Dragon King's Harem Chapter 445. Royal Peek

Dragon King's Harem Chapter 445. Royal Peek

Sela’s PoV

Sela stared at Kaelen as he jumped up again, swinging his stick around as if fighting invisible monsters.

“Hyah! And then I’ll be a warrior like Uncle Curtis! And maybe King like Papa someday! Or maybe not! Maybe I’ll be a drake rider!” he laughed. “Can I ride Frosty when I’m bigger?”

“Maybe,” Sela murmured, her voice distant.

The snowflakes kept falling, lazily now, silent and slow like time had softened. The cold no longer bit her fingers, but the ache inside her chest spread deeper. It wasn’t fair. Not to Kaelen. Not to anyone. But especially not to a child who just wanted his mother to smile again.

She watched as Kaelen ran a circle around the drake, the long scarf on his coat flapping like a banner. The drake’s eyes followed him, slow and tired, like a guardian too ancient to move but too loyal to look away.

Sela didn’t speak for a while.

Because deep inside her—past the layers of duty, and strategy, and the mission Argod gave her—something was whispering a question she didn’t want to hear.

‘Should Sela destroy this?’

‘This little prince’s dream? This soft hope he held so tightly, not knowing it was built on lies?’

The thought sat heavy in her like a stone.

She didn’t know how long she stared at him before he noticed her silence and plopped down beside her again, breath puffing from all the running.

“Are you cold?”

She blinked, turning toward him slowly. “No. Sela is fine.”

“You’re really warm,” he said, snuggling close. “Like not cold like the palace.”

Sela didn’t answer.

“Do you think Uncle Curtis is really gonna be my papa?”

Her mouth opened. Then closed. She couldn’t lie. She shouldn’t lie. But telling the truth here… would be cruel.

So she said nothing.

Kaelen didn’t seem to mind. He just kept talking, the way children do when they’re safe and not afraid of silence.

“He teaches me archery! I always miss,” he laughed. “But he claps anyway. Mama says I have to practice more, but Uncle says it’s okay if I just want to be a gardener.”

“A gardener?” Sela echoed, surprised.

Kaelen nodded. “He says gardens need kings too. That they’re peaceful. He said if I wanted to plant flowers instead of fight monsters, that’s okay.”

Sela’s throat tightened again.

And that was the worst part.

Curtis was playing a long game. And he was playing it well. Too well.

Because these weren’t the words of a tyrant or a monster. These were the words of someone trying—deliberately—to become the boy’s safe place. The boy’s future. Maybe Curtis did have moments of tenderness. Maybe he did pat Kaelen’s head and read him bedtime stories. Maybe he did save Maria once, long ago.

But none of that erased the rune.

None of that erased the way Maria had reached out to Argod in a secret dreamspell. None of that erased what was coming.

“Sela?” Kaelen tugged on her sleeve. “Do you think flowers like snow?”

Sela blinked again. “Some do,” she said, voice softer than before. “Some grow even in cold places. But they need care.”

Kaelen smiled at that, then leaned his head on her arm. “Then I wanna be one of those flowers.”

Sela almost cried.

But she didn’t.

Because dwarves were made of earth and stone and steel. And Sela was not allowed to break.

She pulled him close instead, wrapping her small arms around his shoulders and resting her chin on his fluffy hair. “Sela thinks you already are, little prince.”

And when Kaelen finally fell quiet, nestled beside her like a child who didn’t yet know the world was cruel, Sela sat still beside him, watching the sky, the drake, the guards at the edge of the yard.

She didn’t know how long she had left before everything changed.

But she knew one thing…

Whatever dream Kaelen had built—

Sela was going to protect the real version of it.

Even if she had to destroy the illusion first.

Sela exhaled slowly, still holding Kaelen close, her chin tucked lightly on his silvery head. The boy’s warmth grounded her, but her thoughts spun like a wind-up gear losing control. She didn’t have an answer for him. Not yet. Not a real one.

Then came the noise.

Raised voices—muffled but plenty of them. Hooves stomping on frost-hardened stone. Chains clinking. Cloaks rustling. The sound of guards adjusting formation.

Kaelen perked up instantly. “What’s that?”

Sela’s head lifted, and her eyes narrowed slightly. That wasn’t normal palace traffic. That was something bigger. Something official.

“Sounds like…” Sela squinted. “A royal convoy.”

Kaelen gasped. “Who do you think?!”

Sela gave him a sideways shrug. “Sela doesn’t know. Sela’s also just a guest, remember?”

The boy pouted for a second, then perked up again. “Let’s go see!”

Sela blinked. “Wait, really?”

He paused mid-hop. “Wait… no. I’m not supposed to meet other royals without Mama or Uncle Curtis.”

“Then let’s just peek,” Sela said, already standing and brushing snow off her clothes. “We won’t meet them. Just take a look. A royal peek.”

Kaelen giggled. “Royal peek?”

Sela nodded, grinning. “Sela’s a royal too, technically. And an adult. That gives Sela and the little prince license to be sneakily curious.”

He looked around nervously at the guards near the edge of the yard. “They’ll tell…”

“Only if they see,” Sela said with a wink. “And we won’t let them.”

Kaelen beamed. “Okay! Let’s go royal peek!”

The snow elf soldiers posted nearby barely gave them a glance at first. To them, it just looked like the little prince and his stubby bodyguard were wandering along the courtyard’s edge—maybe playing, maybe just bored.

Sela took Kaelen’s hand and guided him quickly through a narrow garden trail—branches of thornless winter roses arching over their heads like a frozen canopy. The petals shimmered faintly, preserved perfectly in ice magic, glittering softly under the moonlight filtering through the palace’s arcane sky dome.