Chapter 119: Chapter 119

KAIST:

I sat in reverie at my study, watching the afternoon sky turn into a darker shade as night quickly settled in, and I sigh.

It has been weeks seen I had seen Dahlia. The last time we spoke was through a letter. She informed me she was staying at her university dormitory for some time. I dismissed it, thinking that she was staying there for a few days to get a grasp of her study, but when the days turned into weeks, I got the feeling things may not have been turning good for her and her marriage…

So two days ago, I finally went to visit her at the dorm, and to my surprise, the dorm administrator informed me that Countess Abell went back home and took a trip with her husband.

I scratched my head. I thought Dahlly and that brat were having a rough patch in their marriage. Did I just miss my timing?

I knew someday Dahlly would open her eyes and realize that he was not really her mate. I was still looking for ways to reveal those wolf’s lies.

I didn’t know that it will come today in ways I have never expected…

“Prince Kaist, someone is requesting an audience from you.”

“Who is it,” I said, not looking up at Pelle as I was buried from all the piles of paper works I pushed away from doing until the very last minute.

“It’s Lady Jeteris from Seymour Villa.”

“Send her in,” I immediately told Pelle.

I am not fond of Lady Jeteris. As far as I was concerned, she was having a not-so-secret love affair with Dahlia’s husband.

Although I would very much like for Dahlia and that scum to split up, I didn’t want Dahlia’s feelings to be utterly crushed. She didn’t deserve to be cheated on.

However, I believe she was here because of Count Abell’s alibis. I had questioned her before about the vampires they had cared for when I spoke to Count Abell about Payn. I still think he was lying to his teeth, but it turned out that he and Lady Jeteris was really caring for the invasion victims in her home at Loracan.

I told her she could come approach me in the palace for help anytime. I remembered how Dahlia liked doing these charity works too. Maybe that scum Tristan was into women who were like Dahlia – the kind-hearted and helpful ones.

I didn’t expect she’ll come to me shivering as if something bad had happened.

“Prince Kaist. I need your help… Only you can help me out!”

“Why? Is something the matter,” I said. Why did Lady Jeteris look agitated? Did something happen to Dahlia?

“It’s hard to explain just yet, but I need your help… If possible, please help me get an audience with the king. I shall reveal everything to you in front of him.”

My forehead creased. After the failed wedding between Dahlia and I, my father had retreated from his duties bit by bit. He was more inclined to drinking now, and more than ever, he was more indulging of his… habits…

My father had an addiction, and worse, it was Count Jeteris who seemed to supply him with the drugs that were killing his senses day by day.

“Listen… Why don’t I hear it out first? From there, I shall decide if my father needs to hear it or not.”

Lady Livia’s eyes looked like she will cry out from aggravation. “You don’t understand… This has got everything to do with him.”

“Then, what is it? I am his son, so I should know it first.” Actually, I should know it first because I don’t think my father has the mental capacity to handle some things on his own right now…

He used to be a very capable leader, but after losing my mother and now losing Dahlia as his favored daughter-in-law, he was slowly losing his grip to reality…

“No… It must be both you and him. You should both hear it,” Lady Livia said, rudely gripping my arm hard.

I looked at the distress in her face. What was it that was bothering her? Where was the once composed, cold, almost cruel lady I had seen back in Dahlia’s party?

“Answer me first. What does this have to do with the king? Does this have to do anything with Dahlia too or with Count Abell?”

Lady Livia was working for Count Abell’s estate. Of course it would have something to do with them - that much I could guess...

“Yes… It’s got everything to do with them and the Shadow Rune Pack.”

As soon as she said it, my eyes widened. It widened even more as she continued.

“Prince Kaist… You know it too, right? You know I must speak with the king, you, and no one else about this, sire...”

I wanted to clamp my hands against Lady Livia’s mouth, but I resisted the urge to do so. I looked over at the hallway that led into my study. Pelle was still stationed at the door. There must be no one else beside him who had heard it, right?

There was a well-kept secret that I stumbled upon a few years back about my father and his involvement with the Shadow Rune Pack. It all happened because I had hovered in his study as a curious kid.

In one of the games of hide and seek I played with my attendant back then, I happened to hide underneath my father’s table, which was massive for a six year old boy.

My attendant took his sweet time to find me. Before long, I found myself dozing off to sleep underneath the table.

I don’t know how long I had been there, but when I woke up, my father and some of his men were in the midst of a meeting.

“It’s just as we have feared. The Shadow wolf’s rune stone had some adverse effect on her,” I heard someone say.

Funny but I actually recognized the voices. That one was, no doubt, Duke Jude Hurst, Dahlia’s father.

“What effect would that be,” a gruffer and meaner voice spoke. It was Count Jeteris.

“Do tell,” I heard my father exclaim. In fact, I could see his legs from where I was sitting underneath his table. They were so close that I could almost touch them.

“She… She could heal the sick,” Duke Hurst said in an exasperated manner.

“As expected,” Count Jeteris said.

“But what if she could do more? What is she starts to become a real Shadow wolf more and more?”

“That will never happen… She only has a bit of the stone in her body. The least it could do is to make sparks fly out from her fingers,” Count Jeteris said in jest.

Being a kid, I wouldn’t have paid any attention had I not heard what I heard next.

“But Dahlia is just a child! She is not like Merlissa! She won’t be able to handle her spirit stone!”

Merlissa – that was my mother’s name, Merlissa Avril Lyon… And that other person with the spirit stone was… Dahlia?

I frowned. Wasn’t she Duke Hurst’s own daughter?

Little did I know that it was the start of a secret that would send the whole Talandor Kingdom shaking to its core if someone knew of it...