"...........I shall not dispose of her yet Lexter." He spoke in a clear voice and I let out a relieved sigh, but I also didn't miss the 'Yet' in his words.

"What! But brother, why not. Don't you understand she is much of a liability than use to us." The mummy brat almost shrieked.

Reuben refused to acknowledge his brother's pleas and looked at me, "My lady, what is your view on this matter?"

"Y-Your Majesty!?" I was baffled, who the hell asks a person if he should be killed or let off. If not a psychopath who else even cares to ask such a stupid question. Both these brothers will be the death of me for sure.

"I want to know whether you deserve to be spared or not." He spoke in a solemn voice, as if he was talking about the weather and not of my death sentence.

"I-I wouldn't dare to demand anything of you Your Majesty. Please do as you see fit." I spoke in a mumbled tone.

"I am not asking you to demand anything off me. I am asking you to speak your mind. It is an order. I want to know of your thoughts, I want to hear if you want to be spared and if you do, why? On what ground do you think you deserve to be spared, is what I want to know." He eyed me pointedly.

'Obviously because I don't wanna die you oaf, what else would it be.' But if I blurted such a reason out I don't think my neck would be spared. So I went with the next best thing I could come with. My wild card. "Freditch Roff. The key is a guy called Freditch Roff." And all of the people in the room raised their eyebrows to that. "He is all the evidence that Your Majesty needs to bring down Duke Ronales." I said.

Freditch Roff was the exclusive henchman of the Ronales household. He carried out all the dirty business that the family wanted taken care of. You find him, you find all the dirt you need to frame the great Ronales family. This was one of the vital pieces of info I had painstakingly gathered while my stay in the Ronales household. You didn't think that I was dilly-dallying around all this time in that sh*thole now, did you?

"Oh? Then please do tell, where can we find this man called Freditch Roff?" The mummy brat asked, overly zealous if I might add.

"Please forgive my rudeness Your Highness but if I were to divulge such information I might as well lay all my cards bare. I won't have any leverage to save my neck then, isn't that right Your Majesty." I smiled timidly at the two most powerful people in this kingdom.

Reuben stared right into my eyes and his lips broke into a wide smirk. Then he looked at the mummy brat and said, "Lexter, now do you see why I do not wish to let go off her?" And Alexteris in turn made a sour face.

"I do understand what Your Majesty is going for. But there is no reason for you to really marry her. We can counterfeit the marriage to deceive the nobles and when the time is ripe, we can strike the prey and be done with all the farce." Lord Gilbert reasoned. Which was quite reasonable. Reuben didn't have to marry me to get me to dispose of Duke Ronales. He could just trick everyone and use me as one of his accomplishes.

"No." He just uttered one word.

"But why, brother? You really are not thinking with your right mind. This girl will be the death of.."

"Lexter!" Reuben's sharp tone shut Alexteris up for good. "Now fake Lizzy, I trust you shall hold up to your end of the bargain but there is more I want from you than just getting rid of the duke." As if it wasn't blatantly obvious already.

"I understand." I said, "But Your Majesty, before you demand more from me I would like to request something off you too. I mean it's only right as you went against your terms about getting me out of this royal mess and instead did the very opposite."

"Very well. Let's hear it then. What is it that you want?" He sounded rather amused than alarmed.

"I want the freedom of speech." I said, "I mean I get to speak my mind. Like if I find you stupid I get to tell you that you are stupid and not get executed for it."

His reaction to my request was not what I'd imagined of him. Rather than being annoyed he seemed to be intrigued and with a soft chuckled he said, "Alright. I agree to your request of freedom of speech. It is only appropriate that you get to express yourself as the First Royal Consort" Was that last bit on purpose?

"Brother!"

"Sire!"