Outside the main gates of Castle Cordon, Gilas stood quietly at a particular corner of the battlements where he had a proper view of the people protesting outside.
"Your Majesty! Please, hear our plea! Break the Mate Bond! It will put your life in danger! Please, Your Majesty!!!"
The cries of the Cordonian people were audible from where he stood. Them outside, begging on their knees out of love of their king was a sight to behold. It was an unexpected phenomenon, and it was the first time in the history of Cordon that the life of the female on trial was connected to the king.
"Is this why you wanted her dead inside that forest?" Gilas wondered with a frown. "This is your plan all along…"
"That forest is not a simple forest. The Realm of Eferia is a vast realm well protected by its guardians," Nasser stated.
"Historians have debated for decades or not we should correct the realm's designation, but those guardians preferred that the outside world continued to call it a forest anyway, so we kept referring to it as the Element Forest throughout history. Many had tried to enter and conquer that paradise, some even coming from the other side of the world, but all of them had failed."
His father kept on rambling on. "Cordon respected the realm's existence even though it was within our territorial boundaries. As such, the guardians highly respected our kingdom above all, since we're the only kingdom beyond their borders that didn't try anything foolish like moving to conquer their realm," he went on.
"We've created a very peculiar friendship with them, ending with them administering the trials for non-werewolf females to become Queen."
Gilas silently stood by as he let his father ramble. He was already well-versed in the history of Cordon, but he didn't bother interrupting him. Instead, he simply listened to his father talk, wondering where this conversation would lead.
"Those guardians have the power to manipulate the four elements, and our ancestors believed that a Queen of our Kingdom should have the strength and ability to withstand those four elements in a way that emulated a pureblood werewolf's natural ability to do so." Nasser kept on rambling. Still, Gilas continued to listen.
"They've set the rules and made the tradition wherein any non-werewolf female that would want to wear the crown of Cordon should enter this forest and come out alive. And since then, no one had surmounted the challenge laid out for them…"
There was a pause, and Gilas turned to look at his father. The frown on his father's face had deepened, and his face had gone darker than an approaching thunderstorm.
"Who would've thought that this Princess was a daughter of a fallen angel? A hybrid. With that revelation, the possibility of her coming out alive from the forest had risen," Nasser coldly stated. "Knowing that, I had to take another gamble at the last minute before she entered that forest. If she dies, then it'll be a lot easier to bring down Darius. It's as good as killing him."
Gilas's eyes widened as he gasped, "What do you mean by Xenia being a hybrid between a human and a fallen angel? Fallen angels are just myths… How can you be so sure?" He then asked one more question for good measure, "Who told you that?"
"It's not important where I got this information, but it's a reliable source for sure," Nasser vaguely stated. "It's no wonder then how Queen Dana of Ebodia had managed to trap the most untamable creatures of the Forbidden Forest. She had cast a strong barrier spell that would last for a lifetime; one that not even a powerful wizard could do…"
Hearing these revelations, Gilas now understood why exactly his father no longer pursued his objection against the king's wedding and the Ritual of Marking to proceed. Usually, the Ritual of Marking happened only after the formal coronation of the king, even though there was no definite rule about when a king could do it.
However, ever since the dawn of history, the king only did the Ritual of Marking as soon as his wife was formally coronated as his Queen. His father's plan was for the Mate Bond to be completed, before then targeting Princess Xenia instead.
Not done with wanting to hear himself talk, his father turned to look at him. Coldly, he said, "If only you didn't fail me during the battle for the throne, then we wouldn't have come into this situation, Son. You're as useless as your mother. So much so that I always have to make such bold moves just to ensure the power of our pack above all else."
He monologued, "For generations… we've been ruling this kingdom, but the Moonlight Pack managed to usurp somewhere along the way. I refuse to die as a failure like my father. I will make sure that the Silver Crescent pack would take back the throne and have the upper hand in this kingdom."
"Your Majesty! Please hear our plea! Break the Mate Bond! IT will put your life in danger. Please, Your Majesty!!!"
The shouting, pleading, and begging continued on in the background. Meanwhile, Gilas could feel his knees wobbling from what he just heard from his father.
"You should stop. You've done enough already…" Gilas murmured as his eyes went to the ground "Why? Why? Would it be worth everything you've sacrificed?"
He felt so weak; torn between the love he had for his father and doing what was right. Yes… after everything he had gone through, he still unconditionally loved his father. He longed for that time to come when his father would stop the nonsense and just be a good father and husband to him and his mother.
"Stop? Enough?" Nasser hissed. "It's never enough! I've already sacrificed too much in pursuit of this goal, and there's no way that I'll stop now! I need to see it till the end, Gilas…"
Nasser looked at him, his eyes filled with disappointment and ridicule as he said, "Remain still in the safety of your comfort zone, Son. Don't make a move that will disappoint me any further, because I will not hesitate to kill you and your mother if either of you get in my way!"
Gilas gasped. Those words were so painful to hear that his knees gave in from under him, making him helplessly slump into the ground. Raising his head, his tears finally rolled down his cheeks as he watched his father's retreating back disappearing into the distance.
"What should we do now, Ham?" he weakly whispered.
[Let's go visit Mother for now,] his wolf advised. [Get back on your feet. This had been a hopeless case from the start. There's no more hope for him, so you should just do what you think is right. Don't hold yourself back anymore…]
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