INTRUDER CAUGHT

Albert was admiring the woman sleeping beside him. The tops of his nose and cheekbones were still red from the explosion of their union. Annabelle finally fell asleep when her body couldn't take the tiredness anymore. Albert immediately covered his wife's exposed body with a thick blanket. He didn't want Annabelle to get cold.

Albert's hand caressed her smooth cheek and also Annabelle's open arm. Tracing the softness of his wife's skin that always excites him. No woman in this world is so perfect as Annabelle.

Albert's hands stopped moving and immediately covered Annabelle with the blanket up to her chest, when someone knocked on his bedroom door. He made sure Annabelle's body was perfectly protected before telling the person knocking on his door to come in. He didn't want anyone to see Annabelle's beautiful body exposed.

"Come in!" said Albert from inside his room.

There was a creak of the bedroom door as Simon entered Albert's room. His eyes glanced briefly at the sleeping Annabelle, then looked down for a moment for fear of being considered rude.

"Sorry to interrupt your rest, My Lord," said Simon with a bow.

"What is it Simon? Have you caught the spy yet?" asked Albert straight to the heart of the matter.

"That's right, my lord. We have arrested two men. They were caught after it was discovered that they secretly wanted to leave the castle. We have taken him to the dungeon. They kept silent even though we had forced them to speak. You can check on them right now," explained Simon.

"Okay, wait for me outside. I'll put my clothes on first," said Albert.

"Okay, My Lord," said Simon who bowed his body back and walked out of Albert's room.

When Simon had closed the door to his room, Albert kissed Annabelle's sweet lips, then got out of bed. He quickly put on his clothes and came out of his room to meet Simon.

Albert's footsteps echoed down the long hallway, the dungeon. Simon also followed Albert's fast steps from behind. The prison was dark and smelled bad. The smell of rat droppings and carcasses pierced the nose. The road to get there is muddy and slippery with moss. Water seeped from the moat outside the castle, apparently making the air in the prison very humid. The air there was stuffy and hot, stifling the chests of anyone who was there.

When Albert entered the prison, his eyes caught something odd. The two of them seemed to have swallowed something from under their clothes.

"SIMON STOP THEM!! QUICKLY OPEN THE DOOR!!" shouted Albert to Simon, running up to them.

Simon quickly opened the prison door, unfortunately what he did was too late. When Simon and Albert entered the prison, the bodies of the two spies were already convulsing on the floor with foaming at the mouth. Albert immediately withdrew the body, trying to spit out the poison they had swallowed. Unfortunately, the poison quickly spread throughout the body and paralyzed the two spies.

Albert cursed loudly when he found out that the two spies had died so quickly in front of his own eyes, before he could extract any information from them. His bodyguards didn't anticipate that the two spies had poison in their coat pockets that they could use to kill themselves.

Albert's fate was felt on the brink. He's at a dead end. He had definitely lost the Golden Land after the deed was lost. Whoever the owner of the deed is, he is the official owner of Golden Land. He also could not reveal the mastermind behind Queen Anne's death, because the person who had the information was already dead on the floor of his prison.

The only way to uncover Queen Anne's death and get the Golden Land back is to make sure he wins in parliament. Otherwise, he had nothing left, except this old castle.

"Clean up the corpse! Don't let anyone know," said Albert, holding back his anger. He finally climbed up and returned to his castle.

***

PLAAAAKKKK....

The sound of a slap echoed in an old, uninhabited castle. Queen Victoria's eyes lit up with anger at the man before her. Falkner who got the anger of Queen Victoria, just looked down in fear with a trembling body.

"You cowardly man! Stupid! what do you mean take the Golden Land deeds from Albert's hands and jeopardize our mission? Because of your ambition to own the Golden Land, the spies we have placed in the castle, are known to Albert. We no longer have eyes and ears there. Now that Louis's castle is so tightly guarded, we can't possibly send any more spies there without them being suspected," Queen Victoria shouted to Falkner.

"My apologies, My Queen. I thought that Albert wouldn't survive the assassination plot and at that time the castle guard wasn't tight either. So I took advantage of the opportunity to steal the Golden Land deed," answered Falkner explaining the reason.

"Because of your foolish actions, you will lose your candidacy. I told you, you just focus on your candidacy and I will fully support you. If you win in parliament, you will easily seize the Golden Land with the power you have. Are you doubting my power so you take your own steps?"

"It's not like that, My Queen. I was foolish to have taken action outside of your plan because of my ambition. I'm sorry, My Queen," said Falkner shakily in front of Queen Victoria. If he is considered a defector from Queen Victoria, it is certain that his head can be separated from his body.

"You useless man!" cursed Queen Victoria, taking her anger out on Falkner.

"Lucas, what about our spies being caught?" Queen Victoria asked the rest of her followers.

"I'm sure they're dead by now. They will not take the risk and survive, because their family is the guarantee," Lucas replied.

"Check again if they are dead. I don't want our plans to fall apart because of the little things we take for granted. Especially being stupid like Falkner."

"Okay, My Queen. You can trust me completely," Lucas said with his head lowered, but his eyes caught Falkner with a triumphant grin. Queen Victoria began to entrust her mission to him. To his delight, Falkner finally showed his own stupidity. Falkner just glared back at Lucas, it was very obvious that the two had a rivalry in winning Queen Victoria's heart.

"I will come up with a new strategy to silence Albert. Violence will only make him even more wary. I will send someone who can paralyze her heart so that she finally comes to her knees before us," said Queen Victoria with her new plan.

"I'm sure he has an insider, My Queen," Lucas said.

"Yes I know. There was someone who always gave him information from within the kingdom. I tasked you with finding that person, Lucas. If we catch him, then Albert will be like a blind man. He just creeps around without knowing where he is going," Queen Victoria told Lucas.

"With all my heart I will carry out your duties, My Queen."

"Good, I hope you can be relied on," said Queen Victoria who then left the old castle and quickly got into her carriage to return to the palace.

"Are you starting to dare to compete with me, Lucas?" Falkner said to Lucas after Queen Victoria left.

"I've always wanted to compete with you Falkner. The Queen trusts you because your wealth is huge, but without it, you are just a coward who can't do anything. Even I believe your loyalty to Queen Victoria, can be doubted. I am much smarter and braver than you. Even I would die for Queen Victoria. So I'm sure, from this second, the Queen will consider me more than you," Lucas replied, then walked away from Falkner.

Falkner could only stand with his jaw clenched, watching Lucas leave. He didn't expect Lucas to have the ambition to beat him. Whereas yesterday he was a person who was not counted in their association.

***