1. Prologue (His Past) - 12. Punishment
As soon as Angel came out from the hunting ground, he was greeted by people who wanted to congratulate him and he only replied to them with a formal smile. His eyes were still looking for her between them.
Despite having violated his uncle's orders, strangely than feeling worried about his punishment, he was even more worried that he might not see her again.
'Is she not coming? Did she forget her promise? Or is she waiting for me somewhere else? ' Not wanting to lose his time, he tried to split the crowd in front of him.
"Forgive me, please give me away."
He ran and looked for her in every corner of Golden Light Castle and still didn't find her.
Three hours had passed, but his effort was fruitless. He was breathing heavily as his steps stopped in the garden in the middle of the castle. He realized he shouldn't have behaved like this and he had never done anything as irrational as this before. This was the first time he had let his emotions overcome him.
'This is stupid. I feel like a fool ... 'But somehow his feelings kept pushing him to keep looking for her. Something that he even didn't understand why.
Suddenly he remembered, Ilex had danced with her last night.
'I'll ask him, her name.' That woman was a guest of the Peace Alliance Meeting so she shouldn't be an ordinary woman.
He ran towards Ilex's room, but he stopped after he realized something.
'She broke her promise, maybe she changed her mind and didn't want to see me again.' Doubts began to fill his heart.
'Weird ... Why didn't she just give me her name last night? Why did she ask me to see her today? ' His doubts and suspicions grew, especially since she danced with Ilex before meeting him.
'Maybe she thinks all of this is just a game or maybe she did it just to return the favour to me.' And he could guess that actually, she already fell for Ilex.
Angel gave himself a bitter smile as his heart ached.
"Angelus Raizel, what do you expect? Acting like a fool all day for someone you just met," he muttered. He knew nothing good would happen if he let his feelings take over him and he was right ... Once he let his emotions take control of him, he only got disappointment. He walked to his room as he returned to his usual cold expression. Today, he won the competition but he felt like he was completely defeated.
As he was about to open the door to his room, a guard approached him.
"Your Highness, the king is calling you to the study room."
He took his hand off the doorknob and turned around.
"Take me there." A tired breath out of his mouth as he followed the guard to the study room. He knew what awaited him.
------
Once Angel entered the study room, King Gervis was already standing near his desk, staring at him in anger.
He secretly took a deep breath, approached and bowed.
"Uncle, did you call me?"
"How dare you ignore my order! Didn't I tell you to lose in the hunting competition?!" snapped King Gervis.
He lowered his head.
"Forgive me. I had no choice but to kill it otherwise Ilex would be killed."
"I don't want to hear your reasons!"
He pressed his lips and kept his head down since he knew an order was an order and a war puppet like him shouldn't go against the king's order.
Suddenly, Ilex walked into the room. Without warning, Ilex pulled Angel's collar and punched his face.
"How dare you steal my spotlight!" he said in anger.
Angel turned his gaze to Ilex and gave him a straight gaze.
"I already gave you a chance! Twice! But you ruin it. Don't blame me for your incompetence," he said with a glare.
Ilex pulled Angel's collar once again, his fist raised, ready to throw another punch.
"Angelus Raizel!"
"Enough! I don't want to see your fights here!" snapped King Gervis.
Angel brushed off Ilex's hand from his collar and turned his gaze back to King Gervis.
"Angel, you have ignored my order. I will punish you fifty lashes. Take your punishment after all the guests leave," continued King Gervis.
He sighed as he already knew his punishment was unavoidable.
"I understand."
"Wait!" shouted Ilex. He turned his gaze to Angel and smirked evilly.
"Why do we need to wait for all the guests to leave? We can punish him here and no one knows."
Ilex and King Gervis exchanged glances a moment as if they were up to something.
'He's right. We better punish him now, before he learns about the competition is a match to determine who is the next King of Asteria, ' thought King Gervis.
"Fine, I'll leave his punishment to you. But I'll remind you before, don't be too harsh on him," said King Gervis with a slightly wicked smile. Then without further ado, he stood up from his seat and walked to the exit with his assistants.
"I understand, father," replied Ilex as King Gervis walked past him.
After King Gervis left the room, Ilex turned his gaze back to Angel.
"Do you know? Today our royal blacksmiths have just finished some weapons and I'm very interested to try it. This is one of them ..."
Ilex gestured his hand. A guard swiftly approached him with a box of a whip. He took the whip and showed it to Angel.
"This is Agony, its inside is made of soft steel and coated with titanium spines. As soon as I see it, I want to try it on you. I hope you don't mind," he continued.
Although Angel knew his sentence was unavoidable, he did not think they would punish him this hard for his first offence.
'Is that because the competition is a match to determine who will be the crown prince? But he knows that I have to kill that monster to save him. Besides, I still need court approval before they declare me as a crown prince. I don't even have good relationships with the nobles and they still doubt my identity. ' In addition, his mother who died after giving birth also came from the commoner. Therefore he had no family to support him in the court. He gave Ilex a sharp stare. His eyes filled with anger and disappointment.
"I saved you, but is this how you thank me?"
"Save me? You embarrass me in front of other people and you said you saved me ?!" said Ilex angrily. For Ilex, nothing could be more embarrassing than being saved by his nemesis. But on the other hand, he also didn't want to admit that Angel was better than him.
"As I said before, don't blame me for your incompetence," he retorted.
Ilex laughed wickedly as he looked at Angel in disdain.
"I want to see how you keep your arrogance after you taste this Agony! Guards! Make him kneel!" he ordered.
Two guards grabbed Angel's arms and kicked his legs forcing him to kneel. They also stripped his uniform and sword.
Ilex walked around him and clapped his folded whip in his right hand to his other hand. Ilex's eyes observed every detail of him like a hungry beast surrounding its prey. Then he noticed the fresh wound on Angel's back. He pressed the wound with his whip handle harshly.
"This bandage looks new, looks like you just got hurt. I will try my best to avoid it, but don't expect me too much, because I'm not a whip user."
Angel could feel the pain sting his back as his wound bled again.
Without saying anything else, Ilex slashed his whip to Angel's back and it precisely hit the wound. Angel held his groan as the spines from the whip tore his bandage, piercing his skin and flesh. Blood started flowing out from his wound.
"C'mon cousin, give me a good scream!" mocked Ilex. But Angel didn't answer, nor did he resist since he knew his resistance would only give him a harsher punishment.
Ilex kept slashing his whip accompanied by his evil laughter. Angel clenched his fists as he help his groans. The whip tore all of his back, more blood flowing out from his wounds, wetting his back.
"Tsk! So persistent! Scream you idiot!" yelled Ilex.
Suddenly, Angel caught the whip with his hand and turned his gaze to Ilex.
"You have slashed me fifty times, your job is done," he said as he threw the whip back at Ilex.
Ilex looked at him with a sinister smile.
"Fifty lashes without a scream. Amazing! As expected from our Asteria's Demon Prince," he said in a mocking tone. Then he threw his whip back to the box and left followed by the guards.
Angel panted in pain.
-Ttuk, - ttuk, - ttuk...
Red blood droplets flowed from his back dripping to the floor.
'He did not spare me at all, though I had saved him.' He struggled to stand up, put his uniform back on, took his sword and exited the room as if nothing had happened.
"Call the royal doctor to my room," he said to a guard in front of his uncle's study.
"Yes, Your Highness," the guard replied and left.
He walked down the corridor to his room slowly while enduring his pain.
"Angel!"
Someone called his name in a familiar voice. He turned his gaze to the origin of the voice and saw Ophelia running toward him.
"I heard my father and brother punished you, how are you?" she said in a worried tone. Her hand was reaching out to him, trying to touch the bruise on his face.
Unexpectedly, he brushed it off.
Ophelia startled in surprise, her two knights quickly stepped forward, they looked irritated at his act. But he paid no heed to their irritation and kept his cold attitude.
'I can't let her know my condition ... I will only give her trouble.' Ophelia was the last person he expected to find out about his condition.
"Stay away from me. I already have enough problems, don't add it anymore," he said in a cold voice. Then without further ado, he walked away.
She could only watch him walk away from her.
"I'm just worried about you," she whispered sadly. But before he disappeared from her sight, she realized there was a bloodstain on his blazer that was getting bigger every time he took a step.
'Oh no! He is seriously injured. ' Without a second thought, she moved her feet to follow him.
As he took a few steps to enter his room, he lost his balance and collapsed. His breathing grew heavier, his body trembled and his consciousness began to disappear. The wounds on his back were so severe that turned the back of his uniform red with his own blood.
When his consciousness was almost gone, he looked at the sofa in his room where she had treated him last night.
He smiled bitterly.
"It seems like I had a beautiful dream last night ... but a dream is just a dream ... in the end, I have to wake up," he whispered.
After that, everything became blurry for him, he only remembered there was a voice calling his name and a doctor's voice who told guards to lift him to bed.