The Author's Will

48 | Mirrored Blades

　　 Mikael's eyes had closed — his blonde lashes framing a face which took on a sickly pallor. The air around them was still cold, and as Irene hugged his heavy and limp body close to her, she struggled to completely grasp everything that just transpired.

Everything happened so fast, and yet to Irene — it felt as though an eternity had passed.

The prince's affinity for magic somehow awakened, and it was far more powerful than she anticipated. In the original novel, Mikael was adept at creating ice and using the water vapour in the air to create whatever he willed.

But she never imagined his power would be this strong. Mikael should have only been able to create small objects of ice — and yet the entire bedroom had been laced with frost, with the exception of the small area where she sat.

Ahead of her, the frozen body of Sophia Cather looked like nothing but a still, lifeless corpse. Her severed head had rolled across the room and the distorted face of anguish remained plastered to it. It was, really and truly, an incredibly ugly way to die.

Snow was soon released from the demons who bounded him to the wall — as they disappeared into thin air with subdued shrieks. The eerie atmosphere seemed to gradually clear, and the air no longer felt heavy with a baleful presence.

It wasn't long until several servants soon came swarming into the room in a frenzy - and Irene recognised them as the ones who would often carry out their chores in this wing of the manor. Their expressions became expectedly mortified, at the scene in front of them. One of the maids took one look at Sophia Cather's body, and ran out of the room due to the sudden sickness rising in her stomach.

The sight of scarlet blood soiling the pale carpet left them in a state of bewilderment. And the way Irene was holding the unconscious prince protectively in her arms — instantly gave them an idea of what happened here.

"Milady, are you alright?!"

"What in the world happened here??"

Servants stepped over the broken glass and ice, heading to Irene and Mikael in attempt to take the two children to safety. Irene struggled to move for a moment, but the kind and concerned gazes of the servants who she often saw around, brought her back into reality. As she let the servants take the prince out of her grasp — they rushed his unconscious body out as quickly as they could, at the sight of all his injuries.

Rudien arrived just then, being driven to a halt at the sight of servants carrying Mikael out of the room in completely battered shape. Unfortunately, he had been at the knight's training camp instead of his office — which left the servants with no choice but to head out of the mansion to find him. And a deep feeling of regret settled in the duke's chest when he saw the prince in such a state.

The bruises littering Mikael's pale little body, the blood pouring from the stab wound in his hand, mismatched with the look of tranquility on the boy's face. As if he was finally in the midst of a peaceful slumber.

When Rudien took a glance into the room, a grim expression painted over his visage. The corpse was without a doubt - the maid Mikael brought in with him, but she was a person he never once spoke to. Inspecting the severed head from the doorway, he turned to a nearby servant.

"Where is my daughter?" Rudien questioned, and the maid quickly led the man to the other side of the room. His eyes widened in a mix of contrition and relief at Irene's state.

Blood stained the soft yellow fabric of her dress, and her little figure was surrounded by broken glass from the ornaments which fell over her from the shelves. There were some small scratches on her skin, but other than that she was safe. Rudien immediately went over to her, kneeling down as he gazed closely at the dazed look on her face.