1. Prologue (His Past) End - 20. Ilex Arrival

Days after days passed quickly and the day that Ilex arrived in Ironwall City, the kingdom of Zephyrus' capital had arrived. This afternoon, the City's situation was very lively, many people were gathering on the side of the street, especially women.

"I never thought Prince Ilex would be interested in Princess Rose. It looks like our princess is very lucky to be able to get a man like him."

"Princess Rose is very beautiful and Prince Ilex is very handsome, both of them are made for each other."

Soon, some white uniformed cavalry followed by a golden-haired man passed by them, he turned to them and smiled.

Some women started to scream hysterically.
"You see? He's so handsome!"

"It turns out the rumours about him are true! Which foolish woman doesn't want to be with him?"

Ilex realized what they talked about but he kept his cool. The rumours about Angel's betrayal worked much better than he thought. Without a lot of effort, King Gervis and Ilex were able to convince the nobles and now they had agreed that Angel had betrayed and tried to kill King Gervis. These rumours had spread throughout the Andromeda Continent to ensure the Reinheart Family's reputation remained clean. They also had sent a special letter to the Kingdom of Euphorion, though that kingdom did not have a diplomatic relationship with Asteria to inform Angel's betrayal.

Meanwhile, Rose was standing in front of Scarlet Stone Castle's entrance, waiting for Ilex's arrival. King Eudon and his two aides also stood beside her.

Once Ilex arrived at the entrance, he got off his white horse and approached them.

She bowed to greet him.
"Welcome to Zephyrus, Your Highness."

Ilex bowed to reply to her greeting.
"Thank you for welcoming me, Princess Rose."

Ilex turned his gaze to King Eudon and bowed.
"Your Majesty, thank you for letting me visit Zephyrus."

King Eudon smiled happily.
"Prince Ilex, it's an honour for us to be visited by you."

"Prince Ilex, you have travelled far to get here. How about we talk inside?" she said as she invited him in.

Ilex simply nodded and followed her to enter the castle. They walked down the corridor to the parlour room. Some servants had prepared tea, cakes and other delicacies on the table.

"Prince Ilex, I hope you don't mind accompanying me for a tea before my servant shows you your room, " she said with a forced smile.

Ilex glanced at her seductively.
"With pleasure."

Suddenly, a guard came and bowed.
"Your Majesty, I want to report something important to you."

King Eudon sighed with a fake regretful expression and turned his gaze to Ilex.
"Looks like I can't accompany you much longer." Then he shifted his gaze to her.
"Rose, treat Prince Ilex well."

"Yes, uncle," she answered in a formal voice.

"I'll excuse myself," said King Eudon as he walked toward the exit accompanied by his aides.

They replied to him with a slight bow. She knew this was also King Eudon's plan to bring them closer.

She secretly exhaled in annoyance and turned to Ilex.
"Prince Ilex, please take a seat."

Ilex sat on the chair followed by Rose. Then several servants prepared their cups and poured some tea into it.

They started chatting casually. As the times went by they conversation became more friendly. Rose kept staring at him as she looked for an opportunity to ask about Angel's rebellion, but Ilex thought differently as he kept responding with a seductive glance. Unable to hold her curiosity any longer, she decided to ask him directly.
"Prince Ilex, may I have a private chat with you?"

A smile began to appear on Ilex's lips.
"Of course."

"Leave us," she ordered the servants.

The servants bowed and came out of the room. As the door closed, Rose spoke again.
"Prince Ilex, I heard your cousin made a rebellion? Is that true?" she said out of blue.

Ilex looked a little surprised by her question since he thought she wanted to talk about their relationship. But soon, he returned to his usual expression and answered it calmly.
"Yes, his actions have disgraced and tainted our family name."

She considered his answer as permission to ask him freely.
"I heard there is no strong evidence to prove his rebellion?"

He gave out a weary sighed as a frown appeared on his forehead.
"There's nothing to prove anymore, he tried to kill me in the hunting competition by luring the main hunt towards me. After his plan failed, he pretended to be sick to get my father's attention and tried to kill him. Luckily, I managed to stop him. "

“He tried to kill your father in the castle?” she said in a disbelief tone. Trying to kill the king in the castle was tantamount to suicide.

He gave her a fake regretful expression.
"Yes, it looks like he is too confident in his abilities. But his assassination failed, so he ran away from the castle and I was assigned to capture him."

"Forgive my impudence, Prince Ilex. But, I heard he suicided before facing the royal court?" she kept asking him nonchalantly.

"That's right, but I managed to get him to sign his confession letter and took his badge. Unfortunately, I can't get more proof other than that."

As she asked him in more detail about Angel's death, his expression was getting sour, but she kept asking him.
"I heard there's only a blood stamp in that letter?"

"He resisted when I tried to catch him so I had no other choice but to injure his hands. Since he couldn't hold the pen, he used his blood to sign and confess his crime."

"May I know where he died?"

He started to look irritated with her question.
"I can't tell you, he fell from the cliff. That place is dangerous. I can't even bring his body home." Even though all Asterian nobles knew where Angel died, they decided to cover it up from the commoners and other kingdoms to prevent their interference.

Rose considered his irritated expression as a sign for her to stop questioning him. She fell silent, all of his words sounded reasonable. But in her heart, she still doubted it. The man who saved her that night didn't look like what Ilex had told her. She could feel everything that Ilex said to her was just a lie.

He took a deep breath as he fixed his expression back to normal.
"I know you are worried about me and Asteria, but I'm fine. Though he is always referred as Asteria's best swordsman, actually my ability is the same as his. I just don't like to solve my problems with violence like him," he added.

"Is that so?" she replied in a nonchalant tone.

He gave her a seductive smile.
"We don't need to talk about him anymore. Princess Rose, didn't you say you wanted to have a private chat with me? Is it about us?"

She turned her gaze to him and gave him a forced smile.
"In your letter, you said you wanted to meet me. May know, why do you want to meet me?"

Ilex chuckled and leaned his face closer to her.
"I came to steal your heart."

She didn't budge.
"Then it's too bad because my heart has been stolen by someone else and that person hasn't returned it to me," she said coldly.

He distanced his face from her with an upset expression.
"Are you rejecting me?"

She didn't care about his upset expression.
"If you can find that person and ask him to return it to me, maybe you can try again to steal my heart," she answered indifferently. What she meant was she wanted to know where Angel's body was. Unfortunately, she couldn't say it bluntly since it just liked what Ivetta said, it would only destroy the relationship between the two kingdoms.

He held back his anger.
"Tell me who's that person and where is he now?" his annoyance seeped in his tone.

She knew Ilex had never been rejected before, of course, her refusal hurt his pride. She smirked sarcastically.
"I can't tell you his name, I also don't know where he is now and I'm not sure you can meet him either."

Ilex stood from his chair and looked at her angrily.
"Are you making fun of me ?!"

"I won't dare to play with you, Your Highness. My heart has been stolen by him. If not, how could I possibly reject Prince Ilex of Asteria?" She replied to him calmly.

He snorted in annoyance as he glared at her.
"Fine then, but remember, I won't give you another chance. I hope you don't regret your decision."

Rose stood up from her seat and bowed.
"Thank you for your warning," she said politely.

Ilex sighed angrily and walked towards the exit.

Ilex walked down the corridor in anger, he had never felt humiliated like this before. But when he almost made a turn at the end of the corridor, suddenly a warm-faced woman approached him. She bowed.
"Your Highness, my name is Ivetta Rosemond Crowheart. May I have a word with you?"

"I don't have time for you," he answered coldly as he walked past her.

"Don't you feel strange about Princess Rose's attitude?" she said again.

Ilex stopped his steps as he recalled his conversation with Rose just now and realized that almost everything she asked was about Angel's rebellion.
'Why is she so interested in that illegitimate child's rebellion.'

Ivetta turned around.
"If you give me a chance, I'll tell you everything."

He turned to face her.
"Speak up."

She let out a chuckle.
"No, I'm not asking for a chance to talk. But I'm asking for a chance to be with you." From his expression, Ivetta could guess that her plan was working. She was one of the rebel leaders who served as a spy in the castle. That's why, as soon as she found out that Rose fell in love with Angel, she took the opportunity to tell Rose the bitter truth to ruin the relationship between Zephyrus and Asteria. Especially after she heard how Rose danced with Ilex at Asteria. If Rose and Ilex's relationship was successful then the rebels would never have the chance to take over Zephyrus. Now, since Rose had turned down Ilex, Ivetta took this opportunity to approach Ilex and get support from him.

"Do you think you have the worth to ask me that?" asked Ilex.

Ivetta approached him slowly.
"Worth it or not, you can judge me later. But one thing for sure, I will be useful to you." She brought his face closer to Ilex's ear.
"I can tell you a lot of information that you don't know."

He glanced at her.
'Is she trying to seduce me? Fine, we'll see how useful you are. '
"I will give you a chance. But I will tell you beforehand, don't mess with me or you'll know the consequences," he whispered.

Ivetta smirked. Since she never thought that her plan was going more smoothly than she thought.
"Don't worry, I won't let you down."