CHAPTER 67: CHAPTER 67: THE BALL(11)

The dungeon was deeply silent when the guards died.

There were no screams. No clash of steel. No warning. Until one guard slumped forward with his throat cut before his body even understood it had been struck.

Another reached for his sword only for a dagger to bury itself beneath his jaw, pinning silence into him.

The last had time to blink before his vision faded, a thin wire of black steel cinched tightly around his neck.

Saar stepped over the fallen bodies as though they were nothing more than discarded shadows. His breathing did not change.

His expression remained still, empty, as though killing was simply another routine gesture like closing a door or adjusting a cloak.

Vanadis followed behind him, wiping blood from his cheek with the back of his sleeve. He glanced around with a faint exhale.

"...You really don’t leave anything behind, do you?"

Saar didn’t respond. He never did unless spoken to directly.

They reached the cell, iron bars warped from the force of Saar’s hands. Meical, bruised and breathing heavily, sat against the wall.

The moment he saw them, the tension in his face loosened, not relief, but recognition.

"You’re late.." he muttered.

Vanadis crouched to unlock the cuffs around Meical’s wrists. "We had to cut through three corridors of guards. A bit of bloodshed was unavoidable."

Meical laughed once as he stood up, the chains falling to the ground.

Saar’s eyes flicked to him, quiet and assessing. "...We retrieve the Master now."

Meical’s expression hardened. "We can’t."

Both men stilled, as Meical continued, his voice low, controlled only by sheer will.

"He is Radomir’s bride now. By royal decree. If you try to take him, you will be branded traitors and hunted. And Kaizar.." his voice cracked "..Kaizar will be punished for it. The only way he leaves is if he walks out on his own."

Silence settled sharply. Saar’s jaw tightened, the closest thing he ever had to visible emotion.

Vanadis leaned back, exhaling long through his nose. "...So the Master will not be leaving tonight?"

Meical nodded.

"Tomorrow then.." Vanadis continued quietly, "The Master will surely return on his own terms."

A laugh echoed down the corridor, their footsteps light. The scent of flowers and venom following them.

It turned out to be Seraphine. She approached with the casual grace of someone who believed the world itself bowed for her.

Her smile was wide enough to cut.

"Oh? Tomorrow?" She clicked her tongue, eyes bright with mock pity. "You think he’s coming back? Sweet, loyal Meical...the king’s already fucking the daylights out of him. You should hear the rumors upstairs. Apparently, Kaizar screams beautifully."

Meical jaw tightened, the anger in his eyes were visible but he managed to swallow it down.

"You’re awfully brave for someone who has always been second choice."

Seraphine’s smile strained, then snapped back, sharper.

"You should have chosen me. I could have given you children. I could have given you a future. But no, you wasted your life on a lost cause. A man who was never yours. Now look. Radomir has him. He won’t let go. Not now, not ever."

Meical smiled as he walked past Seraphine. "Seraphine you give yourself too much worth. You who opens her legs for every man you come across, you dare to brand someone a ’wasted cause’ how ironic.."

Seraphine laughed again, but it trembled, cracking until there was barely anything coming out.

"Think all you want, it doesn’t change the fact that the king’s fucked your precious wife, he’s not so pure anymore. Aldoria’s most famous slut.."

Meical didn’t stop walking, because if he didn’t he’d been raining punches on Seraphine.

But Saar wasn’t the type to swallow such a thing.

Piak!

The slap was heavy, sending her stumbling. "You may talk to the master’s husband how you wish, but I will not let you insult my master. Watch your mouth or I’ll cut your tongue next time.."

Seraphine held her cheek as she stared at him in disbelief. "You insolent! I’ll have your head for this.."

Saar didn’t reply as he walked out of the castle, left for him he would have burnt the whole place to the ground.

But Min-jae hasn’t ordered him to do so yet.

Soon three days had passed.

They were not long days, but they were heavy ones, pressed into Min-jae’s bones like a lingering winter.

While Radomir had not touched him. He had not forced words, nor raised his voice.

He watched instead, with a patience that had always been more suffocating than any chain.

Silence can be a kind of possession, and Min-jae had always known that Radomir excelled at taking without moving his hands.

When the doors finally opened for him to leave, the sun had barely risen. The palace servants bowed, but none met his eyes.

"You’ve already ruined me. Just let me go and marry a wife. It will do you better if you want to remain king.."

His hair, once long and bound with care, now lay unevenly at his jaw, cut in one sharp moment of defiance. It did not make him appear weaker. If anything, it made him look like a soldier returning from a front no one else could see.

Outside the palace gates, the capital waited.

"Shameless."

"Home-wrecker."

"King’s whore."

"Slut..."

Rotten fruit struck his shoulder, his back, the side of his face.

The guards didnt bother to intervene. They didnt look uncomfortable. They simply watched the crowd the way one watches a storm from indoors, unaffected, as though everything unfolding was expected.

Min-jae didnt look away or hurry his steps.

The humiliation clung to him like sour wine, but he walked with a spine that remained unbent.

By the time he reached the governor’s estate, exhaustion had settled deep in him.

The servants saw him first.

They froze.

Not a single hand rose to assist him. It was as though they had forgotten he was their madame.

Meical arrived a moment later, cloak thrown hastily around his shoulders. It was clear he had either been preparing to leave to search for Min-jae, or to storm the palace, or both.

While one suspended breath, the other expression softened.

Then it changed.

Rumor is a quick poison.

"You’re back.." Meical said, the words thin and uneven.

Min-jae nodded. But he said nothing more.

Silence stretched between them, slow and quiet, like the settling of dust in an abandoned room.

When Meical spoke again, his voice no longer trembled, it hardened.

"So the king has already claimed you."

It was not an accusation shouted aloud. It was worse. It was spoken softly.

Min-jae lifted his gaze. His expression did not break, but something in him cooled.

"And you believe them?"