The Devil's Cursed Witch

Bang!

The sound of slamming doors echoed within the hallways of the palace, scaring the servants nearby as there was only a single person who dared to act that way in this place—the King himself.

Draven returned to his chamber with anger visible on his face.

'That thing!'

While he was trying his best to stay away from his mate and prevent her presence from affecting his mind, even going to great lengths of submerging himself underwater for hours, his little mate's careless attitude destroyed all his painstaking efforts.

Draven paced around in his chamber restlessly in his bathrobe which was still wet as he carried that frail human drenched in water in his arms. He didn't know how to get rid of what he was feeling. It was as if his urges were clawing at his insides, urging him to stop thinking and simply follow his mating instincts.

He ran his hands through his wet hair, pacing around and feeling frustrated. 'Doesn't she understand what I can do with her? That brainless thing. Does she want to get hurt? Such a weak and frail body...'

He was torn—he could not send her away and neither could he keep her close to him.

In a while, there was a timid knock on the door and a servant's voice could be heard from beyond the door, not daring to open the door and directly face the angry king.

"Your Majesty, Lord Melion is requesting an audience with you."

With Erlos on an errand, another servant was assigned to temporarily cater to the King's needs. However, the other servants didn't have Erlos' carefree attitude and guts.  The servant merely waited for the reply outside the King's chamber.

"In my study."

Hearing that short reply, those three curt words, was enough for the servant to feel relieved. The servant excused himself and left.

Draven merely changed into the first set of clothes he grabbed from his wardrobe, which included a simple black tailcoat with a white undershirt and a pair of dark pants, among others, and disappeared from his bedchamber.

His aide, Wind Fae Melion, was already waiting for Draven in the King's study when he saw him appear. He politely greeted the King as the man sat in his large armchair behind the desk.

From the King's expression which was colder than usual, Melion could guess that the man was in a foul mood.

"Proceed," said Draven as he looked at his subject.

"Your Majesty, the council meeting has been organized for tomorrow morning. All the council members had given word of their attendance, and they requested that Miss Ember's presence be required to hear the verdict," Melion informed politely. "Is this arrangement fine with you?"

Draven approved of it and Mellion left after a couple more words.

------

On the other hand, the reason for the King's foul mood had already put the incident that morning behind her.

Ember found it a pity that she had to cut her palace tour short and spend the rest of the day inside her chamber due to her sprained ankle. She had nothing to do but eat, sleep or stare at the ceiling of her bed. She chose none of those, choosing to act the same way she did the night before, which was something a proper lady wouldn't do—to sit on the window sill like a child.

'What's this?'

She realized there were some additions to the window sill, some sort of railing about a foot tall made of a special translucent material that felt like wood..

"Reya, I don't remember if this was here before," Ember asked.

"Oh, that? We put that just this morning, Miss. His Majesty has asked all the windows of your chamber to be like this," Reya informed her.

It puzzled her why the King had ordered such a thing, but she didn't dwell about it. This was his residence, he could do whatever he wanted. As long as she could sit in the window comfortably and see the outside of the palace, she's fine with anything.

'That bird, I wonder where it went. Such a pretty bird it was. I hope I can see it again…' she thought with a smile.

-------

That night, a certain travel-worn elf finally returned to Agartha, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists while cursing a certain king. He stepped inside the palace grounds looking extremely fatigued as if all the energy had been exhausted from his body.

"That heartless master! One day, I will get back at him for treating me like this and show him why High Elves are exalted among elves. So what if he's a dragon? How can he just throw me among those disgusting humans whenever he feels like it? Has he never heard of consent? This is the problem with old people—"

As he walked the dark hallways of the palace, he sniffed his dirty clothes. "I reek of human scent. So disgusting. Ugh. I need to wash up, but before that, I should go dump these books—"

Erlos thought about putting the results of his errand inside the King's study out of spite, but he changed his mind when he realized that would only increase his workload once his master ordered him to put them away elsewhere.

'Should I put it near the Miss?'

After confirming her assigned room from another servant, Erlos went to one of the empty rooms in the south-west wing. With a gesture of his hands, spatial power escaped his fingertips and about more than a hundred books appeared out of thin air. He successfully carried the king's order and brought all the books that the humans read.

His already fatigued appearance worsened as he let out another groan.

'Never again.'

Erlos didn't stay there for long and left those books for the servants to be arranged. He decided to head back to his house in Ronan. . He was sure he would feel better once he ate something made by Elder Leeora. Of course, asking her for her elixirs was just a bonus.