Bride To His Darkness
Chapter 115: Content Of The Scroll

"Missed me, my dear little brother?" The corner of his lips lifted as he took a couple more steps closer, his arms spread out in a gesture as though he was about to hug Ivan, but even he knew that was a grave mistake he could not make...unless he wanted to lose an arm on his first night of return.

"Eamon?" Ivan’s eyes widened in disbelief as he recognized the man who approached - the brother he despised, the one who secretly subjected him to years of cruel torments during their youth. There was absolutely nothing about him that had changed...his face, that enigmatic darkness that was effortlessly concealed by his eerily calm demeanor, it hadn’t changed either, but what irritated Ivan the most was when his brother, whom he hadn’t seen for years, flashed him a warm harmless smile as if he didn’t show up here without any ulterior motives in mind.

"Prince Eamon? Who knew he’d be arriving tonight?! This doesn’t make sense at all!" The Councils began their murmuring as Eamon stepped forward to stand only two feets away from Ivan, and his audacity to still have the bravery to look him in the eyes, made Ivan’s fingers curl into fist at his side, and he was tempted to do something dangerous, something that could ruin his name and shatter everything he had worked for, there was a chance he could die, but in return his loving brother would also be dead, and the vengeance in his heart can gain peace.

"Is this how you choose to welcome me after our years apart? With a gaze that can kill." Eamon sighed softly before taking his hand under his sleeve and bringing out a scroll. The smug smile on his lips was the type of smile Ivan had grown quite familiar with - to others it could mean nothing, one couldn’t possibly guess his thoughts when he had deceived everyone with his quiet countenance, but to Ivan, that smile conveyed a sense of triumph, a long awaited opportunity meant to shatter him and his position for power.

The two brothers refused to look anywhere else as the courtroom instantly gained silence, their aura’s were oppressively challenging, crimson eyes staring back into a completely darker shade of red, and Draven, who still appeared calm and composed, could feel his lips twitch in delight.

Carina, who was as surprised as everyone by her son’s dramatic entrance, could feel her uneasy system relax as she moderately sank back to her seat with her chin proudly tilted up. Her son never told her he would be storming the royal court tonight, not like this. Surely he couldn’t possibly have journeyed alone, but then where were his brothers?

"Eamon.." Ivan’s voice, though tinged with a sense of surprise and anger, tried to keep himself collected as he addressed his older brother with the same harmless smile that didn’t reach his eyes. "To be honest, I wanted to host your welcome celebration and kept asking Carina when you were going to make your return, but is it just a mere coincidence that you grace the court with your sudden entry tonight? If I’m not mistaken, what farce are you attempting to play here?"

"Your manner of speaking has changed.... you welcome me with daggers and now, you speak as if I tied a bomb to myself. Do I pose that much threat? When I was told you had changed completely, I didn’t believe it until now." Eamon, who didn’t bother to hide his astonishment, spoke softly as if he was a proud older brother. With the scroll in his hand, he unfurls it with a flourish. "I never wanted to battle a weak human for the throne, so I gave you time, but after seeing the outcome, I personally admire the man you are gradually becoming.... Just the way I had pictured it." His eyes gleamed with a wicked delight, and that last phrase brought back memories of their troubled childhood, memories of the time when Eamon would grab him into a corner and say he would wait for an opportunity like this one.

"How do you intend to do that?" Ivan questioned back, the matter at hand no longer concerned his marriage to the human, but rather, a threat to his position as King. He knew his brother didn’t show up here just to offer a grand welcoming, nor did he show up here to plague his mind with memories of their tortured past, and Ivan was curious to see him lay out the proof Carina had accidentally spilled the night of her return.

At this point the courtroom had fallen into a hush as all eyes moved to Eamon who kept quiet at Ivan’s question. Tobias and Alistair, who stood at the far corner, watching everything with a troubled gaze, hardly guessed Eamon’s intention, but Tobias was interrupted when he heard his brother open what looked like a candy amidst the silence.

"What are you doing?"

"It’s for stress." Came Alistair’s whispering response as he didn’t shift eyes from what was about to happen.

With all attention now fixed on him, Eamon’s voice dripped with venom as he read aloud the scroll’s content, and he declared openly. "I, King Muzan, declare that my true heir is Prince Eamon, to inherit the throne of GreenHollow, and by my decree, Lord Ivan shall relinquish all claims to the title of King." He deliberately lowered the scroll to meet Ivan’s crimson eyes, "officially stamped and signed by our Late Father himself."

"Lies!" Ivan didn’t hesitate to deny it, he didn’t need to look at the scroll in order to know if what his brother was saying happened to be the truth or not. He knew deep down that his Father would never make such a decision without informing him about it, because when his Father was still very much alive, he had approached him countlessly, telling him he didn’t want the throne. Although his Father may have treated him with the same equality as his brothers, his Father was also never the type who ruled only by heart, he wouldn’t go against the decision of the Mystic orb.

Eamon, who already sensed his brother’s indifferent reaction to the news, walked past him to hand the scroll to Lord Damien. They each took turns to see what was written on the scroll, whilst confirming if the decree was authentic. To avoid the chance of being accused by playing favoritism, Abdiel was also given the chance to have a look as he was the head of the council, and to his bewilderment, the scroll was stamped with the official signature of the late King Muzan.

"It has the signature of your Father, it’s genuine." Lord Viktor openly confirmed it for everyone to hear, whilst a victorious smile curved Carina’s lips, but Ivan refused to be swayed as he turned his attention to the four Lords.

"The scroll cannot be true and I know it, My Father would never disinherit me in favor of him. That scroll must have been fabricated, to undermine me, but even if it turns out to be true, that would be going against the choice of the mystic orb."

"That’s where you got it all wrong, Ivan." Eamon half-smiled in his direction. "I studied every action of the mystic orb, and there have been some complications with the orb even before it chose you to rule. Did you notice the Little.... shard, it turned purple did it not? The orb takes that shade when it feels threatened by something or someone, and in those times the choices it made were wrong, extremely wrong. You cannot refute this cause you have seen the purple shade yourself, that night when you claimed to have witnessed Father’s murderer, you said it yourself, what you had seen, how the green turned into a darker shade of purple." He reminded Ivan.

"It had us fooled which means I still have full right over the throne. This scroll serves as a testament to that truth."

The Courtiers, who had something to say immediately held their tongue, surprisingly torn between the two contenders for the crown. The tension in the room escalated, the air becoming charged with a volatile energy, and when Eamon secretly met Ivan’s hardened stare that blazed with an icy resolve, a smile only Ivan could see curled his lips.

"Very well." Lord Viktor, who had taken note of the agreements and disagreements held, raised his voice to say. "We shall take this dispute to the court of public opinion. In the meantime, I need everyone to excuse us until we’ve come up with a better way to detect who is speaking the truth or not ... .you will be assembled during the next Courtroom meeting."

After ending the courtroom meeting here, Viktor rose from his seat along with the three Lords, and they exited the courtroom first before anyone else. They handed the scroll to Abdiel, telling him to join them in the study room where they can all contemplate on the matter, and once everyone began to disperse from the Courtroom, Eamon joined a few of the Ministers who congratulated him on his arrival.

—-

Samantha, who for the first time, was finding it difficult to fall asleep, stayed awake as she anxiously awaited the arrival of Lord Ivan. So many thoughts ran through her mind as her heart had begun to beat unsteadily, but when the door finally creaked open, revealing a certain Lord who walked in, Samantha didn’t realize when she jumped out of bed to go meet him.

"Are you alright?" Was the first question that left her lips when she came to stand in front of Ivan.

"Why aren’t you asleep?" The stupefied Ivan had asked upon finding her awake by this time of the night.

"I.. I couldn’t sleep." She admitted, "but that is not important, how did the royal court meeting go?"

"If you want to know then you have to follow me somewhere, in private... I won’t be able to think if I stay here another second."