Chapter 499: The Decision

Irene finally raised her eyes from the table and looked directly at the Dragon Emperor.

There was this annoyance in them.

"It is not the food that displeases me, Emperor," she replied.

She gave him an answer but not because his anger frightened her.

Of all the dragons who lived under the Dragon Emperor’s rule, Irene was perhaps the only one who truly did not fear him.

Where others bowed their heads at the slightest change in his expression, she had always possessed a defiance toward him that even more than a decade of imprisonment had failed to erase.

This time, however, Irene was choosing to be smarter about it.

She had spent way too many years imprisoned to be eager to provoke him into sending her straight back there.

Silence settled over the table for several seconds as the Emperor studied her. "What, then, displeases you?"

"The point of all this." Irene replied, gesturing vaguely around the table.

"You kept me prisoner for a long time," she continued, her gaze never leaving his. "And everyday, I waited for the moment I would die."

"Then today, for no apparent reason, you bring me out. You have me dressed, and brought here to dine with you."

Her expression hardened. "So yes, Emperor. I would very much like to know the point of all this."

The Dragon Emperor showed little reaction. "I would have thought you would find my decision merciful."

Irene’s eyes widened slightly. "Merciful?"

Disbelief colored the word.

"After subjecting me to the weight of that crushing stone for more than a decade?" Her lips twisted bitterly. "Perhaps I should be groveling at your feet instead, speaking only in praise of your boundless mercy. Oh, Emperor, how gracious of you."

For a moment, the Dragon Emperor merely stared at her with widened eyes.

Then a booming laugh erupted from him.

The sound rolled throughout the cavern, deep enough to reverberate through its well.

Irene watched him, unimpressed, until his laughter gradually subsided.

"This," he said, the amusement still lingering across his face, "is one of the reasons I have always admired you, Irlen.... You possess the pride and temperament befitting a queen."

His ember-red eyes settled firmly upon hers and the trace of amusement disappeared. "But you must understand something...If I am to become your husband, there must be limits to that defiance."

"Even from you."

There was a brief pause.

"Moreover" the Dragon Emperor continued, "you have served more than enough time as punishment for your transgressions."

Irene’s expression hardened.

"And now, I believe you are finally ready to do what has always been expected of you."

There was something in the way he said it that Irene immediately disliked. And the smug satisfaction on his face only made it worse.

The Dragon Emperor leaned back slightly, regarding her as though the matter had already been decided long ago and her opinion had never been part of the consideration.

"So, my dear Irlen, prepare yourself." His lips curved into a faint smile. "Because in two days, you shall become my wife."

Irene’s eyes narrowed. The frustration and disgust on her face were made worse by the self-satisfied expression the Emperor wore as he delivered the declaration.

The Emperor then rose from his seat, pushing the chair back behind him before turning away from the table.

His footsteps echoed through the cavern as he walked off, apparently considering the conversation finished.

Irene watched him leave. Under the table, her hand slowly curled into a tight fist.

—

The next morning, at the Palace of the Demon Queen...

At this point, the rest of the team had been fully informed of the sudden change in plans.

There was no longer any time to spend preparing for weeks before attempting Irene’s rescue.

They had been told exactly what Morgana intended to do, how they would enter the Dragon Emperor’s palace, and what each of them needed to be ready for the moment she opened the portal.

Nathan had also successfully transferred his memory of Irene’s prison directly into Morgana’s mind.

Getting Morgana to permit that intrusion, however, had come with conditions of her own.

She had insisted that the entire process take place within the Endless Dark.

There, surrounded by a realm intrinsically connected to her, Morgana possessed an additional layer of protection over the contents of her mind.

She had allowed Nathan to surface within her consciousness only enough to establish the necessary connection, but anything beyond what she permitted was completely obscured from him.

Had Nathan attempted to look deeper—to glimpse another memory, thought, or anything Morgana had not explicitly opened to him—he would have found nothing but only darkness.

An infinite black expanse stretched across every direction, concealing everything she refused to let him see.

It left Nathan with only one thing he could actually do: imprint his memory of Irene’s prison into the portion of Morgana’s consciousness she had made accessible to him, then withdraw.

With that done, Morgana finally possessed the knowledge necessary to open a portal directly into the dungeon beneath the Dragon Emperor’s palace.

The others, meanwhile, had spent the morning preparing themselves for what came after.

Most of the team had changed into the combat suits originally designed for them to use against the monsters of Gritnia.

They checked their equipment and weapons carefully, knowing that once Morgana opened that portal, there would be little opportunity to correct a mistake.

A few of them, however, looked almost exactly as they usually did.

Eduardo remained dressed as impeccably as ever in his butler attire, apparently seeing no reason to abandon it even when preparing to walk directly into the domain of the Dragon Emperor.

Ethan was much the same.

He wore a simple white shirt beneath a long overcoat, accompanied by dark trousers. There was no armor or specialized combat suit under it.

Isabella had dressed similarly, her clothing carrying much the same understated appearance as Ethan’s.

Neither of them had ever cared much for specialized battle attire.