The entire Royal Palace of Abetha was thrown into disarray, filling people’s hearts with terror and dread. 

Although it was in the middle of the night, whether it be the royals, their designated knights, the guards on duty, and even the servants, people of all walks of life inside the palace were all woken by the horrifying scream of a woman. The powerful scream that caused every item made of glass, porcelain, and other fragile minerals to shatter into pieces.

Nothing remained intact, from the huge glass windows of the different castles and buildings within the palace complex to every ceramic vase and porcelain figurines adorning the hallways and rooms. 

The incident ended up hurting many people inside the castle, especially the servants and the royals who were in deep sleep. The sudden uproar caused everyone to hurry out of their chambers and run towards the open space in the palace grounds, as if the war had reached the capital and enemies had infiltrated each building, causing everyone to avoid the calamity. 

As if only this much of a disaster was not enough, soon, cold rain started pouring and everyone had no other option but to return under the roof of the main palace and residences to avoid the rain.

“It’s the witch! It’s the witch’s curse!” One of the injured cried out, and soon, it spread across the palace that this was the witch’s doing, harming innocent lives due to various selfish reasons. 

King Armen, who was still inside his study during the incident, was not spared from the power of Seren’s scream too. While he was busy working on the documents on his desk, the window near him exploded into multiple shards, causing him to receive shallow cuts on his arm and forehead. Just like others, even the king was shocked by this sudden incident.

The door of the study flung open, and Lord Eudes and a number of royal knights—each of them with various injuries themselves—entered to protect their King from the ensuing turmoil. 

“Your Majesty!” 

“Are you all right, Your Majesty?”

However, King Armen ignored their concern and dropped everything as he realized what it must be and hurried out of his study towards the direction of his youngest daughter’s residence. He was sure he had heard the light sound of a scream while busy at work, and there was only one reason for such disaster to happen. His trusted advisor and the knights immediately followed him, ready to do his bidding.

Just as they stepped out, they were welcomed by the rain. The meaning was clear, his daughter was crying. Something must have scared her to the extent that it made her scream and cry. King Armen cared about nothing and hurried towards the tower.

“Gather more soldiers around the tower,” King Armen ordered as he almost ran towards the tower. 

Lord Eudes signaled one of the knights who separated from their group to execute the order. 

Due to the sudden incident, everyone was outside, and when they saw their king going towards the forbidden area, they could not control their imagination from doing wonders.

“Even His Majesty blames the witch.”

“Everyone heard her screaming.”

“After performing black magic, don’t know what she is up to now?”

“See how much I am hurt? This glass almost cut my neck.”

“Let’s see if this time, His Majesty will let this slide. Because of her attack, people might have died!”

“Our king should burn her to get rid of all the bad luck this kingdom is going through! She’s been practicing black magic, unafraid because His Majesty is protecting her. First, she almost ruined the Second Princess’s engagement, then that black smoke which is surely a curse of some sort. She’s still not satisfied and even got the Crown Prince abducted, and now she is trying to kill us all!”

“I heard, by killing people, witches increase their powers.”

“No wonder that witch caused the war. There is plenty of bloodshed on the battlefield! She’s damning our kingdom to ruin!”

“I am even scared to be around this tower and this palace. Perhaps it will be too late to leave when His Majesty realizes she’s out to kill us all.”

——

When King Armen reached the tower, he saw a brigade of royal knights standing guard outside the gate in the rain. 

“Your Majesty!” The knights greeted him with a bow and offered to carry the umbrella for him but the King raised his hand, saying no need.

“What happened?” the King asked without care that he was drenched by the continuous rain.

“Your Majesty, when we arrived here, the assigned guards were nowhere to be seen,” the leader of the brigade replied.

With a gesture from him, the knights opened the gate but remained outside. Although they were worried that their king went inside alone, it was his royal decree that, aside from those allowed by the princess herself, only the King had permission to enter the Third Princess’s residence. At most, they could guard the gate.

King Armen did not even have to search far to see what was wrong. He saw two bloody corpses hanging on the tree in the center of the garden which was being protected from that rain by the dense foliage of the tree.

“Eudes!” King Armen roared in anger. 

Lord Eudes, who had never entered the tower’s premises, finally did it for the first time as his king called for him. Seeing the old advisor entering, the leader of the knight brigade steeled himself and took one of the lamps from his men before following behind him. 

The knight raised his lamp when he came close and exclaimed in shock. “Our guards!” 

As the leader of the brigade and Sir Berolt’s direct subordinate, the knight recognized both dead bodies even though they were coated in blood and badly mutilated. Their limbs were broken and hung to the joints in twisted forms. Their faces were scarred, bones nearly showing, and not an inch of their skin was not coated in blood. If not for what remained of their uniforms, it was near impossible to think these were royal knights known for their strength and valiance. 

The King’s sight followed the trail of blood on the ground which was mixed with rainwater and was flowing towards the broken lamp. Despite the rain, the lamp was still burning with whatever oil was left in it. 

“She was here,” King Armen mumbled. 

Lord Eudes followed the King’s line of sight and went to check on that lamp. “You are right, Your Majesty. The embers are not yet put out. It has only been a couple of minutes at most.”

“She must have been thoroughly scared to scream like that,” the King concluded worriedly. 

He knew that Martha had strictly taught Seren not to scream, no matter whatever happens, because of its consequences, and his daughter successfully followed that instruction for so many years. For her to lose control of herself, that meant his frightened daughter needed her father’s comfort and protection. 

King Armen strode towards the tower’s entrance, but like the previous time, he was pushed back by the magic that Martha used. He gritted his teeth as he realized once again how much he hated this magic spell that stopped a father from going to his daughter when she badly needed him. 

It was magic and the supernatural causing his pitiful daughter’s life to turn out like this. If he had the power to destroy them all, he would have done so that his daughter would have been able to live in freedom, but alas! He was a mere mortal, a weak human who could only think of changing the world but could never do it. The only thing he could do was to protect his daughter by all mortal means possible.

Feeling helpless,  King Armen did something he had never done before.

“Seren!” 

The King of Abetha, who had abided strictly by all royal rules and who was renowned among all the kingdoms for his dignified calmness, called out his daughter’s name out loud like a normal commoner, hoping she would hear it and respond to him. Although he couldn’t go inside the tower, surely, she could come out of it.

He waited for a moment and called again, “Seren, Father is here!”

There was no response for a long time, and King Armen felt even more worried. 

“Seren!” 

This time, his voice was heavy with emotion, as if he was choking in desperation. The tears rolling down his cheeks were seemingly being washed away by the rain. 

Lord Eudes and the leader of the knights could only pretend ignorance of the matter. The King’s trusted advisor looked at the knight, who understood what the old man meant and wordlessly saluted before heading back towards the gate. They needed to take those bodies down the tree and move them somewhere else for investigation. 

“Your Majesty!” Lord Eudes called out in alarm when he saw his king fall on his knees in front of the tower’s entrance. 

With a hoarse voice, King Armen ordered, “Get someone to break this magic right away.”

Lord Eudes could only pretend to agree. This was not the first time King Armen ordered this, and as his right-hand man, he had been searching far and wide for whoever knew magic or dealt with the supernatural, but he only got disappointment in return.

At least within the Kingdom of Abetha, it seemed that magic wielders had gone completely hermit, and there were nothing but rumors about their whereabouts. However, at this moment, he couldn’t tell his king the reality as it would only make him feel worse.

King Armen didn’t look like he would move from his place, and Lord Eudes decided to accompany him silently, hoping the Third Princess would come out and ease the worry of her father.