“Sorry, I’m late.”
Yige’er hurried in, his steps brisk, meeting the girls’ stunned gazes.
With a click, he pressed a button on the inner wall.
The next moment, the wall split apart, revealing a metallic, alchemical boat within.
The man checked the supplies on the boat, not looking back as he spoke to Ilya and Shiya.
“The weapons are in this compartment in the bottom of the boat. I taught you how to use them before.”
“Brother!”
Ilya finally couldn’t hold back the sob in her voice.
Yige’er turned impatiently, rare anger in his voice as he snapped at his sister.
“Don’t interrupt, Ilya. After leaving Flower God Village, you need to be more mature. If there’s something you don’t understand and I’m not around, let Miss Shiya help you. But don’t cause her too much trouble, understand?”
At this, Shiya couldn’t hold back either.
She stepped forward and grabbed Yige’er’s arm.
“Why are you so badly injured?”
Yige’er froze for a moment, then looked down, finally noticing the large puddle of fresh blood pooling beneath him.
From the open wound on his abdomen, a small section of intestine was beginning to protrude.
The man could no longer hold on.
All color drained from his face, and he collapsed weakly.
But even so, he immediately gripped Shiya’s hand back.
“Miss Shiya, I’m afraid I can’t escape with you anymore. There are two things I’ve been hiding from you. I’m truly sorry. Ilya was always meant to be the Flower God Bride for the sacrifice ritual. Everything Chief Edwin has done up to now has been to make you take her place as the offering. And I’m not a good person either. I took you away because I once rebelled against the gods and was cursed. My lifespan was already short.”
As he said this, Yige’er rolled up his sleeve, revealing a violet flower mark on his arm that looked like a bite.
“This severe injury and the backlash from the potion only hastened the drain on my life. So I hope that after you escape back to the Imperial Capital, you can take Ilya with you. Please, take care of Ilya for me. She’s still too naive, too childish.”
Ilya couldn’t bear it any longer.
She threw herself into Yige’er’s arms and began to sob loudly.
Yige’er’s pupils were already starting to blur.
He wanted to stroke Ilya’s head one last time, but his hand stopped mid-air.
He looked at his blood-soaked palm and hesitated.
Ilya lifted her tear-streaked, snot-covered face, sniffled, and pulled Yige’er’s hand to rest on top of her head.
Yige’er’s body stiffened for a moment, but then a smile touched his lips.
His fingertips gently smoothed through his sister’s beautiful short chestnut hair.
Shiya turned her face away, wiping the corner of her eye.
Then she took a deep breath, her voice trembling.
“I promise you. I will never fail what you have entrusted to me, just as you always fulfilled the duty of a knight of justice.”
“A knight… huh?”
The man’s gray eyes looked past the wall into the distance.
The world before him grew hazy, and he seemed to see the church on the mountaintop again.
That was where he was supposed to marry Seranti…
“Heh, Yige’er, didn’t we agree long ago? You must marry me.”
A figure with faintly glowing white hair took Yige’er’s hand, then crashed into his embrace.
Their fingers intertwined.
Yige’er, suspended in the air, was stunned for a moment.
Then he smiled shyly and clumsily.
“I still remember, Seranti, my princess. My… most beloved one.”
After a moment, Ilya, her eyes swollen from crying, slowly stood up and gently closed her brother’s eyes.
“Sister Shiya, we should go.”
Shiya hesitated, looking at Ilya’s listless demeanor, then replied, “Alright. Let’s move your brother’s body onto the boat first.”
Ilya nodded without hesitation, but after a few seconds of silence, she shook her head.
If there was one final wish, her brother would surely want to rest forever in this land where his fiancée had never left.
“No need, Sister Shiya. Grandpa Edwin will bury my brother’s body together with Sister Seranti.”
The departure of a loved one was quietly changing the girl.
On her still childish face, her pale blue eyes flickered for the first time with a light called determination.
“Alright, that’s enough. Princess Elena, let’s go find your adoptive sister now, okay?”
The old village chief could no longer contain his impatience.
He clenched his fists and stepped forward.
He realized now that this imperial princess was probably just stalling for time.
But facing the old chief’s murky yet sharp black pupils, Elena, the imperial princess, showed no signs of backing down.
“Chief Edwin, the issue I care about now is not whether Shiya stays or goes. Since I’ve already handed the girl over to Flower God Village, you need to keep your promise. Immediately send villagers to cut down trees and build a boat large enough to hold twenty-something of us. Then send your villagers who are skilled with flowers to go to the Imperial Capital with me.”
As she spoke, the strong-willed princess materialized a golden longsword with a flash.
Her light blue eyes turned as hard as ice.
“If you don’t do these things, none of you will leave today.”
The old chief finally let out a long sigh and slapped his own head in frustration.
He found it hard to handle this unreasonable Princess Elena.
Earlier, relying on Elena’s unfamiliarity with the flower bride sacrifice ritual, the old chief had managed to use the information gap to suppress her at every turn.
Now that most of his cards had been revealed, the seemingly weak and easily bullied girl had finally shown her fangs as a true royal.
Just as Chief Edwin was about to soften his stance and agree to all of the princess’s demands, a disheveled Karlen stumbled out from the Flower Leaf Forest.
Elena gave Karlen, who was dripping wet as if he’d fallen into water, a strange look.
But the first words out of his mouth instantly put her on high alert.
“Chief Edwin, I saw Miss Shiya and Miss Ilya escaping out to sea on an alchemical boat.”
With a clear target identified, the people of Flower God Village erupted without needing the chief’s orders.
They rushed toward the island’s shore.
Elena tried to stop them, but Karlen blocked her path first.
“Mr. Karlen, what is the meaning of this?” Elena’s voice was laced with rare anger.
But Karlen, facing the incensed princess, did not dodge.
Instead, he retorted, “Shouldn’t I be asking you that, Elena? Do you even know what you’re doing? If the people of Flower God Village completely turn against you and refuse to go to the Imperial Capital to assist with the Flower God Festival, then what?”
Elena snorted and slammed her golden holy sword into the ground.
“The villagers of Flower God Village deceived an imperial princess with the lie of a mere formality. They sacrificed a living maiden to a local god. That itself crosses the royal family’s bottom line. Karlen, we have the upper hand now. If these people show any sign of disloyalty, I will immediately return to report to my father and bring the knights to wipe out these superstitious villagers.”
A flicker of surprise passed through Karlen’s heart, but his face remained impassive.
“And then what? The Flower God Festival, which has been held since the founding of the empire, will end with you. Don’t think your sisters will show you any mercy. They won’t miss the chance to kick you while you’re down and strike you politically. The emperor is happy to see you future heirs fight and weaken each other to consolidate his own power. And the ministers, seeing you lose ground in the political game, will immediately throw their support behind the Second Princess.”
Karlen’s words finally pierced Elena’s weak spot.
Her face turned ashen, and she backed up step by step until she sat down on a rock.
Her light blue eyes darted back and forth, as if weighing the pros and cons.
Seeing that he had finally managed to stabilize the princess, Karlen let out a breath.
He had no other argument left to convince her.
But the man completely missed the flash of sinister obsession in the princess’s eyes.
It was like a sword waiting for battle, still sheathed.
He rubbed his sore, stiff neck.
He had just been tormented by Xiwa’s tentacles for quite a while.
But he had finally satisfied that creature full of lust and twisted tastes, and she had agreed to pursue Ilya and Shiya out at sea.
Thinking of Shiya’s alluring body curves, Karlen’s heart grew hot.
If he could make the girl fully become the Flower God Bride, then he could scheme from within and wrest her from the god’s grasp.
But then Karlen’s fantasy came crashing down as he remembered the missing parts of his body.
An unbearable, piercing pain shot up from below his tailbone.
His neck wasn’t much better.
The suffocating feeling Xiwa had given him was still fresh in his memory.
The tentacle girl’s teasing voice echoed in his mind.
“Lord Karlen, with you like this, shouldn’t I be the one to take the lead?”
Karlen winced, clutching his rear.
Thinking about how he had just been used by Xiwa like that…
A wave of burning humiliation washed over him.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.