(A/n: WARNING!! Put on your emotional seatbelt for this chapter!!)

( I didn't edit this chapter. So please ignore any mistakes)

Meanwhile, in Prince Edgar's Palace.

At the grand hall of the splendid Palace, Edgar was sitting on a grand golden chair, grim faced. A hint of evil was flashing in his eyes.

Priest Dean was sitting beside him.

‘ Your Royal Highness, you've asked for me? Is there anything you need me to do?’ Priest Dean asked Edgar.

‘ Priest Dean, you were a well known Beast Evaluator in the Holy Dragon Empire twenty years ago and now you are the Priest! Do you remember who helped you get this position?’ Edgar asked, shooting Priest Dean a cold glare.

‘ Of course I remember. How could I forget that? It's the empress! If Her Majesty had not recommended me to His Majesty. I would never have gotten this position. I'm eternally grateful to the Empress’, Priest Dean reverently answered.

However, he soon got nervous. He knew well that Edgar only inquired about it because he had ulterior motives. It was not just some casual chitchat.

‘ I'm glad to know that you still remember. My mother doesn't have a hand in any matters regarding the royal family anymore. If she had been here today, would she have let that bastard have her way? It's all because of that bastard 's mother and that bastard the royal family is not in peace ’, Edgar said through gritted teeth.

‘ I'm sorry Your Royal Highness. What exactly are you trying to say?’ to be honest, Priest Dean did actually know that the bastard mentioned was Amelia and her mother.

‘ I assume that within five years at most, I will ascend the throne and become the Emperor of the Holy Dragon Empire. Those young ministers in the imperial government have become my faith full supporters, but they are not qualified to be my reliable helpers. Priest Dean, you are a clever man. And it's your time to make your choice ’, Edgar said.

‘ Your Royal Highness, you are the future Emperor. No one can change that very fact. What are you worried about?’ Priest Dean asked.

‘ Ofcourse, I know that. But I need to take into consideration any unexpected change, and get rid of the one who threaten my future! The other royals don't threaten my claim to the throne at all, except for her! The only way that would relive my worries is her disappearance!’ Edgar pounded her fist on the armrest of his chair.

‘ Your Royal Highness, do you mean Princess Amelia?’ Priest Dean squinted his eyes. Of course, Priest Dean knew the answer.

‘ Please don't let that Amelia bother you. His Majesty has announced in public that you are the only candidate for the emperor. Amelia is not a threat at all’, Priest Dean reassured Edgar.

‘ To be frank, you've always viewed things in an extremely simple way. If His Majesty only considered things like that, he never would have arranged a marriage between Marcia and Amelia. Knowing the power of the Ximen Clan they can even supress the Royal Family. If Amelia uses that then, no one can say for sure who will take over the throne. Maybe Father did all this intentionally’, Edgar tried to guess the emperor 's true intentions.

‘ In my humble opinion, Prince Edgar, the emperor does not plan to let Amelia become his successor. If His Majesty intends to make that gurl become his next successor, why would he even bother to demote Amelia down to a commoner?’ Clearly Priest Dean held a totally different idea.

‘ Do you remember that my father was determined to bring that bastard Amelia's mother back to the royal family? He even promoted her from a worthless concubine to an imperial one, regardless of the strong opposition coming from the entire royal family. He must have helped that bastard to reach Earthy stage two in two months!’ Edgar clenched both of his fists, blue veins appearing on his forehead due to his anger and jealousy.

‘I do have to admit that what you said also makes sense to some extent. Amelia really broke through the Earthly Stage at an amazing speed. Moreover, she took out a yellow spiritual crystal at the Dragon Birth Festival. How could such a precious thing be in her possession’ Priest Dean nodded his head noticing the odd thing.

‘ All these things were planned in advance. If we let Amelia marry Marcia, she might have her strength redoubled. Therefore, I hope that you can lend me a helping hand. Of course, you can rest assure that I won't mistreat you. Once I get the grand throne, I will designate you as the Chief Priest whose responsibility is to protect the whole country. You can

own the position as long as you want. Yes, you will have to obey my every order, but you will have the power and authority over everyone else,' Edgar said, trying to sweet—talk the Priest into cooperation.

Priest Dean was definitely enticed by Edgar's words. However, he did have some concerns. Now that Amelia had attracted the attention of the royal family and the entire Holy Dragon Empire, if anything happened to her, it would certainly cause quite a stir.

‘ Edgar said with a deeply sinister look on his face and then laughed maniacally. He knew that Priest Dean had been with the emperor for so many years and understood his style of conduct. He believed that Priest Dean knew best on how to make the emperor give up on Amelia.

‘ ,’ Priest Dean said. He hesitated for a moment, but eventually could not stop himself from showing a cunning look.

‘ Edgar knew exactly that he had not picked the wrong person to offer him ideas.

‘?’ Priest Dean suggested, convinced that it was a very clever idea.

' Edgar asked Priest Dean.

‘

‘.’ Edgar gave out a loud laugh, and then his face turned as cold as ice. ‘ .’ Edgar thought to himself.

On the other side, Mia and Ana had flown all the way back to the Palace City. Mia did not say a single word to Ana for the whole duration of their ride and even after they have arrived at the palace. After sending Ana back to her palace, she immediately rode away on the Scarlet Flame Dragon, still without saying a single word.

When Ana returned to the palace, Ananta, who had anxiously been waiting for her master for a whole day, immediately jumped towards her with great enthusiasm. They started to play together.

Soon an unfamiliar maid came to Ana's chambers.

‘Could you tell me where Her Royal Highness is?’ that maid inquired.

‘What is the matter?’ Ana asked.

‘Your Royal Highness, Consort Allison would want to have a word with you in her chamber alone. She has something important to tell you,’ said the maid.

‘Consort Allison? She is the consort of Amelia's father. Why does she want me to go there?’ There was something odd, and Ana could sense it. She had hardly met Allison, let alone talking to her. But she still nodded and followed the maid to Allison's chamber, wondering why she wanted to talk to her secretly.

Allison was an adorable woman with charming looks and a warm personality.

Ana was led to Allison's room after a while. As she reached the door, the servant who'd taken her there bowed and gestured for her to enter the room, after which she left Ana there alone.

Ana entered the room, only to find it empty. She felt like she had been fooled. Just then, a slight groan caught her attention. She turned back out of curiosity and walked to the source of the sound. It was coming from near the bed. Carefully, she removed the tulle that encircled the bed. To her surprise, a slender figure writhed in the large bed.

Ana asked confused.

Ana put her hand on the consort's forehead to feel the temperature and murmured,‘ Definitely a fever.... But then why did she call me?’

While she wondered what was going on, a suspicious figure walked over the room's roof. Ana heard a tile crack as the figure moved slightly but didn't pay much attention to it. Everything that followed was almost noiseless.

Whoever was on that roof was very sleek and experienced. The figure then took out a bottle and carefully emptied the powder from it into a bamboo straw. He then placed the straw in the crack in the tile and gently blew the powder into the room.

The strange figure, done with the job, jumped into the air and fled in an instant. The bottle that he was carrying was exactly the one Priest Dean had handed over to Prince Edgar.

Ana had no idea she had stepped right into their conspiracy. The only thing she was concerned about right now was the consort's fever and what she could do to alleviate it. She looked at her anxiously, and realised there was no time to waste. She needed to call a doctor right away.

As she turned around to walk out, the consort's hand grasped her arm desperately. Ana froze in her place, and turned around to look at the consort. She was getting up now, staring at Ana with a lustful look. She was panting for breath

All of a sudden, the consort threw herself over Ana, flipping Ana onto the bed.

Everything happened so fast that Ana did not even get the time to process it. She looked into her eyes, sure that something about them was different. She had now started to tremble. Ana had no idea what was happening to her.

‘Consort Allison, I'm sorry...’ said Ana. She slipped from under her in a hurry. Almost instantly, Consort Allison grabbed Ana's neck with both her hands.

‘Consort Allison, cut it out!’ Ana yelled, trying to rid herself of the consort's grip.

But Consort Allison was out of control.

'No! I can't!' As Ana struggled to free herself, she started feeling suffocated. Soon, she started to lose consciousness. She started having difficulty to breathe, and her body started to shake frantically. Everything in front of her eyes blurred .

Edgar accompanied by several imperial guards were heading towards the consort's chamber

The emperor decided to visit the consort . Seeing Edgar. The emperor thought it was rather strange to see Edgar outside Allison's residence, and likewise, Edgar was surprised to run into the emperor.

‘Does he know what I'm planning?’

Edgar anxiously thought to himself, growing worried. His face was pale with fear.

‘ Edgar, what are you doing here?’ the emperor asked.

'I just got a message that someone suspicious appeared here. So I decided to bring some imperial guards to check on it.' Edgar said calmly.

Suddenly, a scream came out from inside allison's residence.

the emperor hurried at the direction of the scream.

They almost flung the door off its hinges as they frantically stepped inside the residence. They then saw the naked figure of a girl lying on the bed through the flimsy curtain. She looked petrified. Sitting up beside her lying form was a strong naked body.

‘What did you do to me, Amelia?’

However, before Ana was able to say another word, a figure dashed towards her and a fist flew into her stomach. She was knocked against the wall before falling onto the floor.

Ana felt a cram in her chest And blood immediately spilled out her mouth. She looked up and saw Edgar glaring at her . She quickly got to her feet and sized Edgar up. ‘ What are you doing here?’ she asked.

‘You shameless bastard! How dare you rape the consort!’

The Emperor said in a very commanding voice,‘

‘ Put your clothes on and get out. Edgar, you get out too.’

Ana's eyes darkened as she got out of the chamber

The emperor turned around and walked out of the residence to where both Ana and Edgar were gloomily standing. He immediately strode towards Ana and threw a punch to her face. His eyes were wide in anger as he asked her, ‘ Why did you do that? Why!’

Ana was shocked from being punched by the emperor. She quickly defended herself, saying, ‘ I don't know exactly why it happened, she was...'

‘ Confine Amelia to the Introspection Hall. She's going to have some thinking to do,’ the emperor bellowed, not even letting Ana finish.

Edgar quickly fetched several imperial guards who then encircled Ana.

Ana looked at the emperor, the inside corners of her brows were slanted upwards and her teeth were clenched tightly. She knew she was innocent, but she could not do anything to explain herself. She suddenly realised that someone must have conspired against her. The one responsible was most likely to be…

Ana turned her gaze towards Edgar. Behind the anger on his face, Ana sensed that there was a bit of triumph in there. It was clear to her now.

‘Move! Get her out! Quickly!’ Edgar immediately ordered. He grew a bit panicked as he noticed that Ana seemed to have figured something out.

The guards stared at Ana, at a loss at what to do. They did not want to force the Daughter of the emperor, but they needed to follow the order.

‘I will find the truth,’ Ana swore to Edgar and left Allison's residence as she was escorted by the guards.

‘ Edgar, what happened tonight is only between you, me, and Allison. You must keep it secret. Once news of this incident breaks out, the Holy Dragon Empire will be disgraced,’ the emperor said.

‘ You can go back now ’, the emperor said.

‘ Allison, what happened? Why did Amelia and you...’ the emperor asked hesitantly as he returned inside the chamber.

‘ I... I don't know! I just remember that I felt so sick and lost consciousness then. That feeling was strange... And when I woke up, I saw Amelia lying beside me! We weren't wearing any clothes....’ Allison answered bitterly, shaking her head.

‘ Take rest for now’, the emperor left finishing his sentence.

THE NEXT DAY

‘ Father, I have had my men search around Consort Allison's place and they found this suspicious bottle,’ Edgar said, handing over the object in question to the emperor.

The emperor looked at the bottle for a while and then glanced inside it. When he saw the bottle was empty, he frowned a little and asked, ‘ What was inside before?’

'I have no idea about this as well. Perhaps, Priest Dean can shed some light on it,' Edgar answered.

After giving it some thought, the emperor ordered a subordinate to summon Priest Dean.

After a while, Priest Dean walked into the Violet Cloud Hall hastily and bowed to the emperor. ‘ Your Majesty, what do you need me to do in such a hurry’

The emperor stood up and walked to Priest Dean. He thrust the bottle at him and demanded, ‘ Priest Dean, can you identify what was in this bottle before?’

Priest Dean took the bottle and smelled. He then looked shocked and exclaimed, ‘ Is this the Amorous Powder? Taking it will make people lose consciousness. And... and this powder stimulates sexual desire. When I made an inventory of the medicine in my stocks, one bottle of this powder was unaccounted for. Is this the one? But it's already empty. Is...'

The emperor turned grim—faced as he heard Priest Dean.

‘ Father, it must be Amelia! Who stole it’ Edgar said.

The emperor's brows knitted together. ‘ Bring Princess Amelia here now!’

Ana was soon escorted into the Violet Cloud Hall. Her tired face showed that she had a sleepless night.

As Ana entered the hall, she glanced silently at the emperor, Edgar and Priest Dean. She knew well that no matter how hard she tried to explain herself, no one would believe her word. She collected her thoughts for the whole night and realised quite clearly that she had been framed. She firmly believed that she was framed by Edgar.

‘ Amelia, why did you do this? Do you have any idea what a serious crime you have committed?’ the emperor asked angrily.

‘ I'm innocent! I was framed!’ Ana answered calmly, shooting a cold glare at Edgar.

‘ You were framed? Stop making ridiculous excuses! We already found hard evidence. Just confess to the crime, Amelia! You stole the Amorous Powder from Priest Dean and then planned to make Consort Allison to take it. You are so despicable!’ Edgar shouted at Her.

‘ Amelia! Is Edgar saying the truth!?’ the emperor gritted his teeth in anger.

'No!' Ana denied firmly.

‘ Then why did you do that to Allison last night? Give me a reasonable explanation!’ the emperor exclaimed.