Chapter 687 --687

Chapter 687: Chapter-687

Heena watched him carefully, genuinely wanting to hear what he had to say.

Samuel swallowed hard, his grip on her hand trembling slightly. "Wife... should we not have this child?"

Heena stared at his face. He wasn’t talking about a literal baby. He was talking about her grand scheme, the massive, violent legacy she was trying to birth into the capital at the cost of her own life force. He was begging her to drop the ambition.

When Heena looked into his eyes, she saw the raw, unadulterated translation of his words: Can you please not die?

Heena kept her voice incredibly gentle. "Do you not like children, Samuel?"

"I love you more," Samuel said instantly, his voice cracking as his eyes rapidly welled with unshed tears. "I don’t want children. I don’t want a legacy. They will just bring trouble and ruin. Let’s not have them. Let’s just stop."

Heena offered a sad, heavy smile. "Well... I cannot stop now."

A visible, violent shiver ran down Samuel’s spine. He lowered his head, pressing his forehead against her knuckles as his long fingers locked around her hand with a desperate, crushing grip.

"You will be with me until the end, right?"

Samuel whispered to her skin, his voice muffled and broken.

"Until when?" Heena asked softly.

Samuel lifted his head. His beautiful eyes were completely red, burning with a frantic, terrifying obsession. "Till the very end."

"And how far is the very, very end?" she challenged gently.

"Until my hair turns completely white," Samuel vowed, the tears finally spilling over his lashes. "Until I cannot breathe. Until I cannot see. Until I am buried ten feet under the frozen ground. I want to be together with you."

Heena looked at him, trying to inject a sliver of lightness back into the crushing weight of the room. "That is quite a long time, you know. I might get bored. I might even fall for someone else."

"You can," Samuel answered without a single second of hesitation, his voice completely devoid of pride. "If you want, you can fall for anyone else. You can look at whoever you want. Just let me stay by your side while you do it."

Heena’s breath hitched. The sheer, pathetic depth of his devotion was entirely bulletproof. She looked at the flawless scholar who was willingly offering to be a doormat for a dying warlord, and let out a soft, baffled sigh.

"You absolute fool," Heena murmured, gently wiping a tear from his sharp cheekbone. "Why do you even love me so much?"

Samuel sniffled, burying his face back into her palm as he muttered in a thick, muffled tone, "Well... because you are a tyrant."

Heena stared at the ceiling, utterly exasperated by his terrible taste in women. "Did you really have to destroy a perfectly romantic mood with that?"

Samuel let out a muffled, watery chuckle against the palm of her hand. The sheer absurdity of their dynamic—a dying, bloodthirsty warlord and a brilliant scholar perfectly content to act as her lapdog—wasn’t lost on him.

"It is the absolute truth," Samuel murmured, finally lifting his head. His eyes were still red, but a fierce, protective steel had returned to his gaze. "I am a scholar, my love. We are naturally drawn to things that are terrifying, complex, and highly capable of burning the world to the ground."

Heena rolled her eyes, though she didn’t pull her hand away from his grasp. "You need to read better books."

"I absolutely second that," the System’s robotic voice chimed in her mind, sounding thoroughly disgusted. "If I have to listen to this boiled-egg-firing maniac recite romantic prose while your brain actively hemorrhages, I am going to formally request a transfer to a host with normal, healthy emotional boundaries."

Before Heena could mentally tell the System to shut up, a sharp, singular tap echoed against the heavy wooden lattice of the bedroom window.

The tender, melancholic atmosphere in the room shattered instantly.

Samuel’s demeanor flipped. The weeping, devoted husband vanished in a fraction of a second, entirely replaced by a man who looked ready to slaughter a village. He slowly stood up from the edge of the bed, his back straightening as his hand instinctively drifted toward the hidden dagger strapped beneath his pristine white scholar robes. His dark eyes locked onto the window with freezing, territorial malice.

"I gave explicit orders," Samuel said, his voice dropping into a lethal, silken whisper, "that absolutely no one was to disturb this courtyard while you rested."

"Stand down, Samuel," Heena ordered, her voice weak but carrying the undeniable, absolute authority of the Vanguard Madam. She shifted against the pillows, ignoring the dizzying wave of vertigo. "Let them in. If a Shadow Guard is breaking your lockdown, it means the board just moved."

Samuel’s jaw clenched. The muscles in his neck jumped, but he dutifully stepped aside, yielding to her command.

The window slid open without a sound. A figure cloaked entirely in black slipped into the room, dropping silently to one knee at the foot of the bed. The guard kept their head bowed low, wisely avoiding direct eye contact with the furious scholar standing nearby.

"Speak," Heena commanded.

"Urgent report from the inner city, My Lady," the Shadow Guard stated, their voice a flat, emotionless rasp. "Madam Gu has successfully executed the directive. The Prime Minister’s private estate is completely sealed. She froze the eastern granaries, locked down the treasury, and seized his civil seal. The opposing civil officials attempted to breach the courtyard an hour ago to demand an audience with the paralyzed Prime Minister."

Heena leaned forward slightly, a dark, predatory spark returning to her exhausted eyes. "And?"

"And," the guard continued, a hint of dark amusement bleeding into their tone, "Madam Gu met them at the main gates herself. She presented the Vanguard seal and informed the civil court that she is operating under your direct, legal protection as your adopted daughter. The officials were completely paralyzed by the threat, My Lady. They retreated without drawing a single sword."

Heena let out a soft, dry laugh, though the vibration immediately dissolved into a harsh, rattling cough. She covered her mouth, her frail chest heaving as the adrenaline crashed and the physical strain of the day finally caught up to her.

Samuel was at her side in an instant. His arm wrapped firmly around her back to support her weight, while he shot a murderous glare at the kneeling guard.

"Get out," Samuel hissed, his patience entirely evaporated. "The report is over. Get out before I have you skinned for keeping her awake."

The Shadow Guard didn’t need to be told twice. They vanished back out the window like a wisp of smoke, pulling the wooden lattice shut behind them.

Heena leaned heavily into Samuel’s chest, her breathing shallow and incredibly labored. The bitter, foul medicine was finally working its way through her bloodstream, bringing a suffocating, heavy drowsiness that dragged at her consciousness. She stared at the far wall, a faint, triumphant smile curving her pale lips.

"You see, Samuel?" Heena whispered, her eyelids fluttering shut as the pain in her head finally began to numb. "My new child... is growing up so fast."

Samuel held her tightly, resting his chin gently on the top of her head. He looked out the window toward the distant, unseen capital that she was currently tearing apart from her deathbed.

"Yes, my love," Samuel murmured softly, his dark eyes filled with a terrifying, unyielding obsession as he tightened his grip around her fragile shoulders. "She is. Now, please..pleases. just close your eyes."