Chapter 94: The Promise That Broke Him (2)
Melvin stepped back into the palace, his boots leaving faint traces of frost across the marble floors.
He muttered under his breath, his voice low and rough.
"Mother and Sister first... Father can wait."
Knowing his father’s condition, he understood there was at least some time to save after finding his mother and sister.
And yet, despite his father’s state, he didn’t even want to imagine what might have happened to the women.
He moved from door to door with grim determination, pushing each one open with growing urgency. Empty room after empty room greeted him — abandoned beds, overturned chairs, dust-covered furniture.
The silence hung over him like a heavy blanket, each vacant room wearing down the last scraps of his hope.
Then he stumbled upon a hidden side chamber, tucked behind a false wall panel left just slightly open.
The sight inside nearly destroyed what was left of his heart.
-----
His mother and Elara hung shackled to the walls by heavy iron manacles.
Their bodies were covered in bruises, bite marks, scars, and clear evidence of prolonged, repeated abuse. Their once graceful and noble figures — the same women who had raised him with love and warmth — had been worn down into something hollow, broken, and barely recognizable.
Melvin’s cold exterior shattered completely.
Tears — the first he had shed in a whole year — burned hot down his face as he ripped the Dreamer’s Mask off and stumbled forward on unsteady legs.
"Mother... Sister..."
Both women stirred weakly at the sound of his voice.
When their eyes slowly focused on him — tall, strong, handsome, with short black hair and those sharp white eyes now filled with raw, open pain — pure shock filled their expressions.
Elara’s cracked lips trembled. "Huh... you’re really here?"
Their mother’s voice was barely a whisper, hoarse and disbelieving. "Melvin...?"
Tears streamed more fiercely down Melvin’s cheeks as he reached them, his hands trembling so violently that he hesitated to grip their chains, as though they might vanish at his touch.
Before he could speak, both women collapsed into deep, wrenching sobs that filled the cramped chamber with their anguish.
"It was all the plot—" his mother gasped between sobs, her voice breaking under the weight of guilt. "I knew," Melvin interrupted, his own voice raw and unsteady.
"I knew the Prince of Loria had framed me all those years ago."
The words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating, pulling them all into a long, aching silence.
Then, despite her exhaustion and pain, Elara managed a faint, bittersweet smile.
"Melvin... do you remember the promise you made me long ago?"
Their mother’s gaze found his, full of sorrow and shimmering with tears she could no longer hold back.
Melvin’s hands froze on the chains.
For a moment, his mind drifted back to that warm morning years ago — Elara’s gentle voice, the smell of fresh bread, her soft kiss on his forehead as she asked him to become someone who would lead Blackwood to greatness.
He swallowed hard and kept working at the manacles, fingers trembling as he tried to ignore the question.
Elara’s voice came again, quieter now, tinged with a painful fragility.
"Melvin... please. Do you remember?"
Tears spilled freely down her cheeks.
He froze, his hands falling away from the chains as his gaze lingered on them—truly seeing them for the first time.
Dark bruises mottled their skin, and a heavy weariness clouded their eyes.
They hung limply, as though the fight had already drained every last bit of strength from them.
"I remember," he whispered, voice hoarse. "I promised I would take my training seriously. That I would lead Blackwood to greatness one day."
Elara gave a weak, pained smile.
"Then you already know why you shouldn’t remove these chains."
Melvin’s brow furrowed, confusion and pain mixing in his sharp white eyes.
"What does that promise matter right now? I’m here. I can save you. My master can heal—"
"No," his mother cut in gently, her voice filled with sorrow.
"Our minds... they don’t fully belong to us anymore. The moment the Loria royals return, we will fall under their control again. We will become weapons against you. Against everything we once stood for."
Melvin shook his head, tears streaming down his face.
"Mother... then I’ll kill them first! Every last one of them!"
Elara’s voice trembled as she forced the words out.
"Melvin... promise me again. Promise you’ll make Blackwood great, that you won’t let our failure be the end of our family’s legacy."
Their mother spoke softly, her voice heavy with exhaustion.
"That promise... that dream... it will rest on your shoulders alone. We’re too tired, my son. The pain... all we’ve endured... all we failed to protect... It’s more than we can bear."
Melvin’s eyes quivered, the calm mask he always wore shattering as a storm of emotions surged to the surface.
His hands shook uncontrollably, and his breath came unevenly as he faced them.
Elara’s gaze met his, her eyes brimming with both love and unbearable sorrow.
"We know it’s selfish... but please. End it for us. Free us from this agony before they come back and steal our minds again."
Their mother’s voice, fragile and breaking, slipped into a desperate whisper.
"We’re begging you, Melvin... free us."
The words lingered in the air, heavy and final, like a sentence that could not be undone. Melvin’s thoughts started to unravel, spinning out of control.
’All this power... everything I worked for... the time Lord Dream kept me away, training...’ questions clawed at him, jagged and unrelenting.
’Was I too late? Why can’t I protect them?!’ His mind became a storm, scattered and desperate.
’Why didn’t I come sooner?!’
He met their gaze—truly saw them.
As tears traced paths down their cheeks, their smiles were weary, tinged with love but fractured by exhaustion.
Those same eyes that had once shone with warmth and pride now pleaded for freedom from unending pain.
Melvin stepped forward, hands shaking as he reached for the chains.
"I... I’m not killing you," he said, voice cracking. "I’m taking you back to my master. He can heal you. I’ll make this right. I swear I’ll—"
Before he could even touch the first manacle, both women’s eyes suddenly glossed over with that horrible golden light.
Their expressions shifted in an instant.
They strained against the chains as desire consumed them entirely, their voices dropping to a low, fractured, almost delirious tone.
"Oh.. my little Star..." Elara moaned, hips moving desperately against the chains.
"It’s been... so long since I’ve tasted you..."
Their mother’s voice joined hers, equally desperate and horrifying.
"Son~ Fuck us the same way you’ve... done the past year~ Use us... break us... please..."
In that instant, Melvin’s face contorted in pure terror. He stumbled backward, landing hard on his backside, eyes wide with shock.
"What the..." he muttered, unsettled by how quickly their demeanor had shifted—it was haunting.
"What do you mean... over the last year?!" He couldn’t grasp what she meant, how he could have had them over the past year.
Then, like a bolt of clarity, the memory of the night he was framed hit him.
And just like that, it felt as though something inside him simply... stopped.
His tears froze mid-fall, tiny ice crystals clinging to his cheeks.
His pale eyes grew colder than the harshest winter—empty, lifeless. Every trace of emotion vanished, snuffed out in an instant.
He rose slowly, grasped his sword, and advanced with an unsettling calm.
"Mother... Sister... I love you..."
SHKKKK!!!
In one fluid motion, his blade didn’t cut them—
It froze them.
Ice exploded outward from his blade, encasing both women in perfect, beautiful ice sculptures — preserving their bodies eternally in their final moment of torment.
Their faces were locked in that chilling blend of longing and hopelessness.
The chamber went still.
Then the doors slammed open.
The Prince of Loria strode in; fury etched across his face. He had already witnessed the frozen kingdom beyond.
"You—!" he started, then froze when he saw Melvin standing there. Shock flashed across his face, quickly replaced by arrogant laughter.
"Well, well... the little exiled prince is alive? How touching. I have to say, I really enjoyed your sister and mother for a full year. They screamed so beautifully—"
Melvin slowly tilted his head.... and he said nothing at all.
HUMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!
His aura exploded outward — cold, overwhelming, and filled with pure murderous intent. The temperature in the room plummeted violently as frost raced across the walls and floor.
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