Chapter 98: A Necessary Sacrifice
Eiren’s POV
Lioren moved closer, whispering in a low tone. "Is it another concubine? Are you planning to make a low-ranking concubine take the fall?"
"No," Kaevian shook his head and folded his arms. "The princes would never believe that a low-ranking concubine held a curse as powerful as that."
Eiren’s heart beat even harder. If it was not a weak servant or a low-ranking concubine, who else was Kaevian planning to frame?
"Who..." Eiren breathed out.
"Slyven," Kaevian answered, his eyes gleaming as he spoke the name.
Both Eiren and Lioren gasped at the same time, exchanging shocked looks before turning back to Kaevian.
"Slyven?!" Lioren stammered. "That is crazy! He is one of us!"
"We are supposed to be in this together, not betrayal!" Eiren stated firmly.
Kaevian let out a short laugh, his expression instantly turning cold as he looked from Eiren to Lioren. "You fools!" he snapped through gritted teeth. "The Sins are not stupid! If a weak concubine who could die just from sleeping with the Prince of Lust claims to have planted it, how would anyone believe they possessed such power?" He paused, letting his words sink in. "Would you rather take the fall, Eiren? I could snap my fingers in the blink of an eye, and the real memories of your beloved servant will return! Do you want that?"
Eiren let out a heavy sigh and slowly shook his head. Kaevian was telling the truth. There was no way anyone would believe a weak, low-level concubine had obtained such a dark curse. They were powerless compared to them.
"So we take out Slyven?" Lioren asked, his voice trembling.
Kaevian shook his head. "We are not taking him out out of spite. We are taking the necessary steps to make sure we don’t fall. This sacrifice is to ensure we don’t end up dying! Slyven is the better option. He has no powerful family, no one in court to back him up like we do. If he dies, no one will try to avenge him. He is the most useless one among us, so taking him out is the only way to get the princes off our backs." He paused before looking directly at Eiren. "I already mentioned before that necessary sacrifices would have to be made at some point, and now Slyven is the only one we can push the blame onto."
A heavy silence filled the room. For a long moment, no one said a single word.
Inside Eiren’s head, a mess of emotions tumbled around, his heart pounding hard with everything Kaevian had laid out. Slyven was indeed the best choice to take the fall, but thinking about it, Eiren couldn’t help but feel terrified of Kaevian.
What if the tables were turned? Would Kaevian have sacrificed him just as easily?
"None of you ever liked Slyven anyway, so this is the only way to save ourselves," Kaevian convinced them.
Before either of them could reply, the door burst open. A disheveled Slyven, who looked like he had been sprinting for his life, rushed into the room.
"There you all are! We are being summoned! It seems the princes found something out!"
Eiren exchanged a quick look with Kaevian, who smiled at him before lowering his head. Eiren knew he had no choice but to pretend everything was fine—to act as if Slyven was not currently being set up for execution.
"What do we do?" Slyven demanded frantically. "If the princes find out about this, we are all going down!"
"No, we are not," Kaevian answered immediately, grinning wickedly. "Someone is taking the fall for us."
Slyven looked at their faces and placed a hand over his pounding chest. "I knew you would have everything under control, Kaevian! Now who will be the one to take the fall? Which of the lower concubines?"
Eiren’s heart squeezed again as he heard those words from Slyven, knowing the painful truth. But instead of answering, he turned around and started walking toward the door.
"We should head toward the Hall of Justice. The princes won’t like us wasting any more of their time."
"That’s true," Kaevian agreed pleasantly, wrapping an arm around Slyven’s shoulder. "Let us head to the hall."
"You still haven’t told me who will take the fall on our behalf," Slyven pressed, demanding answers as they followed.
"Why rush when you will find out at the hall, right Eiren?" Kaevian asked smoothly.
Eiren didn’t stop walking. He just paused for a split second to glance at Kaevian, completely stunned by how convincing his lies were.
How could someone lie so proudly with zero remorse?
Eiren gave a brief nod to keep up the act, but as he stepped forward, he couldn’t help the cold fear gripping his soul. Kaevian was, without a doubt, the greatest evil among them all.
And he could be next? Any of them could become Kaevian’s next victim if another crisis arose, and Eiren knew he desperately needed to become more powerful than him. There was no way he was going to let himself fall.
"We need to call for another meeting once this is over, because that omega must die," Slyven stated, his voice filled with frantic anger as they walked down the corridor.
"And he will die," Kaevian responded smoothly, his grin never fading. "Don’t worry, Slyven. We will get him."
Eiren kept his gaze fixed straight ahead, but his mind was racing in horror at Slyven’s sheer blindness.
He looked at Slyven out of the corner of his eye and felt a strange mixture of pity and disgust.
Slyven was walking so foolishly, so willingly into a trap, totally oblivious to the fact that the very man wrapping a friendly arm around his shoulders was the same person leading him straight to the slaughterhouse.
Slyven genuinely thought he was part of the winning side, entirely unaware that he wouldn’t even survive the hour to see another meeting happen.
It was a neccesary sacrifice that was unfortunate for Sylven.