Lorcan entered the royal palace and directly went to his father's study. His father's aide, Count Herbert got up from his seat, "Your highness.....?"
"Announce my presence" Lorcan cut his words because he didn't have enough time to deal with unnecessary things.
"Yes, your highness" Count turned and entered the study.
"Your majesty, His highness crown prince is asking for an audience"
The emperor lifted his head from his paperwork "Tell him to enter" he was surprised that Lorcan asked permission instead of just barging inside.
As he anticipated, his son was seething as he entered inside, "Are you that eager to get killed by your son?"
Emperor just smiled, "Do me that favor and free me from this misery"
Lorcan's jaw ticked in annoyance, "Why did you do this, your majesty?"
"It was for the greater good, you will understand it in the future," the emperor remarked.
Lorcan chuckled eerily, "The future where I kill of your beloved?"
"Lorcan" the emperor glared at him, "She is also your mother"
"I don't have a mother," he said mocking his father, "She never cared for me and always abandoned me, that woman is not my mother"
"She did it for your sake....." his father stopped himself from continuing as always.
Lorcan closed his eyes and swept his blonde locks through his fingers, "Your majesty, tell me the reason for doing this before I do something irreversible"
Emperor Henrick stared at his son and said, "Marquis Campbell informed me that some dark wizards put a death spell on their daughter"
"What?"
"As Marquis couple were light wizards, they discovered the curse before it took action and requested me to help them in lifting it. When I examined, the curse was already starting"
Lorcan frowned, "But I never discovered anything about this, she was fine before I left for the battlefield"
His father sighed, "It is not that easily recognizable Lorcan, I had to use my scepter to inspect it. Her parents understood the dilemma and shifted the curse from their daughter to themselves and I had to order their public execution to completely get rid of the spell. It was their decision and I just assisted them"
"Why didn't you inform me or Rea about this? We would have found a different method instead"
"That would trigger the spell," Emperor said, "Don't you know about your beloved? She would rather end her life than harm others. The death spell affects everyone who comes in contact with the victim and that is the reason for her parents' demise. Her brother knew about this and went to find a cure from the Findara empire, but their parents chose this instead"
Lorcan was tongue-tied hearing his father's words. Everything that he mentioned was true, Astrea would kill herself to end the curse if she knew the truth, and he would never let that happen. Also, only light wizards like her parents could shift one's curse to themselves and end it without harming the victim. Now he could not understand who cast that spell on his Rea, it was not an easy spell to cast and the caster too had to sacrifice their lives to keep the spell active. Who could have so much hatred towards her to cast it by sacrificing themselves? he came out of his thoughts hearing his father's voice.
"Her fleeing complicated my plan. I thought about telling her everything but she was not there when I visited the marquis manor. So I specifically sent Commander Canmore to fetch her because I knew that he would never hurt her. After all, you know..." he said vaguely and Lorcan understood it. Sebastian that scoundrel loved Astrea from childhood and he was the one who opposed her being the crown princess the most.
"Everything is over now that she fell off the cliff and ended her life" the emperor added dejectedly.
"She is alive," Lorcan said surprising the emperor, "She ended up jumping into a river, My Rea wouldn't do something without a plan, she must have jumped knowing that she could survive"
His father eyed his son and said carefully, "Are you sure that you are not....."
"Delusional?" he completed his father's words, "I'm not saying this to convince myself, I believe Rea"
"That's great," the emperor remarked, "Here I was worried that you had to marry that snake's daughter if lady Astrea was truly dead"
"What?"
"The empress suggested that you take her niece as new crown princess in the conference. I was not even able to refute because of her crafty words"
"Why don't you get rid of that woman?" he truly didn't understand his father's mind. The empress and her family were a headache for them.
Emperor Henrik frowned, "Your mother doesn't allow me to do that, I don't know why she is so against the idea of becoming an empress herself"
"That is why I call her a useless woman," Lorcan said earning a deadly glare from his father, "Get out if you are just going to bad mouth your mother!"
"I'm going" he clicked his tongue and turned to leave, then he remembered something and turned around, "And about that new crown princess issue, I just wanted to let you know that I will never have anyone other than my Rea in that seat or you can just remove me from the crown prince's position"
His father clenched his jaw, "I will take care of that"
Lorcan nodded his head, "You better, or l will have to take care of it myself, and you know that it can get terrible if I handle it my way"
"I will have you dragged out from here if you don't get out" he was losing his temper. This unfilial son of his, but he still loved him.
Lorcan grinned at his father and left the study. Count Herbert was pacing outside the door and sighed a relief when he caught sight of the crown Prince coming out without causing any commotion.
He walked to his chamber and slumped on his bed. Ryan was already doing his task in finding Astrea's brother, Conrad Campbell. He wanted to go and track his Rea right at this moment but held himself back to not alert the empress.
His red eyes stared at the ceiling, "I just hope I'm right in this Rea. Please don't prove me wrong and give up on me"