"You…cruel bastard," the King growled. He felt utterly helpless. He wanted to rip the antidote out of his hands and hang him right in this instance.
"Kathy was right, you are a monster"
After everything that happened, the King had realized why Katherine chose to take her own life instead of marrying Ghost. Although King Bredia never wanted to marry Katherine to anyone except a warrior, he would rather marry Katherine to someone like Andrew than Ghost. The King could see the love, care, and grief in Andrew's eyes. It was pure love.
The King blamed himself for not asking Katherine who she wants to marry. It was his anger and stubbornness that made his daughter drink poison.
The smile that lingered on Ghost's face suddenly disappeared. He knelt on one knee before the king.
"Your majesty, do you think I don't know what you asked in return for a loan my elders asked a year ago?" His voice suddenly sounded colder,
"You tried to use their desperation to take Sect Leader Claire as your concubine. And we both know what's concubine really means to a person like you"
Except for the elders of the Sunrise sect and a few nobles who were very close to the king, no one knew about the king's request. It was Jack who told Michael about the request. At that time, Michael didn't know he would meet the king in person and negotiate with him over the princess's dying body. Since Claire was an exceptional beauty, Michael knew it was natural for people like the king to court her. However, when the king tried to act innocent and called him a monster, he decided to let everyone know the king's actual innocence.
The king was speechless. Something made the king shiver inside looking at Ghost's eyes. He felt like a beast looking directly into his soul, waiting to devour him alive. The King felt so weak before him.
"And should I remind you of the time you offered 50 fucking gold coins as a remuneration for the girls who were raped by your soldiers who stayed at the sect due to your order?" Michael patted the king on the back before standing up,
"If you care about them so much, you should have found a way to punish him but you're punishing an innocent girl" Emelda raised her voice before Andrews.
"Innocent? Hahahaha" Suddenly to all of their surprise, Michael burst into laughter,
"It was the princess who decided the price of 50 gold coins. 50 gold coins, not for each, but to all 8 girls. They were supposed to share the coins among themselves, based on what? who was raped worse? What the actual fuck?" Many commoners gasped in shock. Those who felt pity for the princess and hated Ghost now seemed to see the princess in a new light.
"The princess decided a girl's innocence was with seven or eight gold coins. No one is innocent in this world. Everyone is a villain in someone's eyes"
"But…but" Andrew mumbled,
"What? If the roles were reversed and the king had the antidote, do any of you think he would have offered it to me for free?" He looked around the arena to see no one nodding,
"So why should I?"
"Ghost" Right at the moment, Calvin brought the documents. He handed over the parchments to Michael. Finally, Michael took away his gaze from the king to the contents of the parchments. He read the entire 10 page document in a minute,
"I don't have to prove anything to anyone here. It's your majesty who has to prove your love. You can either sign this and save your daughter or watch her slowly die in your arms. The choice is yours" Michael threw the parchments towards the king.
"I assume you have ten minutes to decide, your majesty"
"Sign the damn thing! Andrew took the parchment from the ground before throwing it on the king's face.
The king's hands shivered. On one hand, he had his flying daughter, on the other hand, he had something that would divide his kingdom and probably throw the kingdom in chaos.
"Your majesty, this is no time for thinking. Please, sign them and save your daughter" Ethan said,
With his shivering hand, the king finally signed the document. His heart was pounding against his chest. Ricky was feeling goosebumps along with the other disciples. It seemed like only yesterday he saw a full black clothes youngster at the gates of River town. Now the youngster was about to become a king of his own kingdom. He wished Daniel was here to witness this historic moment.
"HAIL YOUR MAJESTY GHOST!" Ricky couldn't hold back as he shouted as loud as he could.
"HAIL YOUR MAJESTY GHOST!"
"HAIL YOUR MAJESTY GHOST!"
"HAIL YOUR MAJESTY GHOST!"
"HAIL YOUR MAJESTY GHOST!"
"HAIL YOUR MAJESTY GHOST!"
Gradually one by one the people of River town and the Sunrise sect disciples roared in unison.
Ignoring the shouts, Michael reached his hand out as the parchments flew straight into his hands. He checked the documents for a few moments before nodding with a smile.
"Keep the end of your bargain" Lailah reached out her hand
"Of course" Michael threw the antidote to Lailah.
"Kid, you became a king" Ashton was still in shock. He never expected the tournament would turn out to be like this. He rejected the princess to gain a kingdom of his own. Moreover, he had also gained one-third of the Bredian army to command.
"King Ghost…it does have a nice ring to it"
While Clavin, Ghost, and Ashton were busy discussing the future, Lailah gently poured the antidote into Katherine's mouth. The moment the antidote touched Katherine's lips, her body jerked. Soon, her body gradually started to lose the purplish color as her skin slowly turned rosy again.
"Kathy!" The tears of joy poured out of both Andrew's and the king's eyes.
Everyone was looking at the Princess, waiting for her to open her eyes. Only Diana looked at her son, Ghost. Most people including her own sister were thinking of him as evil but they failed to understand that if it wasn't for her son, the Princess would have died. He saved her.
"Katherine" Andrew saw Katherine slowly open her eyes. She looked at Andrew and then the worried face of her father.
"Father"
"You brat!" King Bredia embraced so tightly and close to his chest.
Andrew couldn't wait to hug her, tell her how much he loves him and how much she just hurt him by trying to take her own life.
Their union of love continued for a couple of minutes before Katherine saw Ghost reading a long parchment seriously without even taking a look at her.
Slowly she started to wonder how they managed to save her. She was told it was nearly impossible for someone to save her after drinking the five-headed serpent's venom.
Lailah stood up as Andrew thanked her holding her hand. Sabrina quickly came to stand by Lailah's side. The Winstons surrounded her. Lailah couldn't just chase them away. As a person who trained to fight evil, Lailah developed a seventh sense that indicates her most evil being. Aside from evil beings, she could all sense darkness in someone's heart. When she first met Ghost, she sensed the darkness in his heart. However, she ignored it as everyone in the world had darkness in their hearts. Weirdly except Noah. She didn't find any darkness in his heart.
In the corner of her eyes, she noticed Diana Winston staring at her. Surprisingly Lailah felt a chill.
"You!" Katherine gritted her teeth,
"It's okay Katherine, everything's fine" Andrew patted her shoulder. The King didn't mind Andrew. He had already decided to marry Katherine to the man she truly loves; Andrew.
"Heya princess" Like nothing happened, Ghost smiled at Katherine.
Katherine saw he was brimming in joy. His face was bright as someone lit a candle inside his head. The Royal guards as well as her father stared at Ghost with their bodies shivering. Deep inside her father's eyes, she saw immense worry and anger.
She could tell that something big had happened while she was unconscious.
"Father…what happened?"
"Ghosty" everyone heard a childish voice as they saw the dragon land on Ghost's shoulder. It was not as big as before but shrunk its body to the size of a grown eagle.
Claire sent off little Cindy to her mother before the final. Claire didn't want Cindy to see Ghost ruthlessly beat the hell out of Andrew. The little girl had seen enough blood and gore for her age, Claire thought.
Following Nightmare, the Elders and Claire came flying towards Michael. Since they all reached the Core Formation stage, they could fly without the help of flying swords. Except for Elder Reiner who had a wide grin on his face, the others looked stunned. Michael could see the reluctance in their eyes.
"Master Ghost" Ricky came to his side on a flying sword and landed beside him.
"Oh forgive me" He quickly knelt on one knee,
"Your majesty"
Ashton chuckled lightly before patting Ghost on the shoulder,
"You have a lot to deal with. But come by the manor in three days, we will hold a gala celebrating the marriage. You must come"
"Of course, Lord Ashton" Lord Ashton immediately took off, disappearing into the skies. Soon, Calvin also left the stage before further mingling himself with the king's problem. Although Calvin wasn't afraid of King Bredia, he was afraid of Lailah Alden. In Lailah's eyes, he saw a glimmer of anger towards Ghost before, when she looked at him. Calvin didn't want to get onto her bad side by being too friendly with Ghost.
"We need to talk" Just as Michael was about to talk to Claire and the Elders, he heard Lailah's voice. All the eyes on the battle stage and the arena turned back to look at Lailah and Ghost.
Some guessed Ghost just made Lailah mad enough to get his ass kicked.
"Can we talk later? I am kinda busy here"
Many gasped in shock. They couldn't believe he was actually ignoring a country toppling beauty. Most of all the men in Elon would die to just have a short conversation with her yet Ghost shrugged her off.
Lailah however didn't say anything more but came to his side. She grabbed his elbow. In a blink of an eye, she took off into the sky with Ghost.
Nightmare couldn't even understand how he landed on the ground. She was too fast.
"What just happened?"
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