As soon as Soan left the castle, the Queen got to work on the burial of the Young Prince. She didn't want to have his dead body in the open for long. Fortunately, she had a graveyard right inside the Castle, where only the bodies of the Royals were kept. She entered the cemetery with her men, who had already prepared a grave by now.
She watched them place the coffin of the young Prince in the ground and cover them with earth.
"You can leave. I want to be alone with my son here." The woman instructed the guards to leave her alone in the graveyard for now.
The guards and the maids left, leaving only their Queen in the Royal Graveyard before the grave of the Young Prince.
The guards even shut the door before leaving and started waiting for the Queen outside.
The Queen glanced back to make sure that the doors were closed. After making sure, the sadness on her face turned to a smile.
"Thank you, kid. It's because of you that I was able to consolidate my power in the Empire. And now that the eldest son is gone, I can finally rest assured that my son will get the throne. There won't be any problems after he grows up. For his safety, you needed to die. I hope you don't hate me too much."
"Oh, also say hi to your father for me. Tell him not to hate me too much either. It's not my fault what happened to him. He made me poison him. Who told him to fall in love with another woman? He thought I'll let him marry that bit*h and bring another competitor for my son and me?"
"Anyway, I've united father and son." She glanced at the other grave, which wasn't too far from the grave of the young child. "Anyway, I'll leave. I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about. Have fun."
Waving her hand, the queen turned to leave; however, as soon as she turned, she saw a man standing right before the door, with his arms folded.
"What a touching speech. I'm sure the kid would've loved to hear that." The person observed the shocked face of the woman.
After the initial shock, the woman appeared to calm down a bit. She realized that there was only one person who could've entered this place, passing through the guards.
"I suppose you're the mysterious man who has been helping me by killing my enemies?" The Queen asked.
After realizing that the man was the same person who hadn't killed her despite having an opportunity, she was sure that he wasn't going to kill her even now. He wanted something from her.
Azekiel nodded briefly. "That's me."
"May I ask why you helped me?" The blonde-haired woman asked as she also folded her arms, wrapping them around her plump breasts.
"You want money?" she asked.
Azekiel shook his head.
"That's right as well. If you wanted money, with your strength, you could've taken everything that's in the treasury, and I doubt anyone would've been able to stop you. Then what do you want?"
"Power? My influence?" She asked, but she herself rejected that suggestion. "That's not it either. With your strength, you don't need my help to increase your influence. Then what? Why did you help me? You don't want my money; you don't want my influence; that's only one other thing I have that you could want."
"Is that the case?" The woman licked her lips. She couldn't help but find Azekiel somewhat attracted as well. The man was mysterious, strong, and handsome, after all.
As she talked, she started walking closer to Azekiel, who stood with back resting on the doors
"Let me guess. You fell for me. You wanted me, and that's why you helped me? To rise in my eyes so I'll fall for you?" She asked as she stopped before Azekiel, leaving only a few inches of distance between the two. "That's why you highlighted your strength like that. Hahaha, that's so cute."
"Fine. You've succeeded. Let me give you your first of many rewards." She brought her lips closer to Azekiel's lips, almost about to kiss him, but before her lips could land on his, Azekiel's hand came in between. He stopped her from kissing him.
"Don't dirty my lips," Azekiel grimly answered. "A person like you can never attract anyone. You're like a poisonous snake who killed her husband and then ate her own child."
"To think that the kid still cared for you and his family even after his death... That naive child... If he were alive, even now, he wouldn't want me to do what I'm about to. But that's the best part... He isn't here, and a blood oath does not bind me. So I'll do what I please."
The hand which was on the lips of the woman slid down, landing on her neck.
Azekiel grabbed the woman by the throat. His figure finally moved as he brought the woman's back against the door.
The Queen tried to free herself, but Azekiel's grip was so strong that she couldn't do anything. She couldn't make him open his grip. She couldn't even push him back.
As a last resort, she started scratching the chest of Azekiel. She even attempted to scratch his face, but before she could, Azekiel grabbed her wrist with his other hands.
"Keep your hands away from me." Azekiel twisted the wrist of the woman, crushing it.
"Arghh!"
The woman screamed, but she couldn't even scream loudly as she was having difficulty breathing because of Azekiel's tight grasp.
Her other hand was still intact, but this time, she didn't care to scratch Azekiel. She had realized that she was too weak.
"Free... me. Why.... hurting me? What... do... you want!
She couldn't understand why a man was trying to kill her now and why not before? Why was he hurting her after hurting her enemies?
"What do I want? Don't worry about that. I already received what I wanted."
Azekiel raised a small arrow, showing the woman the blood-stained arrow. "Do you know what this is?"
The woman appeared confused. Wasn't it an ordinary arrow?
"It's the arrow that your assassin used to kill the kid. It's so ironic; you'll die from the same arrow that you had the kid die from."
The woman's face turned pale as soon as she heard the words of Azekiel. So he really wanted to kill her!
Her face was horrified, and her eyes filled up with tears. This time, her tears weren't false either.
She begged to be freed, but it was as if her words were falling on deaf ears. For some reason, Azekiel took this thing very personally, maybe because a person that he wanted to protect had died right before his eyes.
