"Your majesty!" Jack returned to Queen Hong's side.

Queen Hong was dressed in white and almost seemed ghostly despite her red hair. She breathed slowly and softly, eyes still closed in her own dream world.

"Whoa..." A cat-like man appeared hovering above the queen, but only half of his body was visible.

"You!" Jack stood up and drew up his weapon, "WHO ARE YOU?!"

The man didn't glance at Jack, "Was she hit from behind?"

Jack walked closer to the suspicious individual. The man allowed the rest of his body to appear and he raised his hands in the air as if to surrender. Jack's one good eye never kept his eyes and weapon off him. He had never seen this man before and it was without a doubt impossible for Jack not to notice him with his training.

"Now now," The man gently responded, "If I don't do something, your queen may stay in slumber forever."

He turned around and as if by magic, something appeared in his hands and he examined its contents. Nodding and mumbling to himself before turning to Jack.

"You're the boy with missing memories aren't you? I'm afraid that even with my help, there may be some things you do not want to see."

Jack had a shocked expression. Although he was known as the Red Queen's right-hand man, it wasn't known to everyone that he had suffered from amnesia. Only the queen and the soldier that picked him up that day knew of his memory loss. He didn't realize that he was lowering his sword that was attached to a mechanical device that was on his arm.

"By the way, I'll need a pot of hot water and a cup if you don't mind."

"How do you know about me?" He raised his weapon again.

"I know almost everything around here. My name is Ducere. I am sort of an informant, but I really need to treat her majesty first before the White Queen does something."

That's right...with all that ruckus, its highly possible that Queen Shiro will send her soldiers.

Jack hesitated before he went out of the room quickly and returned within minutes with the necessary items that Ducere requested. He knew that Queen Hong would be uncomfortable with the other servants and soldiers in her room, but the cat-like man looked harmless and had no weapons.

Though it is odd that he had what looked like medicine appear out of thin air.

"Ahhh, perfect."

Ducere placed the mysterious content into the hot teapot and used a spoon to mix what was inside. To be sure that Jack wouldn't attack him on suspicion of poison, Ducere drank the medicine in a cup before gagging a little. His tail, which Jack didn't notice before, went straight up and he covered his mouth so that he wouldn't vomit the disgusting drink.

"Argh," he wiped his mouth, "These remedies aren't meant for non-humans..."

Ducere explained as he placed the cup down and poured another drink, but this time for the Red Queen. He slowly placed the cup on her soft lips and with his other hand, he opened her mouth. The contents of the medicine went inside her, but some of it spilled out from her lips and slid down the side of her neck.

"Queen Hong, I need you to drink."

As if she heard him, she swallowed the medicine and sighed, sinking a bit into her pillow. Ducere pulled her hand towards him and measured her heartbeats near her wrist. He closed his eyes and counted for a moment before pulling the blankets up to her shoulders.

"Seems like the Thorn soldiers have brought in children?"

"...how did you know?"

"Her core is the most pure I have seen. As far as I'm concerned, children can be the most tainted if brought up incorrectly or something forcibly occurs in their life," he explained.

"Her core?" Jack questioned the cat-man.

"Most of us non-humans have the capability to see the roots of a human soul, which we call a core. Usually the adults are already tainted, but children have a special power to increase and taint others cores. Your core, for example, is about 40% pure, 25% tainted and the rest is missing because of your missing memories."

"But the drink you just gave her..."

"It's sort of a reset to restore her original pure core, but once tainted it will be difficult to return to its original status. Now to answer my first question, was she hit from behind?"

"...Yes."

Ducere looked away, covered his mouth and mumbled to himself, "I wonder what happened..."

He pondered for a bit before he stood up and paced back and forth. His tail was moving side-to-side before he stopped and turned to face Jack.

"When she wakes up, I need you to have her drink more of the medicine. Tell her that 'Ducere requests an audience with her highness and just call out whenever you're ready'." Ducere was partially gone already when he told Jack this and then he vanished.

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Ducere returned to his home and felt someone tap on his shoulder and jumped. His ears and tail immediately pricking upwards from fright.

"Haruka!" He placed his hand over his heart as if to calm it down, "Don't do that to me," he sighed.

"You were gone for a long time. I thought something went wrong and was about to come get you," a tall man with a deep voice responded.

Haruka, a dark-skinned man with black hair, stood with arms crossed towering over Ducere. His bunny ears and tail were sticking out like a sore thumb which made his appearance more noticeable than Ducere.

"I felt something was off so I went to see Hong," he turned away from Haruka.

"How is she?"

"Her core has been tainted. I've prepared some medicine for her, but it might not be easy to return her pure core to its original form."

"She is the last with a pure core. Mary-Ann, her servant, also had a pure core."

"That's right. Pure cores should stick together. It is easy for a pure core to be tainted, but Mary-Ann was the first that had a pure core that lasted until her death..."

Ducere's ears drooped. He loved Mary-Ann despite the previous Rose Queen killing her out of jealousy and anger. If anything, he would have loved to help her, but it was hard for him to stay with her as he was a non-human. Haruka walked closer to the cat-man and hugged him.

"If only Alice would return," he whispered, "this wouldn't have gone crazy..."

End of Chapter 11.........................................................................................................................