Chapter 342| Because I Have No Obligation To Prove Anything To You
The morning sunlight peeked shyly through the sheer silk curtains. It illuminated a chamber within Queen Marianne’s wing in the Sol-Regis Palace.
The room lacked the grandeur of the main guest quarters. Its furnishings were fairly standard; a carved oak bed, a writing desk in the corner, and a wardrobe. Yet to Raveena Sudrath, this cozy chamber was nothing more than a gilded prison cell.
She had been confined to this wing for six full days.
Raveena stood frozen before the window. Her eyes stared blankly at the clear sky of the Sol-Regis capital. Her black hair was left unbound and messy. She wore only a simple cotton gown.
Haaah... A long sigh slipped past her lips.
Her posture was incredibly stiff. Her fingers tapped against the windowsill in a rapid, restless rhythm.
She missed teaching her classes. She missed the freezing air of Northreach. Queen Eleanor—Caelus’s stepmother—had unilaterally blocked every single one of her written requests to visit King Edward.
Click. Without so much as a polite knock, the door swung open. Raveena snapped her head around.
Valerine stepped inside. Her light brown hair was tied back flawlessly, without a single strand out of place. Her face was flat—not as icy as Eleanor’s, but nowhere near as warm as Adriana’s.
"Hmm, get ready, Raveena," Valerine said quietly. "This afternoon, you are permitted to visit His Majesty the King."
Raveena’s eyes widened slightly. "Queen Eleanor finally lifted the ban?"
"It wasn’t the Queen Mother." Valerine stepped forward, placing a shawl on the bed. "My brother, Crown Prince Leonardo, personally granted you the authorization."
Raveena furrowed her brow. She vividly remembered how Leonardo had led the vanguard to invade the North back then. "Wait, why would he suddenly go out of his way to help me and defy his own mother’s decree?"
Valerine’s movements halted. She looked at Raveena with a gaze that was difficult to decipher.
"Because Leonardo..." Valerine whispered softly, "...is absolutely nothing like his mother."
The afternoon slowly crept in. The white marble corridors of the palace were now draped in the elongated shadows of its pillars.
Tap... tap... tap... The rhythmic steps of Raveena and Leonardo’s leather shoes echoed down the hallway. Along the walls, colossal portraits of Aethelgard’s ancestors glared down at them arrogantly. Two elite guards in Silver Eagle uniforms stood tall as statues before a pair of gold-carved double doors.
Leonardo walked beside Raveena, clad in a thick, dark blue coat.
Leonardo’s steps halted in front of the doors. The man pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Father is incredibly, incredibly weak," Leonardo warned, his voice heavy and raspy. "Please, do not stay inside for too long. The healers have forbidden him from speaking much."
Raveena nodded. "I understand, Your Highness."
Right as Raveena’s hand touched the doorknob, Leonardo’s voice stopped her.
"And, Raveena..." Leonardo looked at her with grave seriousness. "Be very careful at the banquet tonight. My mother will not sit idly by after I bypassed her authority today."
Raveena returned the gaze, then offered a brief bow. Creaaak. The wooden door opened slowly.
The atmosphere of King Edward’s bedchamber immediately ambushed her lungs.
The room was kept dim. Thick velvet curtains were drawn tight, allowing only a single sliver of twilight to pierce through. The pungent scent of herbal incense and medicinal ointments saturated the air, broadcasting the creeping scent of approaching death.
In the center of the room, upon a gold-canopied bed, a frail figure lay resting.
King Edward IV looked terrifyingly emaciated. His skin was as pale as cotton. His breathing was labored. Yet, when those wrinkled eyelids opened, Raveena could see a pair of sea-blue eyes burning fiercely—eyes that were identical to Caelus’s.
King Edward turned his head slowly. The corners of his pale lips pulled into a fragile smile.
"Ah... so it is you..." he whispered hoarsely, his voice as brittle as a trampled dry leaf. "...the girl from... Northreach."
Raveena stepped closer. She stopped at the bedside and offered a genuine, respectful bow. "It is an honor to stand before you, Your Majesty."
"Caelus..." King Edward’s breath hitched. The old man coughed weakly. Cough. "...Caelus never stopped writing about you in his letters."
Raveena’s eyes widened. She never expected the King who had once waged war against her family to be this warm.
"Take good care of my youngest son, child," Edward murmured. His trembling fingers brushed against the blanket. "He... he is a man far stronger than he realizes. But... he always needs someone to..."
The sentence hung in the air. The King’s blue eyes slowly fluttered shut once more. His breaths grew shallower. The most powerful man in Aethelgard had fallen back asleep from sheer exhaustion.
Raveena stood paralyzed. A storm of emotions raged within her as she looked at that tired face.
The former enemy of her kingdom... had just officially given her his blessing.
With a tight chest, Raveena stepped backward and quietly exited the room.
That night, the Banquet Hall had been transformed into a blinding sea of opulence.
The gold-plated domed ceiling reflected thousands of points of light from massive crystal chandeliers. Beneath it, tables draped in white silk cloths overflowed with a lavish feast.
The nobility crowded together, flaunting their immense wealth. Extravagant winged gowns and garishly vibrant cloaks dominated the room—a tacky fashion taste that Raveena secretly despised. Clink... clink... The chiming of wine glasses clashed with artificial, plastic laughter in every corner.
At the head table, Queen Eleanor sat like the goddess of judgment.
The woman wore a pitch-black gown. Her graying hair was styled into a high updo pinned with jewels. Her eyes glared as cold as ice. Beside her, Isabella sat with her legs crossed, tilting her chin arrogantly as she surveyed the hall.
The double doors swung open. Raveena stepped inside.
In a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree contrast to the flock of peacocks around her, the Princess of Northreach wore nothing but a plain midnight-blue gown. No plunging neckline, no flashy jewelry. Adriana warmly linked her left arm, while Valerine escorted her on her right.
Near the central round tables, Caelus was already waiting. The prince wore an elegant dark blue coat bearing the sun crest. The moment he saw Raveena, Caelus instantly carved a relieved smile.
However, before Caelus could approach her, the sharp tapping of a silver spoon against a crystal glass murdered all the noise in the room. Clink! Clink! Clink!
"Ah. What a delightful surprise," Eleanor’s melodic voice echoed, though it dripped with venom.
The Queen rested her chin on her hand, staring straight at Raveena from her throne. "Our girl from the North is finally willing to step out of her nest and join the table. I thought... you were far too terrified to even leave the guest quarters."
Raveena halted her steps. Hidden within the folds of her gown, she clenched her fists tightly. She had promised herself she wouldn’t cause a scene today.
"And I heard from the Academy professors," Eleanor continued, raising her volume so the entire aristocratic crowd could hear. "That your magic is quite... unique. A bizarre teaching that mixes the exact sciences of the mana-less peasants with the Goddess’s blessings."
Eleanor smiled condescendingly. "How about you give us a little demonstration to entertain my guests tonight, Lady Sudrath?"
A buzz of mocking whispers instantly swarmed among the nobles. A cheap public trap, yet highly effective at tearing down one’s pride.
Raveena drew a slow breath.
"I did not come here to show off cheap parlor tricks like a court jester, Your Majesty," Raveena answered. Her tone was extraordinarily calm and elegant. "I came purely to stand by the side of the man I love."
"Oh? Just an excuse to hide your incompetence—"
BAM! Caelus violently slammed his hand on the table!
Every single laugh and whisper in the hall died instantly. The prince stepped forward, closing the distance, and stood directly in front of Raveena—turning his broad back into an absolute shield for her.
"Raveena is my personal guest of honor in this palace," Caelus’s voice boomed. He stared straight at his mother without a single shred of fear. "She will not be treated as some cheap spectacle in front of me. If any of you feel the itch to test her power..."
Caelus unleashed a lethal glare, sweeping the faces of the nobles one by one. "...you will have to find the courage to step over me first."
Silence.
At the head table, the muscles in Eleanor’s jaw tightened rigidly. But the Queen quickly carved a faint, deadly smile. She raised her wine glass casually.
"Tch. As you wish, my son."
For tonight, Queen Eleanor chose to execute a tactical retreat into the shadows.
The cold air swept across the balcony of Queen Marianne’s wing, bringing a desperately needed relief.
The moonlight reflected beautifully over the golden domes of Sol-Regis. Raveena stood leaning against the marble balustrade, her blue gown fluttering softly. Her shoulders, which had been tense the entire evening, finally slumped in relaxation.
Rustle. Caelus stepped out from behind the curtains, joining her side.
"Thank you," Caelus murmured softly, his voice blending with the whisper of the night wind. "For managing to restrain yourself from blowing my mother’s head off and burning that hall to ashes."
Raveena scoffed, carving a lopsided smirk. "Believe me, the temptation was massive, Caelus. But I know perfectly well that my anger is exactly the excuse she was waiting for."
Caelus didn’t reply with sweet words. The man simply shifted his hand slowly, covering the back of Raveena’s cold hand, and held it tightly.
The two of them stood beneath the moonlight in a long silence. A mute understanding that tonight... the presence of one another was more than enough.
The morning of the seventh day in Sol-Regis.
An invitation lay atop Raveena’s writing desk. It wasn’t an official royal invitation adorned with gold, but a rough parchment sealed with red wax. No crest.
Raveena broke the seal. Crack. Thick black ink formed a row of provocative sentences: "I want to see it with my own eyes. The Training Arena. This noon. — Cedric."
Raveena stared intently at the parchment. Cedric. The youngest Archmage in Aethelgard. Eleanor’s favorite son, who harbored a blood vendetta against the Sudrath family over the death of his older brother, Marcus.
This was clearly not an invitation for tea.
"That maniac could easily burn you alive under the guise of a training accident, Raveena!" Caelus, who had read the letter over her shoulder, issued a stern warning.
Raveena calmly folded the parchment back up. "I know the risks. But if I refuse, he’ll use it to brand Northreach as a nation of cowards."
Caelus let out a resigned sigh. He knew perfectly well just how incredibly stubborn a Sudrath could be. "Hah... fine. I’m going down to the arena with you."
The blistering midday sun scorched the Training Arena.
The training ground for the elite mages had been deliberately emptied. High stone walls enclosed the circular arena. The roof was left open, allowing the sunlight to scorch the stone floor, which was already littered with the scorch marks of magic.
In the center of the arena, Cedric was already standing, waiting.
The Archmage wore a dark red robe. His hair was combed back flawlessly. The man didn’t carry a staff at all—he just stood relaxed with open hands.
The moment Raveena and Caelus walked in, Cedric immediately carved a crooked smirk.
"Raveena Sudrath," Cedric greeted, his voice echoing against the arena walls. "I heard a lot of complaints from the Academy a few years back. Professor Ignis grumbled endlessly about how your custom-built Mana-Lasers disrespectfully blew holes through his classroom walls."
Cedric’s eyes sharpened. The magical Aura surrounding him suddenly surged violently, causing the pebbles on the floor to vibrate intensely.
"And to be completely honest... that made me incredibly curious."
Without a warning. Without a signal. Without chanting any useless incantations.
FWOOOSH!
Cedric flicked his right hand! A colossal vortex of fire erupted from the ground, shaping into a Fire Tornado that howled ferociously as it tore toward Raveena. Its speed was completely illogical. High-tier lethal magic!
Caelus nearly jumped forward, but Raveena was one step faster.
The girl didn’t retreat. Her eyes analyzed the rotation of the flames in a matter of milliseconds. Her hands extended forward, projecting a network of transparent blue mana.
It wasn’t an ordinary convex magic shield. Rather, it was a structural energy layer arranged in a hexagonal pattern—a precision barrier forged purely on the thermodynamic calculations of heat dispersion!
BAM! KABOOM!
The fire tornado slammed dead into Raveena’s shield! A blistering shockwave swept the arena, melting the sand around them.
And yet... the blue shield didn’t crack even a fraction. Instead, Cedric’s tongues of fire were splintered, forced to trace the grooves of the hexagonal pattern, before completely unraveling into harmless sparks of light in the air.
Seeing his fatal strike dismantled so effortlessly, Cedric ground his teeth.
The man went berserk, unleashing a rapid barrage of attacks. His fists punched the air repeatedly. A relentless rain of embers the size of boulders rained down like meteors. Walls of heatwaves swept across the arena. Boom! Boom! Boom!
But every single time the magic struck Raveena’s defenses, her shield automatically shifted its angle, flawlessly absorbing and negating all of its kinetic and thermal energy.
Raveena merely stood like a statue. Staring at Cedric with a deadpan face. Not returning a single attack.
Hsssh... White smoke billowed from the scorched stone floor.
Cedric halted his barrage of magic, his chest heaving as he hunted for breath. Sweat dripped down his temples.
"Why won’t you counterattack?!" Cedric roared in fury, feeling utterly humiliated. "Fight back, Sudrath!"
With a casual motion, Raveena lowered her hands. The glow of her hexagonal shield faded into the air.
"Because I have no obligation to prove anything to you, Archmage Cedric," Raveena answered calmly.
Cedric stared at the woman with a deeply furrowed brow. He took a slow step forward, scanning the air around Raveena as if hunting for traces of an anomaly.
"An ordinary barrier could never withstand heat of that temperature without shattering," Cedric muttered, unable to conceal his sheer awe. "What exactly is the trick you embedded inside that shield?"
Raveena looked straight into the mage’s eyes. "Calculation," she answered briefly.
One absolute word derived from science.
Cedric fell silent for a long time. The dark-red robed man exhaled heavily, loosening his tense muscles.
"I will always despise your family name, Raveena. It was your people who took my brother’s life," Cedric stated with a terrifyingly flat tone. He turned his body, preparing to leave.
"But as a fellow practitioner of magic... I cannot help but respect you." Cedric paused his steps without looking back. "Be very careful. You are far too valuable to simply be destroyed as a casualty of my mother’s ego."
And with that bizarre warning, the Archmage vanished down the corridor.
Night embraced Sol-Regis once more.
Raveena sat alone at the edge of the bed. Her legs were pulled up, her chin resting on her knees. Her gaze was blank, piercing through the glass window that had been deliberately left open, staring at the Northern constellations. The direction of Northreach.
Suddenly, the homesickness struck her brutally.
She missed the freezing air of the Iron Hearth Castle. The aroma of the rendang her mother cooked. Raphael’s noisy antics, Kaelven’s laughter, and the bewildered faces of her students whenever she explained the theories of magic refraction indexes.
Creaaak.
The door opened without a knock. Caelus stepped inside. The man tossed his cloak casually onto a chair, then dropped his body onto the bed right beside Raveena.
"You were... absolutely phenomenal in the arena this afternoon," Caelus praised, breaking the silence.
Raveena carved a faint smile, her gaze still locked on the night sky. "I didn’t do anything, Caelus. I merely defended."
Caelus shifted closer. His sturdy arm wrapped warmly around the woman’s shoulder. "And it is exactly your calmness in defending... that makes you so incredibly phenomenal in my eyes."
Hearing that whisper, Raveena’s defensive walls slowly crumbled.
The woman finally rested her head affectionately against Caelus’s shoulder. She closed her eyes, absorbing the man’s masculine scent.
"Caelus..." Raveena whispered so faintly. "I... I miss my home."
Caelus tightened his embrace, planting a loving kiss on the top of Raveena’s head.
"I know, my love. I know."
The two of them sat in silence upon the bed. Sitting mutely, accompanied by the night breeze of Sol-Regis, sharing each other’s warmth as they waited for tomorrow to arrive.