I froze, looking down at the contents of the pouch.
Horrific parasites writhed within, crawling over each other, even devouring their own kind.
The Elder Healer said, “Consume these, and I will agree to save your beloved.””
I was silent for a moment.
I was terrified of these creatures.
The Elder Healer began to put the pouch away, preparing to leave.
My hand, hidden in my sleeve, moved, touching the wolf fang bracelet.
I stopped the Elder Healer, asking, “If I eat them, will I die?”
The Elder Healer nodded.
“You will die, but not immediately.”
“It could be as short as ten years, or as long as twenty or thirty. Your lifespan will actually be quite extended, it’s just that the process will likely be… quite painful.”
I no longer hesitated. I snatched the pouch, closed my eyes, and swallowed every single one.
Then I pretended to be lighthearted: “Actually, I’m naturally frail. Healers had already predicted my life would be shorter than most. So, it makes little difference.”
Those parasites entered my body, feeding on my flesh and blood, and have multiplied within me
ever since.
I remembered, before he left, the Elder Healer looked at me one last time, sighing, and called me
“fool.”
I guess, I really was a fool.
Later, Kael’s attitude towards me suddenly changed, a deep coldness and detachment radiating from his very bones.
I knew it was because my kingdom and the Wolfen Clans were at war.
Kael, held as a royal hostage in enemy territory, listened to the grim news of his kin’s deaths from
afar, one after another.
How could he not resent? How could he not hate?
The final outcome: the Wolfen Clans lost, forced to cede vast territories and countless herds of livestock, obligated to pay monthly tributes.
With this unequal treaty established, Kael was released and returned home.
The day he left, I chased him to the gates of Aethelgard.
“Princess Serene, please halt.”
Kael turned to look at me, his eyes filled with a murky complexity I couldn’t decipher.
“The next time we meet, we will be enemies.”
“No.” I stubbornly shook my head. “No, my Kael, we are not enemies.”
The Wolfen Clans and my kingdom could become allies.
All I had to do was marry him.
I had read many histories with my brother, the Crown Prince, and had heard tales of princesses sacrificed as peace offerings.
When I knelt in the Grand Hall and spoke my thoughts, my King roared at me, calling it madness!
Only defeated nations send their princesses as peace offerings.
My Queen Mother tenderly stroked my long hair, telling me:
“Serene, your King is powerful, your Crown Prince brother is strong. Neither now nor in the future will your marriage need to be sacrificed. You should marry the man you love.”
But I said the man I loved was Kael.
From the age of eight, the first time I saw him at the tribute ceremony.
That foreign boy from the wild grasslands, he left an indelible mark on my heart.
On the hunting grounds, he outdid my brother, the Crown Prince, claiming the first prize. After my King rewarded him, he smiled and asked what Kael planned to do with the prized arctic fox pelt he’d caught.
