CHAPTER 440: ASSESSMENTS

Aside from Lord Caden, none of them seemed pleased to be there at all. Not even Liriel. It was as if they had been dragged against their will or something of that sort.

"Hop, hop! Let us go then!" the goblin moved past Arabella’s figure.

If memory served her right, the name was Grishnak and according to Liriel’s own words, he was a stickler for the rules.

"Is everything alright?" Arabella gathered enough courage to ask Liriel who’d settled upon her shoulder for their walk through the hallways.

But it wasn’t the fairy that responded. Instead, Lord Caden neared her to speak, "Of course, everything is in order but, you see, a special someone in our ranks insisted upon coming without the courtesy of a notice," his sentence started off on a normal note but as the words went on, his features gradually twisted, jaws tightening, pressing on every syllable he pushed through while his mesmerizing eyes turned to glare at the goblin ahead of them.

His expression alone made Arabella lean away from the vampire

"Hop Hop! Protocol is protocol, no matter how much trust we’ve built with them," sparing them not a glance, Grishnak had declared.

Hop hop? Where had she heard that before?

Right! GlimmerGrob had been the first goblin Arabella had ever been officially introduced to. She made the false assumption that expression was nothing but a personal pattern, but perhaps it meant something to the goblin kind as a whole.

"Has anyone ever told you that your scent is to die for?" so close to her ear it sounded...

Caden had lowered his voice to a soothing, sultry level as though he was uttering no mere compliment.

"Leave her alone, Caden, will you?" Liriel stepped in, flying from one shoulder to the second in order to come between Arabella and Caden.

Arabella had, in fact, been given that same exact compliment before and by a vampire no less.

It was strange to observe how less than two months prior, those same words had triggered chills to run down her spine and yet there she was, smiling, ready to thank him for his... Kind words.

"You know I only meant that as a compliment," Caden took a step back.

"Well, you-" Liriel had started but was cut off.

"Yes, I have been told that before, my Lord. Thank you for the sweet compliment," she smiled.

"See?" Caden grinned at Liriel, "The Lady has a refined taste,"

The fairy said nothing else and merely stared back, somewhat taken aback by the young woman’s attitude.

It was high time her tongue untwined instead of waiting around for others to come to her rescue every time something made her a little uncomfortable.

"Gift us your silence, Caden," Mingan’s feminine yet deep voice caused Arabella’s chest to rumble, "It would be much appreciated,"

For an Alpha wolf woman, she was a lot more proper and polished than Cynric.

Either way, Arabella’s gemstones traveled towards Grishnak who led the way as if he was the owner of the place.

Despite the crumpled demeanor that scared some of the maids that curtsied on their path, all that Arabella truly had to do to stay on his good side was to show respect for laws and rules.

Caden seemed friendly enough without any effort on her part and Liriel already counted as a family friend by then.

Mingan, whose body warmth reached Arabella, was a little harder to assess. Although, it was clear the wolf woman was not on her guard for the young woman had seen guarded wolves before and her stance indicated nothing of that.

But the hardest to read yet was the creature that trailed at the end of the line, towering over everyone under that roof.

Thankfully the ceilings of the manor hang high above their heads, thus accommodating the ten-foot-tall beast well enough.

Since the syndicate members hadn’t formally introduced themselves, his name remained a mystery. In fact, all of him was a mystery, even the sound of his voice.

What did a ghoul sound like? Arabella had only encountered his kind during her short lived outings to KasselMoon and none of them were near enough for their timbre to be distinguished by human ears.

Going through the medical wing, straight to the deepest section where the sick tributes had been kept isolated from the rest. Among them, Erik, of course since that whole charade was done to spare him.

Good thing Morgana had already made them ingest her potion in order to mimic the symptoms as they wanted to be on the safe side which served them very right.

"And they have contracted this so-called whispers’ flu, you say," Grishnak went from one bed to another as if assessing their state.

"Yes," Arabella started, "As our report states, one of the tributes unfortunately carried the illness along from home, from their sick sibling," her stance straightened further as she spoke, eyes following the little creature.

"We should instill an additional condition for future tributes to be sent our way and demand that their medical history be included with their charts," he grumbled while lifting one of the sleeping tributes’ arms before allowing it to fall back onto the bed without any resistance, "This could have been avoided,"

"Oh... For the love of all that is holy, Grishnak," Liriel sighed.

Caden put a hand over his eyes whereas Mingan’s features showed twitching. The only one that did not react was the ghoul who merely stared out through one of the windows.

In all fairness, none of them other than Caden needed to be there. Only vampires bid on tributes, no other species did that.

But that was the least of her problems. Having medical records included meant upsetting the Lustrisian royal family but worse of all, it meant that one of the methods to save young tributes from being auctioned would need to be scratched off their list. That was no good.

"Yes, that would be a good idea!"

Much to Liriel’s surprise, it was Arabella that had chirped the response.

"Unfortunately," her beam dimmed a tad, "As you already know, most of the tributes are from poorer counties or villages with no access to medical resources and care. Keeping a verifiable medical history for each would alas not be possible,"