Villainess Of Hearts

"I do not dabble in politics, but even this seems too much."

A few of the masked people entering the Castle of Hearts froze at those words. This was supposed to be their go-signal to enter here when everything was in disarray—they quickly turned to see a strange person. It was a person with cat ears and a tail as the man floated down to the floor. T-The Kingdom of Hearts had creatures like these?

His gaze swept over them and Chesire was not smiling at this moment.

"Now tell me if—" The Chesire disappeared the minute the sword swung at his position. Of course nobody would listen to the cat talk, he reappeared in a new position and narrowed his eyes at them. "Someone told me that it was rude—" A knife flew towards his chest. He arrived in a new position, he appeared in front of the men to block their path. "It's rude to not let a person finish their sentence." He clicked his tongue.

The men somehow seemed to exchange looks for a moment and it was there that a silent message was passed between them. There was no room for failure. They have already failed once before and already lost a brother that time and with simply a Hatter that came in between them—this time they would not fail with a cat person in their way.

Everyone of them charged towards the new enemy.

They all bare down their weapons to attack him and then head towards their targets. Because as much as this individual may have tried to stop them in this hour: they had this situation under their control.

Who was stupid enough to just send one party to hunt down the Queen of Hearts after all?

. . .

Nicholas Hatter couldn't help but feel his concern increase and that was despite the amount of time that the Joker already passed by his Mad Hatter's Shop. It wasn't as if the Queen of Hearts would be attacked by the Joker, despite the strangeness of the man, they were the one who kept each Kingdom in check.

The Hatter had no problems with them.

Maybe except for the bloody fact that the Card Trials were always something that killed off the majority of the participants—but the guy had his own methods of creating Rulers. Ruthless they may be.

The sound of a doorbell twinkled open.

He raised his head and saw that it was simply some men and women. "O-oh, welcome to the Mad Hatter's." He greeted them, if not, a bit less enthusiastic than he could muster. Instead of being pleased at the sheer number of visitors and prospective customers, he couldn't help but feel a small twitch play on his lips. Of course it would be a mad thought if the Queen of Hearts visited this place for the second time in a row.

There was only so much she could do.

Even if the Queen of Hearts had declared herself as a friend to him, it didn't mean that she'd drop by his shop on a whim to strike a conversation with him. Only Harold did that… and sometimes Mallory if she wasn't busy. Was there any chances he could visit her? Nicholas Hatter considered striking himself with a hammer to pull his thoughts away from her.

He was being silly.

And yet there was something else bugging him in this moment and that was because instead of looking at the hats on display—it seemed like some of the gazes of the visitors were on him. What had he done this time around? He looked up and smiled, "Is there anything I can do for this group of gentlemen?"

"You're here to pay the price." One of them said at last.

People who perhaps were genuine customers felt the mood drop within the shop. They quickly fled the place. Nicholas Hatter fought back the urge to sigh at the loss of those customers in lieu of these men. But he kept his smile on as he raised his hammer, "I think it's supposed to be the other way around, dear fellows."

. . .

It had taken some time before the Knight Julius Ginellevé found the Prime Minister around the area—and once he did, he threw the rabbit into the lion's den. Well he had thrown in Blyke Edelweiss as the host for the Joker while his Queen recovered in her chambers. Was it enough? Was this the proper course of actions? He wished that the King of Hearts hadn't gone anywhere and left Rosalyn Lockhart to do all of the work that was supposed to be his.

He remembered his previous words with the Queen of Hearts a few days ago. It was in regards to her needing to get along with the King of Hearts—if this Alexander Hartsmichdt continued to be an incompetent fool then it may have made sense not to get along with them in the first place. The Knight leaned back against the wall for one moment and rubbed his face with a gloved hand.

This kind of situation… he hated it. 

Julius Ginellevé wished he could erase the conversation that he had with Joker. Their words created a dissonance in his thoughts. It was as foolish as the King of Hearts himself and the Joker knew that much but still insisted on them. He was much more terrible than anyone he knew—to hold that much influence over all the Kingdoms under the guise of keeping it in check. It made sense that the King of Hearts wasn't around since they arrived if fear was ingrained in their mind. 

But Julius probably knew more about the man than even Alexander would and it wasn't only the Card Trial where the Joker used his 'judgement'. He had been there when 'Mister Rosswall' visited the House Lockhart and conversed with a much younger Rosalyn all those years ago. And as much as she may have cherished memories with Mister Rosswall, the others inside their household didn't share the same fondness.

Because that wasn't all that he did back then.

He had given the parents of Rosalyn Lockhart a word of warning—threats that had fallen to deaf ears of course. And where were the parents of the Queen of Hearts now? She had never visited the Castle Marmoreal once she became Queen. He could only imagine the wrath that her brother felt at that time. It was perhaps one of the few things that weighed in his mind.

Out of all the people in her life, he was the only one who she had now.

He couldn't fail her. 

. . .

"Are you alright, Your Majesty? If there has been an attempt on your life, wouldn't it be better to rest now?" Those were the words that kept being repeated every minute or so while all the Kings and Delegates glanced at the trade agreement copies. It grated slightly on Rosalyn Lockhart's nerves.

She wished she hadn't mentioned it if they were all going to bother her in this manner.

"Be at ease, Your Majesty." She gave the man a smile as she reassured everyone for the umpteenth time. "There may have been a small slip-up due to the assassin coming into the Castle of Hearts but I reassure you that this situation shall already be dealt with smoothly. The Lord Warth Duke is a dependable man, isn't he, Lady Duke?"

"Y-Yes! I feel completely safe and protected whenever I'm with him."

The Queen of Hearts wished she had someone else to confirm her statements but this would have to do. Catherine didn't leave her side at all but at least she was quiet enough unless she was asked to speak up.

"E-er… I suppose he does look formidable." The King of Diamonds answered with a slight smile.

Now of course it was probably because Francis le Diamant was concerned of him getting attacked—it seemed like the King was moment's away from scampering away from the Royal Conference Hall in full retreat. Alfred Villeuce gave her a look every now and then with furrowed brows and a frown but it wasn't him who kept repeating the damn 'it's better for you to rest now' statement but it was Ivan Nordskov.

And Francis le Diamant was backing the King of Clovers as well.

All she wanted to do was the same thing as they did—she wished that this meeting would finally come to an end. She wasn't sure if she wanted to head back to her room if the body was still there along with the blood, of course not! But she would be more than happy to retreat into her office and rest there on the couch perhaps? Or maybe Gine's room. She felt her core flame at the thought. It wasn't as if she had forgiven him for not being around while she slept.

Rosalyn Lockhart knew that was a bit too much but the situation still made her stomach queasy. It was bad enough to have your own previous murderer wait on you hand and food—but at least he could have been a perfect deterrent for other attempts on her life.

Somehow he proved himself a bit incapable on this occasion.

But before she could do anything else—with her name and title as the Queen of Hearts on the line, she wouldn't end this meeting without it being a full success.. The Kingdom of Hearts at least deserved this much when it was she who had gained the throne and not— "Let us resume this meeting now shall we? It won't take too long now so please bear with me."