The Devil's Cursed Witch

When the abandoned princess was around five years old, King Trevor passed away and Gregor took over the throne as the new King of Valor.

With the previous king's demise, the kingdom mourned, but no one within the royal family felt sincere grief. In fact, for the newly crowned Queen, what she felt was relief and hope. Shanel was now hopeful that Gregor would do something for his daughter. After the various affairs of the kingdom had been settled after King Trevor's death, Shanel talked to her husband.

"Gregor, your father has passed away, can we bring back Sephina's daughter to the palace?"

"There is no need," was all he said, as if he didn't care.

It shocked Shanel. She thought Gregor would be the first one to think about his daughter after his father's death as there were no more obstacles to bringing her back. Then why...?

"Gregor! Come to your senses!" Shanel felt enraged.  "Your daughter is living so miserably on that haunted mountain! Don't you want to do something for her? Do you want her to continue living like an animal?"

"She is fine the way she is. The most important thing is that she is alive. Bringing her back means creating troubles for her and for everyone else."

"T-Then, not here! You do not have to bring her back to the palace but you can send her somewhere else. There are summer villas on the outskirts. You can even have her live as a foster daughter of some countryside noble. At least provide her with a good life!"

"No need to do that. Leave her be. As a Queen, you better know where your priorities lie and give attention to your royal duties."

"Gregor, you..."

"There won't be any more discussion about this," he replied coldly.

Shanel could not help but feel bitter at his attitude. "I thought you hated King Tredor's cruelty, but you are just like your father--maybe even more ruthless. You don't care about the innocent life that you people have abandoned to die. I thought I knew the man I married, but I guess I was wrong. "

"You are dismissed," Gregor said as he resumed his work.

Disappointed and infuriated at her husband's callousness, Shanel stormed out of the King's study. The heavy sullen silence that followed was only broken by the knock on his door.

It was his guardian knight, Taylor.

"Your Majesty, you were right. Given that you have just ascended the throne, the control of the royal family over the nobles of the kingdom is at its weakest. The royal court members led by the Duke of the North have started to gather evidence that shows you are going against your father's last will. It would be better for the time being if we don't have a connection with the princess's matter."

Gregor nodded. "As expected of those sly ministers. They want to use my daughter as an excuse to dethrone me and use that to put my easily controllable cousin to the throne. My father had handed them my weakness on his own so how can they not take advantage?"

He could only massage his temples.

"Make sure to keep an eye on Shanel. I don't want her to be in any trouble. Try to protect her but make sure she does not discover your interference."

"Yes, Your Majesty. One of the Queen's servants left the palace last week to visit the market and secretly provided money and food to that Gaia woman."

"Watch that servant. You can kill her if there is a chance our enemies will discover her."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Gregor closed his eyes briefly. "Just for the time being. Once I get the chance, I will arrange to send her somewhere away."

Taylor left while Gregor thought about how he had upset his wife just a while ago. She must have had great expectations from him but he had to disappoint her for the sake of saving her and their three sons. He didn't want to put their lives in danger because of his father's edict, his last will for his son that he could not go against.

'Since I cannot tell Shanel the truth, I have to prepare myself to receive hate from her. She is righteous and willful and she won't hesitate to show how much she hates me after this.'

------

Like that, several years passed by.

However, it was not as uneventful as hoped. Ever since the rumors grew that the witch lives in the haunted mountain, the local authorities continue to receive reports from the villages around that mountain. The locals claimed to face various ominous things.

Once in a while, someone would disappear and then their dead body would be found at the outskirts of the forest. At first, it would be once or twice a month, but soon, the situation escalated where a group of veteran hunters disappeared, their dead bodies to be found at the foot of the mountain.

People were enraged and they thought it was the doing of the witch who lived on that mountain. The angry mob started to protest and demand for her death once more. The King was forced to follow the edict left by his father that he had to go against his daughter if she ever 'harms the people of this land'.

He ordered Taylor to send a trustworthy group of knights to secretly get the princess and send her to a small village at the fringes of the kingdom, a place he prepared where no one could find out about her identity, but no one knew what happened on that mountain that night and where the group of knights disappeared.

No one could ever think that the Princess they had abandoned and tried to kill was saved by someone powerful, known as the devil and whose existence had scared humankind for centuries. No one of them would have imagined even their wildest dream that the princess would be a Queen of the kingdom of the supernaturals and a mate of the Black Dragon.

Moreover, she was someone powerful beyond their imagination-

The one who could bring hell to this land if she wished to and burn everything to ashes, not letting even the traces of their existence.