Episode-772
Chapter : 1543
They dragged him away. The sound of his boots dragging on the stone was the only noise in the room.
The coup was over. The tyrant had fallen.
But the cost lay dying on the steps of the throne.
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The Throne Room was silent. The hole in the roof framed the moon, casting a pale, mournful light onto the dais. The adrenaline of the battle had faded, leaving behind a heavy, suffocating grief.
King Aurelius lay in Seraphina's arms. His breathing had slowed to long, ragged pauses. The fire in his eyes had dimmed to embers.
Lloyd stood back, giving them space. He felt a heavy weight in his chest. He had done his job. He had saved the girl. He had stopped the villain. But he couldn't save the King. He was a doctor, not a god. He couldn't cure time, and he couldn't cure sacrifice.
"Sera," the King whispered. It was barely a breath.
"I'm here, Papa," Seraphina said, reverting to the name of her childhood.
"The garden," he murmured. "Is it... is it sunny?"
"Yes," she lied through her tears. "It is beautiful. The sun is shining. The flowers are blooming."
"Good," he sighed. "I want... to sleep now. No more... fog. Just... sleep."
His chest rose one last time. It fell. And it didn't rise again.
The King was dead.
Seraphina held him for a long moment. She didn't scream. She didn't wail. She just held him, rocking slightly.
Then, gently, she laid him down on the stone. She closed his eyes. She crossed his hands over his chest, placing his sword atop them.
She stood up.
The silence in the room was absolute. Every noble, every servant, every soldier fell to one knee. The rustle of fabric was like the sound of wind through dry leaves.
" The King is dead," General Kaelen’s rough voice broke the silence. "Long live the Queen."
"Long live the Queen!" the court echoed. It was a mournful chant, but it was strong.
Seraphina looked out at them. She looked at the kneeling crowd. She was alone at the top of the world.
Then she looked at Lloyd.
He hadn't kneeled. He stood near the edge of the dais, his hands clasped behind his back. He was watching her.
For the first time, she truly saw him.
The disguise was gone. The glasses were smashed. The turban was lost. His silver hair caught the moonlight. His eyes were pools of ancient, golden intelligence.
He wasn't Doctor Zayn. He wasn't a humble scholar. He wasn't even just a mage.
He was a warrior who commanded demons. He was a strategist who toppled princes. He was a force of nature wrapped in the skin of a man.
She saw the danger in him. She saw the ruthlessness that had allowed him to cripple her brother without blinking. She saw the power that could burn a palace to the ground.
She felt a shiver of fear. It was primal. The instinct of a ruler recognizing a predator.
But beneath the fear, she saw something else.
She saw the man who had held her hand when she was drowning. The man who had taught her to breathe. The man who had walked into hell to save a child he didn't know. The man who had stood beside her when the world was falling apart.
She saw love. Not the romantic love of fairy tales, but the deep, forging fire of shared survival.
Lloyd met her gaze. He saw the shift. He saw her realize that "Zayn" was a fiction.
He offered her a small, sad smile. He bowed his head, a gesture of respect, not submission.
"Your Majesty," he whispered.
Seraphina took a deep breath. She wiped the last tear from her cheek.
She stepped forward to the edge of the dais.
"Rise," she commanded her people.
The court stood.
"My father is gone," Seraphina said, her voice echoing in the hall. "But his will remains. We have work to do. We must heal this city. We must find the rest of the missing children. And we must rebuild what has been broken."
She looked at Ken and Jasmin, who were standing guard over the children in the corner.
"These children are under my protection," she declared. "They are guests of the Crown. Anyone who harms them answers to me."
She looked back at Lloyd.
"And this man," she said, pointing to him. "He is the Savior of the Throne. He is the Sword of the North. He is... my friend."
Chapter : 1544
It was a shield. She was wrapping him in royal protection before the questions could start. Before the xenophobia could set in.
Lloyd felt a tightness in his throat. She had learned well.
The alliance had won. The coup was crushed.
But as he looked around the ruined room, at the hole in the roof, the scorch marks on the floor, and the dead King, Lloyd knew the truth.
The battle was over. But the war... the war had just shifted gears. The Devil Race had lost a pawn, but they would not stop.
And he was still in the middle of it all.
It wasn't going anywhere. Not yet.
The immediate aftermath of a coup is not celebration; it is logistics. The body of King Aurelius was carried out on a shield by the Generals, a somber procession that wound its way through the palace. The nobles, realizing the party was definitely over and the political landscape had just been nuked, began to scatter, rushing home to draft letters of allegiance to the new Queen.
Seraphina didn't leave the Throne Room. She sat on the steps of the dais—she couldn't bring herself to sit on the throne yet—and issued orders.
"General Kaelen," she said, her voice tired but firm. "Secure the city gates. Keep the lockdown in place, but change the orders. We are not hunting spies. We are hunting members of the Obsidian Eye who refuse to surrender."
"Yes, Majesty," Kaelen saluted, looking at her with new respect.
"Minister Voren," she continued. "Open the granaries. Distribute food to the lower districts. Tell them... tell them it is a gift from the King. In his memory."
"A wise gesture," the Minister bowed.
Lloyd watched her from the shadows of a pillar. He was exhausted. His mana reserves were drained from the summoning and the fight. His body ached. But he couldn't rest. Not yet.
He walked over to Jasmin and Ken. Jasmin was sitting on the floor, surrounded by the sleeping children. Risa was curled up in her lap, clutching Jasmin’s thumb.
"How are they?" Lloyd asked quietly.
"Exhausted," Jasmin whispered. "Traumatized. But safe."
She looked up at Lloyd. Her eyes were red, but she was smiling.
"You did it," she said. "You saved them."
"We saved them," Lloyd corrected. "You got them out. Ken fought a monster. I just... put on a light show."
Ken grunted. He was leaning against the wall, cleaning his knife. He looked like he had gone through a meat grinder, but he was standing.
"The Prince?" Ken asked.
"In the dungeon," Lloyd said. "Deepest cell. Null-cuffs. He won't be doing magic anytime soon. Or ever."
"Good," Ken said.
Seraphina finished her orders and walked over to them. The guards hung back, giving them space.
She looked different. Older. The grief was there, etched into her face, but it was tempered by a new gravity.
"Zayn," she said. She stumbled over the name. "Lloyd. Whoever you are."
"Lloyd is fine," he said. "Though 'Doctor' has a nice ring to it."
She looked at the children. She knelt down and touched Risa’s hair.
"Are these the ones?" she asked.
"The survivors of Batch 4," Lloyd said grimly. "There are others. In other facilities, maybe. Or hidden."
"We will find them," Seraphina vowed. "I will tear this kingdom apart stone by stone if I have to. The Orchid House will be the last of its kind."
She stood up and looked at Lloyd.
"You should leave," she said quietly. "While the chaos is still high. You can slip away. Go back to... wherever you are from. You have done enough. More than enough."
It was an offer of freedom. An escape hatch.
Lloyd looked at the door. He could go. He could take his team, grab a carriage, and be back in Bethelham in a week. He could go back to his soap factory and his own problems.
But he looked at the city outside the broken roof. He thought about the Black Spirit. He thought about the "Curator" who had ordered the harvest. He thought about the Devil Race infiltrating the courts.
If he left now, Seraphina would be alone. A young Queen in a nest of vipers, fighting a war she didn't fully understand against an enemy that used shadows as weapons. She would be eaten alive.
And the threat wouldn't stay in Altamira. It would spread. It would come for Bethelham next.
"No," Lloyd said.
Seraphina blinked. "No?"
"I am not leaving," Lloyd said.
"But... the danger," she said. "Cassius's loyalists. The Devils. You are a target now."