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Chapter 251
Chapter 251 KALEB
| diligently stood in front of my mother’s grave solemnly, and after staring at the ornately carved slabi to dust off the stone. This was my first visit in quite some time, and the thick coating of grime on the ston it had been in a while. | normally didn’t allow it to get this bad, but as of late, things had been infinitely busy had a moment alone.
As | cleaned it, | pondered the state of things and then allowed myself to consider my mother. Ever since she died, l’a had a nightmare about her passing or otherwise. Nor had | after I’d killed all of my siblings and most of my cousins. Not even when I'd ended my father’s life.
| wasn’t afraid of ghosts or gods. | wasn’t afraid of punishment from the Moon Goddess for the acts I'd committed in the past.
But last night, | had a nightmare, one that | couldn’t shake. It was haunting my thoughts and bleeding into the waking world so vividly it made me uneasy.
In my dream, | saw my mother groaning in her bed. The scent of death permeated the air and filled my nose so much that | was practically choking on it. She was calling out for my father, her voice strained and pitiful. The agony of it was chilling. If it weren’t for her voice, | would have thought she was already dead. She appeared so weak, so feeble. Her skin was practically translucent, and her eyes, once vibrant, had lost their beauty.
Though she was barely clinging to life... she was still my mother. 4Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.
Despite being the lowest among all of the king’s wives, a desperate and cunning maid who seduced the king and elevated her status to become one of his mistresses because of her pregnancy, she delivered a prince. She made the king a legitimate
son.
She had always said she was lucky that she was fertile. She told me that | was a gift from the Moon Goddess, but | couldn’t help but wonder if she truly believed that idea. Was her life confined in a small room, waiting for a man who would never visit again, better than her life as a maid?
In the dream, | walked closer to her, trying to stop her groaning. As | approached her bedside and the stench of death grew stronger, | stifled my urge to retch and tried to calm her down. | told her gently that Father wouldn’t come. | wanted nothing more than for her to pull herself together and stop calling out for him.
But when | caught sight of her hollow face and stared into her eyes, | realized that the woman in bed wasn’t my mother. It was Cassandra.
Her beautiful face, those lovely doe-like deep green eyes with their long lashes, her full, pink lips... all weren’t normal. Her face was ravaged and contorted into anguish. Even her long, copper hair was brittle and matted. It was a horrid sight that sent a shiver down my spine.
| tried to retreat, but she reached out and grabbed my arms. | tried to pull away, but it was of no use. She began to curse at me. At first, she spoke some vulgar words, and then they gave way to more specific things. She cursed me for what | had done: the nasty things I'd done in the dungeon, the ugly face I’d worn when | slit my father’s throat, all of the pain I’d caused since I'd become king of Yurene.
As she reminded me of these events, her words conjured up vivid images, and they grew so intense that | couldn’t think. All | could see was myself committing these atrocities over and over again, meanwhile, Cassandra’s voice continued to call me such vile things.
Ich pam my my chest, a great pain as if my very soul was going to dissolve as it grew stronger. It burned within me like a wildfire, and just as | became consumed by the blaze... | woke up
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| sat up in bed and panted as | fought to catch my breath. Sweat drenched my entire body and | gripped my sheets for comfort. Rationally, | knew that the dream wasn’t consistent, nor had it been real, but still, | felt a great burden from it.
It had taken much of the day to ease my thoughts, but as | stood in front of my mother’s grave, | wor had received from Anubis had caused the dream.
Anubis told me in the brief note that Roxy had been caught and that traces of him had been discover Wegalla before he could approach the king. He asked if Roxy should be abandoned, and that he needed because if he got caught by a Wegalla soldier, it would be an unnecessary loss.
I'd stared at the note for quite some time, unsure of what to do. Should Roxy be abandoned? essage |
| thought | would be decisive without any hesitation, but that wasn’t the case. | couldn’t make up my mind on the matter, but why? Roxy was useful but not indispensable. So why couldn't | make a decision?
This was the very reason | kept these pawns. | cared for them as my trusted companions to gain their trust and loyalty, and then when necessary, | would give them up.
When the wind rippled through my hair, a thought crossed my mind. Wasn't that exactly what I’d done to my sister, Eleanor?
My memory traced back to that awful competition in the dungeon. It was a brutal fight. We were all too clever, too hesitant, too indecisive. We were wasting time at first. We were all so young and stupid and thought we could change the way this country was ruled. We had believed that if we banded together and challenged the very idea of this bloody tradition, that they would surely yield.
But we had overestimated our willpower as well as how cunning a werewolf could be. So, we began to fight.
| wasn’t the strongest one. | hadn’t gotten the best training sessions. | was always excluded by my siblings when they accepted fighting lessons from the outstanding soldiers of Yurene. They loathed me for carrying a low-status woman’s blood.
All except Eleanor.
She was the firstborn child of the king, the best fighter, and the most respected heir. She was the only one that treated me like a brother rather than a nuisance. After their lessons with the soldiers, Eleanor would meet with me privately and train me herself. She took care of me with great empathy and | cared for her very much.
Everyone in this country had said that Eleanor was the true queen, the future ruler of Yurene, and the only one of us who was worthy of the throne.
In the dungeon, when I was chased and nearly killed by one of my brothers, Eleanor had protected me. She made a promise to me that she would take me out of the dungeon with her and together, we would make this country a better place.
But instead...
| glanced down my hand as if the blood was still there. Eleanor’s blood. | would never forget the sight of it as it gushed out of her. | had used my hand to cover her bright blue eyes as they stared at me in disbelief after I'd attacked her.
Since that moment, | haven't stopped fighting.
I'd told Eleanor’s body that | had to take the crown no matter what. | had to change the country. | would be a good king, no matter what it took
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But was | truly changing Yurene?
Or had | lost myself in this game of power long ago? 2.89%
| stood in front of the grave for a while longer and thought of Eleanor. Then, | rose to my feet and decided upon my answer for Anubis.
“Roxy is still useful. Take her back.” 2/8
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