Chapter 934: Sleeping Spell

It was painful to see Rowena go through the motions of grief—and yet Raphael didn't want to have her be in danger.

The royal guards who wished to bring the king to his room prepared their weapons as Rowena lunged forward with wild abandon.

"How dare you be a horrible fa—"

Raphael finally stepped in before she could actually lay a hand or be hurt by the guards. The Seventh Prince reached out from behind her and covered Rowena's eyes with his palm, and the magic spell fell over Rowena as her body slumped over.

Liam looked in both surprise and grief. He understood that Rowena was stricken by grief and now blamed him and his father. 

However, there was also a hint of suspicion written all over his face. While his father, the king, was overcome with grief, Liam was far more observant.

"It seems that exhaustion finally came over Rowena," Raphael said flatly. "All this exhaustion..."

"Do not fret about this, if I were in her position—I would have blamed me too," Liam looked over at Rowena with guilt.

Raphael nodded slowly. "Then I will take her away for now—"

"Please let her rest in the chambers," Liam spoke. "There is a room for her, and for... you as well if you wish to stay."

He didn't have a clue on who this new man was, but if there was anything that he did now—it was that Rowena would have wanted to stay here, close from Julian.

"I will." Raphael nodded. "Thank you for your hospitality and understanding."

He could have easily taken Rowena away and brought her far away so that she wouldn't put herself into danger like attacking the royal family recklessly, but they needed to stay.

"No—thank you," Liam insisted. "I probably would have let her hit me, but harming a member of the royal family is not allowed. She would face the death penalty. Anyway... my bodyguard will take you to the guest rooms."

"Then we will take our leave for now." Raphael bid the prince and the devastated king and went for Rowena's chambers. He didn't bother using honorifics when addressing the prince and the king, and this made Prince Liam feel a bit strange. It sounded presumptuous for a commoner to speak so casually to him.

However, since they just faced a tragedy and Rowena seemed to have a special relationship with this Raphael guy, Prince Liam brushed it off and didn't sweat over honorifics.

Maybe Raphael was just not used to dealing with royalty, he thought to himself.

Prince Liam was left alone to watch over his father and his brother who too quickly

passed away.  It was a sudden thing for the young prince to watch everything and everyone before him crumble, die and vanish before he got the chance to fix things, but now it was up to him to take care of the matters.

He could only hope that he would be able to do it on his own.

He had to do it.

***

"Is there anything else that you need, Sir? The crown prince has asked us to prepare you a room also—"

"This will suffice for now." Raphael insisted. "If I am in need of assistance, I will simply ask one of the servants instead."

"Very well," the bodyguard said and then left the room.

Once the bodyguard finally left them in Rowena's chambers, Raphael gently placed the young woman on her bed.  He looked over her sleeping expression with a worried look.

Rowena's eyes were now closed as the sleeping spell worked over her, but there were still remnants of tears across her cheeks that had dried up.

Raphael wiped them away as he placed some blankets over her body and he sat down on one of the chairs. He waited for a couple of minutes, but Rowena did not wake up.

"It seems that she really has fallen asleep." Raphael sighed and looked out the window.

He felt restless.  The original plan was to help Rowena deliver the panacea to her friend and then reunite with his fellow gods, but the circumstances had changed for Raphael.

Or had it really?

His situation was still the same. He was still the Seventh Prince of Cretea who went out to spend time with his friends… there was no obligation for him to stay here now that he made sure that Rowena was safe.

"Besides, if I don't come back, they will start looking for me," Raphael said as he thought about his fellow gods. "If King Urther won't tattle about me, I'm quite sure that someone else will do it. They're already tired of being in the human realm, after all." 

After much deliberation, Raphael finally stood up from the chair.  He walked over to the window of Rowena's room and stood up at the window sill. 

It was incredibly easy to leave.

He could do it.  And yet why was it so hard to move?

Raphael looked over at Rowena as the memory of him leaving with the God of Aviary rekindled in his mind. He let out a sigh. "Back then, I didn't have a choice–I was merely a weak bird who couldn't fight back to stay with you…"

But now he wanted to leave out of his own volition.

"I…" Raphael let out a sigh as he floated

over back to Rowena's bed. "How could I just leave you when you're in that state? What if you do something outrageous when you wake up and then get yourself hurt in the process."

There was no response from Rowena, but a smile lingered on Raphael's face.

"Your friend was right about you. You're someone who gets yourself into far more riskier situations than someone who's supposed to be quite brilliant." Raphael crossed his arms over his chest.

He was making excuses.

"When you were younger, you risked your life to save a mere bird—a phoenix, even though you must know that its life was not as valuable as yours," Raphael said.