Chapter 53: How Dare You Make My Princess Cry?
Seraphel
"As your own!" I chuckled bitterly.
The moment she said those words, a tidal wave of Seraphel’s suppressed memories flooded my brain, hitting me so hard it made my stomach turn. I remembered the time they locked him in a pitch-black room for three agonizing days without a single drop of water or a crumb of food, simply because he had dropped a plate. I remembered the scars on his back from the uncle’s heavy cane, the winter nights they forced him to sleep outside in the freezing mud, and the constant, degrading verbal abuse he endured every single day of his life.
"Do you even regret a single thing you did to him?" I asked, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper.
"Regret? Why should we regret disciplining a worthless piece of garbage?" Seraphel’s cousin—their spoiled brat of a son—snapped from the floor, his face twisted in a nasty sneer. "You’ve always been a curse, Seraphel. A bad luck omen. I wish you had died in that dirty district so we wouldn’t have to look at your pathetic face!"
The murmuring in the hall grew louder, the ministers shocked by the sheer audacity of commoners screaming in the royal court.
"Alright, alright. That is quite enough," Azriel’s voice sliced through the noise.
He walked forward, stepping into my line of sight, and gently grabbed my hand to pull me back against his side. The moment his fingers brushed mine, he noticed the hot moisture spilling down my cheeks.
He paused, staring down at me in surprise.
"Are you crying, little lotus?" he asked softly.
I touched my face, shocked to find actual tears. I wasn’t the one crying—it was Seraphel’s lingering soul inside the body, reacting to the absolute cruelty and rejection of the only family he had ever known.
Before I could even utter an answer to explain myself, Azriel’s entire demeanor shifted. The casual aura disappeared, replaced by a suffocating, lethal coldness. He marched right up to the uncle and violently stomped his foot directly onto the man’s head, smashing his face into the bloody marble.
"How dare you make your Crown Princess cry?" Azriel yelled, though his voice remained chillingly soft, a deadly whisper that resonated through the entire structural foundation of the palace.
"Crown Princess!" the aunt and son gasped out at the exact same time, their faces turning completely pale as reality finally crashed down on them.
Azriel’s heavy boot never left the uncle’s head. He looked down at them, his crimson eyes flashing with absolute malice. "The weak, defenseless Seraphel you once knew is no longer the one standing in front of you. This is Seraphel, the official Crown Princess of Katula. You dare cause him pain in my presence? When he tried to give you fools a final chance to repent, you chose to continue spewing your pathetic lies. For that, you have committed a capital crime against the royal crown, and you will suffer immensely for it."
With a sickening crack, Azriel violently stomped his heel down on the uncle’s skull over and over again.
I immediately whipped my head away, unable to watch the brutal display. After all, the man had brought this entirely on himself.
A horrific, piercing scream tore from the aunt’s throat as her husband’s body went limp. But Azriel wasn’t done yet. With a casual flick of his wrist, he signaled to the heavy guards standing behind them. Two sharp metallic slashes echoed through the hall as the guards cleanly sliced the aunt’s throat, immediately doing the exact same to the cousin.
I kept my eyes glued to the floor, refusing to look at the carnage. Their deaths were incredibly cruel, but it completely could have been avoided if they didn’t harbor so much deep-rooted hatred for Seraphel.
I let out a long, heavy sigh, staring down at my boots.
The entire grand hall fell into an absolute, suffocating silence. Not a single minister dared to breathe loudly; you could have heard a pin drop on the marble. Within seconds, a line of silent servants marched into the room with cleaning materials, quickly wiping the fresh blood from the floor.
Malachi stepped forward, commanding the royal guards to carry the fresh corpses away, alongside the pile of dry bones from the minister who had died.
Azriel turned slowly toward the remaining ministers, a dark, casual smile returning to his face. "Let this be a reminder of your exact fate if any of you ever dare to treat my princess badly. They at least received a final chance to speak their peace. In your case, you might never get the luxury."
He grinned wickedly, stretching his hand forward to summon a swirling, dark red teleportation portal right in the middle of the room. He looked back at me, his expression softening instantly as he pulled me gently toward the glowing vortex.
As we stepped into the portal, the remaining ministers—including a thoroughly stiff and pale Eiren—dropped to their knees, bowing their heads in unison.
"Your Highness, may your divine grace last forever," they chorused loudly, their voices fading into the background until we completely vanished from sight.
The moment the portal closed and the heavy atmosphere of the throne room dissolved, we materialized back in the quiet safety of the royal bedchamber. My heart immediately started pounding against my ribs at a frantic pace.
I couldn’t stop wondering why the hell Azriel was going to such extreme, terrifying lengths just to protect me.
My very first thought had been about the prophecy and the safety of the baby. But watching him back there... this felt like it was about way more than just an heir. It felt like he genuinely cared about me.
And honestly? That thought terrified me even more. If he ever left my side or stopped protecting me, I was going to die an absolutely miserable death.
I had just made some of the most dangerous, powerful enemies in this entire kingdom in a single afternoon.
Azriel suddenly stepped closer, wrapping his arms around my rigid frame and pulling me tight against his chest. His deep voice brushed right against my ear, as if he could feel the frantic racing of my heart.
"I know exactly what you are thinking, Seraphel," he whispered smoothly, his cool skin radiating against mine. "Even though I can’t read your thoughts through the bond right now, I promise you this, I will protect you from this world, no matter what it takes."