It will be a memorable night. Leon won't be wasting too much time and Hidelga is preparing herself at home. She was cleaning herself when she noticed how bad her injuries are: scratches, wounds, bruises and so on.
She went in front of the mirror and saw how awful it looked.
Leon finally arrived and she covered herself, feeling ashamed.
She turns around to face him, telling him in a docile manner. "I think not today," she said
Leon smiled and removed his cloak covering his great physique and then went near her. He fully wrapped her with the towel and his embrace. The atmosphere was cold and although the injury was very painful, everything feels at ease.
She turns around and touches his face, lingering down to his neck and then she nuzzles on his chest. He lowered down his face to reach hers.
Indeed not today; she's injured. However, such moments won't hurt her
Meanwhile, the princess was seated in her room while her maid brushed her as a bedtime routine.
She was in her deep thoughts.
The Duke's words echo in her head. Indeed, why did she hate him so much because of all the notorious acts of his family? He definitely has a part in it but she never tried to know him.
She shook her head and suddenly stood up. Her maid was surprised, thinking her lady was displeased so she started to apologize.
"It's not your fault," she said, comforting her maid.
She sighed. "It's just I'm thinking of something," she said. She asked her to leave and she lay down on her bed. Her long blonde locks are like golden silk on her bedsheets. Her red nightgown enhances her fair skin like a vampire of the night.
She decided to go to the balcony and saw her cousin, who was showing her a basket of bread and wine. She opened the balcony door and let him enter.
"Hey, Liz..." Duke Oliver greeted but when he entered her room, he was dumbfounded for seconds and continued. "You're so beautiful," he complimented.
"If you were not my cousin, I'd fall in love with you," he said in a playful manner.
"Wait. What? H-How did you escape?" she asked, changing the topic.
"The soldiers now are easy to manipulate and the emperor's butler is sleeping because he's drunk," Duke Canon explained. "Then why don't you escape the castle for good?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Like, I can do some changes than alert the alarm?"
"I can't leave you guys," he added. "The current emperor will torture the other four officials if I leave."
"Tell me what happened. Why are you upset?" he asked her. Reading the hints on her face.
She started to rant about everything that happened to her and her fiancé and told him what was bothering her.
"You're not interested in him, are you?" he said as he put a small piece of bread in his mouth.
"Of course not," she said and started to badmouth the Duke Serpentine. Duke Oliver have an enlightened reaction and smiles. "Yeah, that's totally impossible. You wouldn't like someone like him. He said because he is a monster," he said, agreeing to his cousin.
"He is nothing but a mere tool, a puppet for what we wanted to happen. After that we can leave him be and be terminated by both parties—either this tyrant or our own emperor," he added.
The princess was silent. Duke Oliver smiled. "I'll leave now," he said. He kissed her head goodnight.
The princess was left thinking. 'Is that what I want to happen? '
Duke Oliver went back to the other four officials. As he enters through the window.
"How is she?" Prince Caster, who has been waiting the whole time, asked him right away.
"Would you allow me to take a seat first before asking me questions? She's fine. Why didn't you ask her yourself, though?" the Duke answered as he went inside.
"You know why," he said, turning back while scratching his head in embarrassment.
The Duke smiled, knowing that Prince Caster is not the only one who is still awake waiting for the news.
"You don't need to worry about me," Princess Shannon said. Knowing that her fiancé is thinking about her. Prince Caster jumped in surprised. Duke Oliver knew the need for privacy in the atmosphere. He left.
"Why are you still awake?" he asked.
"I read it on your face when the Duke said he'll visit his cousin. I know you'll be waiting for the news," she explained and turned around to leave for bed.
The imperial princess was left alone in her room. Familiar with her cousin's actions, she knew that he was having assumptions that she was starting to like the Serpentine duke.
The idea displeased her a lot, knowing that the main focus should be taking back the throne with the plan they have. She needs to clear her mind. She calls for Vladimir to get her a cup of hot chamomile tea before she sleeps, not wanting to wake up any of her maids anymore.
While waiting unsettled, she stood up and roamed the hallway of the great palace. There are no guards in sight. Probably hidden surveillance to maintain the castle's old atmosphere. Most of the guards are outside; that's why her cousin said that the guards are easy to manipulate.
The night was cold; the castle was quiet. The serene atmosphere makes everything nostalgic.
Then suddenly a strange strong scent scattered all over the place. It's a hallucinogen; how pitiful that she knew it late. Her vision starts blurring, and the place seems to distort.
"Hello, my queen." From the shadows came the image of Ziel. He went near the drugged princess.
Weak and helpless, fragile & frail yet beautiful and stunning. He grabbed her from her nightdress. "Come on, cry," he jeered, looking down on her like she is a weak, helpless child. This is his payback.
'There is no way I will be in love with this man.' The thought echoes in her head. Now she can do nothing but fall into his hands.
'This man, this man, this man is crazy!!! ' she thought. 'How will I survive? How should I fight'
Too weak to move, too weak to shout, vague vision. Call the Amigine? No.
From a distant roof came two figures and the other one spoke. "You don't want to help her?" Ammon asked. She smiled. "Nah, no need. She'll figure it out anyway," Elixir remarked. "She is being overpowered by a man. The only resource she has is herself and the faith that she can seduce this brat who has taken a dose of love-imprinting potion, she said.
"All she needs to do is pretend to love this man, who has been hated all his entire life. Sometimes to defeat the masculine, you should be feminine—a water versus a rock. You should believe in what you are made of and slowly soften,mold and break the rock." She shrugged her shoulders.
The princess used all her strength to reach him and finally kissed him.
The words of her cousin echo in the princess' head.
"You're so beautiful. If you were not my cousin, I'd fall in love with you."
The Duke gets annoyed and pushes her away, but he sees the meekness in her. Pull back the beast who wants to hurt her.
'People will laugh when they see you cry,' the same as his reaction when he saw her cry that time. He'll mock her.
However, the beast's reaction is different. He held her face like the potion is devouring his senses.
"Don't cry; stop crying. Y-you can. You can use me," he said. "I'll give you all you want. Just don't break." His hands are trembling.
The potion takes effect in the most natural way indeed but what hinders it is his fear. The trauma, the outcome after everything. Like all the things before that he considered precious ending up broken because 'weak things are just meant to be destroyed by his hands.' A phrase that had been planted in his mind.