After some time, Esther turned around to look at the commander of the royal knights who had been patiently waiting for her. Her expression had returned to its usual calm, yet it was a kind of eerie calmness that gave the knight discomfort in his gut feeling—like the calm before a storm.

“Sir Galien, my husband will be coming back soon to the temple. I wish you to take care of him and bring him back to the palace. Do not let him know I am at my manor, at least, keep him away for the night.”

Esther turned to leave but Sir Galien called out in a flurry, “B-But Your Majesty, what happened? Why are you going to your manor? I swore an oath to the King and I cannot lie if he asks. I do not think His Majesty will remain put once he finds out you are not in the Queen’s palace.” He felt worried that once again something would separate the King and the Queen. Remembering those days when they fought over the issue of having a concubine was a nightmare not only to him but to the entire royal palace.

“Sir Galien, just remember that this is all to protect Theron. If you truly want to honour the oath of allegiance you swore as his knight, please do as I say,” she replied with a gentle smile. Of course, she had to go to her manor. There was no way she would allow another man to step inside the Queen’s chamber in the royal palace where she had spent the happiest and most memorable nights with her husband.

With great reluctance, Sir Galien bowed his head before her, silently accepting her order, but the moment he raised his head, Esther was no longer in front of him.

“Huh? Your Majesty?”

He looked around to see where she was but he could not find her. The Queen’s carriage was still there, and he felt another eerie sensation in his guts as he tried to make sense of the situation. No matter how fast she moved, a trained knight like him would not miss her even if she were to run, so how come his Queen disappeared as if she vanished in thin air?

——-

Despite forcing the horse to run at its fastest speed, almost causing it to foam in the mouth, it still took hours for King Theron to reach the Temple of the Divine. It was deep into the night when he arrived at the courtyard, where to his surprise, he saw his knight waiting by the carriages prepared both for him and his wife.

He jumped off the horse with a scowl because this confirmed that Esther truly did not return to the palace

“Your Majesty—” Sir Galien ran towards him, but even before he could say a word, King Theron ran towards the temple. Sensing something was not right, Sir Galien had no choice but to follow behind his liege.

“Where is the High Priest?” King Theron asked the priests who he came across in the temple hall.

Before they could respond, he heard the High Priest’s voice from behind him.

“I am here, Your Majesty.”

King Theron looked at the High Priest who seemed to be waiting for his arrival. The old man’s forehead creased as he took in the appearance of the King. The pristine white ceremonial robe was now dirty and torn in places, and his handsome face appeared to be deeply exhausted, covered with sweat.

What made the High Priest want to shrink back was the madness he could see in those dark eyes.

“Where is Esther?” the young king asked in a voice that betrayed his tiredness.

“She is gone,” the High Priest replied.

The madness in Theron’s eyes flared. “Gone? What do you mean gone? Where is she?”

“She has gone to carry out her duty,” the High Priest replied vaguely as if there was nothing wrong with what was happening.

“Carry her duty?” King Theron repeated in disbelief. However, perhaps because he hadn’t gotten any proper rest for the past several days, added to the things that happened during the day, his mind didn’t seem to understand what the High Priest was implying. “I want to summon the Devil now. I informed your apprentice earlier that I will carry out the ceremony again. Is everything ready? I found the alternative path as you said and—”

“That…Your Majesty, the ritual…it can’t happen now.”

“What? What do you mean? Do I need to do a cleansing for another three days?”

“No, Your Majesty. That was merely ceremonial, and not an actual part of the ritual itself. What I mean to say is the deal has been accepted and even if we do a summoning again, the Devil will no longer respond to us.”

The words that the High Priest said were spoken softly, yet the moment he uttered those words, it was as if the temperature within the entire hall plunged to a negative. Not just the High Priest, even Sir Galien and the other priests nearby felt like they were thrown outside in the middle of winter.

The cause was the young king standing in front of them.

“What did you say?”

“Y-Your Majesty, calm do—”

“The deal has been accepted? Who accepted it? Who?!” Perhaps if it weren’t for the distance between King Theron and the High Priest, King Theron would have grabbed the old man. “Is it Esther? Didn’t you say that only the blood of an Ivanov can summon the Devil? Then how did she—”

Sir Galien promptly stepped between the two. “Your Majesty, please calm down—”

“Step back, Galien.” King Theron glared his way before returning his attention to the High Priest. “Answer me!”

Seeing the fury in those dark eyes, the High Priest decided to convey exactly what happened in the King’s absence, not holding anything back. “…and thus I believe, Your Majesty will honour the words that your father, King Esteban, has given to the Devil.”

“Father? Father did it?” At first, he was shocked. His shock turned to disbelief, and disbelief turned to anger. A deep sense of betrayal sank within his bones. ‘He sacrificed my wife…’

“Please do not blame your father. Queen Esther was adamant on it and His Excellency initially didn’t agree to it as well, but the Queen was quite persuasive and in the end, he gave in and listened to her. I am sure the Queen made this decision after considering all the consequences, Your Majesty.”

“The time…what time is it now?” he asked with a trembling voice.

The High Priest closed his eyes. “It is past midnight, Your Majesty.”

King Theron felt as if his soul escaped his body, and every part of his body ached—his heart felt like it was crushed. At this very moment, he felt like life itself was meaningless.

Like a wooden puppet, he slowly forced his head to move and looked at his knight. “F-Find out where she has gone.”

“Your Majesty, I heard it when Queen Esther was talking to your parents. She returned to her manor,” Sir Galien answered.

As if holding on to the last bit of sanity he had left, the young king burst out of the temple and got onto his horse.

‘Esther….’

Sir Galien got onto his horse as well and quietly followed behind the King whose back looked terribly small and devastated at this moment.

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