To Love A Villain-Chapter 129: The World of Royals

>>Amber

"Someone singing?" We both were making our way out of the palace. I told Hael about the new thing I saw in my dreams, "Did you see the person?" He asked

"Not clearly," I said, "It came from the miasma, beyonds the darkness of the clouds that had taken over everything." The hallways were quiet, we would pass by some maids or guards occasionally but that was it, "One other thing I noticed this time was that the tower I was standing in, didn’t collapse."

I was still alone there though, staring out into the chaos.

"I see," He gave me a slow nod, "Anything particular you felt about the singing?"

"I think it was a woman singing,"

"And?" He asked, "Anything else?"

"The voice was ethereal," My skin stood up when I said it, "Really," I shook my head, "It was otherworldly,"

"Hmm," Hael gave it some thought and for a few seconds we walked quietly.

"Say..." I had a lot on my mind and after learning about King Valenor, there was one thing that kept pinching me,

"Yes?" Hael looked at me

"The book talked about King Valenor’s childhood sweetheart, right?"

"Yes,"

"Did he marry her when he came back and started his kingdom?" I don’t remember reading Persephone’s name anywhere in the history books I read. The name of the first Queen was different.

Did she change her name?

"..." Hael didn’t answer immediately, but his answer did come, "No," My heart fell, "He married another woman, someone from a rich noble family."

"Why?" I felt sad

"I-" He paused, "To begin with, King Valenor didn’t write this book, it’s written by his friend. And Vaerion only wrote one line in the book about Persephone when they came back from their adventure."

"What?" I asked and he glanced at me, there was a quiet look in his eyes, then he looked ahead again before he answered.

"’Persephone and Rosemary were dead, and along with their death, a part of our hearts was gone.’" He quoted the line from the book.

!!!

Oh... so she died before he became king and started the kingdom

"Rosemary?"

"Vaerion wrote that they lost two people in their final adventure. Persephone and Rosemary."

Rosemary must be a party member too,

"How many people were in the party? And what races?" I asked, wondering if they had other elves, or some other race with them.

Valenor, Persephone and Rosemary were human. Vaerion an elf. Gimli a dwarf. There is another person, but it’s not written what he was."

"His name?"

"Theo"

"How did they both die?" I asked, "Persephone and Rosemary,"

"Ripped pages," He answered

"Ah, right." It must be the pages that were ripped

It came to me as a shock, then my gaze dropped to the ground. I couldn’t help but recall Valenor’s letter. The letter wasn’t about Persephone per se but I feel like her not being with him broke him. That’s my assumption, but from that letter, it looks like he was burnt out.

But maybe it was just life as King, because Valenor was from humble beginnings. He had to learn everything from scratch when he decided to create Aurelia and then he had to deal with all the nobles who surrounded him, had to deal with so much politics, had to marry a woman he didn’t love either. It’s not mentioned that he didn’t love the Queen or anything, it’s just my assumption.

But part of me was glad that Valenor did not betray his love.

He married another woman for the kingdom and he was also known as a good husband, but I think he never got over Persephone.

I don’t know why I feel so sad for him. None of what I’m thinking is confirmed.

Vaerion has written about how Valenor had saved the world but the people will never know about it. It seems like Valenor did not want the spotlight on him.

"The last page is riddle-like words mostly because we don’t get to read who the one who resides in darkness is, and why that thing is there to begin with." He shook his head, "All of it is hollow."

"Hmmm," We walked towards the palace courtyard, "Is there really going to be a team that will go to Hollow Woods to fight bonewraiths?"

He nodded, "Yes," He glanced at me, "And we have to go with them."

My heart skipped a beat, "W-what?" I was surprised, scared even, because why would I want to go into a poisonous forest that’s now also filled with miasma and has horrendous monsters in it. And something in the rift we have no clue about.

But then I remembered I was the saint and I had no choice but to go

...

Shit

If I didn’t go, there was no chance of winning. I was the most important person there.

"Don’t worry," Hael said, "You and I will stick together."

"We will?" I looked at him and my gaze met his

"We will," His voice was barely above a whisper

"Are we going to fight the monsters too?" I asked and Hael shook his head

"No," He turned his head and looked ahead, "We’re going to find the rift and take a dive in it."

My heart hitched at his words. And I felt my heart skip a beat as well, "We’re going to do what?" My voice was soft because of the shock.

It wasn’t like I couldn’t hear him, it was just that my brain didn’t want to hear it, and it was taking as long as it could to process that information.

"You and I will dive into the rift to see what’s in there, the moment we locate the rift." He said, "You’ve improved a lot in defense skills, we’ll stay with the rest of the team when we enter Hollow Woods. You’ll need your 360 degree shield there so keep working on that. With that shield we won’t need to fight and can walk around till we find the rift." I stared at Hael’s face, the rational side of my brain refusing to accept this information.

I could feel that the doorman of my brain was doing its best trying to shut the door to my brain but the words, the plan, it was so heavy and strong, eventually the banged their way through the door, stomping the doorman in the process

I let out a sigh as I looked down in distress, "Damn," We’re in for a hell of a ride, "But," I glanced at him again, "Will you be alright? You got injured so badly."

"That was my fault for being careless. I underestimated the forest." He gave me a glance, "If you don’t win, everything one says sounds like an excuse."

"But, you told me you did try to use your magic on them."

"Well, fire didn’t do much to them. All I could do was make a run for it." His expressions got grim when he remembered that,

He told me he used a lot of his magic, he even exhausted most of his mana but couldn’t kill the beast. He did manage to damage them but they wouldn’t die.

"But this time I have a body that I can experiment on all I want." He said, "We’ll go in prepared."

Right,

The King allowed him to do that.

Hmmm

I thought about the whole thing. Going to Hollow Woods is something that I would never have put in my bucket list, but here we are.

We’re going to go in with a whole team.

I wonder how many people there will be. We’ll need people that have strong magic power and a lot of mana for this.

Like Lyal,

...

I looked at Hael, "You talked about sending Lyal as the leader."

"I did," He answered without looking back at me.

"You-" I already had a feeling he did that so Lyal ends up in some kind of irreversible trouble, "How will that happen?" He wants to put Lyal in danger that’s why he named him.

But the reality is, that anyone who will be going to Hollow Woods will be in danger.

"I plan to put in a request with the Crown Prince," He said

"How?" I get that the Crown Prince will have a lot of say in this matter because after the King, he and the Queen hold a lot of power, "What will you say to him that he will agree to make Lyal the party leader?"

He smirked, "Of course," He glanced at me, "You’ll go and tell him to make sure Lyal goes."

"Excuse me?" I looked at him in horror, "And why would he listen to me?"

"Because he said he owes his life to you." He passed me a sly smile, "All you need to do is make sure you tell him you want Lyal to go."

"Come on, Hael." I slumped my shoulders, "Going to Hollow woods is a death sentence, why would Nevan agree to send his little brother there?"

"Because Nevan is the Crown Prince and his position is threatened by this ’little brother’ of his." The hallways came to an end, opening up to more light and the circular courtyard

"Still... I don’t think Nevan is the type who would want his family dead." I let out a sigh, "And in any case, if Lyal goes and somehow wins, he’s more of a threat to Nevan."

"My Lady," We walked down the stairs and reached the courtyard. The weather was nice and plenty of sunlight made the simple yet plant decorated courtyard a pleasant place to sit in, "Do you really think that Baron Hiddleworth had not informed Nevan of what he was planning to do?"

!!!

Hael’s words hit me like a truck, "Y-you think Nevan knew? But he looked so disappointed in the Baron!!"

"He wasn’t disappointed that the Baron had tried to kill Lyal. He was disappointed that he failed." Hael stopped right in the center of the sunlight filled circular courtyard

"No..." I shook my head at him, "He doesn’t look the type to do that!" It was hard for me to believe that. The Crown Prince looked like such a good person though!

"He’s definitely not the type to kill people because they are in his way," He agreed.

"Then why!?"

"If Nevan was a naive kid, he wouldn’t have reached the age he has." He answered, "You should know more than anyone else how tiring it is to be a Royal.

He presented his palm to me so he could take me back. But I didn’t immediately place my hand in his. I pondered on his words as I slowly extended my hand to him.

His words made sense after all

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