The Crown’s Entrapment

Xenia’s face turned dark as she walked straight to her bedchamber. She was supposed to prepare her personal things to bring io their journey, Plus, the clothes the royal seamstress had made for her were ready and delivered to her bedchamber right now. She had been excited to see them since Cordonian outfits were quite different from the ones she was used to in Ebodia.

Unfortunately for her, she was no longer in the mood to see them. Instead, she simply left them unseen inside their respective chests as she looked at the door with a burning gaze… She was waiting for Darius to arrive, but a few minutes of waiting later proved that he wouldn’t show up. Her disappointment rose even further than usual.

Darius didn’t even bother to go after her. Her face crumpled even further, recalling Bella’s words from earlier.

“Watch not only for Clara but also for her?” she scoffed with a twitch in her mouth. “What a blunt warning!”

Truly, Bartos’s sister was blunt and aggressive, especially with the way she dressed. For some reason, the woman always wore those kinds of low-cut style dresses, constantly revealing the bumpy cleavage of her boobs wherever she went. And while she never felt inferior to anyone or anything at all, those boobs of hers were admittedly bigger compared to hers. And according to one of Jayra’s books, men preferred bigger boobs.

Xenia subconsciously looked at her own chest, mentally comparing herself with how big Bella’s size was. “Hers is bigger, but it’s not like mine isn’t comparable,” she mumbled out with a pout.

She had round boobs, and they weren’t even that small. If Jayra ever saw her like this, her friend would surely laugh at her for it. It wasn’t that she was insecure, of course, but she simply couldn’t stand the fact of how so many women seemed to be trying to hook up her man!

“Tsk, they’re still confident since I’m still unmarked, unmarried, and technically still not their Queen,” she helplessly murmured with a click of her tongue.

Letting out a sigh, Xenia walked towards one of her wardrobes. With a spell, she opened its secret compartment. She was keeping Jayra’s books hidden there, and she absently grabbed one to read as she waited to be called for dinner.

“Might as well read something…”

She was upset, and thus, she needed to divert her attention elsewhere. Comfortably sitting on her bed, she was about to open her book and read when a familiar voice suddenly talked to her.

“I didn’t know you like reading books.”

Darius had suddenly appeared, walking towards her from the balcony as he stared at her book. Xenia quickly put down the book and hid it under her pillow. Thinking back, she inwardly cursed at how suspicious she just acted in front of him.

Darius frowned at her actions, looking suspicious as he commented, “Do you really need to hide that from me?”

Xenia simply gave him the cold shoulder and murmured, “It’s too early for dinner, my King. Is there anything important for us to discuss for you to justify your visit?”

Darius smiled at her question. It was a devious one as he approached her and sat on the edge of her bed. To Xenia’s horror, he moved to grab the book under her pillow. Quickly, the princess moved to defend her pride and quickly attempted to grab the book from him.

Fortunately, she managed to snag it away from him and jumped out of bed.

“What is this? Are you going to fight me over the book?” Darius questioned with knitted brows.

Xenia promptly ignored him as she quickly cast a spell on the book, throwing it somewhere near the wardrobe that she hoped he wouldn’t get to.

“It’s something private, my King,” Xenia murmured, her heart practically hammering inside her chest. She was too embarrassed at the prospect of Darius discovering that she read those kinds of books. “If there’s nothing else, please tell me what it is that you want?”

“Are you mad?” Darius promptly questioned as he walked towards her once more.

In response, Xenia stepped back as he continued to approach her, her back hitting the wall as she found herself cornered. As if to press his advantage, Darius put both of his arms on the wall, giving her no room for escape as his eyes intently looked at hers.

“Are you jealous of Bella?” he followed up.

Xenia couldn’t look him in the eyes. She was having mixed emotions at the moment, not to mention the added embarrassment she was feeling for almost being caught with a lewd book.

She clicked her tongue and murmured, “How come you’re such a player? Just how many women do I need to expect to shoo off before they stop coming for you?”

“What do you mean?” Darius innocently pondered.

‘Why does he want me to state the obvious?’ Xenia inwardly complained.

With a smug sigh, she exclaimed, “First Ezme, then Clara, and now Bella.”

“Oh, that? You’ll meet three more then, seeing as you’ll need to fight three more women in the trial by combat, my Queen,” Darius amusingly responded as he curled his lips, the back of his hand caressing her cheek. “Either way, why are you even mad when those women can no longer have me? I’m already yours, my love…”

“Sorry it took me a long time to follow you here,” Darius whispered in her ear, his fingers trailing from her chin all the way down to her neck. “Freya had telepathically called for me to talk, so I had to rush and see to her needs.”.

“Ah,” Xenia’s eyes widened and asked, “Did you tell them the truth?”

Darius nodded with a smile, “I did, and I want to thank you for your advice, my love. I feel much lighter now like something heavy in my chest had just been lifted.” He sighed in relief as he added, “At least now, Mother and Freya will both be aware of what really happened. I can also leave them without worrying about them being used in Nasser’s scheming.”

“I-Is that so… I’m sorry,” Xenia murmured as she turned her head down. She was so childish acting like this when Darius was actually going through something.

He had just made the big decision of revealing the secret he had been keeping from his family, and yet here she was acting all grumpy because of something so petty. It wasn’t even his fault that so many women were falling for him, herself included.

Her eyes were about to tear up when she felt Darius’s arms pulling her body in for a tight hug. Taking the invitation, Xenia buried her face in his chest as she dwelled on his scent.

“You’re the only woman in my eyes, Xen. So there’s no need to be jealous at all…”

“I’m not jealous,” Xenia weakly defended.

“Then why are you sulking?”

“It’s just that… Okay, fine…. I’m jealous knowing that you have precious memories with them. Meanwhile I… I just arrived in your life and brought nothing to you but problems.” Xenia honestly stated. She knew that Darius was compromising a lot just to spend more time with her, especially in their future training, and yet she wasn’t even doing much for him.

“Stop that, Xen. You’re the best thing that came into my life,” Darius firmly stated. “We might not have as much time spent together since we just met recently compared to others, but we still have our lifetime to create more memories together. And I’m looking forward to that. I just love you so much that I can’t wait to explore my present and future with you…”

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July 1, 2022 AN: TCE will release a total of 5 chapters today for reaching 1k Powerstones.

P.S. Keep voting for a 5 chapters release instead of just 2 every time we reach 100s on Golden Tickets and 1000s on Powerstones. Another Extra Bonus Chapter/s too for sending Super Gift. Thank you so much for the support and love. Kindly share your thoughts too about the book through comments and reviews that will help a lot for wsa2022 contest.