Chapter 5: Serpent’s Tea Party

The scandal of Prince Caspian’s massive debts swept through the imperial capital like a wildfire.

Within forty-eight hours, the value of royal treasury bonds plunged. Creditors surrounded Caspian’s villa day and night, demanding repayment. High-ranking nobles who had previously backed Caspian’s bid for the throne began hastily cutting ties, terrified of being dragged into a treason investigation by Duke Valerius’s High Audit Council.

Desperate, cornered, and facing total ruin, Prince Caspian made his final, deadliest move.

Inside the dark study of Caspian’s villa, Mara kneeled on the floor, her hands bound tightly with coarse rope. Her eyes were red and swollen from days of weeping. Her silk gown was torn, and her spirit was completely broken.

Caspian stood over her, swirling a small glass vial containing a colorless, odorless liquid—the deadly Nightshade’s Kiss poison.

“Caspian… please…” Mara sobbed hysterically. “I am your fiancée! I gave up everything for you!”

“You gave me nothing but trouble, you useless bitch,” Caspian sneered coldly, tossing the vial onto the table. “Your sister Sara ruined my financial standing. But she still cares about Vance family blood. You are going to write a letter to Sara.”

“A… a letter?” Mara stuttered, trembling.

“You will write that you are dying of a sudden fever at the Old Temple on Mount Sol,” Caspian instructed, his voice low and sinister. “You will beg her to come alone for a final sisterly reconciliation. When she arrives, my shadow assassins will eliminate her and Duke Valerius’s guards. Once Sara is dead, as her surviving sister, you will inherit the Vance master keys. I will take the gold, clear my debts, and seize the throne!”

Mara stared at the vial of poison in horror. She recognized it instantly—it was the exact same poison that had killed them both in their past life!

“And what about me?” Mara whispered, her voice shaking. “What happens to me after Sara dies?”

Caspian leaned down, gripping her jaw violently, his dark eyes filled with cold murderous malice. “If you obey me, you get to live as my quiet concubine. If you refuse, I will force this entire bottle down your throat right now and throw your body into the river.”

Tears streamed down Mara’s cheeks.

In that moment of ultimate terror, the illusion of her rebirth vanished completely. She remembered how she had smugly snatched Caspian’s token on the betrothal day, how she had mocked Sara for taking Valerius, how she had believed she was destined for glory.

What a pathetic fool she had been. Sara hadn’t lost anything. Sara had seen through Caspian from the very beginning.

With trembling fingers, forced under the point of a guard’s dagger, Mara wrote the desperate plea for help on parchment.

An hour later, the letter arrived at Obsidian Manor.

Sara sat in the grand library, reading the letter under the warm glow of oil lamps. Valerius stood behind her chair, a grim expression on his face as he scanned the frantic handwriting.

“It is a crude trap,” Valerius noted coldly. “Mount Sol is surrounded by dense forests—an ideal location for an ambush. Caspian has hired the Black Vane Mercenaries. My scouts report over two hundred armed men lurking in the ravines.”

Sara folded the letter neatly, setting it down on the desk.

“I know,” Sara said quietly. “In our past life, Caspian used the exact same mercenary guild to burn the Vance estate.”

Valerius looked down at her, his dark eyes softening with deep concern. “You do not have to go, Sara. I can send three regiments of the Iron Guard to raze Mount Sol to the ground and bring Caspian back in chains.”

Sara stood up, turning to face Valerius. She reached up, gently adjusting the collar of his black tunic.

“If we simply send troops, Caspian will claim political persecution by the Regent,” Sara explained softly. “He will hide behind his royal immunity and his mother’s influence. But if I go, Caspian will reveal his treason in full view of the Imperial High Justices.”

Valerius frowned, gripping her shoulders firmly. “I will not put your life at risk, Sara. Not for a political trap.”

Sara looked up into his eyes, her heart swelling with warmth. In her past life, no one had ever protected her like this. No one had ever held her as if she were the most precious treasure in the world.

“I won’t be in danger, Valerius,” Sara whispered, using his name directly for the first time. “Because I am going with the Grand Regent of Solaria. You won’t let anything happen to me, will you?”

Valerius’s breath caught in his throat. Hearing his name spoken softly from her lips sent a surge of fierce, protective fire through his chest.

His grip on her shoulders tightened, his dark eyes burning with unwavering resolve.

“Never,” Valerius vowed, his low voice echoing with absolute authority. “I would tear down heaven and earth before letting anyone hurt you.”

The next afternoon, rain poured heavily over Mount Sol.

The Old Temple sat shrouded in thick mountain mist, surrounded by towering pine trees. High in the wooden rafters of the ruined temple, fifty Black Vane assassins waited with crossbows loaded and blades drawn.

Inside the main hall, Mara sat bound to a wooden chair, her head bowed in despair. Prince Caspian stood near the broken altar, swirling a cup of wine, a wicked, triumphant grin on his face.

Suddenly, the heavy wooden doors of the temple were blown open by a powerful gust of wind and rain!

Through the curtain of rain, a single figure walked calmly into the temple.

Sara stepped across the threshold, dressed in a hooded cloak of dark silver silk. She walked gracefully toward the center of the hall, her expression serene and fearless.

“Sara!” Mara gasped, tears bursting from her eyes. “Why did you come?! It’s a trap! He’s going to kill you!”

Prince Caspian laughed loudly, his echoing voice filled with insane arrogance. “Ah, sisterly love! How touching and utterly foolish!”

Caspian stepped forward, motioning with his hand. Instantly, dozens of dark-clothed assassins dropped down from the rafters, blocking every exit, their dark steel blades gleaming in the gloom.

“You came alone, Sara,” Caspian sneered, pulling out a sharp dagger. “Did you truly believe your terrifying husband could save you everywhere? Hand over the master keys to the Vance vaults, and I might give you a quick death!”

Sara stood motionless in the center of the trap. She slowly lowered her silver hood, looking at Caspian with a cold, mocking pity.

“Alone?” Sara echoed softly. “Prince Caspian, when will you learn that you are always the last person to understand the battlefield?”

Caspian’s smile flickered. “What?”

BOOM!

The entire stone roof of the temple shattered downward in a thunderous explosion of wood, tiles, and blinding light!

Huge iron grappling hooks smashed through the stone walls, tearing the temple structure apart! Before the assassins could even raise their weapons, heavy black-armored figures rained down from above like judgment from the sky!

“IRON GUARD! SURRENDER OR DIE!”

The battle cry shook the very foundation of the mountain.

The elite knights of the Iron Guard, led by Duke Valerius himself, descended into the hall like dark angels of death. Within seconds, the sound of clashing steel and agonizing screams filled the air. The Black Vane mercenaries were completely outmatched; Valerius’s veteran soldiers cut through them like wheat before a scythe.

Valerius himself landed beside Sara in a movement of terrifying speed and power. His massive broadsword swept out in a arc of cold steel, decapitating three assassins instantly.

He stepped in front of Sara, his wolf-fur cloak billowing behind him, his dark eyes glowing with lethal fury as he pointed his blood-dripping sword directly at Prince Caspian’s throat.

“Touch my Duchess,” Valerius’s voice rumbled like an earthquake, “and I will flay you alive.”

Prince Caspian stumbled backward in utter terror, dropping his dagger, his face drained of all color.

Behind Valerius, three high-ranking figures stepped out from the rain—the High Imperial Chancellor, the Supreme Commander of the Royal Guard, and the Chief Justice of the Empire.

“Second Prince Caspian,” the Chief Justice declared, holding up an official Imperial Warrant. “You are caught red-handed attempting to murder the Duchess Regent, employing illegal mercenaries, and committing high treason against the Crown. By order of the High Council, you are stripped of your royal title and under arrest!”

Caspian collapsed onto his knees in the mud, sobbing incoherently, his royal mask shattered beyond repair.

As the guards dragged Caspian away in chains, Sara walked over to the weeping Mara and cut her ropes with a small silver dagger.

Mara looked up at Sara through her tears, trembling violently. “Sara… I… I betrayed you… I stole your groom… why did you save me?”

Sara looked down at her sister. The anger she had once carried from her past life had vanished, replaced by a quiet, distant clarity.

“I didn’t save you for your sake, Mara,” Sara said softly. “I saved you so you can live to watch House Vance flourish under my protection, while you remember forever the price of your greed.”

Sara turned and walked toward the temple entrance, where Valerius stood waiting.

Valerius extended his hand to her. Sara took it, stepping out into the cleansing rain, knowing that the shadows of her past had finally been laid to rest.