CHAPTER 188: CHAPTER 188: DUTY [1]

Chapter 188 – Duty [1]

Asael stood there, his hands still gripping tightly the prison’s bars, watching the disappearing back of Rose with his body shaking in rage.

In that moment, everything he wanted was to tear apart these damn bars and drown everything into his shadows... but he couldn’t.

Despair and helplessness poured down on his heart as his hands released their tight grip, making him slowly slide down until his knees slammed on the rocky, blood-stained ground with a weak thud.

His head was lowered, as thoughts began to swirl inside his mind.

’I should have become a Grandmaster before coming...’ Asael’s thoughts were filled with self-blame.

He had been too hasty, too impulsive, and now he was paying the price for it. But Asael would not be worthy of Kaden’s friendship if that was all he was capable of.

He wouldn’t be worthy of his title, Prince of Shadows, if despair could overcome his will.

He might be shackled like a lowly dog waiting to be butchered, his mana sealed, his heart might be restless from not knowing the state of his daughter...

But none of that would stop him from getting out of here.

He didn’t need anything... only shadows. And there was a cornucopia of shadows around him. He just needed to call out to them.

Sitting on the cold ground, Asael crossed his legs, the chains around his ankles and wrists making deep clacking sounds as he positioned himself.

He took a deep breath before closing his eyes, trying his best to feel and control the shadows around him using only his will.

No mana to help, no tricks.

Only pure Willpower.

’Wait... just wait...’ Asael thought, his mind filled with uncountable ways to kill everyone here.

They dared to take his daughter away? To lock him up?

Fine.

He would show them that shadows weren’t only made to reflect or imitate reality with the sun as their source of light.

No... shadows could be far worse than that.

Shadows could devour.

And one day, they would come to know that.

...

Rose walked through the corridors of the Hollow Castle, flanked by two red walls etched with intricate black lines woven in mystical patterns that told the ancient history of their family, of their empire... history now lost in the river of time.

In such an enclosed space, her steps should have echoed faintly but not a sound could be heard. Her movements were gentle, careful, as if afraid that stepping too hard might tear a hole through the red carpet covering the floor.

She walked until she reached a simple black door, marked with the symbol of The Drought:

A red tombstone planted in barren black soil — a soil drained of every drop of water, of every resource that could give birth to life.

She stood before the door for a few seconds, closed her eyes as if to gather herself... then opened it, and walked inside.

The moment Rose entered, she couldn’t help but instinctively frown.

’I hate this feeling,’ she muttered in her mind as she looked at the woman seated on a black intricate throne, wearing simple black garments made of silken cotton with red stripes woven stunningly into the fabric.

Her hair was red like Rose’s, but her eyes... her eyes were truly an unsettling sight to behold. Her right eye was red like sticky blood, and her left eye was golden, shining in a way that made Rose recoil in eeriness.

This was Lydia Drought, Ruler and Empress of the Empire of the Damned.

She looked calmly at her daughter, her gaze entirely neutral.

Her voice echoed, laced with a note of amusement. "Have you seen your lover?"

"Mother," Rose said, her voice low but filled with helplessness, "this is not what you told me."

She continued.

"Asael has no business with any of us. Not even Valentine. Mother, please, I beg you...give Valentine to Asael and let them live their lives. They won’t bother us." Her voice was a plea for mercy, for understanding.

But Lydia didn’t quite agree. She shook her head slightly.

"You were not able to focus on your duty. You were sitting here every day doing nothing but wearing a forlorn expression on your face, as if the world might fall on your shoulders."

Here, her voice turned cold.

"You... you even failed in eradicating the House Nirvel, now giving them clear evidence we are against them."

"Do you understand the implications of this failure? Do you know what it will cost us, Rose? You just gave them the perfect alibi to rise against us and with how dire the situation in the west already is with other powerhouses..."

"...do you even know our actual situation?" Her voice rose, and deeply buried anger began to swim to the surface.

She stood and slowly walked toward the shaking Rose, whose head was lowered.

She stood before her, then forcefully raised her chin to look into her heterochromia eyes, making Rose quiver.

"Rose," her voice was cold, unfeeling, "what’s your duty?"

Rose bit the inside of her lip tightly, resisting the urge to recoil, to cry for release.

"T-The Empire... to protect the Empire." She managed to say, her voice cracking.

Lydia barely reacted.

"Yes. It’s your duty, Rose. You were born for this. You have nothing else to do or think of. Your only role was to get stronger, to protect the Empire, and to expand its greatness to all beings. You were born to become the Empress."

Her voice made the very space tremble with dread alongside Rose.

Her grip on Rose’s chin tightened, forcing a grimace of pain onto her daughter’s stunning but haunted face.

"But tell me what you did instead?"

"You opened your legs like a whore to a damned shadow and ended up pregnant. And you even dared to keep the daughter...the stain on our bloodline." A cold chuckle followed.

"And then you thought by cutting contact with them I wouldn’t know? Rose... who do you think I am?"

At this moment, Rose was shaking. She couldn’t stand the look of scorn and disappointment her mother gave her.

It was too much... too unfair.

But still...

"Mother... let them go. I will stay here, I will wage your wars, I will kill as many as I have to bring this Empire to greatness. But please, for the love of all the gods, let them go. It’s all my fault. Not theirs... I beg you." Rose’s voice was cracking, but still she kneeled on the ground, under the feet of her mother as she begged.

But Lydia looked at her calmly before turning away and walking back toward her throne.

"They’re in the Empire. Your dear lover is in the underground, chained. And if he thinks he can get out of there..." she chuckled.

"...then he’s in for a deep surprise. As for your daughter, isn’t she in your quarters? So you must already know, Rose."

She sat on the throne and looked at her.

"If this Empire falls, they will all die. If you let rebels and enemies in, your daughter will be the first to fall followed by your lover."

"Do you know what you have to do now?"

Rose, still on her knees, didn’t respond immediately. Her head was hung low, unmoving, even as she heard her mother’s words.

She didn’t know what she expected. This wasn’t the first time they’d had this discussion. This wasn’t the first time her mother made it clear that the only thing she cared about was this damned Empire.

Yes, this wasn’t the first time.

But still...

’Why does it hurt so much?’

It hurt... oh, it hurt so deeply that her head was spinning, and her heart felt like it was being drained by thousands of leeches, sucking away everything until only a dead heart remained.

A stone heart.

A cold heart.

Her lover loathed her. Her daughter always asked for her father every time she was about to sleep, making her heart ache. And her mother didn’t care about her well-being.

She was... alone.

Like in the beginning.

Like before Asael.

A deep, self-loathing chuckle escaped her mouth before she slowly stood up.

"What do I have to do?" she repeated her mother’s words, her voice suddenly cold and unfeeling.

What’s the point of feeling all these emotions if no one wants her to feel them?

Her mother didn’t want them.

This cursed world didn’t welcome them.

They needed her to be unfeeling, like a golem who only obeyed orders.

So...

She shut them off.

Because what her mother needed...

"The reason I was born is... to protect the Empire."

...yes, her mother needed a sword and a shield she could use for her conquest.

And she would be that sword. She would be that shield. For them.

...for... her broken family.

Because that’s her duty.

Because...

’I have to...’

—End of Chapter 188—