Married To The Dragon Prince Against My Will-Chapter 267: LEARNING MEDCINE

The sunlight filtered through the high stone windows of the chamber, catching the dust motes that danced around Lumina.

She sat poised before a heavy stone mortar, her fingers stained a faint, earthy green. Around her, maids hovered like nervous sparrows, their silk skirts rustling against the floor, but Lumina remained a statue of focus, the steady thump-thump of the pestle rhythmically echoing through the room.

"My Lady..." Stella whispered, leaning in close as she watched Lumina grind a handful of dried, silver-veined leaves.

"What is the name of this herb? You have been at this for a month. Your hands... they will be scared if you aren’t careful."

Lumina didn’t look up but a faint, knowing smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. "It’s a remedy, Stella. Or a gamble. Depending on who’s drinking it."

"A remedy for what?"

"A poison antidote," Lumina blurted out, her voice cool and melodic. She finally paused, lifting the pestle to inspect the fine powder.

"Though, truthfully, I won’t know if the ratios are perfect until I have brewed the poison itself to test it against."

"What?!" Stella’s voice cracked, her eyes wide with a mix of horror and disbelief.

Lumina rolled her eyes, the gesture sharp and dismissive. "Keep your voice down. You are vibrating enough to shake the walls."

"Why are you making poison? You said you want to study medicine. Is this the reason why you no longer bother to cure people?" Lumina snickered at hsf question of course she is pretty sure her girl would be so shocked.

"Yeah... I have decided to specialize in poison and antidote... Why do you think I keep getting that? If I specialize in it then this will make me aware of when I am poisoned immediately."

"We aren’t even certain the toxins in your own blood have cleared," Stella hissed, her voice a frantic, hushed gale. "And you are planning on ingesting more? My Lady, this is madness. If the Prince found out..."

"Stella, relax. I know exactly what I am doing," Lumina stated, her tone shifting from playful to cold steel. She resumed her pounding, the sound more aggressive now.

"This isn’t just chemistry. It’s leverage. Soon, I am going to use this to make more gold than the Crown provides. Power in this court isn’t just about bloodlines, and it’s about who owns the cure."

She was about to say more when the heavy oak doors groaned open. The air in the room died.

The King’s Aide stepped inside, his chest puffed out under a tabard bearing the royal crest.

In his hand, he held a scroll sealed with the heavy gold wax of the sovereign. The moment he crossed the threshold, the atmosphere shifted from domestic chatter to frozen terror.

The maids began to scatter, their heads ducking low.

"Why is the King’s aide here?" one whispered from the corner.

"Is our Lady to be punished? I heard she’s been... difficult,and everyone is kinda of wary of her." another murmured, her eyes darting toward the mortar and pestle.

Lumina only stared from where she sat and didn’t bow. She didn’t even stand. She merely scoffed, the sound cutting through the fearful whispers like a blade.

"That is disrespectful. Mind your tone in the presence of the King’s word," a sharp voice barked. Breilla stepped forward, flanked by five handmaidens Lumina didn’t recognize.

Breilla’s chin was high, her eyes gleaming with a smugness that turned Lumina’s stomach.

Lumina leaned back, crossing her arms. She had never asked for her to have a handmaiden, let alone a chaperone.

"My lady... guess you can see who had just come in... so your silly hand maiden should let you know!" she yelled out.

"The King speaks!" the Aide announced, his voice booming.

Instantly, the room collapsed into a sea of kneeling figures. The maids hit the floor as if their legs had been cut from under them.

Lumina remained seated for a heartbeat too long, finally tilting her head in a slow, mocking nod of acknowledgement rather than a full bow.

"The scroll reads..." the Aide began, unrolling the parchment with a flourish. "Henceforth... the new concubine of the Last Prince of Drakonis... shall no longer be addressed as such. She is to be elevated. She shall take the oath of becoming a Royal Consort of the Second Rank, bound by the laws of the Inne.."

"Hold on!" Lumina voiceboomed at once

The interruption was like a gunshot. The Aide stopped mid-sentence, his face flushing a deep purple. Every head in the room snapped toward Lumina.

"My Lady..." Breilla hissed, her face pale. "This is the King’s decree. You do not interrupt the King."

Lumina stood up slowly, brushing the herbal dust from her skirts. She ignored Breilla entirely, her gaze locked onto the Aide. "Did my husband agree to this?"

The Aide blinked, thrown off his script. "Princess Lumina, this is a direct mandate from the throne. It is a great honor to be elevated from a mere..."

"I didn’t ask about the honor," Lumina snapped, stepping closer until she was within the Aide’s personal space.

Her eyes were predatory. "I asked a very simple question. Did my husband, Prince Ashen, agree to this change in my status?"

The Aide looked down, his fingers trembling slightly against the parchment. "The King announced it to him, and he..."

"Did he accept?" she pressed, her voice dropping to a dangerous, low vibrato.

"My Lady, you cannot continue to go against the natural order," Breilla interjected, stepping forward as if to shield the Aide. "The King’s word is law. Whether the Prince spoke or not is irrelevant."

"I am asking a question, and you’re giving me a headache," Lumina growled. She looked at the Aide again.

"Answer me. Now. Yes or no?"

"My Lady, this is the King’s order!" Breilla shrieked, reaching out to grab Lumina’s arm.

Lumina didn’t even flinch. "Aria!"

Like a shadow manifesting from the curtains, Aria appeared.

Before Breilla could even register the movement, Aria’s hand swung in a blurred arc. CRACK.

The sound of the slap echoed off the stone walls. Breilla stumbled back, clutching her reddening cheek, her eyes wide with shock.

"You... you hit me?" Breilla gasped.

"I am his legal wife!" Lumina yelled, her voice commanding the entire room. "I am the woman who bled for this house. How dare you low things that just appeared yesterday try to tell me about the feeling of honor." All the maids swallowed at once.

"Don’t you dare... I repeat, don’t you dare... mess with me or try to speak for my husband in front of me."

She turned back to the shaking Aide. "One last time. Does my husband agree to this, or is the King trying to cage me in the Inner Chamber without his consent?"

"He didn’t accept." Another voica answered, bringing everyone’s attention toward the doorway.

Ashen stood there, still clad in his black leather training gear. He was covered in a light sheen of sweat and the scent of iron and woodsmoke.

He had been on the training grounds, drilling the new recruits, when word reached him that his father’s hounds were sniffing around his wife’s chambers.

He had run the distance, his heart hammering not from exertion, but from the terrifying thought of his father’s interference.

Ashen walked into the room, and the space seemed to shrink around him. The maids pressed themselves even flatter against the floor.

He moved straight to Lumina, ignoring the Aide entirely. His presence was a shield. The King’s Aide paled, his knees knocking. "Prince... we thought we agreed on the necessity of the title..."

Ashen didn’t look at him. He merely raised a hand.

The air in the room grew heavy, charged with static. The scroll in the Aide’s hand began to vibrate, then suddenly flew across the room, propelled by an invisible force, landing firmly in Ashen’s grip.

He didn’t read it as it simply handed the parchment to Lumina. "You can do what you wish with it," he said, his voice a low growl of devotion.

Lumina took the scroll, her eyes locking with his. In one fluid motion, she gripped the edges and ripped it. The sound of tearing parchment was the only noise in the room. She shredded it into tiny, jagged pieces, letting them flutter to the floor like dead leaves.

Ashen’s hand moved over the pile and at once a spark ignited in the center of his palm not a flicker, but a concentrated roar of orange flame. He dropped the heat onto the remains of the decree.

Within seconds, the King’s "honor" was nothing but a pile of gray ash smoldering on the rug.

Ashen finally turned his gaze to the Aide, his eyes glowing with the remnants of his power.

"You can go back to the King now," Ashen said, his voice cold enough to freeze the blood. "And tell him you delivered the response... and personally I destroyed whatever decree he had written ."