Dragon King's Harem Chapter 104. The Duke's Grudge II (Patreon)

Dragon King's Harem Chapter 104. The Duke's Grudge II

What Maria told me, had put me in a dilemma. On one hand, I knew Curtis deserved Maria from the start. He was her saviour. Without him, Maria was dead by now. It was his father and his stepmother who took her from him and gave it to Evrat. Simply, Curtis only took what was rightfully his from the start. On the other hand, Curtis' way was too cruel.

Before all of this happened, Maria also realized that there was an oddity when the Queen caught Curtis doing his lewd act. At least, when Curtis saved her, she knew he was a real warrior, a man with dignity. Wouldn't it be strange if he tainted his reputation at the last moment?

And Evrat also said the same. He knew it was his father and mother's doing, but he had no proof. So what Evrat and Maria could do was follow the Queen's order to get married.

Still... Since Evrat put a lot of respect on his brother, he decided not to touch Maria. He realized that his brother loved her so he planned to give Maria to Curtis after he proved his mother's scheme. Unfortunately, Evrat and Maria fell into the same scheme before Evrat could prove his brother's innocence. Hearing that Evrat had not touched Maria, again, using the same aphrodisiac, Nova drugged the royal couple. Maria became pregnant because of it and gave birth to the current prince.

After that, Curtis began to carry out his revenge plan. Unfortunately, his revenge didn't stop at the root of this problem, The Duke and his wife. Curtis also vented his frustration on Evrat, Maria and their son, including Maria's confidants. I could say what was happening right now was the result of all the Duke and his wife's evil plans. They had turned a fine warrior named Curtis into a mad devil.

Maria just discovered this after the duke and Evrat died. Just like me, this put her into a dilemma since besides she owed her life, she also felt sorry for Curtis. Maria thought, as long as she could buy time, then the anger and hatred in Curtis' heart would fade one day. Unfortunately what she got was the opposite. Curtis was getting crueller and his possessiveness was getting unbearable.

After hearing Maria's story, I began to understand why she was so hesitant to fight Curtis until it was too late. A long breath that came out of my mouth created a thin fog in front of me. The good and bad in this case were so messed up. I completely couldn't blame Curtis since it was his father and his stepmother who turned him into a devil. Yet I also could not let him do what he wanted.

Apart from that, Maria's confession also made my dilemma worse. She said the man she loved from the start was me. Not Evrat or Curtis. She even thought about giving up her throne for me, unfortunately, there was only one princess of the snow elf tribe, her. So she couldn't do anything but sacrifice her feelings.

'What should I do,' I thought. This was the first time my logic and my heart were fighting fiercely. Logically, I should get rid of Curtis. According to Maria, in recent years he had been trying to expand the Snow Elf Tribe's territory to show his qualities as the snow elf tribe warrior. Yeah, he was like a beast who just came out of his cage and tried to get the recognition he never got from his parents. Even though the war hadn't happened yet, Curtis was preparing his army so he could attack other kingdoms after he ascended to the throne.

While my heart said otherwise. Although I couldn't tolerate his actions, after his struggles, Curtis deserved all of them. Instead of killing him, wouldn't it be better to get to cooperate with him? But after what he did to Maria and her son, I was not sure I could trust him. It was too risky for me.

"Sir, is something wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Again, Evelina's voice came from beside me.

"I'm fine," I replied. I smiled to calm her down but that didn't manage to dispel her worries.

"You've been spacing out lately. Especially after we got into the snowfield. Is the cold bothering you that bad?" Evelina's observation was sharp as usual but I couldn't tell her this yet.

"No. It's not the cold but something else. I can't tell you for now," I said. I hated hiding this but couldn't say anything either.

"Is that related to what you said yesterday?" she guessed.

I nodded.

"I see..."

"Just focus on our journey. Besides..." I returned my gaze to the expanse of forest with tall spikes that was not far from us.
"We almost arrived at our next destination..." I said.

Ice Needle Forest. As the name implied there was nothing in the forest other than high spikes of ice. Yeah... It was another boring place, but also more dangerous than a plain snowfield. The spikes were a bit dense, so we would have a hard time getting through them. In addition, those spikes would be a good hiding place for the monsters. While using explosion spells or something that had the potential to destroy these spikes down could bury us alive.

"After this, we will be out of the snowy territory. At least we won't feel cold tonight," I said again.

"Really?" Jyne's excited voice came from the other side of me.

"Yes."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" said Jyne as she spurred her Yegaun.