Chapter 111: Prisoners
"My apologies, Your Majesty!"
Rios turned around and saw Lady Yasmin approaching with her son, Imris.
"Lady Yasmin, how have you been?" Rios nodded to her with a smile, then reached out and ruffled little Imris’s hair. "Hello again, little hero."
....
Behind them, directly beneath the throne.
Elena and Thandria stood there, watching everything.
Elena’s gaze was as calm as ever, but Thandria’s eyes burned with jealousy as she watched Yasmin standing so close to Rios.
Elena noticed the jealousy in her friend’s eyes, smiled in amusement, and said teasingly,
"If you don’t secure yourself a place among his harem soon, another woman will seize the opportunity and take it for herself!"
Hearing those words, Thandria panicked. She looked at Elena in surprise and asked in a trembling voice,
"W-What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, come on, girl. Almost everyone has noticed that the way you look at him goes far beyond mere admiration. When are you finally going to admit it?"
Elena winked at Thandria and spoke with a teasing smile.
"But... isn’t Rios your husband? Then why are you saying this to me?" Thandria lowered her head, her face burning with embarrassment.
"Tsk, my husband?" Elena scoffed before continuing. "You little slut, do you really care whether he’s my husband or not after looking at him with those love-filled eyes?"
She pinched Thandria’s arm hard, then gently held it and hugged her.
"Rios is a man, and on top of that, he’s a king. It’s only natural that he’ll have a harem. Countless women will inevitably surround him, and I can’t stop something like that."
She smiled even more and pointed at the crown resting upon her head.
"But I’ll always be his only queen. At the very least, I should be the one to choose who those women are. Don’t you agree, my old friend?"
Thandria’s eyes lit up, and she almost cried after hearing Elena’s words. She nodded repeatedly.
"Yasmin is also one of the few people close to me. But you’re like a sister to me before you’re my friend, so I won’t be satisfied if she reaches him before you."
Elena said before proudly lifting her chin.
"And I know very well that you’re incredibly beautiful. There’s no woman in the city more beautiful than you... except me."
Then her expression turned serious.
"But I also know that Yasmin is far more experienced than you in these matters. Rios is a man, and no matter how different men may be in appearance, personality, or temperament, they’ll always prefer experience over beauty."
She paused for a moment before whispering,
"That is... unless the beautiful one makes the first move!"
Thandria was stunned by those words and stared at Elena.
"Then... what should I do?!"
Elena quickly glanced around to make sure no one was listening. Then she pulled Thandria closer and whispered into her ear,
"I’ll be busy with office matters tonight, while he’ll be free in his room. I’ll leave the door unlocked, dismiss the guards, and... you know exactly what you should do after that."
The moment she heard that, Thandria’s eyes sparkled. She grabbed Elena’s face and planted a loud kiss on her cheek.
Mwahhhhh!
"Thank you, best sister in the whole world!"
"Get away from me, you little slut!"
Despite saying that, Elena smiled as she pushed Thandria’s face away from hers. Yet if someone looked closely into her eyes behind the veil, they would find a trace of sadness that she was desperately trying to hide.
......
Time quickly passed.
The afternoon slipped away, and before long, evening arrived.
Inside the prisons of the City of Light.
"This way, Your Majesty!"
Rios followed the guards into the prison. As he walked, he saw hundreds of prisoners.
He ignored those criminals until he reached the deepest part of the prison.
There were the traitors who had tried to tamper with the words of the oath. Judging by the torture marks covering their bodies, it was obvious they had already been dealt with properly.
Hmm.
Rios gestured for the guards to remove the hoods covering the traitors’ faces, and they immediately obeyed.
"I’ve already told you everything! Please don’t torture me again...!"
"Believe me! I have nothing left to say! I don’t know anything...!"
"Please have mercy! I was deceived! I was used...!"
.
.
.
The sobs of dozens of traitors echoed throughout the prison.
Rios walked toward one of them.
The man’s eyes trembled in terror the instant he saw Rios and recognized who he was.
He remembered that scene all too clearly.
He had merely altered a few words in the oath, and the very next moment, he felt the King’s gaze upon him and heard a single sentence.
Seal of Life!
After that...
He felt nothing.
Saw nothing.
Heard nothing.
Thought nothing.
Moved nothing.
And when he finally regained consciousness, he found himself inside this prison.
"You say you’ve already told them everything. So... what exactly did you tell them?"
Rios placed a hand on the man’s shoulder and smiled gently.
A freezing chill ran from the man’s spine all the way to the top of his head the moment he saw that smile, but he didn’t dare disobey Rios.
"Your Majesty... a masked man approached me and offered me a huge sum of money in exchange for causing trouble right after the coronation ceremony. After that, I couldn’t refuse any of their requests because they threatened to expose me... or kill me on the spot."
"Please, Your Majesty! I swear I don’t know who those people are or what they want!"
The man screamed with all his strength as tears and mucus streamed down his face, as though his very life depended on it.
"Are you truly telling the truth?"
Rios slowly brushed his hand across the man’s shoulder before driving one finger into it.
"I swear, Your Majesty, everything I said is the tr—"
The man screamed again, but before he could finish, his cry turned into a hysterical shriek.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
The moment Rios drove his finger into the man’s shoulder, one of his flexible branches shot out from his fingertip, pierced through the man’s arm, and began crushing the bones inside while tearing apart his veins.
After it had finished, those same branches pumped the Blessing of Life into the man’s body, reconstructing everything they had destroyed and restoring all of his senses and consciousness once again.
This torment continued for several minutes before Rios finally stopped.
"Now then... is that truly everything you know?"