Betrayed By The Hero, Loved By The Lord
Chapter 167: Sending a message (2)

Chapter 167: Sending a message (2)

Selene exited a door leading out to the back garden. There were servants and the guards Xavier left behind so she knew she would be safe to go for a walk outside.

Selene did her best to stay out of the way of the servants as she walked the path she had seen her father take many times for his walks.

The more she walked, the more it came back to her of the times she would run a little beyond the garden to greet her father if she was not inside with her mother. Her memory wasn’t the best since it had been long ago so Selene didn’t remember if there was ever something in his hands or if he had been nervous to see her.

Selene looked back to see how far she had gotten from the door she came out of. She wasn’t in the garden anymore but a few guards had started to follow her. They kept a small distance so as not to disturb her.

Selene looked ahead for signs of what her father came out here to do. Since this area only had tall trees and felt lonesome, Selene never played there. Someone had spooked her of there being some monster beyond the gardens.

Selene laughed at how naive she was. She had been so easy to scare. It could have been her parents or a servant who made it up so she wouldn’t get lost out here.

"Oh!" Selene gasped, trying to reach for something to hold onto as her foot slipped. "I’m fine," she told the guards rushing to her.

Selene managed to balance herself before she fell. She used her foot to push around the tall grass to see what had slipped under her foot and found a rock she assumed to be painted red.

It reminded Selene of the magic stones bought from witches to block vampires from eavesdropping but it wasn’t one.

"Did I make this?" Selene wondered. "Or was it from the garden?"

Selene knew the latter was possible since her mother liked to decorate the garden in unique ways. A servant could have tossed it here in the unkempt grass which wasn’t tended to like the garden.

Selene held onto the rock and continued on her way to search for any signs of what her father had come out here for.

She got further and further away from the home without realising it but the guards were still near.

Selene stopped when she tripped once more followed by a snapping sound. Something whistled through the air, causing the branches and leaves to shake.

Selene readied herself to run away but first waited for the direction danger might be coming from.

Something started to fall from the trees to her right which prompted her to get out of the way.

"Milady!" She heard the call of a guard behind her.

Selene soon found herself falling after being pushed to the side by a guard.

Looking to her right, Selene noticed it had been some kind of trap with spikes which she might have triggered.

The guard quickly moved from covering Selene to checking she was not hurt. No scent of blood was a good sign.

"Thank you," Selene said, thankful he acted fast. "I won’t go any further than this."

"Milord."

Selene sat up and looked back to see Xavier was coming toward them. "It was a trap," she informed him. "I should have been more careful."

Xavier was concerned about Selene but there was a rather urgent matter he needed to take care of. "Can I have this?" Xavier asked, taking the rock from her hand.

Selene let him have the rock since she had no use for it.

Instead of inspecting the rock like Selene thought he would, Xavier tossed the rock towards the sky and immediately the guards started to run in the direction he threw it.

Xavier bent down to check that Selene wasn’t injured. "I took my eyes off of you for a moment."

Selene was distracted by what Xavier had hit out of the sky and what the guards were running after. She heard a noise as if someone cried out. "Is it that bat again?"

"Not again. It isn’t the one who serves my grandfather. I am guessing that is the shapeshifter from the palace he said was following you," said Xavier.

When Selene walked outside, Xavier was keeping an eye on her which helped him to notice something flying around above the trees. His guards also spotted the bat but Xavier came forward to take it out of the sky himself.

"You don’t look like you’re hurt. Just frightened. That was a pretty good trap," Xavier said, admiring the set-up.

"I remembered my father coming out here for walks a lot. Now I know what he was doing. I wonder how many of these traps are around here," Selene said, looking up at the trees. "I never came out here since it was so lonesome."

"If this was your father’s doing, he was trying to keep someone out. It could be the court when they came looking for them or some nosey person he wanted to keep away. Can you wait here for me? I want to see who it is," Xavier said, paying attention to both Selene and his guards.

Selene nodded her head. "I am not injured, just startled."

"Don’t move. There could be more traps," Xavier said, as he got up.

Xavier walked over to where his guards had captured the bat he hit out of the sky. One of the guards held the bat upside down. "Change now."

"I don’t listen to your commands," the shapeshifter replied. For the king, he would rather die than tell Xavier what he was sent to do. His loyalty would be forever with the king. "You made the wrong enemy."

Xavier took the bat from the guard’s hand. He already knew who sent the shapeshifter thanks to Jasper so he didn’t need the bat alive. When Xavier positioned his finger under the bat’s head to sever it, the shapeshifter changed form.

There wasn’t any room for an escape since the shapeshifter was outnumbered.

Xavier didn’t have to waste his energy since his guards did the work of pinning the shapeshifter down.

"Your king made the wrong enemy," Xavier said, positioning his foot above the shapeshifter’s head.

He brought down his foot with force to break the stranger’s nose and repeated the same action like he wanted to crack open a pumpkin.

Xavier didn’t have any more patience left for the fools bothering him or Selene. He didn’t want to waste space in his dungeon for a fool or waste his time questioning anyone when he already knew this was Darius’s doing.

His response remained to kill the people who didn’t have the sense to leave him alone. Even the ones who merely acted upon orders by others.

Xavier didn’t stop until the stranger’s head reminded him of the aftermath of when children went around smashing farmer’s vegetables. He only stopped when he was certain it would be too hard for the body to heal.

"Cut him up and bury him in different lands around the kingdom so he can’t heal from this. Send a piece of him to the palace," said Xavier.

Darius needed to know the outcome of his games.