The Crown's Entrapment

Chapter 748 Want You Dead

“You have to live, Osman. Take this necklace with you. It will save you and help you find your way out of this forest. Go now…”

“But…” Osman hesitated. He didn’t want to leave without her.

“Please, come with me,” he begged Helena.

“I can’t, Osman. I have responsibilities here,” Helena replied. “I am bound to this forest. Even if I were to leave, we can’t be together because I will lose my life the moment I step out of this forest. Please, I beg you, just leave. Go now!” Helena pleaded as she pushed him away. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐

As she spoke, a deafening roar echoed through the forest, causing Helena to shout, “You need to leave immediately! Devas’s pet will catch you if you don’t move!”

And with that, Helena turned around and flew away from him. Osman, who kept staring at her was snapped out of his trance when he heard a loud growling. He tried to move but it was already too late. The monstrous beast was now before him attacking. Osman fought it with all his might and barely managed to get out of the forest.

Though he escaped, it wasn’t without consequences. He was completely covered in his own blood and so badly injured that he could barely walk.

Stumbling around, he fell to the ground and laid there, staring up at the sky, his vision beginning to blur.

“Urghhh!” he growled at the pain in his body. He could feel his chest tightening as he struggled to breathe with each passing second.

He scoffed and weakly muttered, “Will my life really end here?”

He was definitely not ready to accept death. Osman felt deep down that he hadn’t fulfilled his purpose in this world. For goodness sake, he was nothing but a pirate who had a huge amount of bounty on his head. Escaping from those hunters was how he ended up in the Element Forest. Who would have thought that the forest he entered would be more deadlier than those pirate hunters?

He could feel his life slipping away as he lay on the ground soaked in his own blood, unable to move further.

“Bloody sunlight!” he cursed as he squinted because of the scorching sun.

“You…” he heard a man’s voice.

“Do you want to live?!” The man asked.

Though Osman thought he was just hallucinating, his hope of living was much greater than rationality at the moment, so he did what any desperate person would do.

“Yes! I want to live… Please save me… Please, save me. I don’t want to die yet… Not like this. Let me live longer,” he begged breathlessly.

Immediately after, Osman saw the man hover over him with a smile. “Alright, I will save you…”

That was the last thing he heard before he lost consciousness.

***

“Amon! Wake up!”

Amon stirred and abruptly opened his eyes.

“He’s awake! Casimir!,” the familiar voice of his mother rang in his ears. Casimir, his loyal physician, was quickly at his side, checking his condition. “How are you feeling, Your Majesty?” he inquired.

Amon moved to sit up in his bed but was met with a sudden, sharp pain in his head, causing him to palm his forehead.

“Amon!” his mother exclaimed.

“I’m fine, mother. Please calm down. It’s just a headache.” he murmured as he closed his eyes briefly, waiting for the pain to subside.

As the pain receded, Amon took in his surroundings, realizing that he was back in his own tent.

“You were poisoned, my dear. Thankfully, Lady Bella saved you just in time. Rendon has already arrested Moler and all those involved in the ambush. They are currently detained by the Sorel Group but will be under your jurisdiction soon. Everyone was waiting for you to wake up and receive further orders from you,” his mother briefed him.

“Do you remember what happened, My Lord?” Casimir interrupted. Amon simply nodded in response. There was a pause in the conversation until his loud exhale broke the silence inside the tent.

“I… I remember my childhood and how I grew up to be a pirate. I also remember that I entered the Element Forest and was saved by King Darius,” He remembered the face of the man who saved him that day. He was King Darius…

“But it stopped there. Things happened afterwards… I still have no idea…”

“It’s alright, Son. With time, I’m sure you’ll recover all your memories,” his mother reassured him with a smile.

Amon furrowed his brow as he bit his inner cheek. He remembered his feelings towards Helena, the Queen Fairy, and that woman…

“Lena,” he muttered almost involuntarily.

“Do you mean Lady Lena of Cordon? What about her?” his mother curiously asked.

Amon turned to her, offering a half smile as he said, “It’s nothing, Mother.”

He then directed his attention to Casimir and asked, “Brief me about the poison and how my body reacted. Something isn’t right with this situation. I have demon blood, so poison shouldn’t knock me so easily.”

“Hmm, I’m also not familiar with this poison, Your Majesty. It was Lady Jayra who looked after you and took the necessary steps to heal you completely. According to her,? Lady Bella’s blood, which you consumed, helped neutralize the poison and prevented it from attacking your vital organs. However, the poison needed to be completely expelled from your body before it reactivated, and Lady Jayra used a spell to remove it,” Casimir explained.

“That Moler… He surely must know what kind of poison it is.”

“No, he didn’t, Son. He had no idea either. He said he got it from a mysterious sorcerer who had assured him that it could kill a demon. Something about his story was strange according to Commander Lucia, who questioned them,” Mona explained.

Amon let out a heavy sigh before gingerly getting up from the bed. “I want to see Moler,” he declared with a frown.

Lucia promptly escorted Amon to where the Sorel Guild had detained Moler and the others.

“I’m relieved that nothing serious happened to you, Your Majesty. It’s all thanks to Lady Bella. You can’t imagine how surprised we were when we saw a werewolf carrying you on her back, only to discover that it was Lady Bella,” Lucia reported, causing Amon to stop in his tracks. He looked at her with his gloomiest face.

“Wait, did she shift back to her human form in front of everyone?!”

The thought of other eyes seeing Bella’s naked body made Amon furious. Lucia blinked at him and clarified, “Oh, no, Your Majesty. She was escorted back to their camp by her brother, despite her protests to stay here with you to make sure you were alright,” she explained.

She further added, “However, Lady Jayra intervened and reassured her that you would receive proper treatment and would be fine…? Only then she did allow her brother to take her into their camp. I believe she shifted back into her human form inside her own tent.”

Amon let out a sigh of relief and continued walking. “Did you uncover anything during your questioning? I heard you were the one who interrogated Moler,” he asked.

“Yes, I found it quite unsettling how he claimed to have randomly met the sorcerer on his way here.? It didn’t seem like King Moler had planned to ambush you and seek revenge from the start. According to his testimony, he only devised the ambush after acquiring that poison from the sorcerer they happened to meet,” Lucia informed.

“I’m guessing that sorcerer is one of Devon’s loyal dogs who wants to take revenge against me for reclaiming the Kingdom. These fools… I had no part in their master’s death, so what’s the point of targeting me? It’s not like they can resurrect the dead and place them back on the throne,” Amon annoyingly grumbled.

There was no way Devon could rise from the dead; King Ezekiel had turned him into ashes, not only reducing Devon’s body to cinders but the Dragon King also made sure that Devon’s spirit and soul would vanish for good. There was no way the dark sorcerers could resurrect Devon.

However, Amon was aware that they might be after something else.…

“We’re still continuing to hunt them down, perhaps that might be the reason they want you dead, Your Majesty,” Lucia pointed out.

Amon had initiated an uncompromising hunt for the dark sorcerers who had collaborated with his half-brother Devon in his numerous crimes. Amon scoffed and firmly stated, “They only give me more reason to eliminate and wipe out their existence from this world. They are an abomination and shouldn’t be left roaming around freely.”

Upon finally reaching the area where Moler was held, Amon noticed that the tent was well-guarded, with a noticeable barrier spell in place.

“Your Majesty,” one of the Sorel Guild members greeted him.

“I want to talk to the prisoner,” he stated.

“He’s all yours, Your Majesty. Now that you’re awake,? we can arrange the transfer. He and the others will be under your jurisdiction, as they wronged you,” the member informed.

Amon nodded and then turned to Lucia as he instructed, “Make necessary arrangements for Moler and the others to be transferred to our camp. We’ll also be cutting short our participation in the Global Summit, so make preparations as we will return to our kingdom in three days’ time.”