Chapter 224: Chapter 224: Smoke in Winter


    The man slowly walked towards the stick that propped Lady Jade''s head. He looked up and stared at Lady Jade''s head.


    From what he saw, Lady Jade''s eyes were wide open, and her face was full of terror, so her death was instant. He guessed that Jade wasn''t killed directly by the Beast King''s hand.


    Rather, she was killed by his deadly gaze, as he had witnessed the Beast King using his deadly gaze on him once, and he could only survive for ten seconds before he was on the brink of death.


    Rock Silverfang continued looking at the severed head and clenched his fists.


    "Day and night, I keep wishing for a chance to kill you with my own hand, you cruel bitch. You ruined my life by drugging me, and now I cannot be His Majesty''s beta anymore because of you," Rock clenched his fists tighter to the point his nail started digging into his palm, making it bleed. "Worst of all, you ruined my chance to ever be with my dearest Princess Swan''s official knight. All because of your jealousy."


    Rock knew that Lady Jade''s crime would be discovered eventually, and she''d have nowhere to go.


    But he didn''t expect her to die so soon in the hands of the man she loved.


    ''I guess this answers my question...'' Rock thought.


    He had been thinking about returning to His Majesty and begged for forgiveness. He wanted to be his beta again and dedicate himself to the betterment of the Kingdom of Beastmen.


    Most importantly, he wanted to be the official knight for Queen Swan. After he was saved by Queen Swan twice, Rock developed a fascination and fervent worship towards Swan in her Saintess form.


    He confused it as love before, but since he had given time to process his feelings, he realized that he didn''t love Queen Swan as a man to a woman.


    Rather, he loved her as his goddess, a deity he wanted to worship as his way of life.


    ''My dearest Princess Swan... you''re a Queen now, but I am still not your knight even now...'' Rockmented in his heart. ''I want to meet you again. I want to follow you wherever you go, my dearest queen.''


    ''But I can''t because Jade''s death has confirmed my doubt. No matter how hard I beg for forgiveness, no matter how harsh the punishment I have to endure, His Majesty will never forgive me,'' Rock convinced himself. ''He''ll never be satisfied until he can kill me, and put my head at a stake just like Jade right now. I have no choice but to protect you from afar, my dearest queen.''


    Truthfully, Rock nned to go and meet Long Xiurong today, because he wanted to see her and make sure that she was alright, and also to see if she had gotten a new letter from Queen Swan.


    However, he assumed that the atmosphere around the castle would be tense for a while. It was better to do itter, maybe in a few days.


    ''I''ll have to wait a bit until the situation returns to normal, so I can enter her room,'' Rock closed his eyes, and the vivid image of Lady Long''s beauty was stuck in his head ever since he met her that night.


    He knew it was strange, but it made him wonder if she was truly his mate, because he never had any vivid dream about a woman until he met with Long Xiurong.


    He knew one thing or two about fated mate, but he wanted to make sure that he wasn''t mistaken.


    ''There is only one way to find out,'' Rock thought as he slowly turned his head towards the castle where Long Xiurong lived right now.


    **


    "What should we do with her body?" a boar soldier asked ze Silverfang after they returned to the castle.


    They severed her head after she was executed by the Beast King, and her was lying at the corner of the castle, waiting to be disposed of.


    pse


    ze looked at thete Lady Jade''s body, and sighed, "Just burn her body with the rest of her belongings. Make sure that there''ll be no more trace of her in this castle. I don''t want His Majesty to see anything rted to Lady Jade anymore."


    The soldiers nodded in unison. They gathered all of Lady Jade''s belongings from her room and piled them in the corner of the castle before tossing her corpse on


    top.


    ze made sure the fire was big andsted long enough topletely burn everything until there was nothing but ashes left.


    He—and the rest of the soldiers-didn''t have a good impression of Lady Jade. She was very arrogant to the soldiers, and never seemed to care much about the soldiers'' wellbeing.


    Hence, when they got the information that Lady Jade wanted to kill their beloved Queen Swan with poison, ze was ready to hunt her down and kill her himself.


    Even the rest of the soldiers were ready to do the same. They got so angry that they had to be calmed


    down by the Queen herself. They were told to wait outside and let the Beast King deliver his judgment.


    They expected her to be imprisoned at least, thinking that the Beast King would have a soft spot for Lady Jade despite what she had done.


    But she was executed by the Beast King''s deadly gaze, which for many, was the worst way to die because that meant even the Beast King didn''t want to stain his hands with her blood.


    ''She deserves it, but it''s still a horrible way to die,'' ze and the rest of the soldiers thought in unison.


    *


    "Ah, that''s truly a spectacle," Long Xiurong muttered as she watched Lady Jade''s corpse and belongings being burned together. She was


    watching from her window was ne


    sipping ginger tea from a new attendant that Queen Swan appointed herself.


    "With Lady Jade gone, we can finally have peace... right?"