THE DEVIL'S CURSED WITCH

Chapters 71-80

Bored of standing on his own for the past several hours, Erlos decided to wait for his master while sitting in one of the cozy chairs in the lounge area of the King's chamber. He had barely dozed off when he sensed movement inside the chamber, and his body jumped up out of reflex.

"W-Welcome back, Sire!"

He immediately bowed and straightened his body to greet the King who had returned to the palace.

Draven didn't reply to his greetings and walked towards the bed while removing the buttons of his clothes. With each step he took, one garment of his was thrown on the carpeted floor—first, his black tailcoat, followed by his patterned vest, his white long-sleeved shirt and his black gloves, among other things, leaving him with nothing but his pants on his body by the time he reached his bed.

Erlos immediately went towards the trail of littered clothes. He didn't say a word seeing the grave expression on Draven's face and quietly collected the dirty clothes.

Not saying a word, Draven kicked away his boots and climbed into bed which surprised Erlos. The King wasn't thinking of going straight to sleep, right?

"Sire, the bath is ready—"

"You can leave, Erlos," was all Draven said as he lay in bed with his eyes closed.

"Uhh, your meal?"

"Just leave," Draven said again and this time Erlos left without saying another word.

Erlos had not seen Draven like this ever since he started serving him, and it's been decades since then. He wondered what had happened to affect him like this.

'Is he thinking about the council meeting tomorrow? Maybe that eagle had said something? Bah. It can't be the meeting. It's not even a big problem. He can just send that human girl to the human village and everything will be solved.' Erlos sighed. 'Though I will feel bad for that poor girl, she can't stay here. If only she weren't human, she could continue staying with the Elder. I bet Elder Leeora will feel lonely when she leaves...'

Before completely closing the door behind him, the young elf glanced at the King who was lying on the bed with one arm covering his eyes, as if something was deeply troubling him enough to exhaust him body and soul. It was difficult to guess what exactly was going on in his mind.

——–

The next day was an important day for the Kingdom of Agartha as the decision would be made on whether the controversial human girl would be sent to the villages at the outskirts of the kingdom or be sent back to where the King had brought her from. In the mind of the people, the option where the human girl would be staying in the main territories was not even an option.

As the person who had watched over that human girl the longest, it was Leeora who was the most worried about the arrival of this day. Deep in her heart, she didn't want to let go of Ember, but she tried to hide her true emotions when she went to see her that morning.

Knocking on the door, she entered the girl's house as usual with a basket of food in hand. Just like any other day, she found Ember sitting by the window and staring outside of it. It seemed like she had been awake for hours, having finished dressing herself even styling her hair neatly into two braids.

"Are you looking at the people below?" Leeora asked as she offered her a gentle smile. "Anyway, good morning, Ember. I brought fruits this time—"

"Good morning, Elder," Ember greeted back, causing Leeora to be pleasantly surprised. It was the first time Ember greeted her back like this instead of replying with a stare.

The more Leeora observed her, the more she realized Ember looked brighter and more cheerful than usual. It made her wonder what happened to cause this change. Was there something funny happening in the streets below?