Chapter 4

I was done for. 

Alpha Lucian would soon arrive and I still had no answer to his riddle. I bet he made up a fake riddle just to throw me off. In any case, I had a plan. I would show him just how valuable I was even without providing an answer to his useless riddle.

Alpha Lucian arrived a couple minutes late today. I could tell since it seemed like he was in a hurry when he entered through the dungeon’s main door.

“Who’s chasing you?” I attempted a joke.

“You seem quite relaxed today. Could it be you have an answer to my riddle?” He walked steadily and drew out his chair to sit down.

“I can’t say I have.”

I could feel his confusion even without him saying anything.

“Ruby of the Blue Sky, do you or do you not have an answer to my riddle?” he asked straightforwardly.

I exhaled sharply. “I want you to repeat the riddle, so I can refresh my memory and hope to find a solution.”

I was testing his patience, but either way, he wasn’t letting it slip that he knew I didn’t have an answer to his riddle.

“Alright then. It’s not like repeating it a thousand times would get you any closer to the answer. I don’t touch the sea, yet it heeds my call; rising and falling, under my thrall; invisible hands creating a watery sprawl. What am I?” Alpha Lucian’s words echoed inside my head.

I didn’t bother giving the riddle a second thought because I agreed with his words. Even if he repeated it over and over again, an answer wouldn’t magically fall at my feet.

With a sigh, I forced myself to stand up from the ground.

“I have to confess, I truly don’t have an answer to your riddle…” I placed my hands on my waist and whispered “yet” in such a low tone that I doubted his wolf’s sensitive ears would even catch it.

“Haha. Ruby of the Blue Sky, you didn’t even put up a fight,” Alpha Lucian tsked at me, shaking his head. I didn’t say anything. “I’ll tell you the answer, now that you have forfeited.”

It took a while for him to say his next words.

“The Moon’s gravitational pull.”

I smiled. “The answer to your riddle is the Moon’s gravitational pull.”

Alpha Lucian made a puzzled expression. “You’re answering the riddle right after I said the answer? It doesn’t count, I hope you know that? You already forfeited.”

Along the line, his expression had turned into a dark one where the frown on his face became prominent. 

“Did I? Did I really forfeit?”

“You did. You said you truly didn’t have an answer to my riddle.”

“Yet.”

“What?”

“I said I truly didn’t have an answer to your riddle yet. Perhaps you didn’t hear that part because you were overwhelmed with the euphoria of victory.” I spoke so confidently, that one would think I wasn’t locked up in a cell but standing at the centre of a stage with an eager audience in front of me.

“You never said the word, ‘yet’. You can’t fool me.”

I pouted my lips innocently. “But even if I didn’t say yet, I neither said ‘I quit’ nor did I say ‘I give up’. I believe that those words hold finality more than ‘I don’t know the answer’. Don’t you think so?”

I continued speaking without giving him a chance to say anything. “It’s like an examination. Even after the teacher calls time over, the exam isn’t truly over until the student submits their paper and walks out of the classroom. There should be finality in things like this.”

Alpha Lucian didn’t say anything for a long while and I started to think that maybe he wouldn’t fall for my cheap trick. I was about to input another point when the man broke into a fit of laughter, clutching his stomach tightly and surprising me.

“My goodness! Well played, Ruby of the Blue Sky. Well played!” He began clapping for me, and even proceeded to give me a standing ovation.

“It seems that I had made a mistake,” he confessed. “Believe me, I was a bit overjoyed and disappointed at the fact that you admitted you didn’t have an answer which led me to solve the riddle myself without waiting for you to make a comeback. I was in such a hurry to be a victor that I forgot what I had said about you earlier.”

I raised a brow. 

“You are known to be very sly. I forgot to account for that fact. Well done, you played me for a fool. The first time anyone has ever done such a thing.” Alpha Lucian continued speaking.

“Does this mean that you’re going to let me out of this cell and agree to my offer?” I quickly questioned.

He smiled. “A deal is a deal, is it not?”

* * *

That bastard lied to me! He was supposed to make me his personal advisor! Not this!

I stared at the heap of dirty plates in front of me with a furious expression. After letting me out of the cell and giving me time to eat and wash up, I had thought Alpha Lucian was really a man of his word. 

I went to sleep with a smile on my face, thinking the stars had really begun to shine their luck on me. Only for me to wake up this morning to find out that instead of being his personal advisor, he had made me a maid in his home.

And not just any maid, a general maid who had no specific work and time frame in a day. Every other maid in this packhouse were my superiors, even the ones who had started a day earlier than I did. I was to do anything and everything anyone asked me to do in this place, no matter their age or status. 

That bastard played me for the biggest fool. The next time I see him, I would wring his neck and make him draw his last breath, even if it killed me.

I picked up the first plate and got to work as I washed it aggressively. There was no else in the kitchen except for me, so I could do whatever I wanted and go scot

-free. That was what I thought until I heard;

“What the hell are you doing here?!”