It wasn’t because of ‘sad family affairs’ that the Second Prince had stated that he had no interest in becoming the next ‘Emperor of Green Haven’ as…As he was even looking at leaving the entire Haven one day! The only answer to something like that is complete shock! Who would be game enough and strong enough to last out there in the wilderness…It must be just a phase, an idea…It must be something that would never be acted out! Who was the Second Prince kidding!? So, the Emperor just nodded his head and smiled, acting out his acceptance, yet not believing a single word of it!

His reason for giving up his claim to the throne was a secret, as he had never really told the Emperor a valid explanation of why he was doing it. What had happened with Isabella wasn’t forgotten but revenge had already been done.

What happened during the years that he was eighteen, only Matthew himself knew, and it was something that gave him no right to the Green Haven throne…

Then there was a Third Prince, Felix, who was only ten, but he was already a first ranked cultivator. After his birth it seemed the fight for the throne had started, and became quite a sad factor for this Third Prince…

The Emperor ended up having to send the mother of the Third Prince into the cold palace, as there were too many evidences to see that she had tried to take over the harem and even some of the people close to the Emperor.

After his mother had gone, the Third Prince became unsociable and quiet. But through this, the Crowned Prince’s position was stable yet again, making the palace a more harmonious place.

Actually, within all of the ‘Haven’s’, the Green Haven has the second most peaceful palace on the planet…Sahara had not known any of this, but if she found out that most of the time the palace seemed hazard free, she’d probably have her mouth wide opened and shake her head in disbelief! There has to be a play going on somewhere!

Of course, there were lies and scandals, it was not a family-based place like the other haven, but they were all dealt will properly and promptly…Especially when the one causing the most problems was one with the highest power anyway…So…Problems didn’t leak out of the harem, making it very much look like an ‘harmonious’ place!

But…Outside of the palace, there were two families…One is connected to the consort, who was sent to the cold palace…The other, Matthew knows of it as the family that does the Crowned Prince’s dark deeds…

Matthew knew that when he had given up his right to the throne, on the surface the Crowned Prince seemed to be happier. But…Under that surface of pretending to care…The Crowned Prince had been forever jealous over the Second Prince. With having a good foundation to cultivate, and ranked twice as much as himself, the Crowned Prince didn’t lose any kind of dislike towards his brother, it had only increased! But seriously, what is it about sibling rivalry? So many shows are about brothers and what not, why another one? Why? Well, can you just put yourself in the Crowned Prince’s shows right now…He has a cultivation retardation, so he’s not a badass, Second Prince one! The Crowned Prince feels like his brother is mocking him with words such as ‘Giving up his right to the throne’, even though he never heard those words with his own ears, it’s mock because he says it is…It’s a strike against him, so Second Prince is now two! Then, the Second Prince is still alive, after all the hard work he has put in to kill him off! Just by being alive shits off the Crowned Prince! Three strikes so far! Should I continue?

But yes, these two boys are fighting…Sigh…Don’t you just wanna bang those heads together and yell out, “Get along or I’ll kill the both of ya!”?

Not following his father’s footsteps, in proving himself worthy to the capital, the Crowned Prince instead secretly went around to give other people nasty ideas and helped formulate scheming plans. Since he didn’t particularly indulge in these plans himself, he was never reprehended or found as a guilty party. But…Even if the Second Prince had many people on his side…So did the Crowned Prince! I mean, he was going to be Emperor one day, so why wouldn’t people flock to his side and want a piece of him, I mean dote on him so they can get higher status’s and get more currency…I mean…

At least the people on the Second Prince’s side were more loyal, they didn’t want the Crowned Prince to become the next Emperor, simply because he would not make a good one!

Ok, that’s enough, there’s probably heaps more royalty stuff to say but we are just going to deadpan it and move on…Can you just see how angry the Crowned Prince is now that we just stopped talking about him? Even in writing about him he’s mocked…Such a poor character…

Do you feel sorry for him?

***

Watching from a distance, Matthew didn’t show much reaction to the people around the execution grounds. He, instead, was a little impatient to see the one who had hurt Sahara draw their last breath!

People were shocked to hear about the poison that had been dormant for so long and didn’t leave the execution grounds intending to see the punishment through. I’d like to think only good things upon a whole heap of people watching a head fall to the floor. Perhaps seeing this will help people think more rational and so they won’t do anything too bad. Or that they could actually learn from it…But what do you think would be going through a kids mind when seeing a head fall and perhaps even roll? Do you think that perhaps a kid seeing this back in the day helped them become better adults?

The Rolland Estate weren’t normally people that stood out, yet one of their own had used the poison that was forbidden! It was news that rocked the whole capital! Of course, news of what family the culprit was from was leaked…It just wasn’t loudly stated, that’s all. It was all like a little play really, ‘we all know, just no one talks openly about it’, was pretty much the case…

For at least three generations, the Rolland family had nothing big happen, making them seem like a good family. But one cannot help but think the worst of the family, now that the ‘Two Faced Poison’ was involved.

One single woman, had destroyed an entire family’s reputation…

Behind the lady, that was having rocks and sticks thrown at her, was another three people who had been involved with the poison. Sadly, for them, Celeste told the Second Prince everything, only after a small amount of torture. It was really dissatisfying to the Second Prince, as he had wanted to torture her more…

Saying who she got the ingredients from and the information about it, she told him why she wanted to kill Sahara and how she did it, easily confessing to everything.

Finding out from her father-in-law, the Right Minister, that her daughter Gabriella was being forced out of the estate because she couldn’t stay anymore, had pushed Celeste over her limit!

She had thought that if someone should sacrifice something, that it should have been the worthless Sahara!

Sahara was of no importance, she wasn’t her child! If only Sahara would die, then her daughter wouldn’t have to rush to leave!

Yes, she was told that Gabriella had attempted to harm Sahara, but not until after she had done the deed. Upon finding out that Gabriella had plans to go as far as getting Sahara raped, Celeste could only shake her head and think that her own ‘poor’ child must have been pushed into acting this way.

Was there perhaps another personality inside of Celeste, simply because she felt no remorse?

Or…Was she just not accepting the circumstance?

She just doesn’t believe that she did anything bad and asked when she could go back home…Home?

Would you let her back in? She disregarded someone that was supposed to have been her child, favouritized, poisoned and didn’t feel like she had done any wrong…Yeah, honey, you have no ‘home’ anymore. The people in the estate probably wouldn’t accept you for one big arse reason, and that’s because you used a poison that was like, a ‘Golden Law’ or something!

It was a decision made in anger and the heat of the moment, but once she had read about the poison and got the ingredients…She couldn’t stop!

Strangely enough, with all her emotional outbursts about it and then the sudden crying, it really vexed the Second Prince!

How could she act like she was the victim? Didn’t she already know that she was losing her head?

Even if Sahara was still living in the world, meaning she hadn’t killed her, Celeste was still going to die because she had used the poison. Yet, she acted like it was the end of the world, that Sahara didn’t die quickly enough and get out of her way. Her thoughts really were strange as he couldn’t bring himself to understand her at all, even if he wanted to.

With Celeste being unstable like this, it did help him believe her words and he went to investigate, upon returning to find news, to understand a little to her strangeness.

Without telling Celeste that she was with child, or anyone else, the Second Prince hastily finished the investigation to come to the present where Celeste was to meet her punishment. Even if people knew, it wouldn’t change anything, so, he had made the physician to keep silent about it, giving him currency in return. It wasn’t a choice he made easily, he knew the life growing inside was innocent but…There were just too many reasons to have come to this particular ending!

One, Celeste had already done wrong by law, and death was the penalty. Two, a child that she had already conceived already seemed dark, so it was a worry that this child could also just turn bad like it’s sister anyway…Three, it was still very early and Celeste was also getting on with years too…So, the pregnancy already had a higher chance then normal of not making it easily to full term and also being safe for both mother and child.

If Celeste hadn’t had done anything, she would have to be very careful…And, the biggest thing, was that this child would indeed be used…Used to escape her punishment!

Using…Pawns, schemes…Ploys!

Just because the poor child would be used Matthew thought it better that it be so young and unknown of right now…Especially when the Emperor had already agreed to a date prior to finding all this out…

For the child’s life, Matthew could no longer hold resentment towards Celeste. Any type of bad emotions, he told himself, must disappear when she dies, simply because he was the murderer of the child growing inside of her…

The physician had told him that it is normal for pregnancy to make women emotional, but he had never seen it to this extend…Which had given the Second Prince another idea…

The Second Prince had then taken Gabriella into custody.

After the death of Celeste, who didn’t get buried with her family or husband’s family, rumors seemed to say that the mother and daughter suffered from some kind of disease. Whether or not it was confirmed to be true, was never told, as Gabriella seemed to have totally vanished…

Talon hadn’t stopped the Second Prince from taking his daughter, he had nodded his acceptance. He hadn’t gone to see Celeste’s final moments either, as he had a more important job to do.

Having not shaved for some time, Samuel helped him and that was only why he looked presentable. Luckily, he did eat and talk, he just didn’t find much else important. Something strange did happen in Sahara’s ‘house’ though…A rabbit has taken residence there as well, as Talon took over Sahara’s responsibility of it, with Samuel’s help. Talon might have gotten lethargic and didn’t do much business, but he did race after a bunny and sleep with it. If Sahara could see this, she would have found it adorable, wanting to watch from behind a wall…

***