Primordial Villain with a Slave Harem

Chapter 1092: Differing Opinions

"Get out," Alexios growled at the guards with a tone they’d never heard their king ever use before. His voice was not loud. It didn’t need to be. The walls themselves seemed to tremble beneath it.

The royal guards hesitated, uncertain if they should obey the king over their queen.

"Can it not wait?" Morgana sighed while tapping her fingers against the armrest of her chair. Her voice carried the weight of exasperation rather than fear, as though her husband’s intrusion was little more than a bothersome interruption. "I’m in the middle of something important."

"Something... important?" Alexios’s voice rumbled with disbelief at the attitude he was seeing. His chest rose and fell like a furnace about to burst. His hand clenched his sword hilt tighter than ever before.

Her expression became unreadable, and her poise sharpened, fully aware of every ounce of tension in the air. For all her reputation as a recluse and a hedonist, she was not blind. Even a drunk could have read the fury in Alexios’s eyes, the wrath in his very presence.

Yet still, she did not relent. She did not think of her husband as her superior but as her equal. She did not bow to anyone, nor was she intimidated by anyone.

"Yes," she replied coolly. "Something very important. Devil was almost caught. My royal guard even touched the ankle of the one we believe to be the blond dogkin from the feast, based on several factors, which would mean we nearly secured one of his wives. One step more, and we would have cornered him."

Her hand curled into a fist, frustration finally bleeding through her mask of calm. "I was waiting for him to appear. I even pursued that fragile woman myself for a day or two. But I thought he didn’t take the bait, or I misunderstood, and he didn’t have a connection to the woman, so I left one of my captains and her unit to watch the trail and returned to my other duties. What an unlucky timing that one was. I only missed him by a day."

Her voice sharpened into a hiss. "A single day... and now I’m back to having no leads. He scurried away to only the Goddess knows where."

Her gaze slid sideways, landing on Cassandra.

The kneeling captain’s head was pressed low to the floor, with her bruises visible even under the armor she wore. Liora had made sure to leave enough wounds to help sell the story. As for Cassandra, she didn’t move, didn’t even breathe too loudly. She continued staring at the floor beneath her while sporting an ashen expression.

Alexios stared at his wife in utter disbelief. His chest tightened until it felt like his heart would shatter under its own weight.

For several long seconds, he simply stood there with his hand still trembling on the hilt of his sword.

Then, with a slow exhale, he shut his eyes.

The room held its breath with him.

When they opened again, those steel-grey eyes were not the eyes of a husband. They were the eyes of a king prepared to do what was necessary.

The scrape of steel rang harshly as Alexios drew his blade in full.

He leveled it toward his wife.

"Morgana," his voice, when it came, was steady, low, even. But the weight behind it struck harder than any roar. "Explain yourself this instant, or I will have no choice but to arrest you for treason."

The silence that followed was shattered by gasps. Sharp, uncontrolled, disbelieving. The guards stiffened, frozen in place as if their bodies had turned to stone. A few even pinched their arms, certain they must be trapped in some dream or ensnared in an illusion. To see their king draw steel against their queen... such a thing should have been impossible.

From her throne above, Morgana raised a single eyebrow.

"Leave." Her tone was calm, almost bored. "All of you. Wait outside."

But then she added with a tone that promised nothing good, "If so much as a whisper of what you heard escapes these walls, heads will fly."

The guards flinched involuntarily, feeling as if an executioner’s blade had already fallen on their necks.

Andre, commander of the royal guard, was the first to move. He stood from his kneeling position and bowed stiffly. "Yes, Your Majesty."

He then looked at his subordinates. "You heard Her Majesty. Outside. Now."

The tall man turned on his heel as his men scrambled to obey. The clatter of armor and boots soon faded until Andre himself stood at the door. He bowed once more, this time to both monarchs. "Majesties." Then he withdrew, shutting the great doors behind him. ṜΆꞐȫ𝔟Еꞩ

Now, only Alexios and Morgana remained.

"Explain myself to you?" Morgana’s voice was smooth, mocking even, as her eyes narrowed. "I’m a traitor?" She let out a low, humorless chuckle. "I didn’t expect that right after turning one thousand, you’d become senile, Alexios."

Her gaze moved toward the sword leveled at her.

"I used a civilian—who was never harmed—to bait and capture a known criminal. How exactly does that make me a traitor? I’m not following."

Alexios’s expression didn’t budge. His eyes, hard as tempered steel, bore into hers.

"Then tell me," he demanded as his voice dropped with restrained fury. "What exactly was your plan if you had captured the robed woman you believed to be the dogkin?"

"Why, use the bigger fish to lure the shark, of course. Isn’t it obvious?"

The answer cut deeper into the king’s heart than the sharpest blade ever could.

Alexios’s heart twisted painfully in his chest, but he did not lower his sword. "You’ve forgotten something. Devil has our daughter."

His voice broke for the first time, pain bleeding through. "At best, your scheme would end in a hostage exchange. At worst, if something happened to the dogkin, Felicity’s life would be forfeit."

The anguish in his voice rose. "I know men like Devil. They are fiercely protective of their families. To him, Felicity may be little more than an amusing pawn, something novel, but if you push him, if you threaten his kin, he would not hesitate to use our daughter to take revenge on us."

Alexios’s throat tightened as he forced the words out. "Do you not care about that? Tell me! If you had her in your grasp, would you protect Felicity with an exchange? Or would you still try to lure Devil out instead, no matter the cost?!"