Last night, Edmund returned to the west wing and told Evelia that the only way for her to escape that place—and bring Averon down—was to be brave.
At first, she didn’t believe him at all. She thought he was just using her as a scapegoat. But then, without even hesitating, Edmund made a blood oath with her. He promised that he would do everything in his power to save her and that he would never side with Averon or anyone behind him for the rest of his life.
"You’re the King of Beasts?" Evelia asked him before they made the blood oath.
Without hesitation, Edmund replied, "That’s true."
"You were the one who killed the last king and became the strongest among the beasts?" she asked again.
And still without hesitation, Edmund answered, "That’s true."
Evelia was taken aback by how quickly he replied, and he didn’t have any doubt in his tone, a sign that everything he said was completely true.
"So, Your Majesty, how is it possible for the King of Beasts to be willing to make a blood oath with someone as low as me?" Evelia’s voice trembled slightly. "I believe you might not even remember my name even if you saw me die today."
"That’s not true," Edmund said calmly. "I will remember your name. Just like I remember your sister’s name, Cecilia Moretz."
Evelia’s body immediately tensed up as her sister’s name left Edmund’s lips. She even took a few steps back from the door. "H-How do you know her name?"
Edmund then replied in a calm voice, "Because I have always remembered her name in my heart, a memory that reminds me of my failure to protect one of my precious people."
"Besides... you have the same surname as her, and you have the same scent as her," said Edmund. "I only saw her once, but I will never forget her at all."
The truth was, Edmund had only seen Cecilia after she had already died, just before her burial. After that, all he had left were stacks of documents about her case. It was a cold, lifeless records that could never truly capture who she was.
"You... you didn’t do it right," Evelia said at last. "You didn’t let us destroy the human settlement, and now look at the consequences!"
Even though Edmund couldn’t see her face directly, he was able to imagine that she looked both angry and sad at the same time.
"I couldn’t let that happen," he said. "If I did, it would only lead to war."
"Who cares about that?!" Evelia snapped. "We’ve been fighting humans for so long already. So why should we stop now?!"
Edmund took a slow breath before answering. "Because I care about my people," he said. "I don’t want any of you to suffer from war anymore. After all, war always takes more than it gives."
Since he was little, Edmund had been exposed to violence, and the reason he was able to escape from his abusive parents was because he killed them. To be honest, sometimes he also thought that killing and destroying things was easier than struggling to build political relationships with other kingdoms.
The oath they made was simple.
Edmund promised that he would save her and take her away from that place, while Evelia didn’t have to promise anything in return. It was a one-sided oath, something a king like him would never normally make.
Edmund instructed her, "You only need to do three things: wait, get out, and run."
The first thing she had to do was wait—wait until the maids opened the gate, so she could use that chance to leave the west wing as if it were an accident.
The last thing she had to do was run as fast as she could until she saw Edmund and Averon, then pretend as if they had never met before.
Evelia had to do all of those things so Edmund could bring this case to court without raising suspicion.
He needed to make something intentional look like an accident.
And now that Evelia had managed to do all of that, it was Edmund’s turn to play his part.
"Of course, I wouldn’t find anything here," Edmund said to Averon as they stood in front of the wooden board he had destroyed. "That’s because you hid them before I could find any of them."

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