Chapter 414: Horrible Man
He turned his head toward the trembling native woman, and his voice dropped into a command. "Apologize for your mistake."
Taigi’s entire body flinched at his tone. The trembling in her hands spread through her shoulders as she sank to her knees and bowed deep on all fours before Kaiden and his women, forehead touching the floor.
"I-I... I beg forgiveness. It was my fault. Please... forgive my ignorance..."
Kaiden could feel the weight of the entire hall pressing down on him. The eyes, the silence, the tension.
Taigi remained prostrated on the floor, trembling from head to toe. Every breath she took was shallow, fearful.
And then he felt Naira’s gaze on him.
The teen’s eyes were pleading. ’Please don’t make this worse for her...’
Kaiden understood.
If he made a scene now, if he lectured Varek or demanded answers, it wouldn’t be him who paid the price afterward. It would be her.
The girl, already humiliated, stripped of dignity before her own people, would bear the wrath of Varek once the outsiders left.
He hated it. Every instinct in him screamed to put the smug bastard in his place, to crush the poisonous authority dripping from that throne. But he knew better. Varek wasn’t a man who could be argued into decency.
So Kaiden exhaled slowly. His fingers curled around the wooden cup before him. He lifted it with a calm that felt forced even to himself, and took a sip of the strong, bitter wine. Then, with quiet composure, he raised the cup toward the genuflecting woman.