Page 230 of The White King's Favorite

“Thanks... We’ll just pretend that’s true when your cousin’s around, please? I don’t mind my Queen saving the day, but I know she’s going to give me hell for just lying there and my ego can only take so much bruising at once...”

“Ashen, stop talking. Just get on.”

The truth was, Cessilia knew he was already in a bad condition when they had gotten here. It was impressive he had managed so well and won against dozens of men when most wouldn’t even have been able to get up... Even with the dose of poison he had received, she thought he was still surprisingly fine. He could barely stand, and his complexion wasn’t too good, but she had really feared for his life all along.

Even now, he was still standing and gently pushed her hand away when she was trying to have him get on the Silver Dragon.

“No,” he said. “We have to stop the fights first.”

“We can have Cece do it after. For now–”

“No, we have to stop the Yekara from fighting. Now,” he insisted.

To Cessilia’s surprise, he walked away from her, and stumbled all the way to Yebekh’s body, grabbing the dead man by his hair. His eyes stopped for a moment to glance at his adopted brother. For a very brief moment, Cessilia thought she saw a melancholic expression in his eyes, but when he turned around, it was already gone. He walked back up to her, pulling Yebekh’s body.

“...What are you going to do?” she asked, confused.

“I have a formula that works... Let’s get to the plaza.”

Cessilia helped him get on Cece. The Silver Dragon tried to take a bite of Yebekh’s body, without success, and took off with an annoyed growl. As they rose higher in the sky, they both got a better view of the half-destroyed castle. It was truly a mess down there, with two towers wrecked, and possibly much more damage than they could see.

“...I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“Don’t worry. I never really liked this place anyway... and we can always build a better one. One you’ll enjoy living in.”

Cessilia smiled and nodded. It would have almost been a romantic moment if they didn’t have a third and dead passenger with them...

Cece effortlessly took them to the plaza where the fight was still going on, although clearly ending. Just like they had already predicted, the Yekara were unwilling to stop fighting despite their defeat growing more and more obvious. That’s when Ashen pushed Yebekh’s body off Cece’s back.

It took a couple of seconds to violently hit the ground below, provoking a surprise amongst the fighters. Everybody stopped, as the body had been dropped right in the middle of the plaza. The closest people immediately recognized his face, and soon, the word spread that Lord Yebekh was dead.

“Yekara!” shouted Ashen. “Your leader is dead! If you don’t drop your weapons now, you will all suffer the same fate!”

It took a few seconds, and many of the Yekara fighters gathered to see the body for themselves. Some exchanged words between themselves but as soon as one of them dropped their weapons, many others did the same. Soon enough, they saw many pairs of hands in the air, the Yekara troops capitulating.

Cessilia found her cousin on the other side, who was grimacing, shaking her sword.

“Damn it, Cessi, you party-pooper!”

Chapter 30

“...Ashen, you should go get treated,” Cessilia muttered, gently patting his shoulder.

“I’m fine,” he shook his head. “We need to get where your brother is and stop the fight there too if possible...”

“There’s no need.”

To their surprise, Kian suddenly arrived with an excited growl, flying next to Cece, mounted by Kassian.

“We’re done over there,” he said.

“Kassian!” exclaimed Cessilia, surprised. “Already?”

“A lot of them were mostly trying to regroup at their headquarters, but it seems like someone already set it on fire...”

“On fire?”

Kassian’s eyes went to the other side of the battlefield, where Cessilia found Nana and Darsan together, chatting excitedly. She turned her eyes back to Tessandra, who shrugged.

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