Chapter 10
He had found his excuse. His grip tightened. Elara struggled, her eyes pleading with me. “My lady… you said…
you would save me.”
I fanned myself languidly. “Did I not say that you must kill the other? You must have misheard, Elara.”
She never expected that I, who had always been so merciful, would now play such a cruel game. She tried to
speak again, but her breath grew shallow, then stopped completely. Her eyes were wide open in death.
Valerius trembled, staring at the body of his beloved mistress, the woman he had killed with his own hands.
But he did not hesitate for long. He crawled to me, his gaze almost worshipful.
“Lyra, I knelt at your door for three days to win your hand. You know I love you. I was simply bewitched by these vixens. Do not worry. Those other children… I will not spare a single one. If you do not like them, I will
kill them.”
D
“We can go back to how we were before. Remember my peach blossom wine? You always loved it. I will brew it for you every spring. And our child… do you want a boy or a girl? We can have another.”
“I will resign as Captain of the Guard. I will stay by your side. You always wanted to travel, to see the mounta- ins and the rivers. I will go with you. Whatever you want to do, I will be there.”
Such familiar words. In my last life, I had begged him with similar pleas. He hadn’t even looked at me, his eyes full of grief for the dead Elara. And now, his eyes were full of me. It was absurdly comical.
I had no desire to hear any more of his promises. I had finally learned that a man’s vows are only valid when you have power, or when he truly loves you. Otherwise, they are cheaper than the refuse in the street.
I sat up straight and, under Valerius’s desperate, hateful gaze, spoke.
“Lord Valerius and his mistress, Lady Elara, had a violent altercation in their home. By the time they were
discovered, they were both dead.”
My words were a quiet, simple pronouncement that explained everything. The servants in the room were not fools. They knew whose orders to follow. Ignoring Valerius’s screams, they dragged him away as if it were a
common occurrence.
I finally pushed open the doors of this gloomy house and stepped into the sunlight. This was the manor the King had granted me, the estate of the Lady Protector. For a woman, it was an unparalleled honor. But I wan-
ted more. I wanted a divorce from Valerius.
I found the children Elara had spoken of. I don’t know what Valerius had taught them, but the moment they saw me, they started screaming that they would beat me. I showed them no mercy. After all, Valerius ́had shown none to my child.
After dealing with that, I took the writ of divorce, signed with Valerius’s own handprint, to the magistrate. A woman divorcing her husband was a first in the kingdom. As the people pointed and whispered, Valerius was slowly starving to death in his prison. I heard that to sate his hunger, he had begun to eat his own flesh.
Just as I was leaving the magistrate’s office, a new royal decree arrived.
My father was declared innocent, his name cleared and recorded in the royal annals. I was officially the Lady Protector, my name also etched into the history books.
As for Valerius, the King said nothing when he heard of his death, only commanding that his body be thrown into a pauper’s grave, with no proper burial.
I was finally free.
