Diana Of Alcotta (Yrsoreth Chronicles 1)

15 ♔ Blood of the Bastard

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Instead of the infirmary that he initially commanded, Diana was brought into the castle chambers—not hers, but Xander's.

The doctor attended to him first. He declined and tilted to Diana's direction on the other side of the bed. "She hit her head."

"But Your Highness, you were hit too—"

"—Check her first," he said in a tone of finality. The old physician obliged.

No matter how much she endured the stinging pain, Diana winced as the doctor checked the wound between her forehead and temple, in a line stretching as long as her thumb. The doctor said something about cleaning it, medicine to stop the bleeding, and covering the wound.

She nodded, drowsy, and her eyelids droopy, but a slight shake of her shoulder somehow pulled her back to consciousness.

"It is best not to fall asleep for at least six hours, My Lady. Signs of seizure or weakness on one part of the body are hard to notice when you are asleep."

"Yes... I understand." She gently touched the now bandaged wound. "But, how do I stay awake, doctor?" Her eyelids were still heavy.

There was no answer from the doctor, because he couldn't, even Kirien and the servants, and most of all, Diana herself.

One could not speak being kissed after all. It was short, just a second or two, but she was still frozen, staring at Xander, a hair breath away from her face.

Diana was very much awake. Her heart pumped faster, and the heat climbed up to her face. "Tha would wake you up."

"Your Highness!" Ysivan choked at his master's bold behavior, but that was all, face-palming himself.

Xander ignoring his stressed vassal, smiled—no, smirked, despite the forming bruise in his jaw and a small trace of blood at the corner of his lips. He then faced the doctor. "No need to worry, I won't let her sleep."

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Finally, they were now alone. The physician, blushing servants, and the pleased Kirien left an hour ago.

Diana huddled herself at the farthest side the bed could accommodate her, while Xander continued his work, leisurely reading and signing on the other side, his face patched up. "Are you sleepy?"

"I am not!"

"That's unfortunate."

She turned away. For the past hour, she developed a habit of glancing at him from time to time, then turning away after being teased. She would then nestle the bandage in between.

"Hands off your bandage, it may leave a scar."

"It's fine."

"You won't be able to get married."

Gran Dacchia highly regards beauty. For aristocratic women whose main purpose was a political marriage, this was a life or death situation.

"Marriage... is impossible for me."

Once her engagement with the prince ends, her reputation will still soar. Just the fact that she was the previous fiancee of the king and will be rewarded for helping him sit on the throne, proposals will flock. That's how aristocracy is.

But she will never marry.

"Then, what if the people of Alcotta knew you got hurt under my care? What face will I show them?"

"...That face." She muttered, bandaged and bruised but still dignified, as she glanced at his bruised state yet still devastatingly handsome.

Xander chuckled, there was a rustle of paper as he placed the document on the bedside. "Ah, quiet the humor, My Lady."

The bed shifted, and he's now right beside her. "Are you sleepy now?"

"I said, I'm not!" And then, they were now facing each other.

While her face crumpled, his smug grin had softened. "At last, you're not running away."

"I was not running away."

He tucked the strands of hair away from her bandage, and his thumb caressed the edges. "If you say so."

"But, Your Highness, you got it worse than me."

"I deserved it."

"You do. Quiet cunning, a reversal of roles for the crown prince."

"Ah, of course, you knew."

"Of course, I knew."

"Everything, My Lady?"

"Not everything."

"How about my dirty secret?"

For some reason, his thumb crawled to her ears, tickling every inch of her skin. "We already had this conversation, Your Highness. You'd kill me if I knew," Diana replied

That's why when Kirien suggested earlier that her daughter will play with Diana and Xander's child if ever, there were two faults. First, Aleck was already born. And this is the second.

"I would... but you don't look afraid. Do you think those of the king's blood is the only deserving of leading the people?"

"Are you asking if the king's blood is the only deserving of suppressing the people?" she retorted.

She knew she was dangerously close to crossing the line again. But Diana risked it, and touched the side of his mouth, partly wounded. His caress on her ear halted, but then it snaked behind her neck.

If he choked her, she would understand the reason behind it.

Despite being the color of gold as a symbol of royalty, blond hair was not rare. Even a few commoners do have them, one of such was the knight assigned to Xander's mother, Bethelyn.

The said knight to whom his mother never named, was killed outside her chambers. Bethelyn's horrified screams awakened the Ruby Palace as she found him lifeless with a slit throat. But the culprit was never found. It was treated as an attempt to kill Bethelyn, and the king commanded tight security for his favorite woman.

Two months later, Bethelyn was pregnant, and the culprit of the knight's murder was still unfound and unpunished. It was not until fourteen years later, when the culprit was falsely accused of unfaithfulness, and her head was chopped off. The culprit died along with the king's legitimate yet unborn child.

For a woman forced to be in the harem, oppressed by the others who envied the king's favor that she didn't want—it was her revenge, as well as Xander's greatest secret.

And such secret was used as a pattern to dirty Niccolus' reputation. Although in Diana's visions, the crown prince's legitimacy was questioned, it was never proven, nor could she confirm the extent of fabrication Xander set up for the rumors.

"You and the king resemble the gold in your hair, not the color of your blood. But he doesn't know that, does he?" she asked.

Xander stared at her, blinked, but then mirrored the evil smile on her lips. "He doesn't, but he will, on his deathbed."

"In time, Your Highness, in time."

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There you go—the truth. 😊
Shoutout to JuyGun
who guessed it in the earlier chapter. Eyyy.

Ellena Odde ♥