Chapter 193

Chapter 193 Far too late

KALEB

I leaned over to hold Ca*sandra’s shoulder as she lost consciousness and nearly fell from her chair. As I steadied the beautiful healer and swept her long, copper curls away from her lovely face, the smile disappeared from my face.

I had regarded this tale with amusement and thought Ca*sandra would do the same. I hadn’t expected her to pa*s out. I wasn’t sure if it was the stress of the matter or what, but her skin was pale and she sat limply

in my arms.

She remained breathing, though, so I wasn’t too terribly worried about her.

A few seconds later, Anubis stepped into the room without knocking. His l*ps twitched at the sight of me and the healer, and then his dark eyes flashed with amusement.

“Who knew you were so gentlemanly?” he stated with a cruel smirk, and then he walked across the room and took a seat in the chair opposite us.

“What do you want?” I uttered as I held her steady. Her chest rose and fell lightly as she breathed, and for a moment, my mind was fixated on making sure she was alright, though I knew logically, that she was just fine.

“I came to tell you that everyone will be ready to depart in an hour, Your Highness,” Anubis answered.

I nodded in response but said nothing.

“You’ve changed,” he continued as I pulled Ca*sandra closer to me. She had begun sl*pping and I didn’t want her to hurt herself in the process. “Though you’ve denied it, it’s clear as day. Of course, that isn’t a bad thing. Being soft is a good quality in a powerful king.”

I glared at him sharply as irritation swelled through me. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t understand why you’ve done all of this,” he remarked, and he pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “Telling her a story, trying to appear as a good man to her, all of these things. What’s the point? You could have reached your goals much earlier if you hadn’t tried to play “soft“. And now, you see, the result is the same. You still have to force her to come with you.”

A huff rose up from my chest as irritation flashed through me. “I don’t see the point of what you’re saying. Anubis. Who cares how I handled things? I don’t recall asking you for your input.”

“It’s an important issue, Kaleb,” he pressed. “When I decided to serve you all those years ago, you were a soft man. If that’s what you’ve decided to become…. I might have to reconsider my affiliations.”

I stared at him coldly and debated reaching across the table and smacking him. “Are you speaking of

treason?”

Chapter 193 Far too late

Anubis gulped. “I was only trying to make a point. But I’m wondering why you’re treating this healer so differently from the others. Why do you want her to understand you so badly? Are you trying to earn her empathy?”

I shook my head instantly. “No. I’m not working some angle. I couldn’t care less. This was just a whim, Anubis. I only wanted to intimidate her.”

He didn’t seem convinced by my words and leaned forward.

“A whim?” he asked, and one of his dark eyebrows arched. “The Kaleb I know is not someone who would do anything on a whim. You’re calculated, prepared, and always ready for the next step forward. And if you wanted to intimate her, why didn’t you tell her that it was you who killed your father?”

I froze at his words and glanced down at Ca*sandra. Thankfully, she was still fast asleep, but had she been stirring even just a little, I would have ripped Anubis‘ throat out.

Despite my anger, he simply smirked. “You could also mention that it wasn’t just your father, but also your two brothers and sister-”

“That’s enough,” I hissed, and I could feel my face darken and my nostrils flare in anger. “You’ve spoken. enough. Leave us. Make sure that everything Ca*sandra had taken from Wild Crawler is packed and ready to be transported up to Yurene.”

“It’s already been arranged,” Anubis replied in a bored voice. “Discreetly, of course, so that no attention was called to it.”

團

“I’d suggest you check again,” I said impatiently, and my eyes narrowed at him. “I don’t want any potential clues to be left behind after our departure.”

My tone seemed to be firm enough to get a reaction from the dark–haired man, and he rose from his seat and gave me a curt nod. “Right.”

He began to head over to the door, but he stopped just short of it and turned back to look at me.”

“Remember what I’ve said to you,” he said with a raised eyebrow. “Consider it carefully. If you’ve started developing feelings toward the healer, you’d better smother them now. They could threaten all, we’ve worked

toward.”

He didn’t wait for me to answer and left the room. The moment that the door closed behind him, I glanced down at Ca*sandra.

Was Anubis right? Was I behaving out of turn?

I could have easily been crueler and more decisive in my execution when it came to speaking with her. I was a king, of course. I didn’t need her empathy.

I remembered the day when I’d killed my father. I’d slit the old man’s throat with my sharp claws when he was lying in his bed, too weak to fight. As the blood burst from his n*eck, I heard him shriek and then he began to laugh.

-2/3

Chapter 193 Far too late

“Now, you deserve to be a king.” he’d uttered just before he took his final breath.

Though the act sounded horrific, it was the tradition of Yurene, our twisted ideology. Only the strong deserve to live and be rewarded. That’s why father had to kill his brothers to be the king. And that was why I had to kill all of my siblings to take the crown.

But I hated it.

I hated my father with every fiber of my being, and that feeling grew stronger and stronger with every pa*sing day. I also hated endless battles, violence, and war. But to enact change, real change, I had to climb to the top.

I knew I’d made the right choice. I hadn’t done anything wrong. As Anubis sald, I was never afraid of admitting my brutality, nor was I reluctant to practice it.

But why was I afraid of letting Ca*sandra know what kind of person I had been? Why was I ashamed of telling her if I truly believed what I’d done was justified?

As I pondered the question, I wasn’t sure of the answer.

I gently touched Ca*sandra’s hair and stared down at her.

Maybe Anubis was right. These days in Wegalla had somehow changed me.

I carefully set Ca*sandra down on the chair, and once I was certain she wouldn’t move, I rose from my chair and walked over to the window. In the time since we’d come back to Merliscire, it had started raining.

I stared at the gray skies and the clouds that covered the sun. As the rain fell to the ground, I realized there was no turning back now. It was too late for that.

Far too late.

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