Chapter 147: The New King
"The sky is so dark today," Marquess Frederick remarked as he stepped down from his carriage, adjusting the black outer coat of his mourning attire.
Since the official announcement of King Yanis Erelith’s death, it seemed as though even the weather had joined the kingdom in mourning.
The kingdom’s unease over the looming threat of war, compounded by Duke Kalder’s death and the sudden disappearance of Princess Lorelai, had temporarily given way to a profound collective grief.
Dark gray clouds obscured the sun, casting a somber pall over midday. They hung in the sky like dirty cotton strewn across a pale, rain-soaked canvas.
A gray sky seemed fitting for a funeral, though this gloom had persisted since the day the crown prince ended his pursuit of the beasts and returned to the capital.
As Frederick walked the wilting pathways leading to the royal graveyard, he couldn’t help but notice how foreboding the royal palace appeared in the distance.
It feels as if Her Highness took the last remnants of life and light from this place when she was taken away...
Letting out a long, heavy sigh, he straightened his coat once more and continued toward the burial grounds.
All the nobles of Erelith were assembled there, standing in grim silence around an empty plot in the royal cemetery behind the palace.
Reserved for royalty alone, the burial site was framed by the melancholic hues of black-clad mourners and the dismal weather. It was a picture-perfect funeral, shrouded in sorrow.
The ceremony was brief, as though the man who had departed this world meant little to those bidding him farewell. Once the priest concluded the rites, it was time to place flowers in the King’s coffin.