The Crown's Entrapment

Meanwhile, inside the King’s great hall, Darius kept a blank look on his face as he listened to his court officials blabbering on about his supposedly bad decision.

“Your Majesty, can’t you see how this decision will turn into a great loss to our kingdom? We’ve already sent a lot of our own warriors into that battle just so to protect your mate’s kingdom who, as we all know, isn’t even married to you just…” one of the Elders opposed to his reign, Handi, cried out. “This is simply too much support for someone that we don’t even have solid ties to just yet. Not when she’s yet to be confirmed as our Queen.”

Darius inwardly sighed. He coldly stared at the eleven Elders present in the room, all them going on and on trying to debate his decision in front of him. As he could see, four of those Elders were being manipulated by Nasser, which gave him a vote of five should a stalemate be reached. Six Elders meanwhile, remained loyal to his family as they continued to support him ever since his father, the late king, had died.

Even now, Darius was aware of how Nasser was continuously trying to convince at least one of the six other Elders to his side to try and give himself the upper hand. Fortunately, his attempts would always fail, all thanks to his mother who continuously worked hard to keep most of the loyal Elders to their side.

Silently, the king looked at Elder Negeb and Elder Anita. He was trying to woo the two of them onto his side with Elder Handi’s assistance. His godfather was doing his best to assist his mother well.

After a few more minutes of listening in, Darius decided that could no longer remain quiet in between the discussions. In between lulls, he interrupted, “Enough with this.”

At his command, silence reigned inside the courtroom. All eyes turned to him as it was the first time he talked ever since he entered the hall.

“My wedding with Princess Xenia will happen in five days time, and the trials will follow a day after,” Darius declared in a calm, yet cold tone. His words carried the chill of winter snow, his eyes sharp and chilling as he continued, “This is the solution to all of your complaints regarding the assistance I sent to help my mate’s kingdom. And do note that she will become your Queen soon after.”

“Aren’t you too confident on this matter regarding Princess Xenia, Sire?” a masculine voice interrupted the discussion. It was Gilas, and it would seem that this was the time that he decided to chime in.

Darius turned to him. “I don’t see a single reason for me not to be this confident,” he tersely replied. “Either way, we’ll all find out right after the trials, so let us all be productive and discuss more important matters at hand. We can discuss this topic further after the trials have been concluded.”

“Indeed, and that topic is the rise of a dragon…” Elder Anita nodded, diverting the topic of attention. “We should discuss this futher. It’s only a matter of time before we faced another terror such as this, and quite frankly, this is more alarming than anything Helion can ever field.”

She continued further, “So far, it hasn’t been seen flying around our vicinity, but like I said, it’s only a matter of time since we’re Ebodia’s neighbor. I wouldn’t be surprised to see if there were more dragons that arise in the future, seeing that there’s finally a proven successful morphing. I do wonder how many dragon souls manage to escape entrapment from the forbidden forest. We’re not even sure yet if there still some dragon eggs left hidden somewhere as well…”

Truly, dragons only brought terror to every living creature since the dawn of history. Darius frowned at the sensitive topic. He couldn’t even give out a rash edict against the dragon, knowing that it was Ezekiel who was currently flying out there somewhere.

“The one that keeps on appearing is Vulcan, the Dragon King… the most powerful dragon of all,” Nasser commented. “Knowing that, it’s understandable that he somehow managed to escape without Ebodia’s wizards and mages knowing while the latter were performing the sealing of all dragon souls in the forbidden forest. He had even managed to merge into a creature, from what I’ve heard. I do wonder what kind of living creature he was able to gain control of this time…”

“Obviously, Vulcan wasn’t able to fully take control over the creature, seeing as it’s not like the Dragon King to simply fly over without destroying all living things that might’ve caught his eyes…” Anita seconded.

Darius remained silent, all eyes still on him as they waited for his comments and orders regarding the matter.

Eventually, he let out a sigh and said, “I’ll be personally investigating this matter together with King Nikolai as soon as my wedding and Xen’s subsequent trial is finished. For now, it’s better for us to not make any rash decisions. Instead, we should continue to keep our guard up until a more tenable solution is reached.”

There was another bout of silence that followed. Soon after, everyone seemed to agree with his words as they discussed amongst themselves. No one wanted to make any wrong moves pertaining to dragons. Who knew what it was planning, or if there were more others like it flying around. They were very dangerous, and they could easily wipe out their kind with how powerful they were once they were up in the sky.

Much to Darius’s relief, thankfully, the toxic meeting soon ended, and he finally had the chance to dismiss everyone. His mother on the other hand, stayed behind and approached him on his seat as soon as everyone had already left.

“Mother, is there something you need?” he asked.

The Queen Mother shook her head. “Everything is ready. I’ve made sure you and Princess Xenia can wed even earlier than five days should you desire,” she relayed. “However, her father, King Stephan, also said that the fastest he could arrive here is in five days. I believe that he still needs a lot to consider before leaving, unfortunately.”

Before their conversation could continue further, the door opened, her mother’s chamberlain entering with a box in her hand. Walking forward, she then handed it to his mother, the latter then promptly presenting the box to him.

“I wanted to give you this…” his mother said.

Looking at the box, Darius already knew what it was the moment he saw the item. Inside was the most treasured family heirloom they had, one that his father gave to her mother back when he was still alive.

“This will look good on your future Queen, my son…”

Darius’s face lit up as he replied, “Hmm… I think it would be better if you’ll be the one to give it to Xen personally, Mother.”

“It might, but I thought it would be sweeter if you’d be the one to give it to her,” the Queen Mother snorted.

Darius chuckled. “Mother, I’m too far sweet around Xen already that I don’t even recognize myself anymore,” he shook his head in mirth. “So please, kindly do the honor of giving this precious gift of yours to your future daughter-in-law. I’m sure she’ll very much appreciate receiving the gift from you more than from me…”