Chapter 85: The Purple Lily

"What story?" Elias asked, turning his head slightly toward Stella.

"Any story," she answered immediately, her crimson eyes shining with anticipation.

Elias frowned thoughtfully before sending a Mental Whisper toward Natasha.

[She is asking me to tell her a story.]

Natasha looked at him quietly, and Elias glanced at her for a moment before his expression softened.

The reason he had Natasha sleep beside him since the first day was not because he expected anything from her. He simply wanted her to feel cared for, heard, thought of, and protected, because people liked to say that sometimes silence was the greatest answer, but what was so great about it when all you had was silence?

Natasha had lived in that silence for years, and Elias did not want it to consume her. Not anymore.

Natasha looked at him, and her fingers moved toward the notebook resting on her abdomen, but Elias gently stopped them with a slight touch before sending another Mental Whisper.

[I have many stories I can tell her. What I want to know is whether you want to hear it as well.]

Natasha’s golden eyes trembled slightly as his words entered her mind, and after a brief pause, her expression softened before she gave him a small nod.

Elias smiled.

On the other side of him, Stella frowned as she looked between the two of them.

"What is wrong?" she asked. "Why are you silent?"

Elias chuckled and turned toward her.

"Do you want to listen to my favorite story?" he asked.

"Oh?" Stella’s eyes brightened immediately, and she tightened her hold around his arm as she asked, "What is it about?"

"It is the story of a princess who came to be known as the Purple Lily because of her kind nature and brilliant mind."

"Princess...?" Stella’s eyes widened before she hugged his arm even more tightly. "Tell me! Tell me!"

Pain immediately coursed through Elias’s arm, and he quickly placed his left hand against her shoulder.

"Relax," he said with a helpless smile. "I am telling you."

"Okay," Stella replied, loosening her grip.

Elias quietly exhaled in relief before looking toward the ceiling and recalling the story exactly as his childhood maidservant had once told it to him.

"She was a princess belonging to the Dracarian Royal Family," Elias began, his voice becoming calmer as he slipped into the rhythm of storytelling.

"She was born with the distinctive bright purple hair, which was once the mark of the Dracarians, just like Crimson hair is the mark of the Crimsons."

Natasha’s eyes remained fixed on him as she listened.

[Since her birth, she could understand and remember things beyond what a child should, and she possessed a mind beyond most of us. She was also the one who created the quill you use.]

Natasha blinked in surprise.

[A quill that contains its own ink. It is simple, yet no one thought of it before her.]

Her expression became slightly impressed as she glanced toward her notebook and quill.

"But what she was known for the most was her ability to deal with problems in ways that no one else could even think of," Elias continued.

"How?!" Stella asked enthusiastically.

Elias glanced toward her before placing a finger against her lips.

"I am getting to it," he said.

Stella stared at his finger for a moment before slightly opening her lips and licking it with the front edge of her tongue.

Elias immediately pulled his hand back.

His expression became utterly dumbfounded.

’What the fuck?!’

"Do not silence me," she said with a huff. "Hmph!"

Elias shook his head helplessly before continuing.

"She was loved by both noblemen and commoners. Many described her as having a heart of gold, while others said that her black eyes were warmer than burning flames."

Stella listened quietly this time, and Natasha’s attention remained focused entirely on him.

"Once upon a time, she traveled to the coastal city of Elnare," Elias continued. "It is a city on the southern shore of the Dracarian Kingdom, and it is frequently ravaged by tides traveling toward the north."

[She solved the problem by creating walls and structures that weakened the tides before they reached the city, and she also created a drainage system far beyond any Scholar’s comprehension.]

Elias smiled faintly as he remembered the story.

[It was almost like magic because she used the tides to fight the tides. Even I do not know how she came up with something like that.]

Natasha’s impressed expression deepened.

Stella, however, suddenly narrowed her crimson eyes.

Elias noticed her reaction and frowned.

"What is the problem now?" he asked.

"Why are you praising another woman while sleeping with us?!" Stella hissed.

Elias froze.

He stared at her in complete silence, unable to understand how the conversation had somehow reached that conclusion.

His expression became increasingly exasperated as he looked at the woman clinging to his arm.

’Perhaps my past decision of not letting her sleep in my room had done me far more good than I realized.’

Before he could respond, Stella suddenly giggled.

"Hehe, I am just joking."

Elias stared at her.

"..."

He eventually sighed and returned to the story.

[Anyways, when the tides finally ended, the people discovered a lily growing near the places that were usually destroyed. From then on, the lily became synonymous with her name, and everywhere she went, people began calling her the Purple Lily.]

Elias continued telling them about the princess, describing the astonishing things she had accomplished throughout her life and the countless problems she had solved through nothing more than her intelligence and creativity.

The more he spoke, the quieter the two women became.

Eventually, Elias reached the final part of the story.

"As for her name, it was..."

His voice faded as he turned his head.

Stella had fallen asleep.

Her crimson hair was spread across the pillow, and her arms remained loosely wrapped around his arm.

Elias then looked toward Natasha.

She had fallen asleep as well.

Her peaceful face was turned slightly toward him, and her golden eyes were closed beneath delicate lashes.

Elias stared at the two sleeping women in disbelief.

"Huh?" he mumbled. "How can they sleep while listening to such an interesting story?"

Stella suddenly shifted in her sleep, moving one of her legs across Elias before mumbling something incoherently.

"Go away, stupid auntie..."

Elias shook his head with an amused smile before settling more comfortably against the pillow and closing his eyes.

’I will go to Priest Mekah in the morning.’

With that final thought, Elias gradually drifted into sleep.

However, his morning came far earlier than usual.

Right at dawn, a hurried knock echoed through the room.

Knock. Knock.

Elias’s eyes slowly opened.

For several seconds, he stared at the ceiling without moving, his mind still clouded by sleep.

Then Benjamin’s worried voice came from the other side of the door.

"My lord," the old butler said anxiously, "we have knights standing at our gates!"

- - -

AN: Since the beginning of the Purple Lily story, he has been using Mental Whisper while also speaking out loud in this Chapter.