The Crown's Entrapment

[The thirteenth day inside the Element forest]

Xenia woke up early, and she immediately shook her head the moment she saw Devas already waiting for her there so early in the morning.

"Good morning, Xenia!" Devas greeted with his usual wide smile.

"Good morning, Lord Devas," she greeted back. Her gaze then shifted towards Polo to greet the merman as well.

"Have some breakfast," Polo commented. "Afterwards, we can begin with the viewing of Nasser Keen's past…"

"Wow, you're so lucky, Xenia. Who would've thought that the terrifying Polo would extend his generosity or even bother to look at the Lake of Life like this?" Devas remarked with a smirk. "For him to look at a particular person through the whole night like this is already astounding."

"The whole night?" Xenia burst in disbelief at the merman.

"I have to keep my word, after all," the merman genuinely commented. "I really thought you would back down the moment you saw my sea-serpent, but I guess this is really important to your kingdom with how you once again risked your all just to achieve this goal of yours."

The Merman wasn't heartless after all. Sure, he was the strictest of the guardians, but he wasn't someone who would treat people unfairly. Xenia couldn't help but give Polo her widest smile as she showed him her deepest gratitude. "I'm very grateful for this generosity, Milord. Thank you."

Polo simply nodded before he gestured for her to follow him. Breakfast had been arranged in a way so that they could have a proper view of the lake, and Devas was quick to point out his involvement in such an arrangement. "I asked Polo for this arrangement since I thought that time would be very crucial for you right now," he remarked with a smile. "You still have to come back to Cordon, right? This way, you can watch the past play while you eat. This will take a whole day, so you have to do things simultaneously."

Nodding, Xenia then noticed that a few men were also present on the premises. They had pens and parchment with them, along with their bottles of ink. "Scribes?" Xenia murmured.

"Well, I instructed them, in particular, to write down the crimes this Nasser had committed," Devas explained. "They'll also jot down important details that they might notice that could be useful to you so…"

Xenia's eyes were almost welling up now. She was happy with the amount of thought the guardian had put into this viewing.

Smiling at the Sphinx, she said, "Thank you, Lord Devas. You've been so much help to me as always."

"Anytime, Xenia," the guardian smiled.

"I'll be starting the viewing now," Polo interrupted. "You two best get comfortable."

Partly started, Xenia quickly nodded as she prepared herself. Time was crucial, so she understood the urgency that the merman exuded. Keenly watching as she started eating without care about having the proper posture for a Princess, she made sure to keep her eyes open, not even bothering if she had accidentally smeared herself with her own food or ate clumsily.

By the sidelines, Devas was watching alongside her, while Polo was storing the vision into a magic pearl for future use. Xenia couldn't help but be grateful for the gesture. Truly, these Guardians deserved a reward from her and Darius. She would just have to make it up to them once she had already secured the crown. Surely, she could send them a lot of the presents they preferred, and even communicate with them through confidential parchments!

Shaking her head, a smile kept lingering on her face once she heard Devas's comment and curse at Nasser every once in a while. The Elder's past was something to behold.

He grew up in a harsh environment, and he was always compared by his father to his twin who always seemed to excel at everything he did. However, his twin Ramon was a good man, who would often console Nasser whenever the latter was being pushed to do better. There was also this time when Nasser's twin would always give way to Nasser; the latter misinterpreting the actions negatively and took it as his twin trying to mock him.

Xenia frowned as she witnessed how Nasser was slowly engulfed by his hatred, envy, and anger. She gasped as she witnessed just how he planned to kill his own twin brother and snatch Lady Shila away from him. Posing as his twin who was away for battle, Nasser enacted his plan. Shila recognized him, but he still went ahead and defiled her, marking her against her will.

"This scum should just die!" Devas grunted.

Nasser's love for Shila inevitably turned into a dangerous obsession. He kept her by his side by all means, even to the detriment of her own well-being…

Xenia gasped and murmured, "He knew that Gilas isn't his son…"

Nasser was mad when he found out about it, but he couldn't do a thing about it anymore. He loved Shila too much to even confront the woman. So far, it had been the only good thing that Nasser had done after he let his greed consume him… His mercy for Gilas's life had probably served as his atonement for killing his twin brother. Or was it simply because of his love for Lady Shila?

Frowning, Devas cursed at the following scenes. "Defiling another woman?!"

They could only watch as Nasser took advantage of one of his poor servants against her will because of his anger and resentment at Shila for carrying his twin's baby. It was horrid, but there was nothing more to be done about it.

Watching, Xenia blinked as she kept her hearing sharp. There must be something important here that she was missing.

And suddenly, she caught exactly what it was.

'No way!' she inwardly gasped. 'Pinra's Nasser's daughter! And he groomed her so well that she would just follow everything he wanted her to do!'

​ He had failed on Gilas, and Pinra had always been his backup plan from the moment she was born. Seeing this all now, it would seem that Nasser's past was way more twisted than Xenia had thought. Still, what she eagerly waited for was the scene where Darius's father died.

Time passed by quickly, and Xenia held her breath as the scene moved to that of Nasser and Darius's father being together. There, she witnessed Nasser's betrayal, and she could no longer help the tears threatening to fall down her cheeks.

Seeing this all happen, she suddenly had second thoughts as to whether or not it would be a good thing to show all this to Darius. The pain in seeing how your father died in the hands of a man he trusted so much and treated like his own brother…

"You have to make sure that this man will be punished, Xenia. Because if he isn't, then you have my permission to throw him here and we'll do the rest," Devas grunted with gritted teeth. "We'll make sure that he suffers. We'll give this man a heinous death!!!"

Xenia clenched her fists till her knuckles turned white. She would make sure that Nasser would be punished for everything that he had done.

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