Stolen by the Rebel King
Chapter 368: Possible Solution

Chapter 368: Possible Solution

"Your head is obviously the one that’s speaking, nitwit," Atticus said with a deadpan. He was the first to recover from the surprise, rolling his eyes at the stupidity of the prince. It seemed like after his beheading, Prince Silas’s brain became useless as well.

"I killed you! We all saw it!" Leonora exclaimed, with a shaky voice and even shakier legs.

She sank to her knees and gestured wildly to Silas’s beheaded body lying quietly on the floor, a contrast to his still sentient head. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like the body was regrowing another head any time soon.

"Silas, how are you still speaking?"

"How would I know?" Silas screeched back at Daphne. He then turned — or as best as he could — to Leonora. "You obviously didn’t do a very good job at killing me, if I can still speak!"

"That’s nonsense!" Leonora spluttered, appalled. "I’ve killed more people than the number of times you’ve slept with a woman!"

If there was one thing she was sure of, it was her combat abilities. It wasn’t something to be proud of but she had claimed plenty of lives on and off the battlefield. Killing someone was something she could do even with both eyes closed.

Silas could barely even count how often he had run off to the red-light district, even more so the number of times he had bedded women for free. It wasn’t his fault. He was a very attractive man of power. It wasn’t hard for women to throw themselves right into his arms, open or not. Who was he to refuse them such simple bodily pleasures?

"Good grief," Sirona muttered under her breath. She shook a head before walking over to where Daphne and Atticus were, whispering to them, "Watch them both. I’ll get Prince Nathaniel. He might have a theory or two about what in the blazes is going on."

With that said, Sirona took the moment of distraction to slip out of the room, quietly closing the door behind her so that no poor soul who passed by would accidentally catch the sight of Leonora speaking with Silas’s head — and only his head — thus giving them the shock of their lives. Sirona wasn’t too keen on treating heart attacks, not when they had this mess on their hands.

It didn’t take long for Prince Nathaniel to show up. He arrived as the siblings were still bickering over how and why Silas was not dead yet despite having his head severed.

The good news was that no matter how agitated Silas got, it didn’t seem like the poison was traveling through his body. Perhaps the bulk of it was in the rest of him, thus not carrying to the head. His blood vessels remained normal and there was no darkening of color, nor any change in his eyes.

Prince Nathaniel, however, suffered quite the scare when he first noticed the victim. Even though Sirona had briefed him on what was going on, seeing it for himself still scared the soul right out of him.

He jumped a little, his eyes wide as he looked back and forth at Silas’s still body and his very active, very loud head. Princess Leonora, too, had gone from the quivering, wailing mess to a flushed-face woman determined to argue her point across. Privately, Sirona thought it was strangely heartwarming that their sibling arguments could transcend death.

"Prince Nathaniel, there you are!" Leonora said, jumping up and storming over to the man in question.

Her fingers clamped down on his upper arm, dragging him over to Silas’s severed head despite his reluctance. She simply tuned out his refusal, planting him firmly in front of her twin brother, shaking legs and all.

"You’re a brilliant man when it comes to the art of medicine and potions. Perhaps you can shed some light on this?"

"I... I... I―" Nathaniel stuttered, sweat quickly beading across his forehead. "Frankly... Princess Leonora, I have never seen such a thing before."

"The question is, who has?" Atticus said with a snort.

"But it’s not every day we see vampirism," Daphne piped up. "Maybe it’s something to do with that?"

"But how is it that Silas is cured of it after he was beheaded?" Leonora asked. Her eyes then flashed with realization. "Could it be the serum? The serum was just wearing off when he died."

"That is plausible," Nathaniel said. "Prince Silas could’ve been beheaded right as the last bits of the serum wore off. That way, he still retained the healing of a vampire and could thus survive the beheading. At the same time, the flow of the poison hadn’t fully circulated in his body yet, thus retaining his humanity once his head was severed. But of course, that’s just a theory."

"Can he be saved?" Leonora asked, suddenly hopeful. If there was a way to reattach Silas’s head to his body without triggering the toxin, then perhaps...

"Very little is known about vampirism, Princess Leonora," Nathaniel said. "We could run some tests to check, but frankly, I have no clue how long it might take for results to show."

"But we’ve found a temporary fix, isn’t it?" Daphne said. "This could be how we can stop Alistair!"

"Or I could just blow his head off."

"Atticus!"

"But he could just heal from it," Leonora pointed out. "Or who knows? Maybe he would be able to control the other half of his body even though his head is detached from it."

"Two doses of the serum were made," Prince Nathaniel said. "If one was used here on Prince Silas, then this," he took out a small syringe from his pocket, "would be our final defense against Prince Alistair. If beheading him doesn’t work, then we will have to use this serum."

Atticus grumbled under his breath, "I could just implode him."

"No," Daphne firmly said. "And it’s not because he is my older brother. If anything, Alistair has to face punishment for all the crimes he committed against the citizens of Reaweth."

"If he’s kept alive, your parents might just soften up and set him free again," Atticus pointed out.

"We will make sure they won’t," Leonora chimed in. "Besides, it will be best to keep Alistair alive. He could be another test subject for Prince Nathaniel and Healer Sirona to play with so that they can find a cure for Silas, and perhaps even the remaining infected citizens."

Since King Atticus had used Silas as an experimental subject to find the best ways to deal with Alistair, it seemed fair for Alistair to return the favor.

Nathaniel nodded. "It will be difficult, but at least it’s worth a shot."

Atticus sighed, finally relenting. "Fine," he said, albeit a little unwillingly. "Speaking of which, where’s Sirona?"

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.