224 SEALED FATE

Raigon nodded as he understood what he needed to do. However he needs to make sure that they were safe first.

"Can you make an order to re open this case for investigation, your Majesty?"

"Yes, that's the right thing to do since we have a new witness on hand. I will stop Azra's undeserved punishment at this moment."

Raigon bowed down to him, thrilled to see some light in this dark tunnel that he was in somehow. As the King was about to put his seal to the letter, the Queen barged inside the room and yelled at them.

"What are you just doing here? Did you really want your father to die by bringing that news to him?!"

Raigon was appalled as he was not expecting her to be in here. 

'News must have spread through the servants that I came here and she must have guessed that I will not stand by and watch them suffer unjustly.'

However, what horrified him more was the King's reaction to her.

"You're the one who is going to kill me with those repeating schemes, Rose! You already have me. Why mess up your son's life too?"

He trembled in anger as he pointed his finger at his mother. 

"I'm the one who's messing his life? It is Asha's daughter! I am merely saving my son! That lineage is cursed!" Queen Rose yelled back at him. 

"You don't know anything about Asha! You're just spewing nonsense out of your bitter jealousy! I already chose you! Let our son choose for himself!"

Raigon put both of his palms on his face as he has not seen them quarrel like this before. To make matters worse, King Artair's hand flew over his chest and clutched it as if he was holding on it for dear life.

At a flash of lightning, Raigon stood up and went to his father's side, assisting him to sit back on the chair. Then he went outside to the servants so they could call Physician Sheng Tun and treat the King.

As he came back, Queen Rose immediately retorted. 

"See! See what's happening to our family, Raigon! Will you still choose that woman even if our family is shattered like this?"

Queen Rose rambled with tears strickening down her face as she patted King Artair's back. But King Artair kept pushing her away as he grimaced in pain. 

Raigon heaved out a deep sigh as his eyebrows furrowed. 

He always pictured them as a loving couple and their family as a perfect and happy family.. Even though what he wanted is opposed to what one of them wants, he couldn't bear to see them fall apart, much worse, his father getting sicker than before.

'Is there really no hope for me and you?' He glanced outside the window at the moon shining brightly above them, believing that underneath them is the person whom he was talking to.

Then he glanced at the Queen who was crying beside King Artair, devastated by both their quarrel and his sick condition.

He brushed his hair to his back as he inhaled a lungful of air.

"Physician Sheng Tun is here, your Majesty!" The servant announced outside. 

Queen Rose immediately wiped her face as Physician Sheng Tun arrived at the scene and checked on the King. 

"He just needs to rest right now. I will prescribe a calming tea to relax his mind."

Physician Sheng Tun bowed to them as he went outside to talk to the royal assistant. 

Raigon pressed on King Artair's hand and tucked him in his blanket.

"Please rest well, Father. Let me handle this."

He bowed to him and talked next to the Queen. He assisted her outside the King's Chamber and into the Castle Gardens so both of them could have a breath of fresh air. 

"If I will marry Thana, would you declare Azra's innocence and let Lady Asha live a peaceful life?"

Raigon faced Queen Rose, who's mouth dropped open at his change of heart. 

With the Queen baiting him with Azra's life and with how she must have used bait for the King before so she could get what she wanted, he does not know what else the Queen is capable of doing that could hurt his loved ones in the process.

He was thinking of just sacrificing himself like his father did for the sake of their untroubled lives. They may not be together but at least they survived.

"I will! I would even be nice to both of them and give them better lives than what they are experiencing now."

Queen Rose smiled happily, knowing that his son's head was now cleared. 

"Do you have the paper that your father was going to sign a while ago? I could sign them with my seal now. Just promise me that you would not back out this time."

Queen Rose pulled out the Queen's seal from her Hanfu dress as her puffy eyes now radiated in gleam.

Raigon pulled out the paper that he picked up from the King's table. But before giving it to the Queen, he glanced up at the moon again and talked to her in a silent prayer.

'I hope you understand. I hope you will experience a good life. I hope you will be happy."

He then extended his hand and gave the letter to the Queen.

Like lightning, Queen Rose dashed towards the nearest bench and sealed both Azra and Zoe's fate in the paper in her hands.

Then she quickly went to Raigon and gave him back the letter. After doing so, she enveloped her arms around his shoulders and patted it with one of her hands.

"I know you only did what's best. You will not regret this, my son." 

She cooed at him with her lips curved up, while a tear fell on Raigon's eyes.

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"Sometimes you have to choose between a bunch of wrong choices and no right ones. You just have to choose which wrong choices feel the least wrong."

― Colleen Hoover, Hopeless