05: Weakening magic.

"What did you do to me?" Viishaun asked in a cold-baritone voice, wearing a gaze that could shred the queen into pieces.

The queen was frightened, and her body started trembling. He wears the same cold expression when they first meet. He has that aura of ice-cold thirst for blood.

"Are you going to answer me, or do you want me to cut off your tongue and be silent forever?!?!"

Her voice won't come out because she wasn't sure what to say. She was too terrified, and it was more terrifying than a fellow actress bullying her. Aileen started weeping, and to her surprise, the king's expression shifted to a soft one.

He reached her hand and held it, then asked, "My queen, why are you crying? Are you alright? Did I hurt you?"

Aileen was dumbfounded when the king no longer terrified her. She replied, "Your excellency..."

"Why 'your excellency' ... Why are you not calling me Shaun when we're alone? Did you not like my name? or you're mad at me?"

She sniffed and started sobbing again. Even though hViishaun sounded concerned and the threatening words vanished when the king's real personality hid behind the 'Shaun' person in front of her, Aileen was badly hurt and scared for her life. 

'The magic is withering.'

Viishaun embraced her, and they went back to sleep under one sheet. However, after seeing the surfacing of the bloodlust king's behavior after a long time since their marriage, her eyes and mind won't leave her at peace.

Aileen was staring at Shaun and not Viishaun. She thought it would be great if he would never go back to being Viishaun, but that is impossible. 

'The magic is losing its control to the King. I need to find what magic it was, and I need to know how I would leave this world before anything gets worse for me,' says a voice in her mind.

She slowly closed her eyes, and the last drop of her emotion rolled down to her cheek. 

***********

The sun was beaming through her glass window, causing the lady to stir. Usually, waking up was a simple task for Aileen; she was a busy actress in her world, and having not much sleep was her routine. She glanced at the empty space beside her.

She began to sit up and caressed the pillow Viishaun had used. She sighed and shivered at the flashback of last night's incidents. "I thought I'd die last night. Come to think of it, how did the spell wear off, and how did it resurface?" she murmured.

None of the magic's nature is known to her, and thus she was left in dark shade. She jolted when someone knocked on the door.

"Madam, are you awake? His excellency wants to share a breakfast meal with you," says a maid outside the door.

She was trembling and guessing who was the king today, is he back to his old self, or was he still Shaun, the sweet husband to her.

"Please, help me with the preparation."

The maid nodded, and as usual, they helped her with the bathing and dressing her up. Then they went to the glass door garden, not the dining area.

"Did his excellency request to dine in the garden?"

"Yes, madam. He told us you were not in a good mood last night, so we suggested this peaceful place to please you."

Her worries stopped after hearing that he was still 'Shaun' and not the bloodlust King Viishaun.

"My queen, you're awake. Come sit and join me." The King stood up and greeted her. He kneeled and kissed the back of her palm. 

She kept stealing glances at Viishaun, finding the face that scared the hell out of her, but the person in front of her was far from that cold guy. The king sharing breakfast with her was blushing.

"I'm going to the capitol. If you are going somewhere you may do so, you seem lonely. Bring one marquise and maid with you and don't come home late because I'll be worried sick."

Once the breakfast was over, he left with his five marquises. Aileen changed into a commoner's clothes and went to the town to find a book about magic again, but this time she insisted on bringing only her maid.

"This isn't the book I was looking for," she said to the book owner.

"I don't know what you were looking for but please get out at this instant. You're wasting my time, if you are not going to buy any of the seven books you asked us to get for you, just leave this please, and don't ever come back."

Aileen suddenly realized she truly wasted their time searching for books related to witches and spells, however they are all love stories and fantasy books. She could have brought them all if only she had money, but the currency is different here. Her money is useless...

"Madam, do you want these books?" Athena asked.

"I don't have money tho," Aileen whispered to the lady behind her.

"What do you mean? His excellency had given you a black pass."

Aileen remembered her husband's words when he handed her the black card, which is somewhat similar to the black card in her world too. The king said, "This is yours, you could buy anything with this. Everything I owned is also yours. This kingdom is yours as well, so live happily with me and don't ever leave my side."

"Do I deserve to use that?"

She finds it hard to spend money which is not hard earned by her. That's why until now, she had not used any of it.

"His excellency will be sad if he were to hear doubting yourself because it means you doubted his love for you. He chooses you, and you're questioning his decision," Athena whispered back.

In the end, she asked Athena to pay using the black card. Then the book owner was surprised to see the card. 

"I'm sorry for being rude, my lady. I thought you wouldn't buy these books."

She thought this world and her world are somewhat similar, in the sense that money can make someone bow down. She was wearing a commoner, thus a little respect bestowed to her. If she had worn her usual clothes at the palace, the book owner would have never uttered those words to her.

She was in deep thought when the wind blew hard, and her hat eloped with the wind. The maid tried to chase after the queen's possession but failed to catch it.

"This is bad. Your hair will be messy, Lady. S"

"And what about it? It's not like the people would know that their queen is going around with messy hair."

"I'd recognize that you are our queen. So please wait here, and I'll buy you another hat."

"No need to do that. No one would know since you're not calling me queen. So let's keep going."

They went to a casa de gelato or an ice cream parlor in her world. However, before they could enter the place, a guy in a stallion white horse appeared. The guy jumped off the horse and walked towards Aileen.

"Greetings lady with shiny gold hair," says the guy who looks like a charming prince from a fictional book.

"M-Me?" Aileen asked.