CHAPTER 185: THE CRIES OF A WIFE.

The silence continued for a long while.

Then suddenly, without so much as a word leaving her mouth, Maria dispatched her blade and bowed her head.

"Thank you for the match, Your Majesty."

Revina narrowed her gaze, surprised that Maria would actually take the route of avoiding the question rather than drawing her sword. By now, she expected that Maria would be looking to kill her. So what could be stopping her? There was a 90% chance of her winning.

Still confused, Revina played along.

"Thank you for the match." She, too, bowed her head.

Once that was taken care of, Maria didn’t waste any time exiting the training ground, striding past the guard without once looking back.

As she walked, Revina glanced at her, a chilling smile on her face as she, too, dispatched her blade, her eyes glinting with something quite unexplainable.

...

Outside the training ground, as soon as Maria walked out the door, she noticed Ishtar was in the hallway, her back resting on the wall with her arms folded.

"Look who finally decided to show up. I must say, quite the duel you were having with the King. Here I thought you were going to kill each other."

Maria stopped once she was close to her. "You could tell that from out here?"

"Right, you still don’t know how my powers work." Ishtar had a smug look on her face. "As long as it is happening under my domain, I have knowledge of it."

Maria wore a judging look on her face. "You placed your domain in the training grounds?"

"Don’t be silly. I placed my domain on the entire castle, but that is beside the point." Ishtar now looked serious. "I do hope whatever is happening won’t affect my husband. If the King already has issues with you, then we should know beforehand-"

"The King is not a threat. And Lord Dorian will be alright. I’ll be long dead before that happens."

That was all Maria said, and she was gone, walking away once again without looking back.

Ishtar fell silent, then she sighed. "The witch’s scent... That’s a new discovery."

...

Meanwhile, inside the room where Dorian and Seraphina were.

Dorian had fallen asleep on the side of the bed, holding on to Seraphina’s hand as tightly as he could just to make sure the Dead Mana didn’t flare up without his knowledge.

While he was asleep, Seraphina finally opened her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was the warm hand holding on to her. Instinctively, she held on to it even tighter, a smile momentarily playing on her face.

Then she turned her head to the right, where she could see Dorian’s face buried on the bed, his dark, silky hair covering his innocent face.

Seraphina stared for a while, her gaze getting softer until she began to tear up. But she made sure not to make too much noise in order not to wake Dorian up.

Her whimpers were low and silent as she used her other hand to rub his hair, as though sympathizing with him over something.

"My poor husband..."

Those were the words that left her mouth as she petted him gently.

Suddenly, the door creaked open and in walked Maria. "Oh, you’re awake-"

Before she could complete her words, she noticed the way Seraphina was crying. Hell, despite the fact the door had opened up, Seraphina didn’t seem to move her gaze away from Dorian, not even for a second.

"Seraphina?" Maria muttered as she moved even further into the room. The confusion on her face was quite evident.

Finally, Seraphina moved her gaze away from Dorian and shifted it towards Maria.

"I’m back." She smiled, though the tears were still lingering on the side of her cheeks. "How long was I asleep for?"

"A couple of days. Lord Dorian has been the one taking care of you."

Maria wore a worried look with every word she spoke; something about Seraphina in that moment was not right. And her next words further proved so.

"Say, Maria. By any chance, did the witch approach you too?" she suddenly asked.

Maria was a bit taken aback by the question. First it was the King, now Seraphina? Maintaining her composed posture, she replied, "Yes."

Nothing more. It was better that way, especially since she wasn’t sure how Seraphina would react to it.

"I see... haaha..." Seraphina lowered her head, tears dripping from her eyes once more as she gripped the bedsheet tight. "She really got us both. I hate this. I want to be the reason he is safe, not the reason he has to suffer. I hate this. I hate this so much."

Her voice was not loud, but it reached Maria’s ears, enough for her to tell Seraphina was in pain. Also, Maria, for some weird reason, sort of understood why Seraphina was breaking down.

"Did the witch approach you too?" Maria shook her head, disregarding the question she asked. "No, did you see something while you were asleep?"

Seraphina slowly raised her head to look at her. "I don’t want him to go, Maria. I don’t-" Her tears flowed even more. "Don’t let her take him away. Please don’t let her take my darling away."

Maria’s face twisted with pity. There was nothing she could really say in that moment, as she too had a lot of questions. Who was taking Dorian away? Why was Seraphina crying so much? Did she dream of something?

After thinking about it for a while, Maria moved closer to the bed, sat down, and hugged her.

Seraphina immediately buried her face in Maria’s shoulder, her soft whimpers escalating into gut-wrenching sobs that shook her entire body.

She clung to Maria with desperation, her fingers digging into the fabric of Maria’s clothes.

"It hurts, Maria! It hurts so much!" she wailed, the sound muffled against Maria’s shoulder, raw and steeped in despair. "I saw it all—I saw him leave! He was smiling, but he was gone, gone forever, and I couldn’t reach him!"

Tears streamed down her face, soaking Maria’s shoulder. She gasped for breath between sobs, her chest heaving with the force of her anguish.