The Crown's Entrapment

Inside her own tent, Xenia was still far too occupied with coming to terms with herself. The Demon King’s words kept replaying themselves inside her head, and she didn’t know whether or not to believe them.

‘How about this? I’ll retreat and cease this war against Ebodia. In exchange, you’ll give me this beautiful sister of yours as my wife. I will have Princess Xenia, and I will no longer attack Ebodia. Isn’t it a fair trade?’

“A fair trade…” Xenia hollowly whispered out as she sat on the side of the bed. “Maybe…”

“Milady, I don’t exactly know what happened back in that tent, but you don’t look too well,” Jayra casually commented as she quickly examined her pulse. “Whatever it is, you’re probably better off just forgetting about it.”

Hearing her friend, Xenia looked at her intently and inquired, “The Demon King never backed down from his word, right? Is there any instance on record that he somehow did?”

Jayra paused to blink at Xenia, as if in disbelief of what she just heard. With a frown, she hesitantly asked, “What are you up to this time Xenia?”

Xenia bit her trembling lower lip as she whispered, “I can still make things right… I can prevent this war from ever happening and save many innocent lives from getting killed.” She shakily breathed out, “He… he said he will no longer attack Ebodia if I become his wife, but…”

Jayra raised her eyebrows as she patiently waited for her friend to continue. There was no use in interrupting her now. The best she could do was to lend her a willing ear.

“But I wonder if it’s worth the risk,” Xenia sighed. “Do you know anyone who knows enough about the kingdoms that succumbed to Helion? Can we maybe gather enough information from them to find out what happened to them after they surrendered?” Xenia asked with a hesitant tone.

She only needed one positive answer. If there was any indication that it’d be worth it, then she wouldn’t even think twice about sacrificing herself.

“Hmm… You’re not confident that we can win this war then?” Jayra asked.

“Well, I know that we can win, but I’m not confident enough that we won’t lose far too many innocent lives in the process,” Xenia explained herself. “I mean, wouldn’t it be better if we can resolve this issue without seeing innocent lives being snuffed out due to all the fighting?”

Xenia had mixed emotions about their current situation, and she knew for a fact that Ezekiel was worried for her as well. He was probably already thinking about her doing yet another reckless move that would only hurt herself in the process. Heh… Her brother was right to be worried…

Still, she would like to think that she was already trying her best to balance everything out. She wanted to make sure that her potential sacrifice wouldn’t be futile, if she ever decided to take the risk, of course.

A heavy sigh came out from her lips before she added, “Do you think it’s worth the risk to just marry the Demon King? I mean, I can marry him and kill him in his sleep or something. That way, I’ll be able to stop his evil deeds for good.”

Just as quickly as Xenia floated out the idea, Jayra was quick to shut her down. “Are you crazy?! King Devon is a powerful demon. You’ll be dead before you can even scratch someone like him.”

At her friend’s scolding, Xenia simply gave off a faint smile and replied, “Hey… You said it before that women have a few key advantages over men; that in many ways, we can be their weakness.”

“Ah, seriously, Xenia! Stop this already,” Jayra worriedly pleaded, wrapping her arms around Xenia in an effort to comfort her. “You’re really scaring me now.”

Feeling her friend’s embrace, Xenia felt yet another patch of tightness squeezing around her chest. The guilt of seeing how her friend’s eyes were welling up was almost powerful enough to make her cry.

“Darius… He crushed that man a while ago,” Xenia weakly recounted. “I’m sure he and Ezekiel will come up with some kind of plan that will take me out of this war… At most, they’ll probably take me to Cordon and lock me up…”

Jayra bitterly chuckled, her lips hesitantly curling up. “Look at you, getting better at analyzing things like this,” she sighed. “Still, we’re not even sure if this is worth a shot. What if it isn’t? Have you ever thought about the consequences of it not working?”

In response, Xenia simply smiled and fired back. “And look at you… You’re out of words to try and convince me not to do it, aren’t you?” she hollowly scoffed. “Deep inside, you can tell that I make a valid point. The Demon King seems to have taken a liking to me, and I can use this to my advantage. He’ll spare everyone once I come with him, then I’ll kill-”

“Nonsense!!!”

Her words never left her tongue as she turned to the source of the interruption. It was Darius, and he had suddenly appeared before them without even so much as alerting them of his presence. Maybe she and Jayra were too consumed in their thoughts that they didn’t even notice the Werewolf King entering her tent.

Looking at him, Xenia gulped as she saw how dark Darius’s face was. It was way gloomier than the bad weather itself.

“You will not do any such thing. You’ve already been promised to me by your kingdom, and now you’re thinking of cheating on me to offer yourself to the Demon King?” Darius incredulously asked. “How many times do I have to say that your life is not yours anymore?!”

Without so much as waiting for a reply, he then looked at Jayra with a frown and coldly said, “Leave us. No one should enter this tent without my permission.”

Wordlessly, Jayra quickly left the tent. Left alone, Xenia felt her heart skip a beat at how intense Darius’s gaze bore into her eyes.

He narrowed his eyes at her and chided, “How come you’re so scared of this Demon King when the Werewolf King’s wrath is far superior? Do you have any idea what I can do once my mate falls into the hands of another man? Do you think I’m not ruthless or merciless enough to spare your kingdom of my wrath once you run away from me, Xen? Are you looking down on me?! Am I nothing but a joke to you, Xen?!”

Darius gritted his teeth as he threatened Xenia with all his might. He was balling his fists so hard that he was drawing blood in his palms. His anger was boiling, and he was having a hard time controlling his rage.

Meanwhile, Xenia blinked at the king’s words. She was speechless to the point that she ended up biting her inner cheek, her mind whirring desperately on what words would be the right choice to say to Darius.

She could still feel his intense rage despite how hard he was trying to control it. His face was so red, and she couldn’t help but feel worried. She really didn’t want him to get angry at her.

“Are you mad?”

Her eyes widened, her mouth immediately closing upon realizing that she just voiced out her thoughts.

Darius’s frown deepened as he exclaimed, “Mad?! Mad is an understatement, Xen! I’m more than mad! I’m anxious and frustrated with what I just heard coming out of your lips! I’m going crazy right now! All I wanna do is to go straight to the nearest Helion camp and kill the Demon King this instant!!!”

“No, please don’t do that,” Xen gasped out, terrified. She didn’t want Darius to act on impulse like that. She didn’t want to see him get himself hurt.

“I can’t do that, but you can, Xen?” Darius scoffed. “Are you saying that you’re more capable of killing the Demon King than me, huh?”

There was a second of deafening silence between them before Darius decided to break the maddening stalemate.

“Tell me about this great plan of yours then. Of you cheating on me.”

“C-Cheating?!” Xenia burst out.

“What else do you call it, Xen? I’m your future husband, and yet here you are planning to cheat on me and run away to go to the devil,” Darius pointed out. “You promised to me that you won’t ever run away from me, but look at you now, already busy thinking of breaking that promise.”

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