"Alex, take Ariana and her highness Eva with you and show them around the garden. This matter will be discussed among adults." Grand Duke Shane said as he looked into Alex's eyes with an expression that brooked no refusal.
Alex, who was torn between being unable to speak and not knowing what to say to the emperor to stop the discussion from escalating any further, wanted to shake his head and dismiss his father's words entirely. After all, this matter involved him directly, and from the way the discussion was progressing, he stood to lose something very close to him, his marriage with the princess. Before he could utter a single word, a loud voice cut him off.
"Who said my daughter will leave this hall? She will need to hear what I have laid out for her future, after all she is the very centre of this discussion." Emperor James said and then turned toward his daughter, adding with something close to disappointment, "Also, what are you doing here? Should you not be attending your classes?"
Princess Eva, whose face had already drained of color, became even more tense under the intense gaze of the emperor. "Father, Princip-" her words stopped mid-track as Sera ejected herself into the conversation, unable to bear witness any longer to the princess's silent struggle.
"Principal Toren himself approved her leave, your majesty." Grand Duchess Sera said, trying to calm the emperor and ease the princess even just a little, for the princess looked like nothing more than a hollow ghost at that moment. Her face looked as though every drop of blood had been drained out of her, her plump pink lips had turned grayish with a hue bordering on dark, her eyes visibly trembling and her fists clenched tightly in her lap.
The emperor nodded his head and turned toward Sera, adding with a voice that flared with slight irritation, "But I did not ask you, Grand Duchess."
Shane was almost ready to rebuke the emperor for his rudeness toward Sera, but Sera took Shane's arm into her own, desperately trying to stop the situation from escalating any further.
What in the world is happening? How could the emperor be this rude?
And, Alex was utterly shocked seeing his father's expression, which bordered on the verge of explosion at the emperor's sheer audacity, while meanwhile the emperor sat back with an impassive expression that showed he was not affected by the situation in the least.
The emperor's face was void of any emotion, and only in the rarest of moments did he ever show something resembling feeling. He carried himself like a man above mortal affairs, as though he had transcended humanity itself, yet somehow Alex felt that the emperor's image was nothing more than a facade, one carefully constructed to hide something deep and unspoken from the world.
"Your majesty, you cannot speak to my wife like that. I will not tolerate it." Shane said with long, steady breaths, his black eyes meeting the emperor's gaze evenly and without flinching.
"Old friend, you should know that she was the one who interjected while I was speaking with my daughter. Since you are among my oldest friends, I will let it pass this time, but I will not tolerate such a thing again in future." The emperor said with a voice that seemed to mock the very notion that he had been the rude one.
Shane's face darkened, and with a commanding voice that took no refusal, he said, "Alex, take Ariana back to her room. We will discuss this among ourselves from here on."
"Bu-" Before Alex could even begin to refuse, Sera turned toward him with a pleading gaze, visibly unable to contain the situation that was rapidly escalating into something that looked as though it could shatter apart at any given moment.
With a reluctant nod, Alex took his little sister's hand. Ariana stood from the sofa just as unwillingly as he had moved, and together they exited the drawing room, his sister turning her head every few seconds to glance back at the hall, clearly desperate to know what would unfold in their absence.
***
Alex dashed back the moment he had sent Ariana safely to her room, leaving her with firm instructions that she was not to leave under any circumstances.
He immediately appeared near the drawing room.
Alex stood at the doorway of the drawing room, pressing his body close against the wall just beside the entry door and turning his head just enough to peer inside, trying to catch the thread of whatever was being discussed. He wanted nothing more than to walk inside and join them, but seeing how explicitly his father had stated that they would discuss the matter among themselves, he held himself back and listened from the shadows.
"Your son disappoints me, Shane. I thought he would be a fine prospect for my daughter, but he has turned out to be nothing more than a clown, despite how potently the black dragon's blood flows through his veins." Emperor James said, his voice carrying full disappointment, though it seemed directed more at himself for having misjudged Alex's potential than at Alex's failings alone.
Shane's fists clenched tightly at his sides, his face contorting with barely restrained fury, and before he could lash out at the emperor for daring to call Alex a clown, Sera spoke with a voice that almost spat venom, "He is not a clown."
"He is." Emperor James said plainly, and the room turned a blazing crimson as blood-red fire erupted from behind Shane's back, roaring and writhing like something alive and enraged. The emperor did not flinch, did not even blink, and added without a trace of fear for the man whose very back was spitting fire, "And so I have decided to annul the engagement."
"Father, I will not agree to this!" Princess Eva screamed and shot to her feet, tears streaming freely down her cheeks as she looked at the emperor with raw desperation. "You cannot do this."
The emperor silenced his daughter with a slow shake of his head, his expression etched with a disappointment that cut deeper than anger, "I would never have allowed this marriage even at the cost of my death had I known he was nothing more than a shell with no potential. He is a worthless clown."
In the span of a single blink, Shane appeared directly before the emperor, the blade of his Darkred sword pressed to the emperor's throat. Dark blood-like fire erupted completely from Shane's body, scorching the room in suffocating heat, but the emperor caught the blade bare-handed before its tip could so much as graze his skin.
"Stop your nonsense." Shane snarled, his eyes burning with fury, while the emperor looked back at him with nothing more than an expression of vague amusement.
***
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