Chapter 178 - Breaking Dawn

"CORDELIA," Prince Gutard marched into the room, and the Princess leaped away from the Second Prince, straightening up in the chair beside the bed.

Alexa lifted her neck, feeling dizzy and weak, but Cordelia's words had made her heart race, and Alexander was clearly also on alert.

"My… Your Majesty! How did you get here so fast ?! The bridge…!" Cordelia again seemed close to tears when talking to her husband.

Gutard shrugged, his face as hard as stone, and Alexa supposed there must be some secret path up the rock, and the Sovereign Prince had no desire to reveal it to anyone in the room.

First coming to Alexander, the sovereign's green eyes measured every inch of his son's face, and he seemed pleased to find his eyes bright and open wide looking back at him. Then his gaze scanned the room, including the brother lying on the couch breathing heavily.

Then his eyebrows furrowed, and he looked at the window, and then at Alexander again, astonished.

"Alexander ... It dawned!"

It was true. Sunbeams poured through the window in all the splendor of dawn at Ashgraufelsen.

"...!"

It had dawned a few minutes ago and Alexa was still in Alexander's body.

'What happened?' she asked him.

~ I know as much as you do. Perhaps the magic of the lighthouse's witch has totally succ.u.mbed after what we did tonight? ~ Alexander conjectured, also intrigued.

'But I didn't go back to my body!' Alexa whimpered in her own mind, scared. By the words of Gisela, the maiden had understood that Alexander could only enter her own body because Alexa was there. That the connection between them had drawn Alexander's soul back to the body, taking it away from Romeo. And she could see that Alexander's bond with his own body was non-existent. If not for her, he would be wandering outside, unable to return, let alone have some control over his own body. She didn't want to be fighting over Alexander's body with the real owner, but what would happen now? If at dawn she was there, did that mean she would never return to her own body?

~ Calm down, Alexa. Let's find out what happened and what to do. Just calm down. Everyone is looking at us now ... ~

In fact, Gutard and Cordelia were looking at the Second Prince with curiosity, and Alexander replied to his father promptly,

"It's good to know it's dawn. I thought the day would never come again. I'm fine, I think ... Just in pain and tiredness ... Will Uncle Kurt be okay? The people in my house, the soldiers… how are they?" Alexander was genuinely concerned for the people in his home, whom he had known since childhood.

Gutard looked around again,

"I command someone else to take care of this, so don't worry. Your uncle must survive ... I didn't see any limbs missing."

"Thanks for the concern, Gutard old man," muttered Kurt from where he was, "But don't worry, Alexander. Your uncle will survive ... And he's happy to have come to visit you, after all. I said I was here… uh, in good time."

Ceridom was splinting the Duke's arm. Alexa kept her attention on everyone, but mainly on Cordelia, who nervously wrung the cloth in her hands.

"Cordelia has something to say, dad."

It was time to hear everything she had to reveal.

Gutard turned to his wife, who flinched.

At first, it seemed that the Sovereign Prince was not going to do anything. And then suddenly his huge hands went to Princess Consort's thin neck, and Cordelia didn't have a chance to escape!

"DAD!" the Second Prince exclaimed, trying to get out of bed quickly, but being hit by a wave of pain because of his injury. While the Prince was rolling out of pain on the mattress, Gutard was dragging his wife out of the room.

"NO! NO! PLEASE DON'T! HELP! I AM INNOCENT! I DIDN'T WANT TO TAKE PART IN THIS, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!" Cordelia begged as Gutard dragged her down the stairs.

"Helga, help me!" Lex took the initiative to follow Gutard. Witnessing the violence, even against a person who, at the very least, was conniving with murders and heinous acts, disturbed her. And she knew that Gutard was not merciful!

~ She's lying, Alexa! ~ Alexander tried to remind her.

"Can she at least try to defend herself with dignity? We need to listen to what she has to say!" Alexa wanted to know the truth. And more than that, she needed to understand Cordelia's motivations.

~ Alexa…! It's useless! She was on their side. And she even killed a guard while stealing my body! ~ Alexander got angry.

But it didn't stop Lex from getting up and accepting Helga's help down the stairs. As they descended, the Prince saw that the ladies who accompanied Princess Consort were also forcibly brought into the main hall of Ashgraufelsen.

Cordelia's mother was prevented from trying to save her daughter from the hands of the Holstein Sovereign, by the strong hands of Gutard's personal guards, and she begged for mercy. Not for herself, but for her daughter.

Gutard threw Cordelia to the floor with contempt, in the middle of the room, and close to the captured women.

The sight of her torn clothes, bleeding lips, bruised skin directly hit Alexa's heart.

Cordelia crawled at her husband's feet,

"Majesty! Listen to me! I didn't know anything until Sister Ludovica arrived! I lived in that convent for years, unaware of the real nature and plans of that woman! Please believe me!"

"Don't kill your wife! She is innocent, Your Majesty!" Cordelia's mother pleaded, "If anyone is to blame it is me for trusting my daughter to that woman, and listening to her poisonous tongue! Please! My daughter is innocent! If anyone is to blame, it is me for keeping my daughter close to that viper! For letting my family be ensnared by her! My poor daughter almost died in the villa attack! And that woman said she would try to prove that everything was the work of the foreigner witch Alexa, who wanted to meddle in court and close to the princes! As she really did! Ludovica said she had the means and that we just had to watch her act!"

Alexa could hardly believe what she was hearing, and she couldn't help herself, speaking for the Sovereign Prince,

"How dare you?! The place was infested with demons when Alexa and her friends got there! And a large number of people had prepared everything beforehand!"

The matron replied, in a high-pitched and tearful voice,

(CONTINUES)