The Crown's Entrapment

[Third day inside the Element Forest]

Xenia stilled in her sleep, smiling at the comfort that she was feeling. Moving to the side, her arms tried to hug Darius, only for them to fail as open-air greeted her embrace. At that instant, she opened her eyes, blinking as reality sank in.

“Good morning, Princess Xenia.”

Xenia instantly jolted up from her bed, quickly turning her head to where the voice had come from. Seeing Devas, her eyes widened. Sitting on the other side of the bed, the guardian was staring at her with a wide smile, his human form dressed properly in one of the many Cordonian outfits she had seen being usually worn in the kingdom.

“Gorgeous, right? Cordon brought us many of these during the trials,” Devas chuckled. “They’re quite impressive with bribing us, don’t you think? And can you guess what’s the most interesting thing I got amongst the gifts I happened to pick?”

Xenia looked around, her eyes taking in her surroundings before roaming onto herself, her eyes widening even further the more she looked.

“My clothes!” she burst out in terror.

“Don’t worry, my servants were the ones who bathed and changed your clothes to new ones last night,” Devas explained with obvious amusement.

“Huh? I don’t understand. How could they clean me up without me knowing it?” she exclaimed with a frown.

She wasn’t pleased to hear what Devas had just said. If Darius ever found out about this, he would go haywire.

Stretching out his lips and showing his perfect white teeth, Devas explained, “You lost consciousness after a few drinks, Princess. I then took you into my humble home since I’d feel bad if I let you sleep inside a cave.”

He chuckled. “And on the uncomfortable ground too? That simply won’t do. And apparently, you also reeked, so I instructed my female servants to bathe you and then changed your clothes. Besides, don’t you like what you’re wearing? It’s one of Cordon’s outfits, and I do believe that you look great in it.”

“Servants?” Xenia murmured. As far as she was concerned, there were no humans living inside the Element Forest. Even inside the Basilisk’s palace, she saw no humans running around, so she found herself wondering how Saha even managed to prepare all those foods for her alone.

Sensing her question, Devas snapped his fingers. At his command, the door swung open, and Xenia’s eyes widened upon seeing female human servants entering with trays of food before they arranged it upon the table. She then turned to Devas with a frown, waiting for an explanation.

“We’re powerful creatures, so performing easy magic is way too easy for us to do,” Devas chuckled. “These aren’t humans though. Rather, they’re animals that I’ve temporarily turned into humans to assist me. Aren’t they more pleasing to the eyes? Their form won’t last longer than a day though. Saha and I often use this kind of magic since humans are more pleasing to the eyes compared to other creatures.”

Xenia let out a relieved sigh. Devas were indeed generous, but she clearly shouldn’t put her guard down too much. Osman had warned her enough about the guardians, not to mention how she read the history of previous trials.

This Sphinx had a habit of playing with women in his trials, especially with those who he had come into liking. Those who weren’t up to his taste would usually die easily whenever they got a wrong answer in his riddles.

“Come,” Devas offered as he stood up. “Let’s have breakfast.”

At his insistence, Xenia followed as she stood up, walking with him before sitting on the chair that he had pulled out for her. At the very least, these guardians had some considerations with treating their intruders nicely before throwing them into the trials.

Still, Xenia couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable with the way Devas was looking at her with too much interest. Somehow, that didn’t sit well with her, and it simply won’t do her good to watch him do such a thing.

“Let’s eat, shall we?” he encouraged as he even put food on her plate.

“Please, I can do this myself,” Xenia insisted as her eyes darted towards the black raven perched on the shoulder of one of the servants standing not far away from them. With a breath, she insisted, “My husband is watching me, and I don’t want to worry him.”

Her words made Devas laugh hard. “I-I’m sorry, it’s just that I can already see from your reaction that the King of Cordon might be somewhat of a possessive type. But then…” He paused as he also turned to the raven with a playful smile, his smirk dancing provocatively on his lips. “He’s not here, is he?”

Blinking, Xenia didn’t like where the conversation was going, and she definitely couldn’t afford to offend the Sphinx as well. Deftly, she said, “You mentioned something earlier about what the most interesting thing in your gifts was?”

She held her breath as she waited. Hopefully, her question would divert the uncomfortable talking away from her person.

As if taking the hint, Devas started eating first, which signaled to her that she should also start eating.

“Well, I saw a letter in one of the gifts,” Devas recounted. “Isn’t that interesting?”

The guardian then signaled for a servant to hand him the letter in question. He then casually gave it to her for her to read. Scanning its contents, Xenia’s face dimmed the further she read into the letter.

Devas on the other hand simply looked at the raven and amusingly said, “Looks like someone from Cordon doesn’t want the Princess to successfully come out of the Element Forest alive. Aren’t you looking down on the Princess of Ebodia too much for some of you to give such an offer for her precious life?”

He then turned back to Xenia and said, “I wonder what’s the reason for that request? Could it be because of envy or greed? Or perhaps both?”

He chuckled. “Those two deadly sins are everywhere, and one doesn’t simply void them out of this world. However, throughout the history of this forest and the trials that had happened, none of us guardians have ever encountered such hideous requests.”

He kept on rambling, “That made me think about something… That even if you came out of here alive and succeed there, someone in that kingdom will surely do everything that they can to bring you down. Don’t you think so, Princess Xenia?”

With a blank expression on her face, Xenia proceeded to crumple the piece of parchment without a word. She then threw the ball paper behind her without a care in the world before she started eating as if she hadn’t read anything noteworthy.

“Hmmm, interesting…” Devas hummed in curiosity.  “Aren’t you worried that I might’ve poisoned what you’re eating so that I can get what that person had promised me for killing you?”

Xenia raised her head to meet his gaze and confidently stated, “You won’t do that.”

“And why not?” Devas asked with a grin.

“Because you’re a guardian who’s fair in his judgment like the rest,” Xenia plainly stated before she continued eating.