With King Cedric and his wife acting crazy, their children watched in shame and embarrassment. They could only try, but they were not allowed to move an inch to separate their parents.
Meanwhile, the noblemen watched the king and queen pull each other's hair, wondering if these people were truly royalty. What an embarrassing sight! This was why they were always going to remain inferior.
"STOP IT!" Richard yelled as he looked at both of them with disgust. The couple broke apart, both their hair looking like bird nests.
Harold simply watched and continued to count down until either of the crazy couple recognized Sir Richard. His patience was running thin. They were quite lucky that his sensitivity to sound had decreased. He wasn't sure what he would have done.
It was obvious that the couple were lying.
According to what Sir Richard had said, King Cedric had been happy to execute Anne, and the queen had given the information to Lord Zealot's people about Anne's whereabouts to have them promote her rank to that of the queen, which she achieved after Anne's death.
Amber was dear to her? What a joke!
"My Prince.... please save me. Spare our lives. You already spared us one time. Tell them you know about it." King Cedric said as he fixed not only his eyes but also his hope on Prince Harold.
"I am aware," Harold said calmly, making King Cedric cry out in joy, but he had obviously been too quick to be happy because Harold's next words dashed his hope. "But I was also deceived. I only found out after the wedding ceremony. You didn't expect me to kill my bride, did you?" He asked Cedric with a strange smile that made the man shake in fear and begin to stutter.
"B-B-But..."
"But what?" Harold asked him, his voice still calm, but he was very irritated.
The man was a coward; he was filthy. Anne didn't deserve it. And no parent in their right mind would have given up their daughter to be married off to someone like him.
But he had been the only hope for Anne's mother. For Anne's clan. To save their daughter.
Yet...
Harold felt his eyes turn misty, which was a very rare occurrence. He looked up instantly and took a deep breath, trying to control his rage. But his wolf was restless. And he was tempted to let it out.
"Why did you claim she was a witch if you are also saying she had never practiced witchcraft? Do you think that by claiming she isn't a witch, your life would be spared? She is still an exiled Princess. You are not innocent at all!" One nobleman yelled at King Cedric since Richard was still not saying much. The man looked weird.
"LORD ZEALOT!" King Cedric suddenly shouted. "It was him! He asked me to keep her alive. He said he was going to need her back in this kingdom when she was twenty. I didn't know why, but I did as I was told. He was the one who asked me to take her away."
Queen Darcy nodded immediately. "YES! Since she is almost 20, we thought it was time they needed her back, so we sent her. Please spare us. If anyone has to pay for this... it should be him! Please spare me and my children."
King Cedric was shocked to find his wife pointing at him as the one who needed to be punished. He flared up!
"HOW DARE YOU FILTHY DEVIL TRY TO PUT THIS ON ME WHEN IT WAS YOUR IDEA!"
"IT WAS YOUR IDEA!" She yelled back at him, and another round of cursing and quarrelling followed.
"Mother!"
"Father!"
"Please!"
Their children cried out, but no matter how loud their voices were, their parents remained unruly.
"Shut. Your. Filthy. Mouths!" Harold said in a dark tone that brought silence to the entire hall as well as a chill. Even the crying children ceased crying at once.
"Why would Lord Zealot ask you to spare her life? Are you lying to us? What does he have to do with any of this?" Harold asked.
"No! I... I s-swear I'm not lying." Cedric scratched his hair with his shaking hands and looked at the noblemen. "He... he came with warriors. I can't remember—" His gaze fixed on Richard, and he paused, his brows furrowing at once.
"IT WAS YOU! YOU WERE THERE!" He pointed at Richard, and all eyes in the hall turned to look at him.
With the chaos in the assembly room, there was even more chaos all over the palace.
The search party for Susan had increased as they combed through every inch of the palace. It was difficult to find her since she had gotten rid of her smell the previous day.
Harvey had also been searching with Lance when he heard his father was leading the questioning of King Cedric and began to race towards the assembly room.
Luciana's parents cried helplessly as their daughter began to battle for her life again, as she continued to convulse while the physicians tried to do something.
In another part of the palace, the queen was yelling and banging on the gates to be released from the hot cell, while a guard handed a bottle of a strange-looking potion he had found amongst the queen's things to Sir Rager.
And in another part, a cell door inside the dungeon opened quietly, and someone stepped out. But instead of leaving the place, the person walked slowly to another cell and looked down at the girl in the cell, while Agnes looked up at the figure in fear.
Meanwhile, while all of this was going around, Harold was calculating if it was truly coincidental that Queen Arya had been the one to suggest he take a human bride from that kingdom, while the queen over there had been able to convince King Cedric to send Princess Amber.
With everyone's attention now on Sir Richard, the door of the assembly room opened, and everyone's attention moved from Richard to the door.
Harold looked on in surprise as Alicia stepped in. Well, Alicia in Princess Amber's body once again.
She was dressed in normal ladies' clothing and was without the excessive makeup that made her look like an evil witch. freewebnove l.com
But her eyes looked even darker now. And she seemed... different.
"AMBER!" Queen Darcy called as soon as she turned and saw her.
"Was this a revenge you planned?" One of the princesses looked at her with disgust and anger in her teary eyes. "I wish you had died together with your useless mother."
Everyone else did not utter a word. They looked at Harold's bride, who didn't bother to look at the princess who had said those nasty words to her. Her gaze was fixed on her father and his wife, and she slowly began to approach them.
The queen cried, feeling wronged. "This is how you pay us? After bringing you from the mountain to give you a life here! Do you think it would have been difficult killing off a little wench like you?" She asked as she met her stepdaughter halfway, stopping herself from hitting her.
With a straight face, Princess Amber replied in a soft voice, "Unfortunately, you didn't kill me." A smile formed on her face just as she unsheathed a knife and said, "But I can" before stabbing it directly in her throat.
Loud gasps and screams from the King and his children filled the hall as blood splattered all over Princess Amber's face. freeweb novel.com
Queen Darcy had her eyes still wide open as she fell to her unfortunate death with a loud thud.
She tilted her head toward King Cedric as she muttered, "A queen... for a queen."
"Am-ber..." Harold breathed in shock just as Amber turned her bloody face toward him.
And while all this chaos was happening, a certain nuisance who had been asleep for a while finally woke up with a loud gasp.
Prince Ivan.
THE END.
Just kidding. Lol. But Volume 1 was supposed to end here tho.
EDIT:: 19/05/2023
*****
A/N
I haven't been on here for over 2 weeks, and right now, I cannot even bring myself to read the comments because I do not wish to see any comments that would throw me off.
I've had a rough and tough month.
Been from one issue to another. Started with an allergic reaction to a lack of proper blood circulation and then a migraine. And now I'm out of work, so yeah, I'm currently UNEMPLOYED.
You are free to complain since many of you purchase coins and many only read my book here, but I am a person. Just like you, I break down sometimes. And yeah, I do feel guilty about leaving, but I cannot help it most times because I am not in the right frame of mind and there is no platform to make an announcement.
Those who tried to reach me through Miss B, thank you for reaching out. She did let me know, and you can confirm from her that I have been on several medications even till this moment and would be travelling home to my parents' soon to live there for a while and just get back myself.
So when you drop comments sometimes, be nice. Because I also have feelings too. And writing a novel requires critical thinking, which cannot always work if one is not in the right frame of mind.
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