Chapter six - six steps to slapping faces.

After about a month, Anna Sue's body gradually got better due to the regular visits from the royal physician who was had a nice temperament and an easy going smile. He had told the queen that she was suffering from amnesia and depression and that the only the people who had triggered her emotions in the past she can remember. She no longer have to lie down in bed. She could stand up and walk around the castle if she wanted in order to regain some of her memories.

But no one knew the truth about her. She wasn't Anna Rose but Anna Sue pretending to have amnesia. As for the depression part,she does not need to act it out because her stoic face can convince anyone.

And each time Julia D'Arcy visits,she made sure that Mary disposses the food and beverages she brings. The crown prince mother visited her once in a while worried, after learning that she was having a hard time remembering people.

The queen had previously kicked up a helluva lot of trouble for her, berating her, before she found out about this amnesia. And of course Anna Sue didn't mind at all and instead of crying like the way Anna Rose do, which she found stupid, she just kept a stoic face as usual.

The queen was rather surprised at her change of attitude which was totally different from the way she was before she "Attempted to commit suicide". So, the queen took it as a sign of depression. She was still totally against the marriage between her son and Anna Rose.

Today, she finally recovered. And on days like this, she decided to go out of the room to observe the environment. She finally went into a giant garden situated close to the castle.

The garden was a very large and covered about one third of the castle's space. It was like a forest. contained a lot of tall canopy trees with various assortment of flowers and vegetables. Amongst the flowers, she noticed that they had planted herbs like ginger, ginseng,mint,garlic and even pepper mint. The funny thing was that all these plantation were for decorating the place and for food but if one studied them carefully, they can also be used as poisons and remedies as well.

She picked up a flower and turned to Mary and asked" Umm...Mary I have little amnesia and can't remember somethings...can you remind me who had ordered for these to be planted here?"

Mary smiled slightly and said" These all belongs to the crown prince who had ordered that they plant all these flowers before you wedded him... it was his gift to you". Anna Sue raised an eyebrow and continued to examine the flower in her hand with a nonchalant look. The flower in her hand was morning glory.

This beautiful flower has a nice fragrance and alluring look but is considered in the 21st century as one of the deadliest flowers known. The name and flower looks enticing but not the seed.

The seed causes diarrhea and serious hallucinations when consumed in large quantities. Even the flower petals are really dangerous when consumed in tea. In most cases, when not treated, it can cause death.

As a genius alchemist in her past life,she was specialized in concussion of poisons, remedies, medicine and even explosives with available natural resources. To her,this morning glory was just a mere child's play when used to poison people. But still,these flowers are her available resources for now.

She tossed it aside and picked up her gown, carefully wadding her way to the other side of the garden. As she moved, she observed that most of the flowers were harmless and used mainly for decorating the castle, but when refined and combined, the chemicals stored in them can clash to cause toxic effects on human beings.

Similarly, the herbs were also innocently used for cooking and would have been excellent for medicines. Of course she said nothing about it and continued to walk deep into the garden.

She finally got to end of the garden. It was a very tall wall that was covered by grasses from a viewer's perspective. She stretched her hand and felt the wall,it wasn't a concrete or stone wall,it was a very thick and high hedge. She turned to her left side saw an opening for the hedge. She walked there and looked hoping to see more land or even herbs, but she was met with another hedge.

"This must be a maze...." She murmured softly, still feeling the hedge. The leaves were very smooth and easy to touch. 'Hmm...I wonder how this previous body managed to get out of this castle'. She pondered. There were castle guards situated anywhere and everywhere. Thinking about finding a way out of here was an impossible feat. Unless...

"If I was a desperate little crown princess finding an escape,where will I go and use as my escape door?" She whispered to herself softly while walking into the maze.

Mary panicked when she saw her going into the maze. Truth to be told, she wasn't worried if the Princess walked into another maze. But of all the maze in her entire life, Her Highness shouldn't enter this particular one. It was deep and dangerous.

The walls were so high that one inside couldn't see the castle but the skies. Even someone in the highest floor of the castle couldn't tell what was inside that maze. In the day time,It had various dangerous insects and snakes that could kill you in mere twenty seconds. Funny enough they never ventured out of the maze.

At night was even worse,there were sounds of wolf's and other beats inside there. it was just too scary in there. Mary could have sworn that she heard a bears growl in there one time that she passed there. Going inside?!! You might as well just get a long rope and a tree to make it easier to commit suicide.

Three years ago, an incident occurred when one of the gardeners of the castle wanted to go inside and trim the leaves very deep inside the maze. He barely lasted for a minute when they finally brought him outside After he crawled his way to the mouth of the maze.

His whole body was covered in injuries and place of his face was the combination of blood flowing from his eyes, pus from his lips and a gory half cut off tongue that had insects coming out. His whole nose was disgusting and one could see the bones of the face after the effect of the poison.

Since then,no dared to venture into that place.

Mary shuddered when she recalled that incident. The only person who had gone alone into the maze and come back unscathed was the owner of the maze. The crown prince himself.

"My lady!!! Please don't go in there,I beg of you!!" She quickly ran to Anna Sue and blocked her way. She was sure that she would be beheaded if anything happens to the Crown princess within her sight. Not that she fears death, but she'd rather be beheaded than for anything to harm Anna Sue.

Anna Sue stopped on her tracks and spoke casually" I do not intend to go in there but to look at the inner hedge colours compared to the outer one". She patted Mary's hands." Don't bother yourself,I will never ever,ever go in there" Except when you are not around at night. Anna Sue planned to explore this place carefully later at night.

Mary sighed in relief patting her chest to calm down. She walked along with Anna Sue back to the garden and continued to observe the flowers. When she turned to look at Anna Sue, she was surprised of her beauty. She was mesmerizing when her brows were furrowed in concentration.

"Mary..."

"Yes my Lady?"

"Can you get someone to bring a bunch of each of these flowers? They're quite lovely to put in my room,don't you think?" Anna Sue asked.

" I agree My Lady, I'll pick them up for you" Mary responded.

"Great!do it now!" Anna Sue beamed and turned away to walk back into the castle.

Mary: "..." I thought she meant later...

......

Anna Sue walked into her room and closed the door. She narrowed her eyes scanning the room for anything odd. She then spotted her breakfast that she hadn't touched and walked to the table. She picked up the tea and lifted to her mouth. She stopped midway and scoffed.' These people would have to do a lot better than this ' She sneered inwardly.

Just by a little whiff,she had detected The Angel's Trumpet flower petals in the tea. This type of flower was way deadlier than the morning glory seeds. It had a dangerous side effects known as the Zombie Side Effects. When injested,it can cause the person to suffer different series of hallucinations and the inability to retain new memories. When continually consumed,such person dies without any trace...

Anna Sue eyes suddenly chilled. ' On a scale of 1 to 100... This person scored -2 in this game ' she thought.

they wanna do something grand? how about her turn.

She nonchalantly slipped a seed into the tea pot she had picked up and studied in the garden, to neutralize the toxicity and sipped the tea while looking outside to observe the scenery outside the window.

There are six steps to slapping faces.

Step one: Make them believe you've taken the bait, and set your own bait.