As soon as the metal doors opened wide, mustering her inner strength Gabriel stepped inside the giant hall. There were countless royal nobles, dukes, and knights from the kingdom lined up in a queue, standing on both sides. However, the entire hall was festooned with beautiful white daisies and floral arches as Master Luther was regarded with his favorite flower.
The scent of fresh daisies tickled a heartwrenching pain to grow stronger inside Gabriel, making her realize her painful loss. Her wadded eyes swelled with tears as she saw at the center of the hallway, over a golden bier, her father’s coffin was placed, decorated with daisies. Her breath hitched with the lump of tears in her throat as she slowly walked towards the coffin with her trembling posture.
As soon as she took a glance inside, her father was resting still inside as if he had fallen into a deep slumber. However, the face was drastically different from that pain-stricken face he made when she saw Zordan plunging his sword into his chest yesterday. The seething agony of betrayal choked her breath as for a brief moment she stood still lowering her face down.
While, watching her break into bitter tears, Zordan slowly approached her from behind keeping a stiff gaze in his dark eyes. He picked up a handful of daisies to hand it over to her as he whispered, “Here, pay your last regards to your father.”
But the moment he handed those flowers to her, the heartwrenching pain flared strongly inside her heart as she shot a death stare at him. Her eyes screamed resentment and pain but biting her lower lip, she forced herself to not lash at him in front of everyone present there.
Slowly as she headed over and the moment she glanced at her father’s pale emotionless face from close, tears dripped down her eyes as she sobbed hard, “I…I am so sorry, Father. P-Please…Please forgive me for being unable to protect you...I couldn’t even bid you a last goodbye…I am so sorry…”
As she mourned her lament by lowering her grimace down, Zordan walked closely and tapped her shoulder once in order to console her bereaved soul.
But the moment she sensed the touch of his broad arm, like a triggered instinct she quickly flapped his hand away from her and lashed aloud glaring at him, “DON’T TOUCH ME!!”
Her sudden loud snap at the Crown Prince created a confusing murmur among all the nobles gathered there in the hall. It was the first time they watched their future alpha getting lashed out like that by an angry woman, especially the daughter of the Chief Advisor whose funeral was accordingly arranged by him, which baffled everyone.
Zordan was quick to sense the sudden commotion created between the nobles from her heated reaction as he frowned his brows. After snapping aloud at him, even though Gabriel became a little nervous, she couldn’t stop shooting glares at the killer standing in front of her.
With a small sigh, Zordan turned around towards the noblemen and addressed a formal smile at them, “As the only daughter, Lady Gabriel is in a state of emotional distress at this moment. So I would appreciate it if you all do not judge her every action and go easy on her.”
“O-Of course, Your Grace.” All the people gathered in the hall cordially bowed their heads to respect his command, cutting off every murmur that arose.
However, Gabriel was startled to see how cleverly he tackled the situation to not let anyone raise suspicion against them. But his witty smartness even angered her more but she kept silent as he walked a few steps towards her.
After a brief anticipating pause, Zordan leaned a little close to her ears and whispered in a heavy pitch, “It will be better for you to act a little obedient in front of everyone here, if you want the Melhood family to be safe.”
His cold and dark threat created a strong shiver of fear to run down her spine as she gritted her jowls, glaring fiercely at him, ‘This bastard…”
“Also, whatever will happen here, you must play along with my actions. I won’t be able to hold my patience longer if you continue irking me, Gabriel.” The moment Zordan finished declaiming his cold threat to her, he pursed his lips and straightened his posture, retreating a step apart from her.
However, stuck in the maze of confusion after his clear warning, Gabriel stood awestruck for a second, staring with her teary eyes. Her heart throbbed with an unknown surge of fear and angst as she clenched her fist, and wondered, ‘Now what? After ruining my life, what is this bastard still planning in his evil head? I can never understand him…but it’s scaring me now…”
CREAK!
But before any of them could utter a word, the giant metal doors of the hall opened wide again making a loud noise, along with the sound of boots that rang inside the walls of the room.
Quite a number of royal knights headed in first, but apart from them, the vision of flaunting long royal capes and hefty tall figures walking inside made the queue of nobles and aristocrats lined up in the hall bow their heads down.
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