Chapter 96: Confinement

“Prince Ross is the legitimate eldest son of the Castor family, carrying the purest royal bloodline.”

Irina’s voice grew softer and softer, as light as if she were whispering a secret.

“He is worthy.”

“Worthy?”

Vanessa let out a cold laugh.

“There are plenty of worthy people.”

“That’s why they need me.”

Irina met her gaze.

“I have a way to make the Holy Sword choose him.”

Vanessa fell silent.

She looked at Irina, at the light burning in those pink eyes—a light she had never seen before.

It wasn’t ambition. It was—

Certainty.

Like someone who knew exactly what cards she held and exactly when to play them.

“What way?”

Irina didn’t answer. She just smiled softly.

“Your Highness will know when the time comes.”

Vanessa stared at her. She stared for a long time—so long Irina thought she wouldn’t answer.

Then she spoke.

“What do you want?”

Irina looked at her.

“Once Prince Ross becomes the Holy Sword Hero, once everything has settled—”

She paused.

“I want a status. One worthy of standing by his side.”

Vanessa was silent. For a long time.

“Go back first.”

Her voice was very soft, as soft as a falling leaf.

Irina bowed, turned, and walked to the door. Suddenly she stopped, without looking back.

“Your Highness.”

“Yes.”

“The one named Kaer has already been dealt with.”

Her voice was very calm.

“He won’t say anything.”

The door closed behind her.

Vanessa stood there, staring at the closed door, for a long time.

Then she walked back to the window and looked out at the night.

The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, illuminating the entire courtyard like silver.

“Holy Sword Hero.”

She repeated it softly, her voice as light as a sigh.

She closed her eyes.

Ross’s face appeared in her mind—

As a child, sitting on her lap, looking up and calling her “Mother.”

The first time he put on the Crown Prince’s ceremonial robes, nervous and at a loss.

The moment he stood before Freya, when those light purple eyes glanced at him coldly, and that flash of hurt beneath his gaze.

She opened her eyes. Moonlight fell on her face, making her well-maintained features look somewhat pale.

“Ross…”

She said softly.

“You will definitely be the Holy Sword Hero.”

Outside the window, the night breeze stopped.

In the distance, a light was still on in the dormitory building of the Central Magic Academy.

That was Freya’s room. She sat at her desk, the book Starry Sky Legacy spread open before her, but she wasn’t reading it.

She just sat there, looking at the moon outside the window, for a very long time.

Lyra was already asleep on the floor mat, breathing evenly and lightly.

Freya withdrew her gaze, closed the book, stood up, walked to the window, and pushed it open.

The night breeze blew in, carrying the chill of deep autumn.

She looked out at the thick darkness in the distance and stood there for a long time.

She didn’t know what had happened tonight, nor the secret conversation between Irina and the Empress.

But she knew—

Some things were accelerating.

She turned around, walked back to the bed, and lay down.

Closing her eyes.

“Boss.”

Lyra’s drowsy voice came from the floor mat.

“Yeah.”

“What are we eating tomorrow?”

Freya was silent for a moment.

“Barbecue.”

“Okay.”

Lyra turned over contentedly and continued sleeping.

Outside the window, the moon hid behind the clouds again.

After this incident, Ross took several weeks off.

No one knew where he went, and no one dared to ask.

The Crown Prince’s whereabouts had always been a royal secret. Even the Disciplinary Director was only told, “His Highness is unwell and needs rest.”

His seat sat empty, like a pulled tooth, leaving an abrupt hole.

Anke sat next to Freya, glancing toward the empty seat from time to time.

She held out for three days, then finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“Freya, do you know anything?”

She lowered her voice, her brown eyes full of gossipy curiosity.

Freya was taking notes and didn’t even pause her pen.

“No.”

“Really?”

“Really not.”

Anke looked at her calm expression, dubious but withdrawing her gaze. A few seconds later, though, she leaned in again.

“Do you think His Majesty scolded him?

I heard that after Kaer was arrested, the Emperor flew into a huge rage.

Someone saw the Crown Prince summoned to the Imperial Palace that night, and he hasn’t come back since.”

Freya turned a page and kept writing.

“Maybe.”

Anke waited for a long time, found that she really wasn’t going to say more, and sighed, sitting back.

Lyra rested her head on the desk, half-closed eyes listening to the whole conversation from start to finish.

She didn’t say anything, but stared at the empty seat for a long time.

In the Imperial Palace, Ross was indeed confined.

That night he was summoned to the palace, thinking it was just a routine questioning. The moment he entered the Main Palace, he was met by Saelis’s furious roar.

“What exactly is your relationship with that commoner woman!”

Ross knelt in the center of the Great Hall, his knees hitting the cold stone floor.

He had never seen his father so angry—

Those dignified features were bulging with veins, his red eyes blazing with raging fire, his voice so loud the entire hall trembled.

“Father, Irina is just—”

“Just what?!”

Saelis cut him off.

“Just helping you scheme? Just pulling those shady dealings behind your back?”

Ross lifted his head.

“She didn’t—”

“Didn’t what?”

Saelis gave a cold laugh and threw a stack of papers in front of him.

The papers scattered across the floor, densely covered with writing—

The secret letters exchanged between Irina and the Empress, the flow of funds from the Mutual Aid Society, the records of Kaer crying to Irina after his expulsion, the report of Kaer standing with a knife outside Freya’s building that night.

Ross lowered his head, looking at those papers, at the words he had never seen before.

His face turned pale, inch by inch.

“You didn’t know?”

Saelis’s voice was as cold as ice.

“You think that Irina of yours is a good person?

You think she approached you because of you?”

He paused.

“What she wants is your status as Crown Prince.”

Ross knelt there, motionless. The papers lay scattered by his knees like a pile of cold fragments.

“From today onward—”

The Emperor’s voice came from above, majestic and icy cold.

“You are forbidden from associating with her anymore.”

Ross’s body jolted violently.

“Father!”

“This is an order.”

“But Irina—”

Ross looked up, his blue eyes full of anxiety.

“She did do those things, but she was also trying to help me! She was just—”

“Help you?”

Saelis’s voice suddenly rose.

“Help you what?

Help you pursue Freya?

Help you have someplace to go after hitting a wall with Freya?”

Ross’s face turned from white to red.

“Look at yourself now!”

Saelis stared at him, his red eyes full of disappointment.

“You are the heir of the Castor family, the Crown Prince of the Empire, yet for a commoner woman, you’ve made yourself a mess.

Are you worthy of your late grandfather?

Worthy of the ancestors of the Castor family?”

Ross’s lips trembled. He wanted to say something, but couldn’t.

Saelis looked at him, was silent for a long time, then turned and walked back to the throne.

“From today on, you will reflect properly in your room.

When you’ve figured things out, you can come out.”

“Father—”

“Withdraw.”

Ross knelt there, motionless.

Then he slowly stood, turned, and walked toward the door. When he reached it, he suddenly stopped, without looking back.

“Father.”

His voice was very soft.

“Irina…

She did do many wrong things.

But her feelings for me are real.”

The door closed behind him.

Saelis sat on the throne, staring at the closed door, closing his eyes in exhaustion.

Vanessa was waiting outside.

When she saw Ross come out, she hurried over.

“Ross—”

Ross didn’t look at her. He walked past her.

Vanessa stood there, watching his back disappear at the end of the corridor.

She turned around and pushed open the door of the Main Palace.

Saelis was still sitting on the throne, eyes closed.

“Your Majesty.”

She spoke softly.

“Ross is still young, you—”

“Young?”

Saelis opened his eyes.

“He’s seventeen.

When you were seventeen, you were already married into the Castor family.”

Vanessa’s face changed slightly.

“It was you—”

Saelis looked at her, his gaze icy cold.

“Who arranged for that commoner woman to enter the Academy, wasn’t it?”

Vanessa’s lips moved.

“You think I didn’t know?”

Saelis stood up.

“You wanted to use her to rein in Freya, to give Ross a choice between two women, to keep him from being too tightly controlled by Freya.

But you miscalculated one thing.”

He walked up to Saelis, looking down at her.

“That commoner woman is not a dog you raised.

She is a wolf.

One day, she will bite back.”

Vanessa stood there, motionless.

Saelis looked at her, silent for a long time, then turned and left.

The Great Hall was left with only Vanessa.

She stood there, staring at the closed door, for a very long time.

The confinement room was deep inside the Imperial Palace, so quiet that you could only hear your own heartbeat.

Ross sat on the bed, not knowing how long he had been sitting there.

The light outside the window changed from bright to dusky, then from dusky to pitch black. He didn’t move.

His mind was full of Freya’s face.

Her childhood appearance—

With two little braids, wearing a white dress, following behind him calling “Big Brother Ross.”

The way her eyes curved when she smiled, like two crescent moons, and the gap from a missing baby tooth that made her speech sound a bit lispy.

He opened the drawer.

Inside were some old things—

A few read books, several worn-out feather pens, a broken pocket watch.

At the very bottom was a photo album.

He took it out and opened it.

In the first photo, he was about five or six, Freya even smaller, held in his arms.

Both of them were smiling brightly. The background was the palace garden. The sunlight was just right, and the flowers were in full bloom.

He remembered that day Freya had been chasing a butterfly, fell, scraped her knee, and cried for a long time.

He coaxed her, saying, “Don’t cry, don’t cry, big brother will blow on it,” and she really stopped crying, sobbing as she stretched out her knee to him.

He turned another page.