Chapter 230 --230
She gripped his shoulders.
"So I want you to do one thing, Larus. No matter what happens—always stay clear about what you want and what you’re willing to do to achieve it. Whatever ’it’ is."
Her eyes became intense.
"And always—*always*—leave yourself a way out. An escape route that no one else knows about. A plan that’s yours alone. Promise me."
Suddenly, a knock sounded on the door.
A guard’s voice called: "Your Highness, it’s time to depart."
Larus stood reluctantly. "Yes, I’m coming."
His mother looked at him gently. "Go on. You’re running late, and you need to return to your empire."
Larus paused, looking at her with sudden desperate hope. "Mother... would you come with me? The imperial palace is beautiful. You could have your own residence, your freedom, proper respect—"
She paused and looked out the small window for a long moment.
Then she shook her head softly.
"No. I need to stay here. After all, I sacrificed so much of my life for this place. At the very least, until my last breath, I want to see it before my eyes. I want to breathe this soil."
Larus sighed, understanding but heartbroken.
Then he dropped to his knees in the formal position and bowed deeply—forehead touching the ground—three times in succession.
"Mother, I’m leaving now. This is goodbye."
It was a final farewell, and they both knew it.
He couldn’t return here after today. Not after what he’d done, what he’d said to his father, how the political situation had shifted.
This was the last time he would ever see his mother.
His mother understood perfectly. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears, but her voice remained steady.
"Yes, Emperor Consort. Goodbye."
Larus smiled brilliantly through his own tears. "Goodbye, Consort Mother."
With that formal acknowledgment of their changed relationship—no longer prince and concubine, but equals representing different powers—he stood and left the room.
---
Actually, Larus hadn’t planned to leave today. The diplomatic mission had several more scheduled meetings.
But the King had agreed to all his demands surprisingly quickly—probably terrified of what would happen if he refused. The apology letter was being drafted, the gold was being counted, and the names of conspirators were being compiled.
The mission was complete ahead of schedule.
And now Larus desperately wanted to go home.
He hadn’t spoken to Heena properly in days. Even when she’d woken from her coma, he’d barely had time with her before being sent on this diplomatic trip.
He missed her.
Missed her sharp comments and strategic brilliance and the way she looked at him over breakfast like he was an interesting puzzle she hadn’t quite solved.
As he walked through the palace gates toward the waiting convoy, the guard captain approached.
"Your Highness, we can depart immediately if you wish. The roads are clear."
"Then let’s not waste time," Larus said firmly. "I want to be back in the capital by tomorrow evening."
"That’s an aggressive schedule, Your Highness."
"I don’t care. Make it happen."
The captain bowed, recognizing the tone of someone who wouldn’t accept argument.
As the convoy began moving, Larus looked back one final time at the palace of his childhood.
At the western wing where his mother lived in her comfortable prison.
At the throne room where he’d confronted his father.
At the gardens where he’d played as a child, dreaming of adventure and freedom.
Then he turned forward, facing the road that led back to the Empire.
Back to Heena.
Back to the life he’d chosen—the life his mother had always wanted for him.
A life of freedom.
A life lived between two worlds, belonging fully to neither but navigating both with skill and grace.
Exactly like the seabird she’d named him for.
Behind him, in her modest chambers, his mother stood at the small window and watched the convoy disappear into the distance.
"Fly free, my son," she whispered. "Fly free."
Then she turned away from the window and returned to her meditation cushion.
She had her own battles to fight, her own survival to maintain in this palace of vipers.
But at least she knew her son had escaped.
That was enough.
.
.
.While returning on the way, Larus looked at the beautiful scenery passing by through the carriage window. It would take him half an hour—yes, because in this world there were magic portals connecting major territories across the empire. These transportation gates were exclusively controlled by the empire, and Heena, of course, had given him permission to use them freely, as she did not want him to waste all his time traveling from here and there. That was the only reason he had been able to negotiate so quickly.
Now he really just wanted to rest with his wife and hold her.
---
On the other side, Heena had received news that Larus was coming back, so the whole palace was preparing for his arrival. And Heena had to say, even she was surprised by how diligent these people were acting right now—they had not been even this energetic when she woke up from her coma.
As she was walking down the corridor, she was adjusting her cufflinks. Yeah, because when working in the office alone, she normally rolled her sleeves up, which caused wrinkles, and then when she came out, she needed to look like the proper Empress, so of course she lowered her sleeves back down. She was inspecting the wrinkles in the fabric from folding it so much.
She was busy with the wrinkles when suddenly someone grabbed her hand and pulled.
Before she could react, she was yanked into a side room. The door closed behind her.
The room was dimly lit, and the person who had just snatched her raised both his hands defensively and said, "Whoa, calm down, Your Majesty."
Heena looked at Damien. A knife was already in her hand, directly pointed at his neck. Her eyes were murderous.
She looked at him and said, "What the heck is this, Damien?"
With that, she slightly pushed him away.
He took a few steps back and said, "Come on, can I not even talk to my wife here in peace?"
He dusted off where she had pushed him. She lowered her knife slightly and said, "Well, talking and meeting need an appointment, and I don’t remember giving you the order to pull me like this in the middle of the corridor. Do you want your punishment to be even bigger? You can just say it. Instead of stripping your two main power centers, I could strip the other direct sources right now."
Hearing that, Damien paused, and a smile brightened on his face. He said, "So it was really you."
Hearing that, she looked at him and said, "Are you so dumb that you could not even guess that it was me? I was not even hiding it, you dumbass."
Hearing that, he looked at her and said, "My, my, coming to abusive words."
Hearing that, she smiled, looked at him and said, "Abusive? Believe me, Damien, at this very moment, in this whole world, no one would be hated as much as I hate you."
Then she smiled and said, while patting his cheek with the flat of her knife, "But there is also in this world, in the whole world, no one who would want you to leave as much as I do."