Chapter 10: Ch 10. Caught!
Roxyus snorted sharply. "You mad woman! How dare you give me orders!" he snapped, his emotions still running high.
The walls of the room seemed to tremble slightly at the sound of his angry outbursts. But Selena remained standing calmly, smiling coldly as she looked at Roxyus, who was growing increasingly displeased.
"All you have to do is drink it, to prove that you’re innocent and that it wasn’t you who poisoned your son from childhood," Selena said, then walked gracefully over to the chair beside her and sat down calmly. "Is that really so difficult? Drinking water is a natural thing for any living creature."
Vylen stared blankly at the cup on the tray, then looked at his father, who was growing increasingly agitated, his body tensing as if he were holding himself back. This was certainly not his father’s usual demeanour; normally, this man was always calm and in control, even if he occasionally showed his emotions towards things he disliked.
Selena reached for the cup; there were two there, and she took the one set out for Vylen. Her gaze fell on Roxyus, who seemed to be clenching his jaw, revealing his growing displeasure.
"This is the cup you prepared for Vylen Roxy, isn’t it?" Selena asked pointedly, even though she already knew the answer.
"How dare you address my son by name! He is the current Fox King; you’re being far too presumptuous!" exclaimed Roxyus, making Selena smile again.
"I’m his wife; it’s just the two of us here. We’re all family; why be so formal?" she replied casually, which only served to further enrage Roxyus, his dark aura growing ever more intense. "I just want to know your answer. This is the glass you filled with water for your son, isn’t it? If you don’t like me mentioning his name directly, then I’ll rephrase the question. Is this the glass you filled with water for His Majesty the Fox King? Just say yes or no, and that’ll be the end of it."
Roxyus clenched his fists; seeing the calm Selena displayed only made him even more furious. Damn it, since when has this woman become so infuriating?
"Are you just going to stand there and watch this insolent woman be so presumptuous towards me?!" Roxyus glared at Vylen, who looked confused, not knowing what to say.
Selena clicked her tongue in disgust, her expression turning impassive. "You just need to answer my question, Old Man. Why do you keep evading it when my question is so simple?" she asked sharply, and for some reason, this made Roxyus flinch slightly.
"If so, what do you want?! That is indeed the cup of water I prepared for my son!" Roxyus replied, clenching his fist. "So what do you want?"
Selena smiled calmly. "That’s the way to go—it’s been that simple all along. Why have you been beating about the bush?" she muttered, then brought the cup to her lips.
"Selena..." Vylen called out to her immediately in a worried tone, causing Roxyus to glare sharply at his son.
"So you really believe that I’m the one who poisoned you? That you’re so worried about her?!" asked Roxyus angrily, causing Vylen to swallow hard and look at him stiffly.
"Lord Father, I just don’t want anything to happen to Eldoria’s Healer of Extinction. We have a responsibility to protect her; that doesn’t mean I suspect you," Vylen said stiffly, his tone somewhere between reassuring and unconvincing.
It was just that he’d never been good at acting; in fact, he didn’t even know how to act normally when facing his father after Selena had told him that this man was the one who’d poisoned him.
"Your excuse is ridiculous! I asked you to press charges against her and hoped she’d die today, but you, like an idiot, let yourself be fooled so easily again! You just believed her straight away simply because she said it was me who’d been poisoning you since you were a child?!"
Vylen was unable to respond to his father’s anger, whilst Roxyus had already slammed himself down into a chair. He looked emotional, and it seemed strange to Selena as she watched him.
"Your son can be cured with the help of the Healer of Extinction, but strangely, why do you look so emotional?" said Selena, causing Vylen and Roxyus to look at her. "I’m curious—why are you so cruel? You’ve already given him the throne, yet you’ve been secretly poisoning him and hate it when someone is able to cure him. Are you really a father?"
"You’re just an outsider, so there’s no need to meddle in my affairs," Roxyus retorted irritably, making Selena smile faintly.
She set the cup she was holding down in front of the man, then lifted her chin in a defiant gesture.
"That drink does indeed contain a poison concocted with black snake venom—a toxin potent enough to kill a person within one to two years. Meanwhile, as I observed your son’s body—which appears sturdy on the outside but is extremely fragile on the inside—the poison has already reached his heart and will soon reach his throat. If he were to drink it today, he might vomit blood and eventually die."
Vylen swallowed hard and stared in shock at Selena’s account of his condition. His face began to turn pale, whilst his hands felt cold.
"You’re slandering me again!" snapped Roxyus, displeased.
Selena smiled faintly, leaning back calmly as she spoke. "I have been gifted with the ability to heal the extinction of the beast world; my eyes can also see lies and the other side of all of you. I am the woman destined to resolve the curse that has befallen your world.
"If even the Eldoria World Council believes in my abilities, how can you—who are merely a beast and merely lucky enough to have secured the Fox Throne—reject that reality?" she asked flatly, causing Roxyus to clench his fists so tightly that his tail rose upwards.
Selena flicked her hand, and suddenly a beam of light struck the man.
The Old Fox King’s body, which had been secretly emitting negative energy to attack them, now stiffened as if frozen in ice. Only his face could move; his eyes looked anxious as Selena raised the glass and stood up from her seat.
"Since you won’t drink it, let me help you," said Selena with a playful smile.
Selena grabbed the man’s chin and held out a cup containing a drink that smelled sweet, but she could still sense the poison within—and there was quite a lot of it.
"Y-you... Get away from my face!" Roxyus managed to say with great effort, his mouth stiff and clamped shut by Selena.
"If I don’t want to, what can you do about it?" replied Selena, beginning to press the rim of the cup against the man’s lips. "Honourable Old Fox King, for what purpose would you poison your own son, who is now the King of the Fox Clan? His Majesty King Vylen Roxy’s current condition is quite pitiful, and yet you’re asking me to take this cup away from you before you’ve even tasted its contents? You’re dreaming..."
Vylen seemed unable to move as he watched what Selena was doing; he swallowed hard with difficulty whilst his father grew paler by the second as Selena prepared to pour the contents of the cup into his mouth.
"Take your hands off me! The poison in this cup could kill me instantly if you make me drink even a drop of it! You’ll never find out why I did what I did—why I poisoned him!" Roxyus suddenly shouted at the top of his voice, his fear and trembling evident all at once as he did so.
However, Selena remained standing firm before him, her hand holding the cup not moving a single inch. Her expression grew even colder as Roxyus Verfox unconsciously admitted his deed.
With a cold smile, Selena whispered cruelly. "I am the healer of extinction; of course, bringing you back from the dead is easy for me, even after you’ve died from this poison. Never mind; just think of your impending death as a way for you to understand the pain your son has endured since childhood," she replied, causing Roxyus’s eyes to widen even further. "After you’ve died in such agony, I’ll give you the antidote so you can live again."
"You... You’re a demon..."
"You’re the demon, you bastard!" Selena snarled, gripping his chin even tighter until Roxyus dared not utter a sound.
"Lord Father... So you really did poison me?" Behind them, Vylen’s voice trembled as he asked.
Roxyus turned his gaze towards Vylen, who was staring wide-eyed in disbelief.
"Why did you do it? What have I done wrong?"