(2 days later)

Today was the day of King Fultz visit. With each day every slave grew more feared and tense. Especially Humphrey who knew he was on Fultz personal hate list. The royalty grew tenser as well. No one liked a visit from the King of the Southern Empire. The man is known for his excessive and high knowledge of cruelty towards anyone. The man truly was the definition of evil.

What made his evilness scarier was his extremely short temper. His temper made the Southern Empire as big as it is. The Southern Empire used to be split between two main powers until fifteen years ago. It happened in a situation just like this one. King Fultz had only been ruling for about four months. He visited King Leonard in his castle for dinner. When food was served, King Fultz was eating his meat and upon biting down discovered a bone. He spat out the bone and looked at Leonard. Leonard apologized for the incident and ordered the slave responsible head to the hole. King Fultz left the castle the following day. A month passed and Leonard was given a letter from Fultz saying he demanded war. A couple of months later every other kingdom heard of the fall of the esteemed King Leonard. King Fultz had put the naked body of King Leonard in the middle of town next to another naked body. The other body was the slave who was responsible for the war.

No one dared to face King Fultz because of his ruthlessness. The man was cruel, smart, and deceptive. That combination is a hard one to beat.

No one knew of Humphrey's small past with King Fultz. The only thing they knew is Humphrey was able to save many peasants from becoming slaves themselves. The question in Humphrey's head that remained was this 'What will he do when he sees me again?'

King Fultz would arrive around noon. Once he did everyone would have to be on their best behavior. They'd also have to be extra careful, especially around him. Humphrey was set to work inside all day. He would have to clean all day wash up then he would be cooking. The King and Queen were freshening up to be ready to talk with Fultz the whole time. Winston more scared than his wife. The prince and princesses ready to look their best and be on their best behavior.

Suddenly everyone fell into a panic when someone fell sick. The wolf wasn't royalty but was needed. Kate's servant's illness was getting the best of her. What were they to do now? A plan had to be made, someone needed to be there in her place. Winston called up all the peasants currently in the castle. They needed the best wolf for the job.

With the little time they had, they did mini-trials like get Kate a glass of water, staying next to her without speaking and walking the way they were supposed to be. Men had their hands just below their backs folded and women had their hands folded just below their stomach. They had to speak when spoken to with the most furnished of formality.

Of the wolves who tested only three did good and only one did excellent. That wolf was Humphrey, the problem showed up when someone pointed out he had to cook. They had to pick someone else but they needed someone really good. Finally after a few minutes of thinking Winston and Eve came to the decision that Humphrey had to cook when he was needed. His job was dinner, they had to hope either Kate's servant would be alright when she was needed or that somebody else could step up.

The way things were going they'd have to rely on someone stepping up when Humphrey was needed in the kitchen.

The time finally struck noon and on time was the feared King Fultz. Greeting him outside was Winston and Eve, inside waiting would be Kate, Garth, Lily, Humphrey, and the other two servants.

King Fultz stepped inside the castle seeing the faces of the next generation of royalty. He had his eyes land on a familiar face, Humphrey's. His face grew furious for a split second but was quickly turned calm. Confused Kate looked toward her temporary servant. Humphrey had fear plastered on his face.

Kate remembered that King Fultz wanted Humphrey from the auction, but she didn't know why. The auction was held from the Southern Empire and the spokesperson seemed to have knowledge of Humphrey more than most of the slaves. Not to mention the restraints they had on him. He must have done something to piss off King Fultz.

She would have to ask him when they were dismissed later, it wasn't the best for her to talk to him in full conversation around the fearful Emporer. They were all lead into the throne room where the young were dismissed.

Kate lead Humphrey to her room surprised they were dismissed fairly early. Once inside Kate shut the door so that no matter what no one would hear. She turned to Humphrey. "So what's your relation to King Fultz?"

Humphrey stared at her in slight fear, he was scared to speak the truth, knowing it was punishable by a consequence of the guillotine. Humphrey definitely wanted to keep his head. Knowing he was a bad liar and that lying was another consequence that could send him to the hole he decided to speak the truth, hoping she wouldn't try to guillotine him.

"M-Miss K-Kate I uh-" he had to catch himself so he could speak clearly. "I successfully was able to get fourteen wolves to escape and to remain free wolves. Most of them were children and a single mother. I couldn't stand to see them suffer because people like King Fultz wanted more peasants to have fun with. I had already lost a few family members as a child to that, I couldn't let those families suffer. King Fultz said if no one had bought me, I'd be tortured to death."

Kate looked at him surprised. The fact that they were able to escape in the first place was amazing, she guessed that was why he was said to be smart. She thought back to the auction, that explained why he was so pricey. They were trying to overprice him so KIng Fultz would automatically get him, so he could be tortured. With that look by Fultz, it was certain that he was still furious about Humphrey's stupid move. It begged the question, what would the cruel wolf do?

Right now they couldn't focus on that, they had to focus on his current visit. Kate and Humphrey remained in her room until called on. Mostly Humphrey with Dinner duty. First was lunch but the servants ate somewhere else.

Lunch was a simple meal. The food was ribs and spinach. After lunch royalty would meet in the throne room. meaning the servants were on free time. That was when Humphrey would switch. He would have to wait in Kate's room until the other servant was there.

Humphrey finished his meal quickly being accustomed to short breaks was an advantage. He left the room and headed to the medicinal area to meet with Kate's actual; servant. He walked in and saw she wasn't gonna be there at dinner time. Getting closer he saw she was in bad condition. "Will you be okay?" he asked.

She looked at Humphrey and put on a faint smile. "No, no I won't. Tell Cee-Cee it's her turn" with that the woman coughed. Humphrey started to tear up, with a small nod he left the room. He left to get Cee-Cee, wasn't in the castle at the time of the recruitment of the temporary servant since her shift ended. Humphrey remembered how today was the last day of his three days no sleep punishment, he was able to sneak in some sleep by doing his inside work fast and while someone else was in the room he snoozed for as long as he could. It was never long but it was always enough.

He rubbed his eyes and walked into the dining hall. "Cee-Cee, can I talk to you?"

Cee-Cee looked at him seeing his tired and saddened face. "Humphrey, what's wrong?"

Humphrey nearly teared up again. He shook his head and took a minute to calm down. "She said it was your time." He looked at Cee-Cee, she started to cry. Humphrey a few moments to spare so he hugged her. She took a bit to calm down but once she did she said her thanks and left.

Humphrey then went to the kitchen and looked at what he'd be making. He noticed it was his favorite meal. Chicken with a side of pasta and green beans. He was the only one in the kitchen this time as he was the best cook. King Fultz would need the best food, so he wouldn't go ballistic. Humphrey got started on cooking. While all of this was going on the royalty were speaking about future plans and the renewal of the peace contract. Fultz thought it was a good idea to unite their Empires. Since he had no family he would have to be the one to marry Kate, the only unmarried daughter. Winston said that would have to take time for reasons that Fultz claimed to have understood. Instead, they were discussing the peace treaty. Fultz said he'd be good for at least another year, Winston really wanted longer than that but arguing with this king wasn't a good idea. He agreed and they moved on to other issues. Such as money, trade issues with other countries, and slave problems.

The night went as planned thus far, now was dinner time. No one would lie if they were to say that they weren't at least a bit worried about this time. Everyone gets worried around meal time whenever a guest is over. So many things can go wrong. This was worse, the reason why King Fultz even has a whole Southern Empire is that he was angry with one visit. Not to mention Humphrey was worried since this same men would've executed him.

Humphrey finished making the dinner. He checked it multiple times and had a little taste test before he knew it was good. He then took a moment to calm down and be ready to stay out in front of the cruel man.

He saw everyone was sitting, waiting patiently for their food. Humphrey grabbed his plates of food with the other waiters and headed out to the table. Placing a plate in front of each royal wolf as his anxiety grew larger. After setting everything down he stood still. He started to sweat, thankfully for him, no one paid attention to him. Not even Fultz stared for too long.

"Once again excellent food you made chef!" Princess Lily said as she nearly finished her food.

The first to reply was surprisingly King Fultz, "Indeed this food taste quite excellent young one!" He was scarfing down the food, paying no mind to his manners.

Humphrey only nodded, scared to speak. The only one who knew exactly why was Kate, who understood his reason for not talking. She to didn't want to talk now hearing the news that her former personal maid was going to pass on soon, it was sad to hear.

After a few compliments to the chef with him only being able to nod in response King Fultz got in his cart and left. Everyone sighed in relief seeing that he was gone. Little did they know what the man was brewing in his head, and just how dangerous their situation was about to be.

There is my sorry excuse for a suspenseful ending. Also a sorry excuse for a late chapter. I really tried to work on this but sadly I became busy helping out a few friends and this came out like three weeks late. Sorry everyone and again I'll try to make these chapters more often again. Also before anyone comments it, yes I did rush the ending again, I was so stressed about leaving you all hanging so I rushed this, sorry for that as well. I don't even have time to check this since I have to help my friend tomorrow at 4:00 a.m. Anyway sorry to you all and I'll see all you beautiful people in the next chapter