The symbol that was left in the Crowned Prince’s residence, got to the populace in the capital and so did his imprisonment in the Cold Palace. This news had brought the biggest uproar since the ‘Divine Healer’, but it was a lot more serious…

Supporters of the Crowned Prince wanted to do their all to show that this news is falsified and wrong. They caused a muck before the gates of the Royal Palace and declared that the Crowned Prince was innocent!

The non-supporters seemed to laugh at the Crowned Prince supporter’s behavior and stated that what they are doing was doing the opposite of supporting…

Both sides ended up fighting and making the guards close by have to break it up between them.

In three other places, fighting erupted out with people who had long time suffered the abuse from people who were on the Crowned Prince’s side.

The imaginary line had somehow gone outside of the court and to the people, splitting the population in two!

So much was happening, that the emperor only stated to stop the fights, so to stop people from being hurt, and demanded some moments of peace…He knew that this was only the beginning. For something so big and have nothing happen would be unrealistic. All he could do for now, was make sure that no one had no reason to make things worse, and that was why he wanted to prevent any kind of deaths through the fights.

 

What the strange thing was, the emperor himself had somewhat disappeared in this ‘moment of peace’.

Eunuch’s and maidservants ran around endlessly on trying to find him, but he had gone!

Ministers, who were looking at evidence and witnesses, also stopped to look for their Emperor, but could only look at each other in shock.

The emperor going away at such an important time, could only mean that he was very angry!

Wanting to make sure that His Majesty’s anger would not be directed at themselves, all the Ministers quickly got back into what they were doing beforehand and tried to make a decision…Even without the Emperor being present, they felt like they were all on eggshells the entire time…

​

Only one person knew where the emperor was at this current moment and that was Band Three, who had personally jumped and ran rapidly towards the General’s estate, while holding this ‘lost’ Emperor…

When they made it to an opening, that led into the a few courtyards, Band Three looked around, but found no other ‘slayers’, “Forgive me, Your Majesty, I will search for His Highness.”

“This…Very well.” The emperor stated, tired and unhappily.

Band Three scouted through the close by courtyards, only to find His Highness in a deep sleep…Right beside the female he had seen earlier.

“Three.” Band One came out to meet him.

“His Majesty is here! Wake him!” Band Three left, knowing that His Majesty wasn’t in a good mood.

Band One swallowed in shock!

Uh? The emperor himself?

 

“My son!” The emperor had not wanted to wait and finally entered the room that his son was sleeping in. Band One had no time and had to quickly vanish, before the emperor had come into the room.

Widening his eyes in shock, the emperor couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

His son was fully embracing a female, that was well covered with a blanket. Their heads were close and both of them looked quite…Good together…

His mind was really tired, he couldn’t come up with the right word…

The emperor closed his eyes tight, then opened them again, seeing this time the beast that was staring at him…

Still unsure upon his eyesight, thinking that perhaps he was dreaming, the emperor looked again, to see exactly the same thing…

It’d been so long since he’d seen his son give a female any kind of attention…And never had he had his eyes upon what looked like a beast!

 

“Your Majesty.” Band One had sighed, then came down to the ground, to kneel in front of the emperor.

“Who is that!?” The emperor pointed to the woman on the bed.

“Your…Your Majesty. His Highness has us calling her ‘Princess’.”

The emperor looked at Band One in shock, “Princess?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The emperor’s eyes lit up and he suddenly didn’t look tired anymore. A rare gentle smile appeared on his face, and he nodded. “Very good! …But who is she?”

Band One was unsure if he should disclose this information, “…Your Majesty, she is the Thirteenth Young Miss from the Rolland Estate. She had not returned home since being poisoned with the Two-Faced poison. I believe her father, the Right Minister, has no idea that she is still alive…Your Majesty.”

 

…It was really quite unbelievable!

For a few moments, the emperor was questioning this new lot of information, but found himself too tired…

Then, he remembered why he was here…

Happy and dismayed at the same time, made the emperor conflicted, and he took a moment to say, “This King…Tell my son to come see me when he wakes! Band Three, take this King back!”

Band One was unsure on what to do, very rarely the emperor had personally seen His Highness and now he’s…Letting him sleep?

Looking at the bed, he saw his Master in quite a deep sleep and could only agree. Very rarely would his Master not even wake up with someone entering the same room as he was sleeping in…

 

***

 

When Sahara woke up, she was a little stunned at seeing such a handsome face so close to hers. After a minute of staring, she finally remembers what had happened to her and she felt a bit of pain, as she had fallen asleep before she had completely healed herself.

Swallowing to fate, Sahara sighed.

Unable to know if she was actually even a virgin anymore, Sahara tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter. Perhaps it was a good thing…

In a depressed state, Sahara put her hand to the handsome man’s face and lightly caressed his cheek.

If only…

Closing her eyes, she then felt a push, that moved her slightly. Opening her eyes, she saw him looking at her. “Don’t be scared.”

“I’m not scared.”

 

Putting his forehead to hers, he sighed, “Are you ok?”

Looking away from him, Sahara mumbled.

“I tried to get you to get changed and seen to by the estate’s physician, but…You wouldn’t let me go.”

Wanting to shake and hit her own head in annoyance, Sahara ended up sighing instead.

I know my instincts want me to be with this man, I know I am attracted to him, but why dammit!?

“I’m sorry.” Was all she could say…

“I’m not…I…Might not have protected you as I should have, but…I was able to calm you down. Be there for you when you needed me.” Matthew put a hand to her face very lightly, and looked at her sadly, “It should be me apologizing! I’m sorry, I…”

“Stop it!” Sahara frowned.

Matthew put his forehead against Sahara’s again, unable to continue to apologize. He had a bad feeling ever since she had been taken, that he may lose her for good. She had been caught in between his affairs with someone else…He now felt like he didn’t deserve her! Yet, how could he let her go!?

 

Sahara sighed. It was just not something that she could cope with right now, seeing him all grumpy. “Stop it!”

Honestly, she could get an idea on what was going on, but she wasn’t in the mood to ask for specifics. Sahara felt an anger go through her and she closed her eyes to subside it.

But that wasn’t the only reason that she didn’t want him to apologize and look gloomy, seeing him like this, really didn’t make her feel good…Which really pissed her off!

If he had anything to do with…What happened to me…I should be as mad as hell!

Slowly, Matthew stared, then leaned in, kissing her so softly and gently, that it was like a tease to her.

Not wanting to open her eyes anyway, Sahara felt his soft, swift kisses and got a bit more pissed off!

He had somewhat reverted to treating her like some porcelain doll or something…

Grunting in annoyance, Sahara push his head towards her and deepened the kiss.

If ya ganna kiss me! Then do it properly!

 

Matthew felt like his wings had been clipped…To suddenly be able to fly free…

Bringing his Princess closer to him, he placed his tongue into her mouth and groaned.

Matthew put his hand down from her face and wanted to pry the blanket away, feeling way too many things between them.

Suddenly, Sahara let out a yell to the sudden pain of dried blood that connected her to the blanket and having it move.

She hadn’t meant to yell…But she had been busy, to be totally interrupted with something that wasn’t nice! It really had been a surprise!

After a moment, she asked him, “Can you take it off for me?”

He stared at her for a long moment, then slowly nodded.

Sahara rolled onto her front and waited. Matthew tried very hard not to hurt his Princess as much as possible, and finally saw her untreated back.

Covering a part of her back was a strange material, making him curious. It was a little broken, making him frown because that was most likely because of a whip…

His eyes saw some dried blood, that was even on the blanket, making him sick with worry, “I should have…”

“Shut up!” Sahara said, closing her eyes and focusing.

 

Matthew watched, as her back slowly showed improvement over some time.

“Your…Master.”

“Not now!”

He didn’t even look at Band One, who walked away again. He was too excited about watching his Princess work.

It was so miraculous!

Putting a hand to a part in her back, that was now clear of blood, wounds or scars, he lightly touched it.

Caressing the area, Matthew felt so much enjoyment, that he was smitten with just her bare back in front of him.

Following the skin along, to places that were currently healing, he caressed those too, then leaned over and kissed a few places that the wounds used to be.

 

Losing her concentration, Sahara fell into a strange sense of fulfillment, as she could feel Matthew’s kisses. His hand traveled up, giving her shivers, and she moved slightly, feeling some goosebumps come over her skin.

It’s stupid! How can I feel this way and be so mad at him at the same time!?

Gently biting her lower lip, Sahara opened her eyes, “You like my back that much?”

Matthew smiled and pulled back, looking at her. “Everywhere, my dear.”

Laying down again, he put a hand over her near back and kissed her forehead. Sahara’s face wasn’t completely healed but the physician had been able to at least stop the bleeding and cover her cheeks…

She heard him take a deep breath in and say, “I’m in love with you Sahara…”

…One was stunned, the other was unsure, but they both stared at each other, as though they wanted to touch each other’s soul…

 

Putting her hand up, Sahara touched his face, but she remembered what happened to her and she suddenly lost whatever it was that she had. Having been through something…Rather…Big, recently, Sahara wasn’t ready to go into this kind of talk with him. As it was, she still needed to calm down and get over it, hell, she hadn’t even finished healing herself yet!

It was just too quick!

Putting her hand down, her eyes grew cold, and she said, “I think you should go.”

“…Sahara?”

She looked away from him and sat up, taking the blanket off her. She got out some clean clothes from ‘storage’ and started getting dressed.

Matthew had sucked in a huge amount of air, seeing his beloved Princess almost naked, and he had totally stopped thinking…