Dragon King's Harem Chapter 461. You Sold Us!
Dragon King's Harem Chapter 461. You Sold Us!
I clenched my fists again, eyes flaring as I channeled more.
“Magma Typhoon.”
The entire left side of the yard lit up in orange veins. The tiles cracked, split, and poured molten stone outward in slow, deadly waves. The heat was unbearable. They retreated. Fast.
One screamed as the edge of the flow caught his leg—he didn’t burn alive. I froze the limb to stop it.
I wasn’t here to slaughter them.
But I would crush the fight out of them.
A final surge approached—six men, armored, shields raised.
I stepped forward.
No chant. No name.
Just motion.
My hands swept wide—and the vines answered.
‘Plant Manipulation.’
From beneath the stone came roots—thick, coiled, laced with mana. They surged up, wrapped around legs and arms, dragging the last fighters down into the earth. Their screams were muffled by dirt. Not suffocated. Just… buried in the moment.
And then it was done.
The rest backed away. Some threw down weapons. Others just stared.
I stood in the middle of it all. Alone. Breathing hard.
Steam hissed around my feet.
Mana still buzzed behind my eyes, coiled and burning, but I didn’t move to finish them.
Because this wasn’t about victory.
This was about survival.
About loyalty. And pain. And understanding the difference between justice and vengeance.
Cedric died chasing the wrong one.
They charged because they loved the wrong one.
But I couldn’t hate them for it.
So I stood there, blood dripping from my chin, mana still smoking from my shoulders, and let them feel it.
The loss. The rage. The silence after fire.
Because that’s what made this different.
He wasn’t a king.
But he was worth mourning like one.
The courtyard had gone still.
Smoke rose from the cracked stone. Heat shimmered in waves across molten grooves. Shattered weapons lay forgotten. And in the center of it all—me. Still standing, steam curling from my shoulders, bloodied hands hanging loose at my sides.
They looked at me with hate. With horror. With disbelief. But they didn’t move.
Then—
Footsteps.
Quick. Light. Familiar.
Queen Maria leapt from the ruined altar, her gown torn at the side, her bare feet slapping against the frost-slick stone as she landed beside me. Her chest rose with effort, but her expression was calm. Cold. A kind of resolve that only came when you’d had everything taken from you and still stood back up.
She raised her arm—high above her head.
And the world froze.
Literally.
A pulse of magic burst from her like a glacier cracking in the heart of a volcano. The air snapped cold, sharp enough to bite the inside of my lungs. The fire-steam vanished. The molten stone beneath my boots hissed and solidified, encased in ice. Snow swirled in unnatural spirals. The frost spread, eating the battlefield like frostbite across skin.
“I am your Queen,” Maria’s voice rang, clear and merciless, cutting through the cold like a blade. “And I’m the one who called for the Dragon King.”
Gasps. Murmurs. Staggered disbelief.
She didn’t flinch. She stepped forward.
“It was me,” she continued. “Not out of pride. Not out of ambition. But because the man you followed—Duke Cedric—took my son as a hostage. He kept him from me. For years.”
More noise. A man lowered his sword. Another let his shield drop.
One voice trembled, “That… can’t be true.”
“It is,” Maria snapped, her voice cracking. “He threatened my son’s life to force this marriage. He would’ve used the crown to make it legal. He wanted power over all of you. Over your children. Over the future.”
A long silence.
Then—
“You should’ve told us,” someone muttered from the back.
“I tried,” Maria said, tone darkening. “But how many listened? How many whispered behind closed doors? How many lined up behind Cedric’s gold and honeyed words while my supporters were arrested? Silenced? Vanished?”
The guilt began to show. Some glanced at one another. Others backed away from me slowly. Maybe twenty, maybe thirty of them—uncertain now, faces twisted in realization.
But not all.
No. Some held their weapons tighter.
One of Cedric’s captains stepped forward, blade still gleaming with fresh enchantment. His armor was scorched, but not broken. His eyes were wet, not from smoke—but grief.
And rage.
“Even if he did that… Cedric was a better leader than you!” he spat. “He kept us safe! He gave us something to believe in!”
“By using a child?” Maria asked quietly.
“We were stronger under him!” another shouted. “You let this outsider trample our kingdom!”
“You sold us!” a woman screamed. “You sold your tribe to him!”
All eyes turned to me again.
I raised an eyebrow.
Then laughed.
Not polite. Not fake.
Just a deep, humorless laugh that echoed through the ice-glazed yard.
“Sold?” I repeated, grinning with teeth that might’ve been fangs. “That’s a funny term.”
I walked forward slowly, boots crunching through frozen blood and broken pride.
“She asked for my help,” I said. “Chose to trust me when none of you would. When your so-called leader—” I jerked my chin toward Cedric’s corpse. “—was using her as a puppet, planning to rule through her bloodline like it was his birthright.”
“You still killed him,” one snarled.
“I gave him chances,” I snapped, voice rising now. “I warned him. I fought him fair. And I mourned him more than any of you. You call me an outsider, but I treated him with more damn honor than half of his own court.”
“You’re not one of us!” someone yelled.
“No,” I said calmly. “I’m not. And maybe that’s why I see your rot so clearly.”
Another step. The air crackled with my mana.
“So,” I said, voice deepening, “I guess I have no choice…”
My hands opened, mana already flooding my core. The sky darkened overhead. Clouds churned unnaturally fast. Electricity began to buzz through the cold like something alive.
“…but to eliminate what’s left of your loyalty.”
They roared and charged.
And I answered.
“Thunder Storm.”
The heavens split open. A bolt the size of a tree trunk came crashing down into the center of the courtyard with a deafening BOOM, sending everyone flying. Shockwaves shattered what ice remained. Stones lifted. Snow exploded into the air like smoke from a cannon.