The Crown's Seduction
Chapter 129: A Dragon

Chapter 129: A Dragon

"The king gifted me a reliable raven that I can talk to inside my head," Mineah chuckled. "I asked it to look after you and report to me about how things are going for you every once in a while."

"I didn’t even notice a raven spying on me..." Xenia mumbled aloud.

Opening the nearest carriage window to her, Mineah held a bashful smile as she said, "I’ll introduce you to Nik then. I’m sure you’ll like him."

[Nik, come here inside the carriage,] Mineah told her pet. [I want to introduce you to my sister.]

At her command, Nik flew inside the window and landed atop of her shoulder with a light caw.

"Ohhh... Did you name it after King Nikolai?" Xenia inquired.

"Indeed. He didn’t react negatively though," Mineah defended with a bashful giggle.

"I see. So how do you address him? The king, I mean? And how does he address you?" Xenia curiously asked.

Mineah’s face reddened, and Xenia teased, "Hahaha! Why are you blushing so hard?"

"He’s calling me Mine..." she answered bashfully. Though it was derived from the first four letters of Mineah’s name, the pronunciation was far from what it was supposed to be.

"Wow, I never thought that in his cold aura, he would be cheesy enough to be like that," Xenia’s eyes widened in realization. "He’s practically announcing to everyone that you’re his."

"Err... I’m not sure if that’s what he truly meant by it though," Mineah defended with an awkward smile. "It’s hard to tell what’s going on inside the king’s mind, but I’m sure there’s more to it than that."

It was the proper response. She didn’t want to assume nor be overly confident in guessing her actual relationship status with Nikolai just yet. In fact, she was honestly just feeling shy at being teased like this by her big sister.

"How about you then?" Xenia pondered, steering the conversation back to her sister.

"Hmm... Just Lai..." Mineah answered. "He doesn’t want me addressing him as king, so I’ve been calling him Lai whenever we’re alone."

Xenia teased with a chuckle, "How about calling him ’mine’ too? I bet that will make him happy~"

That didn’t cross her mind. Maybe she would try calling him that later and see how he would react. Would it make his heart flutter too? She couldn’t help but blush at her sister’s teasing. Xenia was obviously enjoying teasing her like this.

"How about you? How do you address each other?" Mineah countered.

"Hmm, he’s calling me ’my love’ or ’love’ often, if not Xen," Xenia truthfully replied. "On my end, I simply call him ’my king’ or Darius, but I’ve been thinking about trying to call him ’love’ and ’my love’ as well. I’m curious how he would react to that~"

"I’m sure he would love that," Mineah hummed as she then took the initiative to tease her sister back. "You see, he looks like he’s madly in love with you, big sister..."

She chuckled upon seeing how red her big sister’s cheeks became. "Look at you blushing so hard," Mineah laughed... "So tell me, how far did you already go with the King? I mean, you two have surel-"

"Stop that!" Xenia cut her off, making Mineah laugh even harder. Well, she just said those words to tease her sister more, but it seemed that there was some truth to those words.

Mineah couldn’t help but smile. She missed these golden times she had with her sister, and she hoped she would be able to bond with her brother Ezekiel soon as well.

*****

Little did the two women know that their waves of laughter from inside the carriage were resonating towards the outside of their own privacy. Nikolai and Darius were riding their horses just a further back from the carriage, and they could hear every giggle and chuckle from their significant others.

"Siblings..." Darius commented as he shook his head.

"Not all siblings get along well though," Nikolai pointed out with a scoff.

He got along well with his dear sister Ezme, but not with his other siblings from the other women his father had. Some of them simply didn’t like his existence. He had made an effort to get along well with them, and while he succeeded on some, the others just simply hated him. Then again, he knew that he couldn’t please everyone no matter what he did.

Nikolai let out a breath and continued, "The news came... My wife wants to go help look for her brother."

"I see," Darius commented. "I’m still in a dilemma on whether to tell Xen about it or not, but the message from her parents was clear. They don’t want Xenia to get distracted. Somehow, they seem confident that Ezekiel is not in danger."

"Then do as they say, Darius. I asked Mineah about this earlier, and she too was in the same predicament regarding keeping this matter away from her sister," Nikolai replied with a dark expression on his face. "She said she will help with the search together with the excellent warrior mages of Ebodia, but she refuses to get me involved in this."

"So you’re letting her go by herself with just your convoy accompanying her?" Darius curiously asked.

Nikolai chuckled, "And since when did you become this nosy, huh?"

Darius chuckled in response, "Well, I’m a man in love, and I know how much my woman loves her family. Knowing her, Xen will go haywire if anything happened to Mineah. That’s why her family is trying to keep her in the dark about Ezekiel’s disappearance."

The Werewolf King let out another heavy sigh as he added, "I suppose I’ll just settle everything of note in my kingdom; my wedding, the trials, and the formal proclamation of Xen as my rightful queen. After that, I will then personally join this war to put an end to the Demon King."

"Hah... That would take too long, my friend," Nikolai replied in jest. "I would’ve probably already killed Devon with my own hands before you can even arrive to participate."

"Well then, how nice would that be, saving me from sullying my hands?" Darius snorted, making both men laugh. After which, a bout of silence came between them before Nikolai broke it.

"What do you think really happened to Prince Ezekiel, Darius?" Nikolai curiously asked. "Don’t you think that something is amiss in all this? A dragon appeared the moment he disappeared. A dragon... when those creatures are already extinct... Something feels off about all this."