Lavinia tried to protest dramatically with her hands raised in surrender. "Senior, are you really serious right now? I am not getting executed just because I am a pacifist who appreciates clean clothes, right?"

Astrid got more pissed hearing that and said. "Albert, just hurry up and cut her down."

Albert gulped and his steps went painfully slow but he was still making his way toward Lavinia because disobeying wasn’t an option his survival instincts could afford.

Jax put his hands on Astrid’s shoulders and said. "Astrid, calm down. You are taking this way too far and besides it wouldn’t have been possible to make it out alive without them."

Astrid hissed while glaring at the girls behind him. "You are too naive, Jax. You are being fooled by these bitches. Look at them! I am a hundred percent certain they did nothing but roll around in the dirt to fake their contribution while you went and did something dangerously stupid for them."

Then her anger shifted back to worry as she looked at Jax’s condition again and started picturing in her head whatever he must have gone through out there.

Jax said. "Astrid, you are letting your paranoia run wild. And besides, our relationship which was supposed to be a secret has been getting put on full display by your possessiveness right now."

Astrid looked down at herself and realized how she had been clinging to him as if she would lose him the moment she let go. The relationship that was supposed to be hidden from the world had just been handed to every pair of eyes in this chamber through her emotions alone.

She separated from Jax and turned to the girls while thinking of something. Albert went still and was silently thanking Jax for the brief pause which was surely looking to go his way.

But Astrid commanded something much worse. "Albert, execute every single one of them. That way no secret gets out of this chamber."

Now Albert was cursing Jax in his heart because he needed to kill three more girls on top of the first one and each of them came from households with similar or even more power than the first one. His head instinctively turned toward Claude who happened to turn his own head the other direction at the exact same moment, making it very clear that the Merchant King was not the one in control right now in front of his daughter.

Lavinia threw her hands up while sweating profusely and attempted the worst gaslighting. "Senior wait! I swear on my life! A couple? You two? It never even crossed my mind! In fact the vibe between you is so purely platonic I honestly thought you were brother and sister!"

She violently whipped her head around to the other girls and delivered the most aggressive and desperate wink humanly possible while saying. "Right, guys? Total sibling energy! We all felt it!"

Her internal screaming was practically leaking out of her skull. ’Lie, you idiots, or we all die!’

But her childish act didn’t work in front of Astrid who turned and said with cold finality. "Albert, after you are done pack their bodies and deliver them safely to whatever mousehole they crawled out of."

But before Albert could take another step Jax said with a grin that made Astrid’s eye twitch. "But Astrid, don’t you think there is one more person who knows about the truth now?"

She turned to him in anger. "Who is there?" She knew Albert already knew slightly about her and Jax but he couldn’t open his mouth or mean harm against her due to his oath to the Aleris family. But then she followed Jax’s eyes and saw them looking directly at her father Claude.

Astrid punched her own palm in frustration. "Shit! How did I let this slip? Jax, what should I do? I can’t kill my father because he is still my father who raised me."

The confusion in her eyes made poor Claude heartbroken all over again as his own daughter was genuinely weighing the pros and cons of his assassination.

He said with a voice that was trying its best to sound grateful. "Thank you, Ashy. Thank you for showing mercy and remembering that we are related."

And saying so he walked off with pain in every step while adding. "Whatever you do here, just remember your birthday is next week. I have arranged a massive banquet with all the top officials. Just know that executing four noble heirs today will severely complicate your own eighteenth birthday party."

And with that he left.

Jax said. "See? If you can be that generous to your own father then these poor girls deserve a little of that mercy as well. I promise you they won’t breathe a single word about us to anyone. And look at them, they aren’t faking it. They really did give it their all out there."

He gestured toward Athanasia who looked completely worn out and was barely able to stand on her own.

And as he was raising his hand his legs started giving up on him. Astrid instantly positioned herself as his support, letting him lean his weight on her shoulder.

Jax was now standing with the support of Astrid when she said with concern that was fighting her anger for control of her voice. "Why does it always have to be you? Why do you always have to give me so much trouble, Jax? Do you have any idea how scared I was? The thought of you never coming back..."

Before she could say anything more Jax kissed her on the cheek right there in front of everyone and made Astrid go completely silent. She wanted to push him away out of sheer embarrassment but realized he wasn’t in any shape to handle even a light shove without collapsing.

Jax said. "I could ask you the same thing. Why were you sleeping on the ground? You look incredibly pale. Don’t tell me you starved yourself for two straight days waiting for me."

Astrid said while pouting. "Don’t try to run away from your lecture. And besides you are the one who can’t even stand on your own so I am clearly in better condition here."

Jax just smiled and patted her hair while changing the topic again. "You are. Which is exactly why you need to get some food in you before you collapse too. So how about we call a truce and have a dinner date right here? The healers would be on their way and we can use that time. I have a lot of stories to tell you."

Astrid said forgetting every curse she had already planned during the two days of waiting. "Fine. But it won’t be counted as our pending date."

Jax said. "As you wish, milady." Then he turned to Albert and said. "Hey you, leave those girls alone and arrange some nutritious food for us instead."

Albert looked at Astrid with gleaming eyes practically begging for her permission. And as she gave a tiny nod he became the happiest person in the room and was mentally thanking the very same guy who was currently giving him a front-row trailer of what his chaotic and hellish future serving under this couple was going to look like.

Albert and Astrid both helped Jax walk toward the outside chamber while the four girls stood behind them with their jaws on the floor. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Each one of them processed the scene they had just witnessed with a very different perspective.

Evangeline was shocked at first but then just sighed and decided to forget everything about the dungeon, the mission, and this ridiculous scene as nothing more than a really bad dream.

Same went for Athanasia who wasn’t bothered anymore about anything and just wanted her mouth stuffed with steak after everything she had been through.

Delphine had gone totally insane inside her own head right now because the professor’s other side was being revealed to her and she finally realized that his words about having a family waiting for him weren’t a lie at all.

She thought to herself. ’He really did have someone waiting for him. And in the most stubborn and possessive way imaginable. Mother, everything you researched about this man was completely wrong. I should go back home and tell her not to mess with him any longer. Not only does he have the backing of a crazy family but a dangerous mind along with a power that was able to hollow an entire empire from the inside.’

And for Lavinia, well, she was just enjoying the whole lovey-dovey show and said with sparkling eyes. "Aww, I wish my man looked at me like that."

Then she snapped back to reality and added. "Wait a second. I don’t even have a man. I am chronically single."

Delphine said. "Shut up, you useless fool. Because of you we would have been dragged into another fight."

-x-X-x-

A/N: Zane_Sama, tony_adams_4787, redwolf86, spawn1996 and Leo_Muhammad sliding in with the golden tickets, thank you guys 🙏🔥

(👍🏻ᴗ _ᴗ)👍🏻