章節 8: Back to the Palace

General Osmond was slowly riding downhill towards the Palace in the horse that he stole. The dangerous road of the Hill of Grimmer Death was about to come to an end and he would soon reach the outer village.

However, the closer he rode towards the Palace, the heavy his guilty conscience was becoming. "How am I going to enter the Palace after the crime that I've just committed? How am I going to face the King? How am I going to face my own family after committing such a horrible crime?" Several thoughts like these were already rooted deep down in his heart by now.

At one point he even felt like rushing back to the Devil's Cave to get back the Princess. But he resisted this urge by thinking about his own daughter, who would be killed by Queen Lillian if he did not follow her order.

After riding for some time, General Osmond arrived at the outer village. The village was now silent, everyone asleep in their own humble houses. The lantern that he took with him earlier was already out of fire. But the moonlight that shone through the clear night led him forward.

Osmond went back to the stable from where he had stolen the horse. He quietly tied the horse in its own place, and patted and thanked the horse for safely bringing him back from the dangerous trip. He then walked towards the Palace, unaware of what destiny awaited for him there.

Theodore was teleported to his own room within a few seconds. Princess Adeline was still deep in her dreamland, tired from her long journey. Theodore ran his gaze towards his little friend and then inched his steps forward to the Princess who was lying on his bed.

He sat down on the soft quilt of his bed facing towards Adeline. The Princess still had invisibility spell on her. Theodore placed his palm on Adeline's forehead. Suddenly, his golden eyes turned red while he absorbed the invisibility spell's power, ultimately breaking the spell.

"That was enough power to last the spell for weeks. The one who cast this spell must be a powerful witch or wizard. I wonder who that might be and if that person is still inside the Palace." Theodore mumbled to himself.

If only he had given some interest in the affairs of the human world or at the very least the Kingdom where his cave lied, then he would have known who the culprit was. There was only one powerful witch who resided in the Palace.

He had already taken a liking to his little human friend. So even though he didn't know about the culprit, he took a measure to protect Princess Adeline. He placed his index, middle, and ring fingers in the middle of Adeline's forehead and his eyes turned blood red again.

He had transferred a smallest ounce of his demonic power inside of Adeline. The Princess squinted her eyes in her sleep when such great power flowed inside of her. Theodore caressed her silver hair with his other hand to calm her down.

The presence of such power inside a human's body would not only make the human stronger, it would also protect that human from the effect of other magic, regardless of the source.

Theodore had never been this generous to anyone else before. Sharing his power with others also meant that it would create a kind of unbreakable bond between him and the other party. And he didn't want to bear the burden. But in order to prevent something like this happening again to his friend in the future, he didn't hesitate to share his power.

After the transfer was complete, Theodore slowly removed the blanket that was covering the Princess and then softly carried her in his arm.

He took one last look at the little human who had intrigued him and then whispered, "Until we meet again, little human." Then he waved his hand around and immediately teleported to the Palace. He reappeared in Adeline's own chamber because it was the only empty place right now.

Theodore placed the Princess in her own bed and tucked her in the blanket. He performed the hand gesture to make himself invisible and then waited for someone to find the Princess.

He waited patiently for about a minute but then he was agitated. "Why isn't anyone here already?" He mumbled in irritation and then decided to make some noise. He looked to his side and found a large vase.

"What's the point in keeping a vase in a toddler's room? It is going to break anyway." He glanced towards the Princess who was sleeping very soundly and said, "Sorry little Princess." And then he picked up the vase only to crash it loudly on the floor.

Adeline woke up from her dreamland because she was scared from the loud noise in her room. She immediately started to cry very loudly.

Theodore felt bad for making his favorite human cry. But he wanted to get back to his room as soon as possible. In a few seconds, a maid who was nearby came running to the room when she heard the loud crash followed by a child crying.

When she peeked inside the room, she was shocked to see that the Princess was in her own bed, crying. She was shocked because several maids, including her, had checked each and every corner of the Princess's room already and had confirmed that the Princess was not in her room.

The maid didn't waste any seconds to go inside the room and calm down the Princess. She immediately dashed off towards the King's Court. She knew that the King had bad temper. She thought that if she was the one to give him the good news, then maybe he would not punish her for not finding the Princess in her own room earlier when they searched.

The King had a sense of defeat on his face. He was sitting on his golden throne that was placed on an elevated stage in the front of the King's Court. The throne had designs of dragon carved on it. Heads of dragon were protruding from each arm rests. The seat was covered with soft red quilt to make it comfortable.

And in front of the throne was a golden table with similar designs as that of the throne. The table would be placed in front of the throne only when the King had to look after some paper works. At the moment, he was writing an official search order. It was to be given to the section of his soldiers who were ready to go out on a search.

Right when the King was about to place his seal on the order, the maid reached in front of the King's Court and shouted, "Your Majesty! We found the Princess."

The King immediately got up from his elaborate throne and climbed down the steps. He moved his feet quickly to reach in front of the maid and ordered, "Where is she? Take me there immediately."