Conquering His Cold Heart
Chapter 422 - 422: Magical Chalice

Everard let go of the breath that he was holding when he saw Regulus and his men disappearing from before his eyes.

Yes, he was angered by the disrespect that Regulus was showing him and he acted tough. But the truth was, deep down in his heart, he was a little scared that things might have taken a really bad turn for him.

And when it did not, he was relieved beyond measure, at least for now.

Jerome quickly stepped to the front and addressed the whole crowd, "Okay, let's not allow the words of a bereaved man to affect our thinking. Lord Regulus must be desperate to find the killer of his brother and thus, he is acting this way. Please forgive him for causing a ruckus."

And although nobody asked if what Regulus said was true or not, Jerome could see a few uncomfortable faces among the crowd.

Thus, he took it upon himself to act as a witness for the King. "And just to clarify, I was with His Majesty the whole day. It is true that we had in fact met Lord Romulus the day he took his leave from Earth."

Before the crowd thought that there was some foul play going on from the King's side, Jerome clarified in detail.

"However, we were in his distillery for a routine visit. We had some misunderstandings about the taxes, but it wasn't that big a deal. And by the time we returned to the castle after finishing our tasks at other places, we heard the news of his death."

Everyone present there in the hall believed in Jerome's words. For them, Jerome's words were more trustworthy than the words of some man who recently came to the light after his brother's death.

The people soon began to focus back on the feast and enjoy themselves.

Jerome also looked at Everard. And when he noticed a few worry lines on Everard's forehead, he spoke with Everard in a soft voice, as though he was talking to his own son, "You did well. Let this unexpected encounter be a lesson for you."

"A lesson?" Everard slightly raised his brows and looked at Jerome with his naïve little eyes.

Jerome smiled and placed his hand on Everard's shoulder. And he spoke from his own experience, "Never let the others corner you. Not even once. Because if they do that, even for once, then they will think that they can do it again and again. And before you know it, you will be submitting to them. Never submit, especially not to people like him."

After about half an hour, the people who had come to witness the night that would be written down in history began to slowly take their leave. After all, they needed to be far away from the capital before it would be too late.

And finally, it was almost 11 at night when the full moon slowly began to peak out of the cloudy sky.

The elders who were still inside the Great Hall dramatically lifted their heads and hands and gazed at the finger of the statue of the Moon Goddess that was being pointed toward the sky.

"Why do they look so… weird?" Everard whispered to Jerome when he noticed their peculiar behavior.

Jerome and Everard were standing right beneath the tall statue. Jerome also followed the suit and slowly lifted his arms to the side. And he whispered back as he lifted his head as well, "The full moon is upon us. Let the Moon Goddess grace us with her blessings."

Everard knitted his brows because he wasn't still feeling any pain, not even a slight crack in his bones. "How do you know that the fu–"

Before he could finish his sentence though, a silver ray cascaded like the purest waterfall from heaven and landed at the fingertip of the statue. And almost instantly, Everard felt a shrilling pain on his shoulder.

"Arrrrrrgh!"

The Great Hall echoed with his painful scream, followed by the muffled grumbles from the older werewolves and a few guards.

Jerome was already halfway through the transformation when he laid his eyes on Everard.

Everard was still struggling with the extreme pain that he was going through.

Thus, Jerome reminded him once more. He mumbled while grunting in excruciating pain, "Don't hold back. Just let it all in." And right after saying that, Jerome took the form of a giant grey wolf.

"Right!" Everard grunted and let out a loud cry as if to prepare himself for the overwhelming pain that he needed to go through before feeling a sense of relief.

When he stopped fighting back against the unseen forces that were trying to take control of his body, he soon found himself going through a smooth transformation. And in no time, he also transformed into a giant wolf just like everybody else in the hall.

Just when Everard thought that the pain was over, something totally unexpected happened.

The chalice which contained a few drops of blood of Everard and Jerome slowly began to glow with a silver halo around it.

"Whoa! What is happening?" Everard exclaimed in his head and looked at Jerome for an answer.

Jerome looked at the black wolf beside him with a look of disbelief in his eyes. And rather than answering Everard, Jerome asked in his head, "C-Can you hear me too?"

Everard blinked his beautiful big eyes and replied, "Of course, I can." He then pointed his snout at the glowing chalice and asked again, "Why is it glowing? It's not going to explode, is it? Did we anger the Moon Goddess in some way?"

Jerome was still in a state of shock because this was the first time he was hearing someone's thoughts in his head when he was in wolf form.

"No, it's not going to explode," he quickly answered and then posed his own question, "How did we just manage to talk with each other in human language?"

That wasn't what concerned Everard because he had always been communicating this way with Ruby. So, he scoffed and muttered sarcastically, "What do you mean how? How else would we talk? Howl to each other?"

"Er… Yes?" Jerome's wolf eyes still had that look of disbelief in them. "We understood the wolf language."

"Oh! Umm… Okay…" Everard didn't know how to react to that absurd thing that he just heard. He didn't even know if Jerome was simply messing around with him.

Thus, he completely ignored that topic for now and took a few steps toward the chalice so that he could get a closer look at what was happening.

Jerome would have explained what was happening if his mind wasn't still occupied by the fact that Kenneth really was someone very special.

Everard, on the other hand, was now staring inside the chalice. He was greatly fascinated by the way how the blood-diluted water was swirling around in the chalice as if something magical was happening.

'Is it going to turn into wine or something? Am I supposed to drink it?' Everard thought to himself.

Suddenly, his eyes twinkled. He got this mischievous thought in his head. He slyly grinned thinking, 'Let's lick it just once.'