The Fifth Time's a Charm

Chapter Seventy : Empress Arabella

"Wait, so if the game was right. Then there should be five villains?" Ymir questioned.

"Alright, let's put them in order. In the Elrod empire, there is that Head Priest whose name is Sorath Saintillion? I'm not sure but who cares, next is the Lazarus empire and that should be the crazy psychotic incest princess, and Lastly so far who we know is Count Ulbem in the Draigoch empire. That means we are missing Septhis, Agarean, and Graycrest." Lucius listed down.

"Wait, for Agarean..let's look into that woman. Queen Violletta right? the previous lover of Abbadon's father." I raised.

It is just a guess but I have a strong feeling that we should look into her. Not only that but I haven't quite told them about that woman who gave the psychotic incest princess the potion. I only have her initials ILE but I don't know if that would be of any help. 

"Nevertheless, we must check Harrow Forest. If the head priest is here then that could only mean that there is someone already in the forest as we speak. That coward doesn't have the guts to go there alone." Rizon bit.

"Woah, why are you so mad at him? apart from what he did to our princess of course~." Dimitri asked.

Rizon explained that back when there was a noble event where they had to go to the hunting grounds and hunt the most and biggest prey they could catch, they came across a horde of Dark Manticores.

Count Ulbem was there at the site but he quickly left him after claiming that the beast Rizon killed was his. He was infuriated that Count Ulbem underestimated his capabilities both as an heir and as an individual but mostly because he insulted his mother, the current empress Kaida.

I suggest the death sentence but since at the time my Magical security orbs hadn't reached Graycrest, it was just he said she said..in this case, he said and he said. It didn't help either that he was still a child then who was powerless in the face of domineering nobles.

I met Empress Kaida after the incident there with a poisoning incident with the Imperial family. I had to heal Ophelia as well which nearly gave me a heart attack.

We decided to teleport to the forest and it was probably the creepiest one I have ever been to. It's pretty funny since this is the Demon's territory, coincidental even. Throughout the walk, I couldn't help but ask Abbadon if he ever saw the divorce happening.

"Of course I did, my father is quite an idiotic man or rather, demon." He said with a shrug.

"Why is that?" Though it does seems so.

"It was not secret that my father was madly in love with his lover, the Queen of Agarean who was just the daughter of Count Edris who held strong power in Agarean."

"May I add that, that woman is the most mischievous and utterly bitter woman I have ever met," Forrest said with a smile.

"Ah, I forgot that she is your father's queen." Abbadon stated.

"Abandoned queen more or less, My father was adamant in disagreeing with the marriage but it was still pushed through since my mother hasn't conceived a child which happened a year after his and Violletta's wedding." Forrest added.

"I did pity the woman, she did try seducing my father but he wouldn't stop adoring mother so her efforts were fruitless. Violletta and my Father haven't even conceived their first night." 

'..I can't help but feel bad for the woman.'

"But my pity didn't last till she tried killing me and my mother, seducing my uncle, murdering my nanny, and a whole list of other things. Also, she never loved Abbadon's father or mine. " He shrugged.

'Oh.'

"Continuing what I have said since my father was in love with Violetta..naturally he did make love with her and this was known in the whole empire. Everyone thought that this was the chance that Draigoch could finally be in a political agreement through the marriage with the Agarean as, at that time, Agarean was the strongest empire. But then he suddenly married my mother, the daughter of Viscount Dragona."

" My mother, Arabella was not recognized by the nobles as they were not fond of the Draigoch empire. It was in history that both races were at odds with each other to the point that many years ago they were at war. My grandfather sought this opportunity to join both empires because he was an advocate of peace."

"Father was heartbroken by the abrupt marriage date and was forced to be in a marriage with a woman whom he did not love. Mother did not love him either and she too had a previous fiance..oh." He stopped.

"What is it?" 

"My mother's previous fiance was Count Ulbem." He spoke, surprised.

"..That's overly coincidental to even be called coincidental," I said.

"Well...either way, my mother didn't love him either. To be honest, my mother wasn't interested in anyone and was a very independent woman and just agreed to the marriage because even though she did not love my father. she prefers to marry him than to stick with an obsessed fiance."

He then said, and he quoted, that his mother told him that "He was a pain in the ass." I found that extremely hilarious. 

"She regretted it for a while since she was looked down upon by many nobles and was disregarded by the majority. She was seen as dirty because of her Dragon blood. Even Father did not pay attention to her.  The moment my mother became Empress, she did not take anyone lightly anymore. With dignity, she pulled all her enemies down to hell. Quite literally." He said with a smile, almost as if he was reminiscing.

It took a while before the Emperor moved on from his first love. He opened his heart to Empress Arabella after she defended him to his own citizens and patrons and stuck with him as his loyal wife and served to be one of the best Empresses in Septhis history.

But even then, due to his trauma with Violletta, he expressed his feelings towards Arabella with great caution. Arabella came to love him but how he acted towards her still left a huge mark on her.

Until today, it is an infamous rumor that the Emperor does not love his Empress and still yearns for his lover. This of course affects Arabella who loves him, he did something to her just recently that we do not know what that stirred up the rumor once more.

But she refused to give up..then he dropped the divorce bomb on her.

. . .

"Shh..there's someone near." Emrys stopped and said.

We all listened and Ymir's ears twitched.

"...It's the Head Priest."

To be Continued . . .