CHAPTER 371: TRICKLE OF HOPE-I

Arabella watched the wicked expression on Noah’s face, as if he was triumphant despite the look on his face that seemed hurt at the same time. His laughter cracked through the silence, low at first, then building into something unhinged. "This... this is fitting. This is justice. A snake slain, her venom rotting in her throat."

Arabella tightened her hold on Cassius’s arm, her expression paling. She had seen Noah’s fury before, his grief, his sorrow, but never this elation. Never this madness.

"Noah," Arabella called softly this time, her tone more like one soothing a wounded animal than a warrior still standing in battle. "It’s over. Alice is gone."

Noah lifted his eyes to hers, a strange, purring smile curling his lips. "I know," he murmured. Then, tilting his head toward the serpent’s dying gaze, he added almost tenderly, "But she won’t truly die. I’ve made sure of that. She will linger, alive in death, condemned to suffer as nothing more than a bodiless husk."

Arabella’s brow furrowed. "What do you mean?" Her voice trembled with unease. "If her head is gone, she’ll die. Isn’t it over? Will she heal? Do we have to fight her again?"

Noah coughed, blood dribbling down his chin as he faltered, sinking to one knee. Still, his expression twisted into a grin wild with delight. "No... no, she won’t heal. I wove something into her long before this moment. A curse. One that only awakens when she surrenders herself entirely to her demon, when she becomes nothing but the snake." His voice grew raspier, yet his fervor burned brighter with each word. "That’s the moment the curse takes root. It binds her, forcing her consciousness to remain... even when her flesh can no longer hold together."

Cassius’s gaze darkened, his voice cutting like steel. "So what you’re saying is... she will exist as a severed head. Awake. Aware. Forever unable to move or die?"

"Yes." Noah’s smile widened into something wolfish, terrible in its satisfaction. "A fitting end, don’t you think? For a creature so consumed by envy, cursed with those venomous eyes. Now she’ll watch the world, burning with the hunger to steal what she cannot touch, what she cannot claim. Eternally aware, eternally envious... and utterly powerless."

Arabella then noticed his palling face as he slowly fell backward and fearing that his head would hit the ground, she rushed toward his side, preventing his head from hitting the ground. Then she looked at the serpentine who appeared dead as its eyes couldn’t move or blink any longer yet according to what Noah said, Alice was still conscious.

"How do we deal with this...?" Arabella whispered as Cassius walked slowly beside her.

He exhaled slowly, a weary sigh carrying the weight of the aftermath yet to come. Still, he gently lifted Arabella’s hand into his own and turned toward the throne room. The hall was no longer filled with fear alone, those who had hidden now emerged, stunned and breathless, gazing in awe at the King and Queen who had shielded them without distinction, whether human or vampire.

"We will deal with the rest later," Cassius murmured, his lips brushing against her ear. A shadow of a smile curved his mouth as he whispered, "For now, smile. It seems a common enemy has done what years of treaties could not, united the two races."

Arabella’s green eyes swept across the hall, her breath catching at the truth in his words. Where once humans and vampires had glared at each other with suspicion, now there was no divide. Fear of one another had been replaced by something stronger: solidarity. And though it was a cruel irony, Alice’s monstrous appearance had become the very glue that bound the kingdom together.

The realization that finally the fight has ended caused for every single soul in the room to yell their celebration aloud, each telling the others of how they appreciate the new King and Queen, how they wish the throne would continue with peace under Cassius’s rule.

Although the appearance of Alice and the serpentine was unexpected, in the end it had became the perfect incident that nailed Cassius as the perfect King of Versailles, the very one that everyone had truly wished to have.

Three hours had passed since the battle, yet the tension lingered like smoke after fire. Arabella worked tirelessly at Noah’s side, her healing touch coaxing closed wounds that refused to mend without magic. But when exhaustion finally overtook her, Ariel’s quiet grace filled the void, continuing the work with ease.

Elsewhere, Helena walked alongside Paolo, their hushed discussion turning toward the civilians, how to soothe the unrest, how to quiet the unease before it spread like wildfire. Cassius listened from his seat, the calmness in his expression a stark contrast to the turmoil that simmered beneath the surface.

"Your H- Majesty," Helena said with a frown, "Have you been listening to what I and Paolo had discussed?"

Cassius leaned back against the armrest, his patience thinning with every word he was forced to hear. "And this tiresome debate is about what exactly? How to escort humans and vampires back to their homes?" He waved a hand dismissively, his tone edged with disdain. "They have legs, do they not? If they are so desperate to return, they can use them. The palace is not a nursery."

Helena pressed two fingers against her temple, already sensing the headache. "Your Majesty, you cannot be so crude. Every gesture you make is seen as a reflection of your rule. Show concern for your people, and you build trust. Trust builds loyalty—"

Cassius cut her off with a glare sharp enough to slice through her lecture. "Then let me make it simple. Either they leave on their own, or I will break their legs and toss them out myself. And should I hear even a whisper of complaint, I will make certain their tongues are next." His voice dripped with irritation, each word a warning.

A tense silence followed before Paolo’s laugh cracked through it like wine spilling over marble. "Ah, Helena, perhaps it is a lost cause. If the King has no patience for shepherding his flock, then the duty naturally falls upon the shepherdess."

Helena shot him a dark look. "And what of you, Paolo? Planning to leave me to clean up the mess alone?"

"How would I dare abandon you?" Paolo lifted his hands innocently before his grin turned sly as he faced Cassius. "But I do have matters that require His Majesty’s private attention. Important ones. Ones I’d rather not discuss in the open."

Cassius’s lips curved into something between a smirk and a sigh. "Of course you do. Everyone always has something important when it’s inconvenient for me."