Trouble from the north

Henrietta initiated the teleportation, bringing Seth to the prison entrance as she massaged her head and asked: “What was that for? It hurts?”

“She’s now a peak, sixth shell ascended; her feelings are in turmoil as the influence of her source increased so suddenly, and you interrupted her love confession. Or at least that’s what I think that was. If I didn’t pour water on her head, she might have killed me then and there.” Said Seth.

“Is she that strong?” asked Henrietta as she started leading Seth deeper inside the prison.

“Strong? Her control is quite weak, but her attacks can only be stopped by energy at the same level and take away someone’s lifespan. The more energy she uses in an attack, the deadlier it is.”

Henrietta was surprised and said: “I didn’t think life and death ascended are so strong.”

“Everyone thought that before they found themselves dead. Life and death ascended tend to avoid fights, but once they get involved, they are particularly annoying to deal with. Even if you survive an attack from one of them, the wound will not heal like a normal one. Instead, you will lose a part of your lifespan.”

“Two all-out attacks from her would have turned Iris into a bag of bones.”

As Seth explained more about life and death energy, the two arrived at a small prison cell, where a woman was sitting on the bed with a gloomy look. Seeing Henrietta and Seth appear, she didn’t stand up as she said: “So you came to kill me at last?”

“Mom…” muttered Henrietta, barely keeping herself from crying.

Seth grabbed her hand to let her know he was there, and Henrietta took a deep breath before asking: “How are you, mom?”

The woman looked at Henrietta with a wry face and said: “After all this time. That’s what you ask me. You locked my husband and children in prison, and now you’re asking me how I am? Great. I’m doing amazing.”

Henrietta lowered her, and the woman continued: “As for you. Are you the one who corrupted my daughter? Turned her into someone that would not hesitate to turn against her own family?”

“I know about you. A traitor to the kingdom. You took all my husband’s help and threw it back in his face, taking away everything from him. You’re - “

Henrietta’s grasp on Seth’s hand hardened, and she suddenly lifted her head: “Family? I know, mom, so don’t try to take the high road with me. I know you cheated on King Lian, and I was a result of that affair. I heard you two fuck in the throne room with my own ears, so don’t bother denying it.”

“You noticed that father had started shunning me, so I don’t believe for even a second you didn’t know why, but instead of trying to be closer to me, what did you do? You also started distancing from me so that your precious husband would not leave you or kill you as he did with your lover.”

“My brothers and sisters must have also seen how the two of you acted and ignored me as well. The ones who cared about me most after that were the maids and guards who took pity on me.”

She then turned her teary eyes to Seth and said: “Corrupted? He was the only one who showed me love. He came to that room where you all isolated and saved me from that painful cage. He gave me power, love, and everything I could ever ask for.”

“He’s shown me more love in these few years than all of you did in my entire life, so if you want to yell at me for having you all locked in here, you can do so, but don’t try to speak to my husband like that. He’s more of a human than all of you combined will ever be.”

Henrietta’s mom was stunned to hear her daughter’s words, but before she could speak, Henrietta turned back towards her, this time her eyes cold and unfeeling.

“You’ll be released and stripped of your royal status. You will be given enough gold to live your life as you want to, but you must never appear in my face again, or I swear I will finish the job I started with Lian.”

“You’ll be released tomorrow. How many of your sons and daughters leave with you depends on their answers.”

After saying her piece, Henrietta teleported away with Seth, arriving in a dark corner of the prison. Her cold face crumbled, and she started crying in his arms.

“Shh. It’s fine.” Seth started slowly consoling her as she cried her sorrows away.

It took about an hour until Henrietta finally calmed down and left Seth’s arms. Looking up at him, she lifted herself on her toes and pecked his lips. “Thank you. Let’s go. I need to see this through.”

Seth cleaned the tear stains from her face and nodded.

The two arrived next to another cell, where a young and fragile lady was hugging her knees in a corner. Her cheeks were drenched in tears, and she looked up as soon as she heard footsteps.

Seeing it was Henrietta, she lowered her head again and said nothing.

Henrietta took a deep breath to steel herself and said: “You have two choices. You can join your mother in her exile and live with her, or you can be given citizenship in the Kingdom of Endora.”

The first princess’s body shook, and she remained silent for a long time before saying: “I’ll leave with mother.”

Henrietta bit her lip and nodded: “You’ll leave tomorrow.”

After walking away again, Seth asked: “Are you okay?”

Henrietta nodded and said: “I was always jealous of her, and the love mother and father gave her, but seeing her now, so weak and pathetic, I’m weirdly happy for how my parents treated me.”

“I grew up to be strong… I lost a sister and a family, but I gained much more. You, my sisters, our people. I can’t say I’m not sad, but I’ll live.”

Seth and Henrietta then moved from one prince to the other, each being wilder than the other. They kept swearing and cursing at Henrietta, but she didn’t care and gave them all the same choice. Leave the Kingdom or Die with king Lian.

After delivering three more sentences, they finally arrived at King Lian’s cell. King Lian was sitting on his bed with a tired look and looked up at the sound of footsteps.

Seeing it was Seth and Henrietta, he sighed and asked: “Have you come to deliver my sentence?”

Henrietta nodded: “The public will decide what will happen to you, not me. Your trial will be held in two days, but if I were to make a guess, I’d say you only have a single fate ahead of you.”

“That’s fine.” Said Lian with another sigh. “You need to kill the former king to stabilize your position on the throne… Tell me. How did the war go?”

“We won.” Replied Henrietta.

“I see.” Muttered Lian, looking at Henrietta before sighing once again. “If only you would have been my daughter. I would have even died without regret, but sadly, it seems the bloodline of Crovan is ending with me….”

Henrietta nodded and started dragging Seth away when Lian asked: “Can I speak alone with Ascended Seth?”

Henrietta turned to look at Seth, and he nodded before kissing her lips: “Go and deal with your responsibilities. I’ll chat a bit with Lian.”

Henrietta teleported away, and Seth turned to look at Lian. “So, what did you want to speak about?”

Lian sat on his behind and pointed towards the bed across from his with his hand: “Will you do a dead man a favor? I don’t want to speak to you between these bars.”

Seth nodded and teleported to the bed. Lian took a moment before asking: “Why did you do it? Why didn’t you remain here and support me instead?”

Seth shrugged and said: “Simple. Because I wanted and needed the throne.”

Lian frowned and asked: “But why all this trouble? You could have easily forced the throne away from my hands.”

“I didn’t want to kill Iris and needed the people to accept my claim to the throne. Quite a difficult thing to do using force. “

“Haha, dragging Iris away and then having Henrietta dethrone me… quite the play you had there….”

Seth shook his head and said: “Taking Henrietta under my wing had nothing to do with having her dethroning you. Also, the thing with Iris only happened because she forced my hand by capturing a friend. “

“It was more of a series of lucky coincidences and not that much of a master plan. I just took the situations I landed into and did the best I could out of my circumstances….”

“So it’s like that.” Muttered Lian, lowering his head. “There’s something that has been bothering me. How come you have all this knowledge? It sometimes seemed like the entire kingdom was playing in the palm of your hand.”

Seth smiled and brought his head closer, looking straight into Lian’s eyes: “Because I come from far off into the future, and I have already lived this life. There’s a thing called time energy which lets you control time itself. So, I’ll grant you this mercy and let you die a knowing death, Lian. You never stood a chance from the very start.”

Lian looked surprised and skeptical initially, but everything seemed to make sense. In the end, he could only mutter: “I never stood a chance from the very start.”

Seth smiled and stood up: “I hope you can now die in peace and if you worry about your kingdom, don’t. I’ll take it to greater heights than you ever could.”

Just as he was about to teleport away, Lian asked: “Wait. You said you lived this life before. What happened in that life? Who won?”

Seth shook his head: “No one, Lian. The alliance happened just as it did now, and once its ascended appeared inside the capital, Iris detonated her sources, wiping the entire capital off. You were all dead, and I only lived because I had long moved into the far north, pursuing the path of my energy.”

Lian nodded and sighed: “I guess my fate was always to die… at least Oath will survive this time. Seth, I know we are enemies, but thank you for saving Oath and caring for that girl. I still loved her as my daughter, even if only for a while.”

Seth nodded and teleported away without saying a word. Even if Lian had his faults, in the end, what Seth did to him was much worse.

‘Monitor him and let me know if he does anything stupid. I don’t think he will, but I can’t risk it.’

<Affirmative.>

After finishing his chat with Lian, Seth returned to the royal chambers and sat down on the bed.

<Host, there’s strange movement in the north.>

‘What do you mean by strange movement?’

<The Kingdom of Death is mobilizing for invasion.>

‘Hope?’ asked Seth with a frown.

<The orders are to mobilize the armies with no target announced, but that’s the most likely conclusion.>

‘What’s that monster doing?’

<Planning to travel with the army.>

‘Then he’s attacking the Hope Kingdom. I wonder what made him act so soon... How long until Hollie gets here?’

<Three weeks.>

‘It looks like I need to head to Hope as well. I can’t start occupying the rest of the kingdoms and deal with the situation in Hope at the same time, so I’ll have to let the girls complete the takeover. Run some simulations and find me the best candidates to occupy each kingdom in the alliance except Hope.’

After giving the system its orders, Seth heaved a heavy sigh.

“Let’s hope I won’t be too late.”