Chapter 102: Chapter 102
Ivy’s Point of View
"I have no idea if my father, and Finn passed the examination. I should find out if they passed." I told Luna.
"They passed, Ivy. Both of them." Luna Helena’s excited voice filled the bedroom.
I sat up instantly, throwing back the blankets as my heart did a joyful flutter. "Mother, truly? The preliminary results from the Crescent Moon Pack have officially arrived?"
"Yes, your father, Edwin, and your younger brother, Finn, have both passed the preliminary exam with flying colors!" Luna Helena laughed softly, squeezing my hands
"Thanks the goddess." I let out.
"The final exam will take place in half a year, and they are officially qualified to participate. Your family is rising, my clever girl."
"Thank the heavens," I breathed, a genuine smile breaking across my face. Knowing that my father’s hard work with Professor Aldwin was paying off made me very happy.
THE NEXT MORNING:
Luna Helena returned home early the next morning, leaving an entire legion of guards to reinforce our security grid. True to her promise, Bella came to accompany me every single day at the estate house.
"I am so incredibly sorry, Ivy," Bella sighed, her fingers nervously snapping a spoon as we sat inside the kitchen.
"I blame myself completely for the previous accident. If I hadn’t dragged you out for that walk, those rogue wolves would have never had the chance to deploy that child against your belly. I dare not mention going out for a walk ever again." Bella said.
"Bella, stop torturing yourself. The enemy was already lurking around. It had nothing to do with our walk. I let her know... I didn’t want her to feel bad."
She nodded, letting out a smile.
"Besides, if we are trapped inside, we might as well make use of the manor’s stores. Let us study the art of farmhouse cooking together." I said.
*
*
*
The two of us spent the next two weeks transforming the estate kitchen into our own culinary laboratory, studying traditional recipes and experimenting with rare mountain spices. The dynamic was perfect: I gave the creative ideas and medicinal flavor profiles, and Bella did the actual physical work.
"Add a pinch of dried star-anise to the wild boar broth, Bella," I instructed, leaning over the steaming pot. "It will completely cut through the gaminess and warm the core meridians."
"How do you know all this Ivy?" Bella asked. I laughed at her confused state.p
"Like this?" Bella asked, carefully measuring the spice into her palm before stirring the stew.
After more than ten days of this intense practice, Bella’s cooking skills improved a lot. Because Dominic was strictly eating a light healing diet, most of the rich farmhouse dishes Bella made were enthusiastically tasted by Prince Riven, who always praised us with sincerity.
"This pastry is magnificent, Lady Bella," Prince Riven murmured that evening, setting down his fork as he looked up from. "The capital chefs could never replicate this deep, earthy warmth."
"The pastry is excellent, Your Highness," I chimed in with a small smirk touching my lips.
I looked at my friend, purposely raising my voice to tease her. "But you must know, Prince Riven, a woman’s culinary arts are a powerful strategy. I always bluntly point out the shortcomings of a dish, because I firmly believe that to truly capture a man’s heart, you must first successfully capture his stomach."
The moment the words left my mouth, Bella’s face turned red. After hearing this, she blushed, and quickly glanced toward Prince Riven before dropping her gaze to her slippers. Prince Riven didn’t snap or look away... instead, a soft, amused smile danced in his lips as he watched her fluster.
I sensed the sudden charge in the air, realizing that the two of them might truly have mutual feelings for each other. Later that night, I went into Dominic’s master bedchambers, my mind was already pieceing together a matchmaking scheme.
"Dominic, your friend Riven is completely smitten with Bella," I whispered, sitting on the edge of his mattress. "I planned to let you test the eldest prince’s attitude tomorrow to see if he is serious about a future union."
"I will probe his mind, my love," Dominic smiled, wrapping a warm hand around my waist. But his expression instantly turned serious as he pulled a scroll from beneath his pillow.
"But first, we have far greater news from the pack. My father has sent guards to bring back news from our network, and they have finally found the true culprit who wanted to harm you."
"Who was it?"
"It was Mrs. Margot," Dominic revealed, his voice dropping to a dark, furious tone.
"What? Mrs. Margot?" I frowned deeply, my mind analyzing the facts. "How did the guards bypass her security to confirm the order? Mrs. Margot is incredibly paranoid."
"The investigation method was brilliant. I had our trusted palace pharmacist secretly replace the sedative pills Mrs. Margot takes daily for her anxiety with a customized drug containing hallucinogenic ingredients." Dominic explained, and I listened.
"Then, I had several of our stealthiest maids take turns listening to Mrs. Margot’s sleep talk on the roof every single night." He continued.
"Sleep talk?" I gasped softly.
"Yes," Dominic nodded. "Under the influence of the hallucinogens, her mind fractured at night. Mrs. Margot repeatedly shouted in her sleep that she wanted to kill you and the bastard child in your belly."
I’m not shocked one bit, but I never expected her to go this far.
"I judged entirely from her intermittent sleep talk that the tenant boy ambush was her doing. To be thorough, I also put the exact same hallucinogens into the sedative pills of Bastian and his mother, but the maids did not hear any abnormalities or confessions from them."
"But Dominic, sleep talk is fickle," I argued, my instincts rising. "How can we confirm this to the high council? Can this be used to convict her?"
"No," Dominic admitted frankly. "This is only a tactical inference, Ivy. It cannot be used as evidence in front of the Alpha King’s representatives. But at least we officially know which direction to take our blades, and we know exactly who is holding the strings."
"If Mrs. Margot is this desperate to hurt me, and my unborn children, it makes no sense unless the stakes are infinite. Dominic, I must once again raise my bold speculation from the the other day." I said.
"What speculation?" He asked.
"Is it possible that Bastian may not be your father’s biological son at all? What if he is actually Alpha’s younger brother’s son... the child of Lord Khalid?" I asked.
Dominic let out a low sigh, his gaze locking onto mine with a profound weight. "I had the exact same thought, Ivy. I asked my father about this directly before we left the pack, and I received a positive answer from him. He insists Bastian carries the true Silvermoon bloodline."
I still find this unsettling, but what can I say? I listened, maybe I was overthinking.
"But whether my father is being blinded by family pride or hiding a greater secret, I decided we should not expose Mrs. Margot’s sleep talk for the time being. We must cast a very long line to catch the big fish." He said.
"Alright." I concurred.
"We must let them think their ambush succeeded in terrifying us into hiding [•]."
I agreed firmly, nodding my head. "You are right, Dominic. Let the snakes keep moving in the dark. I promise to pay far more attention in the future, and we will wait for them to make their big mistake."
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