monster.

From above, a few guards had already begun to shoot arrows at it, the arrows having actually met its target and being lodged deep within their flesh yet the animal looked as if it had felt nothing.

Olivia knew that it was only a matter of time before it came to where she was standing. Behind her, the guards were still carrying on with their duty, diligently guarding the king.

In front of her Eli stood there, rooted to his spot, as did a few other nobles. Others were trying to run away, but a blockade of people rushing to the exit had occurred.

As Olivia continued to look at the animal, her eyes involuntarily blinked.

When she opened them again, it was already half way across the room.

Another blink.

Her eye lids opened once more, only to find it was a mere 20 steps away.

Olivia did not dare to blink again, neither could she afford to. But it was all the same in the end, nothing was going to stop this animal from advancing.

As she turned her head slightly, she could see the face of Eli.

His pale face.

His lips had lost all colour, while his limbs looked extremely stiff. His eyes were wide in terror. An expression Olivia had never seen from him.

But she had no time to dwell on such things. She knew that thing was coming and it would only take a matter of seconds.

And so, in these few seconds, her body had somehow moved on its own, pushing Eli behind her with all her strength while her arm shielded her face.

Suddenly, a disgusting sound broke out in the near vicinity.

It was akin to the sound one made when they took a bite of fresh juicy meat.

Except, Olivia could not appreciate this sound as pain flowed through her entire arm. The animal's sharp fangs sank deeper, inch by inch as the seconds ticked by. Olivia could feel the sweat on her forehead grouping together as she groaned in pain.

She tried to avoid looking at the disgusting sight in front her while her mind went dizzy and her thoughts stagnant.

Although she had felt pain much worse than this, one couldn't ignore the feeling of teeth gnawing through their forearm either.

Such pain was unbearable, even for Olivia.

Right now, she wanted someone to stop the pain for her. To stop her from hurting and to get this abominable monster out of her sight.

Suddenly, only one name came to her mind during her plight.

With a hoarse voice, she mustered all her energy and screamed.

"Alexander!"