The Crown's Seduction
Chapter 130: Contingency Plans

Chapter 130: Contingency Plans

Throughout history, humans, vampires, werewolves, including other types of creatures banded together to bring down the dragons centuries ago because they were naturally wild and bloodthirsty, often simply bringing terror and destruction to every kingdom in their wake.

Seeing their threat to all living beings, they were eradicated, and their souls were forced to wander around trying to merge with any human or living thing they could find. And thankfully, none were successful.

"Isn’t it Queen Dana who sealed most of the powerful souls inside the forbidden forest including the Dragon King, Vulcan?" Nikolai asked. "That’s almost twenty-one years ago if I’m right."

"Hmm, aren’t you supposed to be better than me in history, my friend?" Darius scoffed in jest.

Nikolai chuckled in reply, "Stop making fun of this. This is a serious matter. The dragon seen is something that looks more along the lines of Vulcan... The Dragon King..."

Throughout all of this, he couldn’t help but wonder if he could somehow extract more information about this situation from Darius. He seemed to be getting along well with Princess Xenia already. Maybe his new mate had already disclosed more information to him than Mine ever did for him.

It was simply unfortunate that he couldn’t help but be suspicious of the current developments with Ezekiel still missing like this.

Nikolai hummed as he pondered, "Somehow, I couldn’t help but consider the possibility that his soul merged with Prince Ezekiel. The King and Queen are probably aware of it by now including my wife, but they’re trying to conceal this fact from everyone. So far, there’s been no successful attempts at performing the alchemy of a soul of a dragon to any human being... So this is really something... questionable."

"I see," Darius hummed in thought. "Are you going to investigate this?"

"We have to look into this, Darius," Nikolai insisted. "If left unchecked, this dragon could be more of a threat than the entirety of Helion’s Army itself."

"What if your intuition is right, and this dragon is somehow inside of Prince Ezekiel?"

"Then we have to do what is needed. We eliminate the threat unless Prince Ezekiel would somehow manage to hold the reigns on this dragon..." Nikolai firmly stated. "But still, the chances of that happening is next to impossible. A dragon simply wouldn’t let a human overpower them that easily."

"We never know, Nikolai. There’s always a first for everything," Darius suggested. "Just because it hasn’t happened before in history doesn’t mean that it can’t happen in the present. Prince Ezekiel, if you are correct in your suspicion, would not merely be a simple human as you thought. He could be more than something that a dragon could somehow overpower..."

"Why do you sound like you know something?" Nikolai pondered with a raised eyebrow.

"I’m just saying, the Ward Royal Family of Ebodia is something interesting," Darius snorted. "See how my wife is very confident in surviving the trials when everyone else thinks she’s nothing but a weak human being. That can be something, yes?"

"And what’s so funny right now, huh?" Nikolai chortled upon seeing how Darius was smiling on his own like a lunatic. "Look at you smiling alone like that, looking crazy all on your own."

"Oh, nothing," Darius grinned. "It’s just that I thought about my mate and how adorable she is."

Nikolai’s face crumbled and said, "You don’t seem like the Darius I’ve known for so long. You’ve become totally soft now because of a woman. That’s so unlike you. How come Princess Xenia still isn’t even marked?"

"She wanted to do it after the wedding to follow the customs and traditions of the monarchy in our kingdom," Darius explained. "I’m respecting her wishes, seeing as she’s just worried about my name being slandered by my court if I marked her before the marriage ceremony."

"Hmm, you’re never patient like this before. Most often than not, you get into trouble because of how impatient you are, Darius. Seeing you like this feels weird," Nikolai scoffed.

Darius simply smiled at him, and Nikolai could only shake his head at his friend’s actions. Nevertheless, he was glad to see him being happy like this.

*****

After a decent amount of time traveling, the carriage had a stop at an inn just by the road. It was exclusively opened just for them to have lunch. Mineah was glad that Nikolai was considerate enough to make sure that their travel would be smooth without any disturbances.

Sitting down, the food served on the table was like a feast, with stuffed chickens, quarters of a stag, loins of veal covered with pomegranate seeds, sugar plums, and sauces. There were even vegetables and pies as well.

In all of this, Mineah turned to Darius. She simply couldn’t help herself but read more of his thoughts regarding the current discussions.

[This is bad. I must tell Xen that Nikolai is suspecting that Vulcan has merged with Prince Ezekiel. Nikolai... He’s dead set on ending the dragon, but that would mean ending Ezekiel’s life as well...]

Mineah’s face paled before darkening just as quickly. At the same time, she turned her gaze to Nikolai, her thoughts running as she stared at him.

’Will you really still end Vulcan even if it might end up hurting my brother too?’

"Xen, stop staring at Nikolai. It makes me uncomfortable," Darius suddenly complained. "It’s not like he’s more handsome than I am."

Mineah’s thoughts snapped themselves back to reality upon hearing those comments from the werewolf king. Quickly, she focused her attention on eating while her mind continued to wander into making a few contingency plans. She couldn’t allow Nikolai to hurt her brother!

Nikolai chuckled. Looking at Darius with a broad smile, he said, "Look at you showing how possessive you are around your mate. Tsk... Don’t stop her from admiring other beauties than you, my friend."

Still grinning, King Nikolai shook his head, baffled eyes still at Darius as he added, "I still can’t believe that you’re the same old friend of mine seeing the way you’re acting right now. I see a total change. You didn’t even bother to look at any other women before. But now..."

He shook his head with a smirk, "I guess being head over heels in love did bring out the most hilarious man inside you."

Mineah could feel her sister’s gaze on her, but she ignored the banter in favor of keeping herself busy with eating. She wasn’t in the mood to participate in the conversation, not while she was still too worried about her brother.