章節 232: The horror of their reality

Especially the child with skin only a shade darker from Lina had trouble adhering to the rules and seemed about to not only look up to seek eye contact without permission but even dare to speak up!

"..."

But then the woman next to the child reached to the side and grabbed their hand, giving them a stern squeeze before taking it away and instead placing a smoked fish on the child's plate, seemingly to take their mind off the subject.

"My youngest seems keen to talk to Lina~ Go ahead and ask her about what's bothering you, Heath, Prince."

"...!"

Shocking quite literally everyone, the cedar-red-skinned monarch turned his head to the left and nodded at the child, giving them permission to hold a conversation… or rather a monologue.

"Th-thank you, father, King…! Um-umm… Older sister Lina, h-how come you speak so confidently about being chosen…? As you said, the Sacred Tree didn't pick a member of the royal family for over three hundred years already…"

The young boy trembled before glancing briefly at his mother and then bowing his head to his father to only then turn to Lina and ask her fearfully…

"..."

…only to look back at his father once more in hopes that his question would be deemed worthy of permission to answer.

"Haaah… such a bore…"

"!!!"

The monarch ended up raising one hand to rub his forehead and sighed in disappointment, causing the child to tremble like a leaf in the wind and stare down at his knees while his ears - profoundly longer and more pointy than any other royal - dropped down all the way to his shoulders over disappointing his father.

"I forbid anyone from asking Lina about anything regarding that subject."

"!?"

The monarch added, causing the others to freeze up in shock - that included Lina, who certainly wasn't used to such favorable treatment from the cedar-red-skinned man.

"Let's eat in peace."

He then cut short the time for talking and reached out for a lamb leg.

After the meal that ended when the cedar-red-skinned monarch walked out of the dining room, all the others followed suit while sending Lina a wide arrangement of stares - from favorable ones all the way to hateful.

She didn't particularly mind since neither she nor anyone else, for that matter, could do anything about the selfishness of their monarch, but she did feel uneasy.

She ended up timing her exit with Jasper.

"..."

The briar-skinned man with green hair with red streaks glared at her but said nothing.

"An inchie flew into my room and announced that the Sacred Tree made a decision."

"...!"

Even while being clearly ignored, Lina breathed out and said, causing Jasper's ear to twitch.

"It really isn't anything malicious."

"...we'll know for sure before the sunset…"

She added, and after a moment of hesitation, the briar-wood-skinned elf sighed.

"That's it then. Have a nice day."

Lina nodded at him and hastened her step.

"You need to be careful around him."

"...?"

But then, unexpectedly, Jasper reached his hand to the side, stopping her and leaning in to whisper into her ear.

"...the man who is single-handedly responsible for turning the royal family tree into a wreath isn't favorable towards anyone without having some ulterior motives…"

"...!"

Jasper added, causing Lina's skin to crawl because of the implication.

He then leaned back, giving Lina a single meaningful stare before turning away and walking off in the other direction.

Certainly, Jasper's warning weighed heavily on Lina's mind.

The previous anticipation and happiness about being chosen by the Sacred Tree paled in comparison to being chosen by the elvenkin monarch.

In the worst way possible, unfortunately.

What was said about the royal family tree being a wreath wasn't completely true, but it was close enough of a comparison to be terrifying.

Truly, it wasn't something that Lina wanted to think about, although she couldn't help as everything would remind her of it.

Even the food.

The elvenkin royal family enjoying various dishes, most of which weren't plant-based, wasn't only a sign of debauchery - although that was exactly what most servants and commoners believed to be the case.

No.

Simply said, the genes of the royal family members ended up degenerating to such degree that their stomachs could no longer take enough sustenance and necessary vitamins and minerals from a plant-based diet alone.

Lina wasn't an exception to that phenomenon either, of course.

And neither was her youngest stepbrother, the only child in the current royal family who didn't die during pregnancy, birth, or infancy.

The cedar-red-skinned monarch was a mutation in the first place. Besides being born with perfect color out of the three most sought-after ones, his ability was something that should not have appeared in a species other than a particular demon subtype.

That is Vampires.

Because the elvenkin monarch's ability was Bloodkin Control.

And the more blood ties were shared, the higher the control was.

After ruling for over a thousand years, there was literally no one within the royal family who could oppose him.

That fact was also the reason why Jasper's warning was so terrifying to Lina.

Amongst the myriad of rules imposed by the Bloodkin Control, the monarch's kin could not badmouth or spin lies about him - as well as say anything negative about him to anyone outside the royal family, but that's beside the point…

And if lies and badmouthing wasn't allowed, wouldn't that mean that the monarch actually was interested in her?

"...!"

Lina flinched, staring at the exposed skin of her right hand, the color of the palest wood of the holly tree.

Could it be that after managing to have a child with Lina's mother, and have said child have skin lighter than the mother, the monarch has set his eyes on Lina, wishing to attempt the restoration of the skin shade of the perfect whitewood Lina's father boasted?!

Lina's closed her eyes and bit her lips, barely holding back the wave of nausea that hit her at the thought of that happening.

Her only hope was that the blessing of the Sacred Tree would offset the grip that the Bloodkin Control had on her, and something could be done.

Surely.

After all, the last time a member of the royal family was chosen was around three hundred years ago, shortly before Lina's birth.

It was also the time where the last member of the royal family capable of opposing the monarch was disposed of.

Honestly, the chances were slim, but Lina began to desperately cling to it now that she realized what spot she ended up in.

When the time has come, the fairest-skin elf stepped out of her room in a festive dress but with the aura of a criminal walking towards their execution grounds.

Lina wasn't escorted by the servant this time.

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章節 233: The ruler most vile and cruel

Servants weren't allowed to take even a single step into the passageway that led towards even the usual teleportation circle, not to mention the one linked to the highest platform high within the branches of the Sacred Tree.

"...?"

As Lina passed the first circle, she was confused as to why its keeper, a mahogany-skinned elven man, sent her a particularly hateful glare.

The holly-skinned woman could not, for her life, figure out what she could have done to earn such treatment.

Well, she did have a couple of ideas, but all were just baseless assumptions, and she didn't want to believe that there was even a single member of the royal family was actually on the cedar-red-skinned monarch's side.

Just because they both had red-adjacent skin meant nothing.

"...!"

But as Lina continued to move and made her way to the special teleportation circle, an answer presented itself to her.

"Took your time, didn't you?"

The cedar-red-skinned monarch in person emerged from the behind the Sacred Tree's root and called out to the holly-skinned woman whose blood run cold at the sight of him.

The monarch wasn't alone…

"No, no. Don't dread. You committed no sin. I found myself a little something to occupy the time till your arrival."

As he assured Lina with his benevolent smile, his left arm was laid across the shoulders of a cherry-wood-skinned elvenkin woman with eyes of a dead fish.

"...!"

Lina couldn't even muster a proper response.

The cherry-wood-skinned woman's robe was disheveled and torn in some places, her expression vacant as tears streamed down her face freely. The cedar-red-skinned monarch was basically dragging her along as she could barely limp her way. And once the two of them stopped in front of Lina, the monarch pulled the woman he held closer and unceremoniously grabbed her breast, causing her to flinch and squirm in silent despair as he started to fondle and play with it without any restraint.

*plop*

"!!!"

In the horrified silence, Lina could hear a drop of liquid drip down right between the cherry-wood-skinned woman's feet.

Too viscous and cloudy to be her tears…

…because a tear it was not…

"..."

The wave of nausea and fear hit Lina so hard that she swayed like a drunk who had one too many shots, feeling that she was about to faint.

But she couldn't say a thing - she wasn't given permission to.

But she couldn't back off and run or hide - no member of the royal family could walk away from the monarch once they were called out to.

"After today's breakfast, I was thinking that Jun's runt was rather cute. Those frail features and ears longer than his shoulders just stir up something within me. That's why I decided to go ahead and make another one. This one will not have to worry about the shade of their skin… Hope it will be a girl~"

"!!!"

The cedar-red-skinned monarch followed Lina's line of sight and chuckled, holding the cherry-skinned woman even closer and then placing his other hand on her stomach, sliding his fingers down in an obnoxious manner as his captive's eyes and chin trembled powerlessly.

*plop* *plop* *plop*

"Uh-oh~ Silly girl, spilling so much… If you want to receive more of my attention, you just have to ask~"

Because of the monarch's action, more of the liquid dripped between the cherry-wood-skinned woman's feet, spreading around the smell of chestnut flowers…

"...hfghhgfh…!"

...one whiff of which caused Lina to vomit - she tried to hold it back with both hands, but that only resulted in bile spilling out through her nose and fingers as she leaned forward.

"Tsk. Don't act like a child. You're free to go. Just make yourself presentable beforehand. I don't even know how you expect me to want to recreate the skin shade of your father with you... presenting yourself in such a disgraceful manner..."

It seems that the sight put off the cedar-red-skinned monarch as he clicked his tongue and shook his head at the holly-skinned woman, turning away and dragging the silently sobbing cherry-wood-skinned woman with him.

"No one is to follow or walk in on us."

He added offhandedly with a look of annoyance in his cold eyes.

"..."

*thump*

Staring at the monarch's back, Lina's legs gave out, and she plopped down to the ground, barely keeping her conscious.

What she prayed for to be the worst nightmarish scenario that the cedar-red-skinned monarch had in store for her ended up being confirmed in such a casual way as if the monarch really couldn't see the error of his ways.

"...it's your fault…"

"...!"

While Lina was trembling, succumbing into despair, she ended up being approached by the mahogany-skinned elvenkin man, and his words brought her back.

"...!?"

She stared at him in disbelief, her chin trembling as tears mixed with the specks of bile, unable to comprehend how such an accusation could have been thrown her way.

"...the only time His Majesty would show up here is to use the teleportation circle… It was the safest place for a woman to stay… but you… you just had to get His Majesty's attention…!"

"!!!"

The man gritted his teeth and sobbed while helping the horrified woman to stand back up to her feet.

"I… I… It wasn't on purpose… Do you think I would…!?"

"..."

The holly-skinned woman muttered in pure terror, trying to make eye contact with the mahogany-skinned man, but he looked away, taking out a handkerchief and handing it to her so she could clean her face.

"You…! You're talking as if neither of you two were there during breakfast! Why wasn't she sent away?! Are both of you that stupid!? Why didn't she hide before His Majesty arrived?! What, did your ears grow into your termites-filled brains and couldn't figure out something that simple?!"

"...that's rich coming from someone sharing a mother with a deformed retard…"

Met with such an unjust accusation, Lina desperately countered it, causing the mahogany-skinned elvenkin man to grit his teeth and clench his fists, scoffing back while glaring at her with disgust.

…by far, the most torturous thing that the cedar-red-skinned monarch ever did was not restrict access to information from the outside world to the members of the royal family…

Sooner or later, all of them learned how abhorrent and unnatural the monarch's practices were, how evil and repugnant he was, and in what kind of hell they were trapped.

"S… op…! Pl…se…"

The exchange of hateful words might have ended up turning into an act of violence… if not for the heartbreaking cry coming from behind the root where the cedar-red-skinned monarch dragged the cherry-wood-skinned woman.

"!!!"

"...hh-hggghnf…!"

The mahogany-skinned man lowered his head and almost bit through his lips, with the monarch's ability stopping him from even turning in the direction of the sound, while Lina dry-heaved slouching so much her head ended up lower than her waist.

Why… just why couldn't any of the representatives of the noble families from across Opaliteia be there at the time…

What sort of rotten luck allowed for such abhorrent events to occur, with elvenkin outside the royal family being none the wiser…?

It was almost as if the Opalitte family had been cursed...

No matter where the truth lay, Lina had the festival to attend.

As much as she wished to present herself as an absolute mess in hopes of sparking even the most minuscule inkling of suspicion, she was forced to fix her appearance before she stepped into the teleportation circle.

"..."

The two elvenkin stared at each other with disdain before the mahogany-skinned guardian poured mana into the teleportation circle and sent the holly-skinned woman through.