Free Web NovelChapter 35: Something is Wrong
Seraphel
Azriel pulled back, turning me around with a perfectly casual smile on his face. "I got rid of the fool who actually tried to kill me, so you can rest assured now," he said smoothly, cupping my jaw with his hand and gently using his thumb to wipe away a stray splash of blood that had trailed down my cheek.
"I know you’re a lot of things, Seraphel, but you’d be far too foolish to strike me once, let alone twice."
I blinked rapidly, staring up at him in complete confusion. The frantic murmuring from the harem rose again, and out of sheer, unbothered curiosity, I looked over his shoulder to see what had caused the commotion.
Right there on the grass, the young servant who had previously served me the porcelain tray was sprawled on the ground.
Malachi’s heavy steel sword was driven directly through his forehead, splitting his skull clean in half down the middle in a pool of dark blood.
My eyes grew wide, and a violent, acidic wave of hot bile instantly rose from my stomach straight into my throat.
The graphic sight was too much for my modern brain.
I violently pushed Azriel away, rushed over to the edge of the stone courtyard, and threw up everything I had eaten, retching uncontrollably against a decorative pillar.
"I explicitly told you not to look, but you just wouldn’t listen. Violent scenes are really not good for the baby," Azriel murmured smoothly, instantly appearing right by my side. He reached down, gently rubbing my back as my body heaved. He looked over his shoulder, his voice snapping like a whip as he shouted at a nearby servant, "Hey, you! Get him a fresh jug of water immediately! If you come back even a single second later, I will personally split your head into pieces, heal you back together, and then kill you all over again, repeating the scene a hundred times. Now move!"
"Yes... Yes, Your Highness...!" the terrified servant stammered, shaking so violently he almost tripped over his own robes as he scrambled away.
I slowly raised my head to face Azriel, wiping my mouth. His face was completely straight and expressionless while he delivered those horrific orders.
I had always seen him in his annoying, fiercely lustful moments, but just a few seconds ago, he had displayed a rare, terrifying case of absolute protection—doing it with a soft-spoken calm that made my skin crawl.
"What can I say? I take very good care of my possessions," he muttered, casting a playful wink in my direction.
Possessions? I felt a cold pang in my chest. So after everything, that was all I really was to him. A toy. A vessel.
"And what else would you like to become to me, Seraphel?"
"Stop reading my mind," I snapped through gritted teeth, glaring up at him.
"Where is the fun in that? What other ways do I have to entertain myself around here?" he asked, letting out a light, amused chuckle.
Before I could fire back another angry retort, the servant rushed back into the courtyard, holding a silver jug of water and a clean cup. He quickly poured it with trembling hands, offering it to me while keeping his eyes glued to the floor.
I glanced up at Azriel, and only after he gave me a firm nod of assurance that the water wasn’t poisoned did I actually take the cup and drink it down, letting the cool liquid soothe my raw throat.
"Are you feeling any better now, Seraphel?" Azriel asked, his tone shifting back to that gentle cadence.
I nodded silently, wiping the remaining moisture from my lips with the back of my hand before handing the cup back to the servant. The poor kid was shaking so much I thought he was going to pass out right there.
"Take my hand, and look away from the corpse if you must," Azriel murmured, extending his palm.
I stared at his long fingers for a moment, genuinely wondering why the hell he was acting so affectionately sweet and gentle right now when he had ruthlessly wrecked my hole into oblivion just last night.
Azriel let out another low chuckle, and I immediately knew he had breached my mental walls yet again.
You absolute demon, I thought bitterly.
I took his hand like he ordered, and he led me back toward the center of the courtyard. The concubines were still frozen on their knees, completely terrified, while Malachi calmly ripped his steel sword out of the dead servant’s skull, ordering the guards to remove the bloody corpse from the pavilion.
"Whose personal servant was that?" Azriel demanded, stepping into the absolute center of the courtyard, his voice soft but carrying a weight that made the air feel heavy.
One of the middle-ranking concubines slowly raised a trembling hand, her face completely pale. "Your Highness... I swear I had absolutely no idea... he has been with me for months, I didn’t—"
"Take him away," Azriel interrupted calmly, pointing a finger at the master of the dead servant. "Torture him until he confesses everything. If he is found guilty of conspiracy, behead him, along with every single generation of his family line. For he actively tried to kill the sacred vessel carrying the child of prophecy." Even though the decree was a literal death sentence for an entire family, his voice remained entirely soft-spoken and serene.
How could anyone be this incredibly powerful, bloodthirsty, and terrifying, yet still speak like a gentle scholar? Author Nude must have been going completely insane when she wrote his character description, because the raw terror he induced didn’t fit the soft voice I was hearing at all.
Two armored guards suddenly emerged from a dark, swirling portal, aggressively grabbing the screaming concubine by the arms. He thrashed and shrieked, swearing his innocence until they dragged him into the abyss and the portal snapped shut.
"Seraphel was covertly attacked with Letiti, an illusion-inducing tea, on his very first day entering this harem, and was mentally ordered to assassinate me," Azriel announced to the silent crowd.
Letiti? I thought, rolling my eyes internally. What a boring, uncreative name for such a powerful, mind-hijacking drug.
"One of you in this very courtyard tried to harm the child of prophecy," Azriel continued, his boots clicking slowly against the stone as he walked between the rows of kneeling figures, still holding my hand tightly in his. "And although I found out real quick, if I hadn’t intervened, Seraphel would have been executed for attacking the royal bloodline, and the baby would have been severely affected."
Not a single concubine dared to raise their head. Even Eiren kept his eyes glued to the grass, his ethereal features perfectly schooled into a mask of submission.
"Consider this a final warning to all of you who are currently scheming and planning to hurt the child of prophecy," Azriel stated, stopping in his tracks. "I will be personally watching every single one of you from now on. If Seraphel is threatened, harmed, or attacked ever again... I will split your heads into halves myself."
A violent shudder ran down my spine at his horrific choice of words.
Azriel seemed to instantly feel the spike in my emotions, gently rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb to soothe me. freёweɓnovel.com
"Did I scare you, darling?" he asked softly, turning around fully to face me. He cupped both sides of my face in his warm hands, tilting my head up. "I would never dare to hurt you," he murmured, leaning down to press a soft, lingering kiss directly onto my forehead.
What the hell was his actual problem? Doing something this incredibly affectionate right in front of the harem’s worst villains? He was literally setting me up to be targeted by every single one of them the second he turned his back.
"No one can hurt you on my watch," his voice whispered slowly, directly inside my head, before he flashed me another wicked grin.
I stared back at him as he continued addressing the crowd, but my eyes involuntarily drifted down to his chest, staring intensely at the spot where I had slashed him twice with the sword.
Had he already healed completely? Was he actually doing alright, or was it a front?
Azriel must have read my mind yet again, because his eyes immediately snapped back to mine. "Are you actually concerned for me, Seraphel?" he asked, amusement dripping from his mental voice.
I scoffed out loud, rolling my eyes. But just as I opened my mouth to give him a biting, sarcastic response, a sudden, violently sharp pain exploded deep inside my abdomen. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
The agony caught me completely off guard. I muffled a sharp scream, my fingers instantly tightening around his hand with a death grip as my knees buckled.
"Seraphel? Are you alright? What’s wrong?" Azriel questioned, his calm demeanor instantly shattering as his arms caught my falling body.
"I... ah!" The pain became even sharper, tearing through my stomach like hot knives as it spread across my entire lower belly.
A loud, agonized scream ripped from my throat as I clutched at his robes, tears streaming down my face.
The surrounding concubines instantly gasped, some of them leaning forward with eyes wide with shock, while a dark, satisfied smirk flashed across Slyven’s face. Eiren’s golden eyes narrowed, watching my agony with an intense, calculating focus.
Azriel leaned closer to support my weight, his eyes widening in rare, genuine panic as the dark mark of lust on my neck suddenly began to pulse with a blinding, erratic crimson light.
"What the hell is happening to me?" I choked out, but before he could answer, a violent spasm hit my chest, and I coughed out a heavy spray of dark, thick blood right onto his face and shoulder.
"Azriel...!" I whispered in pure terror, my vision blurring at the edges as I pressed both hands desperately over my stomach, another wave of agonizing contractions ripping through me. "The baby... something is wrong with the baby...!"
