The Crown and The Rose
Chapter 60: Getting Rid Of Me

Chapter 60: Getting Rid Of Me

The Crown

This is an odd, yet pleasant kind of déjà vu, how Zhen Xin is staring at me and how his vibrant blue eyes are the first thing I see after waking up. I smile weakly.

"Xin-Xin." It feels like all the bad things that happened to me have been cast away just by looking at those eyes.

"I am not a cat, Your Highness." Despite him saying that, I can see the contentment in his eyes, the relief the subtle tears that are straining the rim of his adorable eyes, "I am so sorry...Your Highness that I couldn’t save you the moment you needed me the most."

I chuckle softly, warmth flooding my chest. I am still very unsure about what happened that night. I am pretty sure I have been asleep for a few days, which is why my mind is a bit hazy, and I can’t clearly remember any detail of the stormy night.

"It is fine, Xin-Xin." I run my fingers through his soft white fur. I wonder why he is so loyal to me. Is it because the God of love told him to or there is more to it? We have barely been together for a few days and it already feels like I have known him for years. "But my head is still a bit foggy and I can’t remember anything properly." I slowly move to a sitting position, "What exactly happened?"

"You passed out on my back, Your Highness." A cold, domineering voice resounds from the other side of the room and my head snaps into the direction, I can feel my heart beating in my throat.

Those eyes... Why won’t they look at me...?

Vermilion sitting across from the bed, his legs crossed elegantly and his fingers stirring a spoon into a cup of tea. This is a single movement, yet oddly attractive. And just for the record, this is the first time I am actually seeing Vermilion to eat or drink something. At some point, I’d started to think maybe he only just needed air to stay alive.

He raised the cup to his lips, taking a small sip of it, "And you had a high fever which corrupted your consciousness for five days. This is the first time you have talked in the previous five days, Your Highness."

I had a hunch...

"Actually, Nix had corrupted my consciousness with his dark magic and so I was unable to move for a few good hours." Zhen Xin starts to explain himself, "And when the Lords couldn’t connect to me through telepathy, they had assumed that something wasn’t right and rushed to the palace." He climbs onto my lap and lays down, taking his usual comfort place. He must have been missing it for the past few days.

I hesitate for a moment before I speak up, "But the castle was protected with a veil made of light. No demon or dark magic wielder or any other creature couldn’t invade the safety barrier." There is a frow taking place between my thick eyebrows.

"I don’t remember saying that I invaded the barrier, Your Highness." Vermilion sets the cup down and looks into my eyes, his red eyes clashing with my blue ones. I feel my cheek heat up in an impact, "I canceled his berrier."

My jaw falls to my lap and my eyebrows jump to my forehead, "You did...WHAT?!"

"I canceled the barrier with my own barrier, Your Highness," he repeats, his eyes never leaving mine, making me feel exposed to the direct sunlight. I feel like his eyes penetrating my soul, looking right into my mind.

Light and dark magic oppose each other, but put them together, it cancels each other out. But you need just the right amount of magic for that. Vermilion must have cast another barrier over Zhen Xin’s veil and then started to shrink it until it clashed with the white veil.

I gulp down the knot twitching in my throat. I am truly and utterly speechless at the revelation. This is not a stunt you witness to be pulled every now and then. "M-My Lord... is slowing down time is related to the barrier of yours?"

I have been meaning to ask this question since before I passed out that night. If I think that falling from forty feet up the ground will take me a solid ten seconds, then I couldn’t be more stupid. Someone has definitely something to do with this ’slow motion’ thing. And I need to know who is this ’someone’.

"My barriers can control time for a little while." Vermilion answers nonchalantly, "It’d be too late if I didn’t slow the time for you that night. Falling from forty feet up the ground doesn’t naturally take ten seconds."

So I wasn’t dying actually.

Now it makes me wonder if I actually was dying, then would I really reflect on the sins that I have committed previously? Would I actually think about the person who I love the most? Would it be Vermilion?

"My Lord, where is Edward? And Erick?" I ask, blinking out of my inner trance, "Is he alright?" I figured that Erick wouldn’t be dead, hopefully. And if we are talking about Edward, then he should be just around the corner. There aren’t many places he can go without me.

"They both are well and about, but this is not what is important right now." Vermilion gets on his feet, he hasn’t finished his tea, and I am amusing that it has long gone cold. "You are visiting the Empire of Red, Your Highness."

I blink, "What?" I blurt out. It is almost like my brain suddenly stopped to work and my lungs are pulling in more breath than needed. But I feel like I need them right now, so, so, so desperately that I can’t breathe. He is telling me something, and I don’t like it.

"Your next destination is the Empire of Red, Your Highness, the crown prince." He repeats himself, and something dawns on me.

He is getting rid of me...