Hong opened her eyes and turned to see Jack asleep. She felt like she had slept for a long time, yet it wasn't long either. The Red Queen propped herself up and the movement woke Jack abruptly.

"Your Highness!"

She placed her hand over her chest. It felt heavy, but she felt something inside her change. What happened after I fought with the kid?

"Queen Hong," Jack turned to hand her a cup of medicine, "Um...a cat-man named Ducere told me to have you drink this."

Hong slowly grabbed the cup, her hands were trembling slightly as she brought the cup up to her lips and gulped the contents. As soon as she finished, she wiped her mouth and glared at Jack.

"What did Ducere tell you?"

Jack stood upright, "Your Highness, Ducere left a message stating to call out to him whenever you are ready as he requests an audience with you."

Hong continued to stare at Jack with her piercing glare, but he didn't seem to feel affected. She sighed and placed the cup down; whatever Ducere prescribed to her, it had stopped her hands from trembling. She noticed that she was dressed all in white and decided to change. Hong got up from her bed and walked behind a screen and changed her clothes into her battle clothes. She put on her shirt with feathers and dark pants. It seemed unfitting of a queen to wear casual clothes, but these were the clothes that she was more comfortable wearing.

"What else has Ducere told you?" She ordered Jack to respond.

Jack stood near the screen, facing the opposite direction of the Red Queen as his initial job was to guard her, "He mentioned something about your core."

Hong twitched as she heard him mention the core and continued to change her clothes, "What about it?"

"He said...that your core got corrupted."

That will explain why I'm having a bit of difficulty moving my body...but what does this have to do with the kid?

"Ducere hypothesized that the Thorn child soldier must have triggered something in you."

Hong stepped out from the screen and waved for him to sit down.

"I think I know why my core got corrupted."

Jack seemed surprised, "Your majesty knows?"

Hong nodded, "Because I touched him."

"...it was simply because Queen Hong touched him that your core got corrupted?"

"It's not simple at all," Hong responded, "Cores can be affected by anything. Yours is missing a lot because of your memory loss and most of the civilians living here have about half of their cores corrupted."

She placed her hand over her mouth after she spoke. That kid was probably emanating a lot of negative energy. Whatever the Thorn King has done, it's affected him pretty badly if I was knocked out for several hours.

"What happened once I was out?"

"The Kingdom was in panic and I carried you back to your room. The female maidservants redressed you and laid you on the bed as the royal doctor tried to diagnose you."

"And...? What did he diagnose?"

"I'm not quite sure, because the maidservants wouldn't let me in."

Hong scoffed, "They probably think you were the cause of the battle and my downfall...I'll scold them later. In the meantime, now that you know about my core, I guess you're officially in the game now."

"Game?"

"Yes, game. I'm not just fighting the Thorn soldiers because I was trained to. My father and I...we're looking for someone and I think she may have the answer to ending this war."

She? As in a third-party? Jack pondered.

"The game," Queen Hong continued, "Is trying to look for the girl and she may be the only one who can stop all this madness in Wonderland..."

End of Chapter 14........................................................................................................................