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King Vien coldly gazed down at Lady Flora, who knelt before him.
A guard had come running to the Sun Tower- the King's residence, in the middle of the night, with information that Lady Flora had been caught performing dark magic.
At first, King Vien had been unwilling to believe it...
It wasn't that he trusted Lady Flora... Far from it!
She had poisoned him on their first meeting, so after Taze fell ill, he suspected poison.
But even the most powerful healing mages found no poison in Taze.
Also, dark magic was an entirely different matter.
Dark mages were nearly extinct, and the few dark mages left hid themselves well in the outskirt regions of Luxia, or even beyond the borders in desolate lands near the west seas.
Where could Lady Flora have learned such a thing? Or how?
Before she entered the Palace, she had been an official's daughter, sheltered for most of her life. She hadn't even been near any of the borders...
He had checked!
Back then, he had been looking for an excuse - any excuse to ignore her, after her cruel trap, so he had personally combed through her history.
But there had been nothing, and after she entered the palace, she rarely went out, only visiting the magic council once in a while. To his knowledge, she had also only left the Capital once, and that had been to bury her father.
However, despite his doubt, King Vien had followed the guard.
And he had seen...
Grand Mage Sidian had been present, and had also explained the magic circle that had been drawn, showing it to King Vien in the book, and explaining how the symptoms matched the Crown Prince's illness!
At present, King Vien's face was the image of fury, as Lady Flora wheezed before him.
"First, you came between me and Laiza. I pardoned you because of our child. Then you broke the Crown Prince's heart, ignoring a child who needed a mother for months on end. Still I let you off because you reached out to him again.
"Through the years, I've ignored your foolish attempts to discredit the Crown Prince." He smirked coldly when her eyes widened. "You thought I didn't know? That I didn't notice the times you ran to the Magic Council to incite their doubt?
"Still I overlooked it. What mother doesn't want the best for her own child. But you..."
The energy in the room suddenly rose to alarming levels.
"... you dared to curse the Crown Prince?!" The entire throne room rumbled, and the ground trembled beneath their feet.
Miles away, Celia and Taze witnessed the scene through a mind link, using one of Celia's ice flowers in the throne room, but as King Vien raged, they were flung back by a powerful force, and the ice flower shattered.
Taze quickly shielded them both, moments before they would have crashed into a wall!
"Wah! Father is indeed powerful!"
"Uhm!" Celia nodded her agreement. "How did Vitav manage to subdue him in the past lives?!!"
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After Lady Flora's interrogation, Vitav was summoned for questioning.
He hadn't been found in the Left Wing that night, but several High Mages suspected that Lady Flora lacked the boldness or complexity to plan everything that had transpired.
At first, they thought the mastermind was the dark mage present at the scene, but when his mind was forcefully read, it revealed that he had received all his orders from Lady Flora.
This left Vitav as the most likely mastermind, and though the dark mage's memories showed only passing interactions with him, a few members of the council remained suspicious.
However, Vitav denied any knowledge of the events. Even when Grand Mage Patiel threatened to forcibly read his mind, Vitav stood firm, his features showing his hurt and disbelief.
"Father! I was raised to be upright, and I've never aimed for the throne! You know that I remained a hidden prince until recently!" He sighed pitifully. "If not for my inability to ignore those in danger, no one would know me to this day. I lived in obscurity for years!
King Vien resisted the urge to scoff... His son was quite the actor.
"If I were behind this, why didn't I kill my brother back then?!" Vitav was asking, as real tears began to stream down his face. "I know my mother wronged you and the late Queen, but all I've ever wanted was to be your son! I'm content with never ruling, and I know nothing of this incident!"
"And besides..." He sniffled, wiping his tears. "I- I was out that night!" He said in a nervous rush. "I got carried away chatting with..." He blushed, lowering his head.
"He was with me!" A light voice came from the doorway, and everyone turned to see Princess Larya struggling to get past the guards.
King Vien raised a hand, allowing her to enter, and she hurried to kneel beside Vitav.
"Your Supreme Majesty," She began, bowing respectfully. "That night, the First Prince was with me." She spoke with a calm, deadpan expression. "I apologize... We are much freer in our kingdom, so I paid no attention to time and propriety. We chatted the whole night..."
That much was true. The merpeople didn't have strict proprietary laws.
But Elves did, and the throne room was filled with murmurs, as a few shook their heads.
"How improper?!"
"A gentleman and lady alone for a whole night!"
"Chatting', she said! How do we know?!"
"And she's a princess!"
"Tsk tsk tsk..."
But not much could be done after that.
Following Princess Larya's testimony, Vitav was released but moved to the South Wing so Grand Mage Sidian could continue his investigation of the West Wing.
Grand Mage Sidian attempted a Retrace Spell to uncover all the past magic circles drawn in the West Wing's spell room, but to no avail. All he saw was a blank space.
It was the same when Grand Mages Pariel and Patiel forcefully read Lady Flora's mind. They could only see snippets here and there, but nothing significant, and they shook their heads in dismay.
"We've never seen anything like this!" They chorused to the King.
There was clearly a mastermind orchestrating everything, but no trace of him could be found.
In the end, Lady Flora and the dark mage were driven slightly mad by the forced mind-reading spells, and King Vien refused to let the mages perform it on Vitav, especially since Vitav was barely in the dark mage's memories.
He was severely tempted to allow it, but...
"We know those two are guilty, so I permitted it. But if we do the same to Vitav and he turns out to be innocent, we would have committed a grave wrong." He said.
And that was that.
The dark mage and Lady Flora were sentenced to death by hanging, with Lady Flora shouldering most of the blame.
The dark magic book was now in safe hands, and Arch Grand Mage Soren used it to destroy Taze's curse.
Taze was now completely healthy, and they had won this round.
But he and Celia knew it was far from over...
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Peace was restored after all that.
Celia was now unwilling to leave Taze's presence, and her arms were wrapped around him.
"Come now... You would have to return to your quarters eventually." Taze reasoned, but his own arms were around her as well, showing no signs of easing up!
They were in his room, after Celia snuck in with Grand Mage Sidian's help.
"I know you're still weak after the dark flame's removal..." Celia began. "But I'm just so relieved! I feared that things may not have worked!"
"There there..." He soothed, drawing dizzying circles on her back. "It has been removed. I'm no longer in any danger!"
They remained like that for a good long while, then Taze suddenly turned her to face him, his eyes mischievous. "I've been meaning to ask, how can you come to a gentleman's room alone at night?"
"Ei?" Celia looked up at him, a bit surprised. "What nonsense! Haven't we always spent time together?!"
"Oh?" He leaned in and gently lifted her chin. "Bold, aren't you? Last time, you even kissed me..."
Celia flushed to the roots of her hair. "Ah, no! T- that was -!"
But he leaned even closer, cutting her off. "If you're fine with being here," his green irises seemed darker than usual, and his hand went around her waist, lowering her to the bed. "...then surely you're ready for the things that happen when a man and a lady are alone in a place like this?"
Celia's ears turned a bright red, and heat flooded her as she recalled the past memories of their wedding night!
She quickly shoved Taze away and practically flew off the bed. "I- I just remembered I still have some duties!" And with that, she ran away, leaving Taze grinning behind her.
"Such a swift escape!" He lay on his back, staring up at the stars through the sky window, and a soft sigh escaped his lips.
"Now how do I sleep...?"
He had simply meant to tease Celia, but that had been the most tempting moment of his life!
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