Chapter 297 - Into Sticky Situation

Soon as the sudden tremors on the ground came after that roar, rustling so much noise from the surrounding trees, all of them looked in the direction where it came from.

'A tiger's roar in this kind of forest—! That's— Finally!'

In the distance, Nathalie widened her eyes when she noticed from the shadowy woods a big silhouette of a tiger and a man perched atop it with a sword, eclipsing the dazzling sunset from above.

Keith, shapeshifted to his form, baring his fangs wide at Charles while Athan swung his sword imbued with an arch of flames.

While Charles fairly dodged, jumping away at the early, fair warning, it was enough for them to put a distance, protecting her from them.

Unbeknownst to her, a deep relief loomed in her heart as soon as they were there, about time they would've found them. Almost her shoulders dropped, breaking out from the tension that awaited her.

"Your Highness!" Charles uttered out loud, the veins now streaked hard on his forehead and neck as he glared at them, clearly bewildered from what was in front of him. "... What's the meaning of this?!"

"Is that how you greet me, Charles, after how I've helped and trained you alongside Matthew?"

Everyone gave a pious salute, chorusing glory and grace to the Crown Prince himself.

After which, things went silent, and looked at one another as they had no idea what brought him here.

What made it worse was the aggression he had towards them, and not to Nathalie, who was albeit behind him.

Everyone became too wary of Athan's presence, for it was of serious matter; for him to go all the way here, and even standing against them in such an aggressive stance— protecting Nathalie at that, in front of them.

While it was simply unheard of, Athan not responding made the tension worse than it had ever been, and this scrunched up Charles for what he was doing at the moment.

Although Nathalie begged to differ when she also looked around her surroundings, assessing the situation in a subtle way. Her gaze cut short when she met him, then glared at the shackles on her wrists.

With a swift swing on his flaming sword, the shackles turned into ruins, and let go of her.

She ended up rubbing her wrists from it but it wasn't any good news from them.

"Your Highness! She will run away!" 

"She won't. You have my word."

Nathalie gulped hard as he looked up, and also towards Keith, who had so much hurt in his eyes. 

This is some misunderstanding, Charles." He flicked off the sword before placing it back to his scabbard and stood tall in front of them. "Violette isn't part of any of this…"

Charles stabbed the spear on the ground and then crossed his arms. "How else would she be in here, out of all the places she had to venture?" 

Keith snarled at him, which only further triggered them to unsheath their weapons, all of them aimed at him.

However, he flinched out of his pouncing stance when Nathalie reached for his left hind leg, nudging them, and shook her head slowly. 

"Violette only wanted to be alone, taking a break for now ."

"Had she lost her mind that she was never welcome in this territory, in the first place?!"

His calls warranted uproars from them.

"My Lord has already set up his men to guard against the possible shortcomings after purging the crazed magical beasts roaming around the territory."

"Right, everyone had celebrated for the successful endeavor, only to find out there was one more."

"Who would've known that it has to be the vile lady of the north?! Perhaps she's the one doing this after all?" 

Their murmurs gained momentum, even overpowering the loud, subtle rackets from the cacophony of insects within the forest.

None of which bore positive light on Nathalie. 

"Possibly! Everything was cleared after futile efforts; the mastermind should've come at last resort—!"

"Silence!"

Athan somehow had nothing to say after shouting as then he fell silent, but he somehow kept stealing glances at her for it wasn't his place to justify her actions further and let her have the place to speak up for herself.

Much to his dismay, a little twitch came from the corner of Nathalie's lip, like it was quite a blunt hit on her part.

While it was true Nathalie wanted to be alone for quite some time, after everything that happened to them, she realized too late where she was, based on the progress of the sequel.

The place she was in was another settlement where the werewolves and elves would come to terms with one another, and this was part of Sylvester's project, funded and aided by Athan.

Watching a glimpse of it was indeed worth a celebration; an outsider like her— she had nothing to do with in the first place— and a cutthroat villain at that, she knew things won't go well to her favor.

'Thinking about it made sense catching Ashtra with that artifact of his… But then…'

Nathalie went silent, which only fueled strong murmurs and gossips about her; grew stronger and preposterous to slander her in front of the Crown Prince.

"Right, she had wounded so many of our brethren; acting weak and all, even catching My Lord off guard, injuring him so bad."

"It must be part of her strategy to get us all in one trip to death's door."

While this was the first time in forever she had to experience it herself, she couldn't help but heave a rueful sigh. 'Nothing new, I guess…'

A loud scoff broke out the noise abuzz, which came from Charles. "The Lady of Blackwell isn't even denying it, Your Highness. We hadn't had the smoothest celebration after the debacle. I suppose the situation for this matter is as bright as day, and may you enlighten us how such justice would be served."

[I have nothing more to say other than how the truth His Highness, Athan, had spoken...] Nathalie bit her lip with hands trembling; it was already worse how her penmanship crooked but the letters she wrote somehow started to fade.

Athan clicked his tongue, then leered at everyone. "Heed before me, I've come here personally to deal with this matter. You all have worked hard protecting and upholding your responsibilities. You may all go!"

All of them were confused, even Nathalie, for she didn't know what he would do from this moment.

Yet his words and grave tone got deemed absolute, and they had no choice but to cower before him. 

"You Highness…" Charles choked.

Athan pointed at him.. "And you— be at Braewood Keep tomorrow."