"It’s quite simple, really."
"Be my fiancé. I wanted to marry you the mont I saw you." Her silver eyes seed to glow with an intense, unbalanced light.
"And this connection... this bond that ties our lives together, I see it as destiny truly uniting us. Isn’t that beautiful?"
"Stop with this nonsense and explain it properly." Cairen’s voice cracked, losing control for a brief mont.
Her smile didn’t fade but softened into sothing simpler.
"Do you know how the Rhyne Kingdom was created?" she suddenly asked, beginning to walk slowly around the room, her fingers brushing the surface of a chest in the corner.
"Legends say that my ancestors found the blood of an extinct Ancestral Beast in the Whispering Mountains. They drank it and rged with it. And that bloodline... like a primal, ancient fury... runs through the veins of every mber of the royal family."
She stopped and looked at him. At that mont, Cairen saw sothing beyond the calculated smile or the madness in her eyes. He saw sothing ancient.
Then she continued, her voice dropping slightly.
"Sotis, geniuses like are born with a part, or the full awakening, of that bloodline. A power few can even imagine."
"But the bloodline is aggressive. Like a force of nature, relentless growth and pure voracity. It consus, and it can drive the host insane."
"To turn them into nothing more than a beast starving for power and destruction."
She then fully turned toward him.
"And to control that bloodline," she began, locking eyes with him,
"One needs another person. Soone with a bloodline of equal or compatible quality. Soone strong enough not to be crushed."
"So they can act as an anchor, a counterweight to the storm within . Do you understand now?" she finished.
Cairen stood still as the pieces fell into place. The initial attraction, that faint connection they both felt the mont they saw each other, wasn’t just because they had bloodlines but because their blood recognized each other.
The instinct of two compatible lineages sniffing each other out through their hosts.
She didn’t want him out of desire, but necessity. He was the antidote to her potential madness.
The bond forged in the inheritance was just another chain she needed to bind him to her even more tightly, to use him to calm the blood raging within her.
He was, for all intents and purposes, a redy.
And the look in her eyes, that gleam of expectation, made it clear that in her mind, this was sothing obvious and the most beautiful thing that could happen.
"And how exactly would I do that?" Cairen’s question ca out devoid of emotion.
He was trying to map the contours of his new prison.
"What exactly do you want to do right now?"
Ling Xiyue smiled, a wide, carefree gesture.
"The finer details? Honestly, I don’t fully know."
"But my father, the king, will probably explain everything when we arrive in the royal capital."
She said it as if she were talking about a sightseeing trip.
"Then, when we get there, he’ll formalize our engagent. Soon, the entire kingdom will know about it. Isn’t that amazing?" She looked at him, expecting a spark of enthusiasm.
Cairen kept his face still, expressionless as stone.
"Why would it be?"
She laughed, a light sound that felt fake in the tense air.
"Hehe, why are you so gloomy? You’re going to marry the number one beauty of the kingdom, no, the number one across several kingdoms," she said, leaning forward, her gaze turning playful.
"You know... once we’re married, I’ll let you do whatever you want with ."
The words were spoken with a seductive smile. But Cairen felt nothing but a chilling shiver of danger.
Like a trap he wanted no part of.
"Alright then," she suddenly said, stepping back and resuming her regal composure as if nothing had happened.
"Just know that you’ll be living with from now on in the royal capital. But I’m not completely heartless," she said, waving her hand dismissively.
"Once my father arranges everything, you’ll have your own quarters, your own places to train and cultivate. After all, my fiancé must be as talented as I am, and I believe you have that potential."
She walked toward the door, pausing only for a mont at the threshold.
"Well, you need to work on controlling your emotions more. Other than that... I’m really quite pleased with you."
The door closed softly behind her with a gentle click, leaving Cairen alone with the echo of her words.
"Pleased? As if I needed her approval," he muttered in his mind.
He let out a long, rough sigh, rubbing his face with his hands.
The sense of helplessness was suffocating. Every aspect of his new life was now dictated by forces far beyond his control.
"I really do need strength, don’t I? Strength beyond all others. Only then can I truly be free," he thought, leaning back against the wall.
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