Inside one of the corridors of the castle of the kingdom of Erela. King Asmit was gracefully walking down the aisle with his head high up in the air and expressing a stoic expression on his beautiful face. The knights standing at the side of the corridor were bowing their heads as he passed through them.

As King Asmit reached a room with wooden double doors, he stopped and let the knights open the door for him. As he stepped inside, he slowly exhaled and faced the three people on the elevated platform of the room. Each of them was staring at him while expressing no emotions on their seemed to be never fading beautiful faces.

The door closed and only four of them were left inside.

And without a delay, Farga who was sitting in the middle of the three members of the Elder council released his crossed arms. "King Asmit. I hope you are fully aware of what you have done."

King Asmit expressed a proud smile as he veered his face towards Farga. "I am. And I am not regretting it... and will do it again if I have to."

"Because of what you have done, you have just lost a huge chunk of your followers, are you willing to sacrifice your throne just to save that... curse?" Hargid asked as his right eyebrows slowly rose.

"Am I willing to save that child from the awful tradition of this kingdom? Yes. Am I going to lose my throne for saving an innocent life from horrible people like the three of you? I am afraid not. The majority of the people of this kingdom fully agreed with what I just did, they are just reluctant to speak out because the loud minority will persecute them."

What sounded next was Kalim's baritone laughter. "Did I just hear... Minority?"

King Asmit's proud smile became much more pronounced. "Yes, you heard it right. Because, if it's not the minority who are against me... I should not be standing here in front of you as the glorious king of the kingdom of Erela."

What came next was a long and arduous silence as the two of the members of the Elder council just stared at King Asmit with visible annoyance on their beautiful faces.

The only one smiling at what he just heard was Farga, who seemed like he did not even get affected by King Asmit's words. "My, my... It's his decision, it can't be helped." Farga stood up and expressed a proud smile. "Although I will admit that saving that cursed child is still part of the extent of your authority, I would highly suggest that you should be more careful on the next move you will make. If you cross more lines... you will lose your throne without us even doing anything. What I am trying to say is, I heard that your beloved wife is quite fond of that cursed child."

King Asmit narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Farga shrugged, at the same time, the two members beside him expressed ambiguous smiles. "That child... You can't take the cursed child in your custody, if you do... those people you were calling 'minority' will come for you... and removing you from the throne that you are not even worth sitting on will be a lot easier for us." Farga smirked as he stared directly into King Asmit's eyes. "That would be more favorable for us... However, for the sake of the times back then when you were still serving your kingdom faithfully, we will overlook this matter."

Hargid leaned his body to the armrest of his wooden chair. "If you are going to let me give you a suggestion, why not give the cursed child a safe home to live in and assign trustworthy people to take care of her, at least until she can live on her own? You can still support her despite not being under your custody. That would be good for her, to assure her safe future and at the same time, lessen your ties with each other to protect your image as the king of this kingdom. Declaring a decree to never harm her is no less than a decent idea. Even us can't complain about such a very reasonable action."

"And we all know that even if we wanted to, we cannot just order anyone to assassinate a child under the king's protection, furthermore, without a very good reason to... even though her very existence alone is more than enough reason to," Kalim commented while smiling, but his eyes could not hide the irritation in them.

King Asmit slowly nodded but his eyes were still filled with wariness. "Are you planning something?"

What King Asmit received was a burst of ominous laughter coming from Farga. "Are we planning something? Yes, we are. What we are planning to do is to wait until your own decision destroys you. Until then, we will wait and watch you as you slowly regret what foolishness you have done. And laugh at your misery when you already have lost everything, assuming that you are still alive to even mourn for what you have lost."

For a few seconds, King Asmit remained silent. He moved and turned his back to the members of the Elder council and silently left the room.

As King Asmit was confirmed gone, a proud and wicked smile emerged on Farga's face. "Taking the throne from you is no longer interesting, I want to see what your face looks like once you have lost something far more important to you... the thing that you cherish the most... your family. And without anyone to blame but yourself." His laughter resonated throughout the room, with the other two people with him just smiling while staring at him.

***

Inside one of the rooms inside the castle of the kingdom of Erela. The door opened and King Asmit entered the room while expressing no emotion on his beautiful face.

"My love!" Queen Ayani rushed to greet her husband and gently pulled her toward the wooden crib. "You should see this!" She said with a huge smile on her beautiful face.

King Asmit let his wife pull him toward the wooden crib and stared at the two babies inside.

"Look at them, My Love. They look adorable together, right? Our Leal is holding her hand." Queen Ayani cheerfully said while staring at the two.

Just like what Queen Ayani said, baby Leal was holding the baby girl's hand while expressing a sweet smile on his innocent face.

However, King Asmit just stared at them with apparent defeat on his face that he did not even notice that Queen Ayani just hugged him.

"Should we come up with a good name for her? I have been thinking, how about... Lei? So our Leal and she have similar-sounding names. What do you think, My love?"

But what Queen Ayani received was a slow exhale and an apologetic stare coming from King Asmit.

"Is there a problem, My love?"

King Asmit gently removed Queen Ayani's hands hugging him and stared directly into her jade green eyes. "We need to talk."

As if Queen Ayani instantly understood what the matter was all about, her eyes instantly shrouded in sadness while slowly shaking her head. "No."