The Royal Mark-Chapter 254: Alaric’s Burial

Evening came and both Elsa and Chris were escorted to the castle ground to attend the burial of Alaric. Upon arriving Chris quickly greeted Elsa and noticed her sapped look even though her ladies-in-waiting made sure that she looked very beautiful for the evening.

"How’s my wife? Why do you look so feeble?" Chris asked in concern.

"I’m exhausted and I have no strength anymore. I operated in Aeson and Gavin. I found a piece of rowan tree inside them. Perhaps the demons and witches used a wooden weapon or torture tool made from a rowan tree and it got stuck inside their body when they healed," Elsa explained.

"So that is why they are not healing completely," Chris uttered.

"Yes, but they are fine now. Both me and Arla checked them if there was still something left and even asked Baahu and another earth mage to check and so far we found none. The two just need a bit more time to heal and they will be back on their feet in no time. Good thing they are alphas because if they were ordinary werewolves, Lexi said their body wouldn’t last that long and would probably be dead by now."

"Thank you for helping my men. I don’t know what we would do without you," Chris said before planting a kiss on Elsa’s temple.

"No need to thank me. I would do it for anyone... Well... Maybe not for our enemies... By the way what’s taking so long and what’s that in the middle?" Elsa pointed her finger to the stone table in the middle of the castle ground with wood, branches, and hay on top.

"They will put my uncle’s body on top of it and then burn it," Chris answered.

"I thought he would be buried?" Elsa asked in confusion.

"His ashes will be kept in the royal tomb. It is the tradition of the werewolves to burn the remains of their dead to prevent it from being resurrected," Chris said.

"Resurrection is a thing in Vectus?" Elsa asked with wide eyes.

"There was an old story about it. In that story, it was said that anyone who would be resurrected would become a monster with no mind of its own. But it’s not confirmed, but that’s what we were taught. That’s why we don’t dare to break that tradition."

"Fair enough. From a medical perspective, this is more sanitary too. I like this better. So, are we supposed to do something?" Elsa questioned.

"Later, someone will give us a white flower and throw it into the fire. Usually, the immediate family member of the deceased pays tribute but since Neia is not here, I will do it instead."

After all the preparations, the procession for Alaric started. From the Great Hall where he lay after he died the royal guards carried him to the castle grounds. The servants started distributing the white flowers to the people he knew and close to him.

A priestess performed a short ritual before Alaric’s body was set on fire. Everyone with flowers was soon called and Chris was the last one to go to the middle.

Elsa could feel the pain and sadness in Chris’ heart for he was not keeping anything from their bond. She felt sorry for her husband and could only wish that things would be much happier for Chris in the future.

Chris moved closer to the fire and stared at it before turning to face everyone.

"Citizens of Arcanis... Listen to what I will say. My uncle was under a spell by the witch queen a few days after my sister was born and the evil witch queen used him to take down my family so she could take Arcanis for herself."

Murmurs erupted from the crowd, everyone couldn’t believe what Chris was revealing to them.

"The spell was broken after Queen Yvonne of Saldivar stabbed my uncle with a silver knife before she took my sister and disappeared to Salvidaw with the help of King Mordrak of Kurzen. The witch queen has planned for our nation’s fall for years and I, Christopher Jorgensen, firstborn of Ulfgar Jorgensen will not allow her to succeed!"

Everyone in the crowd cheered, making Elsa teary-eyed for she could feel the love and support of the people of Arcanis to her husband.

"The war is not over yet. The evil queen took our Princess Neia and we take her back! We will restore the peace that the evil witch queen took from us! We will hunt her down... we will show no mercy... We will not stop until Queen Yvonne Salvatore dies in our hands!"

Everyone: "Awoo!!!"

Elsa had goosebumps after hearing the werewolves howl in unison. She could feel their love for their land, Arcanis, and anger towards the evil queen. She rubbed her arms, trying to bring down the hairs that rose up.

"Our King! We will help in retrieving Princess Neia!"

"Your Majesty, we volunteer to hunt for the witch queen!"

"King Christopher! We are with you! We will not stop until Queen Yvonne is not dead!

"Yeah!"

The voices of the citizens filled the castle grounds, and soon even the mages from Zemaria, and vampires from Vrenada joined in expressing their willingness to help.

Chris was overwhelmed by the love that he was receiving not only from his people but from everyone. His tears started falling down and he was not ashamed to show it to everyone.

Because of his courageous display of his emotions, others sobbed with him and people continued to express their support.

"We will avenge the death of King Ulfgar and King Alaric!"

"We will show those witches that the werewolves are no longer afraid of their magic!"

"Arcanis will rise again and Saldivar will fall!"

Chris wiped his tears as everyone continued to voice out their feelings and glanced at his wife.

Elsa smiled and said mentally, ’They love you, Chris. Your people are willing to risk their lives under your rule to help you achieve your goals. But I am sure Andrius will not let them die, of course, I will train your people in modern medicine for things that werewolves cannot heal by themselves.’

’Our people. You are their queen now, don’t forget that,’ Chris smiled before turning to throw his white flower to Alaric.

Everyone’s voices roared as Chris walked back to Elsa. The two waved before heading back inside the castle to call it a night.

********

It is their second day in Arcanis as its new rulers and as expected, Hoven and Lexi, knocked on their door so early in the morning. This time it was Chris who opened the door for them for Elsa was dead tired yesterday.

"Why are you here so early? The sun hasn’t risen up yet," Chris complained.

"Have you forgotten? Today is the council’s gathering. You have to meet them before the coronation tomorrow. You can no longer postpone it," Hoven replied.

"And how about Elsa? She doesn’t need to attend the gathering yet. Can you at least give her more time to sleep?" Chris said to Lexi. "She fell asleep as soon as we entered our chamber last night. She wasn’t even able to change clothes due to fatigue."

"Oh, I didn’t know she was that tired yesterday. We kept on asking her if she was ok or if she wanted to rest for a bit. But she said she was ok and wanted to finish everything on the list yesterday."

"She’s like that. So moving forward you have to make sure that she doesn’t have overflowing tasks on a daily basis. She might have wings but she’s still a human. Did the fitting go well yesterday?" Chris asked.

"Yes, and I think that’s what tired her out. The modiste refused to let her use a premade undergown and insisted on making a new one even if the Queen already said she could use a premade one because there was not much time. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

But I think the modiste wanted to impress the new queen and because of that it took hours for the modiste to finish her measurements and fittings," Lexi explained.

"I understand. What on her schedule today?"

"The queen will have a lecture about Arcanis in the morning since Elandir and Rocco will arrive today. Her family is also expected to arrive this afternoon," Lexi informed Chris.

"Rocco..." Chris murmured.

Hoven gripped Chris’ shoulder and gave it a squeeze and asked, "Are you excited to meet your son? He is so cute!"

"I am, but I will admit that I am a bit nervous too..." Chris smirked and added, "You can wait for me downstairs, I will just dress up and face the council. I hope they are ready for what I have to say since I plan to tell them everything in my mind all these months. I must release all my pent-up negative emotions before I meet my son, so it’s the council’s lucky day."

Hoven sighed and said, "I wish them good luck then," before heading downstairs to wait for Chris.

********

A/N: 2/18/2024

Hello everyone! The picture of Rocco is now posted in the character profile and my author page in FB. You can check it out, thanks!