Bound To The Ice Dragon King
Chapter 133: Another suicide

Chapter 133: Another suicide

After a long time of conversing with Gail’s ghost, Rhea bid her goodbye and returned to her own room with a lightened heart.

Within the day, the news of Gail’s death reached the entire dragon realm, all the dragons were in uproar. As a doctor, Gail’s status in the east clan was quite high. She had saved many lives, those she saved and those who knew her vowed to avenge her death after discovering it was caused by the fire controllers.

Some dragons even went against the king’s orders to the mountain border at night and rained ice terror on the soldiers there. However, most of them lost their lives when the fire controllers arrived at the scene. The knife-edge tension at the border keyed up.

As the tension in the border was on, so was Draven’s schedule with the soldiers high. As days passed by, Rhea also wasn’t sitting idly anymore, she tagged along with Draven to the soldiers camp every morning. She had no one to make plans with like before, and she didn’t want to get used to Gail’s ghost.

Rhea quietly sat beside the camp and observed as Draven instructed the soldiers in their training. It was impossible for her not to notice a different aspect of Draven as she watched them. He was strict and distant towards the soldiers, never once showing leniency.

It became a daily routine for Rhea to watch them train, then afterwards when the night fell, she would also train to master the core’s power and her martial art skills. Meanwhile, Draven stood by the side to give her lectures. Occasionally, he would step forward to demonstrate a few things to her or reposition her stance. Rhea would try so hard to ignore his closeness whenever he touched her to show her how it was done. She even reached a point where she would hold her breath to prevent herself from experiencing his musky scent that stirred her stomach and caused heat to swell inside her, or the tightening of her inner thigh from his mere touch on her skin.

Few more days passed, and Draven had assigned all the dragon soldiers to the tasks they’d be doing for the day. He took Rhea to the frozen forest behind the place where he asked her to practice with the trees. However, Rhea’s movements were not as fast as a dragon’s, and her powers seized every now and then.

Seeing that, Draven suggested for the tenth time for her to consider changing her human bones, but Rhea retorted, "I am strong enough like this, just continue to teach me how to master the powers. Let’s redo the practice again, perhaps I’d get it right this time."

Draven lightly glanced down at her exhausted face, he then raised an eyebrow, "You are strong enough like this?" His tone was somehow taunting as he added, "If you’re strong enough like this, then that day you fought with Oriana, why didn’t you win against her flames? And in the border mountain, why weren’t you confident enough to face her off? If you are really strong enough, you’d have easily defeated her."

When Draven brought up her defeat against Oriana, Rhea grew a little irritated and angry, "Me not being able to defeat her has nothing to do with my human strength!"

"Rhea, you have no idea how powerful that thing in your body is, and if your body is weak, the core won’t give out all it’s powers. And if you continue like this, you won’t be strong enough to fight any flame."

Rhea wanted to retort again, but before she could open her mouth, a loud sound suddenly came from the palace side.

"What’s happening?" She asked Draven.

"I don’t know."

The pair exchanged looks, no more words needed to be said, they headed back towards the palace to see what was happening.

When they reached the palace gate, Rhea was shocked to find all the five princes standing outside the huge gate, and right in front of them was...

Elliot!

He seemed badly injured with all his clothes covered in blood, his face looked swollen and bruised. He knelt down on the snowed ground with his head bowed, "Please, just once...let me see her, after that you can do whatever you please with me..."

Prince Zachary’s face was filled with anger as he glared at the young man before him, who claimed to be his foster daughter’s lover. "You are not worthy of meeting her," he said through clenched teeth, "but if you truly want to see her, then I will gladly send you to accompany her." After speaking, Zack signaled to his brother, Zade, to get rid of the man.

Immediately, a long, sharp ice sword materialized in Prince Zade’s hand, surging with ice power. However, Elliot remained kneeling in place without making any move or flinch; he didn’t even attempt to dodge. It seemed like he had truly given up.

Rhea’s eyes widened as she watched Gail’s ghostly figure rush to stand in front of Elliot, screaming for the prince not to harm him. However, no one else could see or hear her.

Without hesitation, Rhea swiftly moved forward, summoning her own ice sword. With a quick motion, she blocked Prince Zade’s long and powerful sword. The clash of the two swords was so strong that it caused the snowy ground around them to stir.

After the snow settled, Rhea remained unharmed, still standing protectively in front of Elliot despite the prince’s force.

The dragons and princes who witnessed this were all shocked to see Rhea possess the ability to summon a sword that could overpower a royal dragon’s sword. A royal dragon’s sword was an immensely powerful weapon, capable of freezing an ordinary human to death with its mere presence. However, to everyone’s surprise, Rhea had easily blocked it without suffering any harm.

Everyone had assumed that Rhea was just an ordinary human without any abilities, and it was purely by chance that she had managed to save their prince in the past. Since her arrival in the dragon realm, no one had taken her seriously.

Even Rhea was amazed to discover that she was actually strong enough to withstand Prince Zade’s attack. She looked at Draven with excitement in her eyes. Despite not having practiced for very long, it seemed like her powers had greatly improved. However, she had hoped to see surprise or pride in Draven’s expression, but instead, he looked at her with a blank expression as if what she had done was nothing special.

Her powers still weren’t good enough for him to be pleased. For some reason, she felt disheartened that he wasn’t as impressed as the others.

Prince Zachary snapped out of his surprise and his expression turned chilly, but before he could open his mouth to speak, Rhea quickly started to explain, "I didn’t stop the blade to help him," she glanced back at Gail’s ghost, "Your Highness, I’ve only known Gail for a short while, but I know a lot about her personal life, and from what I’ve come to know about her, I know if she was here, she’d have liked to let Elliot meet with her. For her sake, let him see her."

A chill ran down Elliot’s body as he heard Rhea’s words, pain flashed in his gray eyes, it was so much that his lips started to tremble as if he was unable to relax.

Prince Zachary remained silent for awhile, in the end, he said, "I never understood her heart," his words held helplessness and grief. With one last hateful glare at Elliot, he turned on his heels and walked back into the palace.

Seeing that their elder brother had left, the rest also followed behind him. Rhea quickly helped Elliot up from the snowed ground, "Come with me," she turned and started to lead him towards the royal graveyard.

She took him straigth to Gail’s grave, where her smiling portrait was still on the tombstone, and her ghost was standing behind it. But Elliot’s eyes was on the grave, as a tear rolled down his eyes as he asked,

"How did she die...I thought she was alive when you left with her that night."

"She was, but she took her own life after you betrayed her and she lost your baby." Rhea said harshly as she looked at Gail’s ghost, who was shaking her head, "I have nothing to say to you, you can speak to her and explain the reason you betrayed her that night." Saying this, Rhea turned to go and wait outside.

Elliot remain standing for a while before kneeling down in front of Gail’s grave. He then said, "Ever since I was a child, I was taught that all outcast creatures should be killed. The human code was to show no mercy to those who were cast out, and to protect humanity. There was no room for disobedience. I was only eight years old when my parents gave me away to join the fire controllers. I was trained to kill outcasts...but when I met you, I realized that everything I had been taught was a lie. And when I heard of your death, I was deeply shaken and realized that I had made a tremendous mistake of my life that night..."

Tears streamed down his cheeks, making it difficult for him to speak clearly. "I have made significant mistakes that I deeply regret. My first mistake was joining the fire controllers and following their rules. My second mistake was falling in love with you, despite knowing it was forbidden," his lips trembled as he continued, "and my final mistake was failing to stand up for you that night. I was so afraid that if I tried to protect you, my family would suffer the consequences of my disgraceful act of choosing an outcast over humanity. I am a coward... I am sorry..."

Gail’s ghost remain standing next to her grave, silent but with tears streaming down her face.

"I...I was foolish to betray you for the sake of humanity that night. I had the idea you were going to tell me you were pregnant, and I had anticipated that news after what had happened between us. I even prayed to the heavens, desperately wanting to have a family with you, but that night I couldn’t bear to go against humanity in the presence of my comrades...I..." His voice trembled as he spoke, "I don’t think I will ever be able to live with what I have done." He wiped away his tears, "And since I’ve turned my back on everything and came here to you, it would be best if I join you in the afterlife. I will make amends for all the wrongs I committed in the world of the living."

Rhea, who was leaning against the wall of the graveyard, suddenly heard a loud noise from inside. She quickly ran into the graveyard and was taken aback when she saw another ghost standing next to Gail. The two ghosts stared at each other for a moment before Elliot pulled Gail into his arms, weeping.

Rhea met Gail’s smiling face before they both disappeared right in front of her. She stood frozen in place, before looking down at Elliot’s dead body that now had a huge hole in his stomach, where he’d struck himself with his fireball.

Another suicide...