Chapter 150: Chapter 150

TRISTAN:

I flinched. How did King Maurus know who I was?

He smiled weakly. “I see my senses haven’t dulled yet… I never forget a face when I see one. Besides, you have a touch of your mother’s look, so it’s impossible not to see her in you…”

“If you knew who I was then why did you rescue me,” I asked angrily.

“Ah that… Out of guilt, I guess. I’m not as heartless as you think, kid…”

The king’s nonchalant attitude sent me into a frenzy of emotions.

“Not heartless? You killed my whole pack and kidnapped my pregnant mother, how heartless can you still get after doing all those things?!”

Almost instantly, the visions of seeing my mother being taken away and my father being slain before my eyes came back to me, fueling my hate and anger for this person – King Maurus Lyon - even more.

He looked back with somber eyes at me as if he was also having a bit of bittersweet memories replay in his head. “You’re right. It was a wretched thing to do - to kill everyone in your pack… I deeply regretted it, and as you can see, I am being punished by the Moon Goddess for it.”

I looked at him in disgust.

“If you knew it was wrong, then why,” I said, shaking in fury. “Why did you do it?! Why did you murder innocent people? What did my pack ever do to you and your men to deserve that?”

He looked at me as if he didn’t understand what I was saying. I repeated my question.

“Fifty families. Fifty families were part of the Shadow Rune Pack… Fifty families died on that day – men, women, children – everyone! Everyone whom I knew… Everyone I had ever known my whole life perished on that day, just because of your f*cking greed.”

I was met with utmost silence as the king labored with his breathing.

“Greed… That’s right… It all started with my greed… I was being foolishly greedy, that’s what it was,” he mumbled.

“Kid… I have no time left to explain everything in the past, and even if you cannot accept it now, I still would like to deeply apologize to you… I was blinded by emotions. I didn’t know the grave effects that my actions would cause at that time… On behalf of those you’ve lost, especially your father, I am sorry…”

My heart that had died when my father and my pack mates were slaughtered couldn’t accept such a casual apology…

I wanted him to suffer! I wanted him to feel the same anguish I had felt all these twenty, long years!

“Kid… It’s almost time… Let me hold your hands,” the old man pleaded.

The king must be out of his mind! Does he think I shall give him his request even if he really were dying?

He smiled at my hesitation. “Did you know that every person from the Imperial Family gets a prophecy on the day of their birth?”

“I don’t,” I said curtly. I wasn’t interested in his story or in his way of hooking me up to pity him.

“Right… I had a prophecy on the day I was born as per tradition,” he continued, unbothered by my lack of concern. “Do you know what the prophecy said about me?... It proclaimed that I would be the last pure Lyon on the throne and that the kingdom will fall in the hands of those who could wield magic...”

He continued with great difficulty. “Because of that prophecy, I was ingrained with the thought that I shouldn’t let any person who could wield magic rise into power, let alone step inside the gates of Talandor… I see now though that I had always been a fool…”

The sun was setting fast in the horizon. By and by, the night was fast approaching.

“Quickly now, won’t you lend me your hand, kid?... I didn’t want to die alone like this…”

I looked at the old fool and remembered my father. He was a strict leader, but he had always loved me and my mother…

If he were dying in front of a stranger, I wonder if he’d make this same strange request too…

As the night set in, I reluctantly reached my hand into his. He held it with both palms.

His skin was as cold as ice… What exactly was happening to the king?

“Kid… I’m sorry for making you an orphan so that I could have my own family… I’m sorry for believing that your pack was a threat when the only other threat there was to my life was my own selfishness… I just have one request… Don’t take it all out of my son… After all, you are of the same blood,” he whispered.

“What the -?”

Before I could ask him what he had meant, he started coughing out blood violently.

“To break a chosen mate’s bond, I had to kill your father. In turn, I am cursed by the Moon Goddess by a disease that weakens my heart and would eventually kill me…”

“You mean you have Traitor’s Disease?...”

There was an old legend that spoke of a divine punishment that happens when somebody lusts for someone’s mate and plots to take away one’s competitor after the mate bond has already been established. It is said that such a person would incur the wrath of the Moon Goddess and be given a disease that would rots the insides of one’s body until he or she dies. That cursed illness was known by the name ‘Traitor’s Disease.’

“Don’t tell me you really do have Traitor’s Disease… Then, my mother who was kidnapped by your men… She is… She is?...”

The king nodded weakly at me. “Kaist is your mother’s, child… He is one of the twin children she gifted me…”

I can’t believe it! Prince Kaist Lyon – the man I had loathed for being the king’s son and only heir – an inheritor of his father’s sin…. Don’t tell me he is my brother, my real flesh and blood?...

“Kid, I’ll give you back everything you’ve lost… But please be gentle to my Kaist and my Livia… They had led very hard lives without their mother, and they might lead harder lives when I’m gone.” At that point on, he began to sob while still clutching my hand.

I didn’t know what to make out of this. Was the king delirious because of the cursed disease? Was he making up stories and turning mad?

To say that Kaist Lyon is my brother and that Livia is his twin, those are just absurd words, right?...

He shook his head as if reading my thoughts. “Kid, I want to tell you the whole truth so that you can tell Kaist, but I am almost out of time…”

Before I could further ask what he had meant, he tightened his grip in my hands and uttered words I never thought he’d utter to someone like me – the son of the man he killed…

“I, Maurus Philippian Lyon, transfer the rights of rule and the rights of the kingdom to my heir, the one before me. As witnessed by the Moon Goddess, may you give him the strength, wisdom, and knowledge to rule the whole White Fang Pack and the Kingdom of Talandor…”