CHAPTER 5: Grand Preceptor

The crown prince unsheathed his sword from his waist, taking large steps towards me. Halting before me, he said, “You brought it upon yourself. If you were truly my mate, for the sake of the law and respect for mate bond, I could have made you my concubine, regardless of what you were.”

He raised his blade, ready to chop at my neck.

I didn't try to make him see reasons anymore. He'd already believed what he wanted to believe. I didn't believe that his wolf wouldn't have already told him the truth, but he chose to be blind.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the blade to slice through my skin, so that the pain from the mate bond would stop. So that I could finally leave the world that never wanted me.

Tears I didn't summon gushed down my eyes, soaking my bloody veil.

This was it. It was finally going to end.

Suddenly, another commotion broke out at the entrance.

“My Lord!”

A guard hurried into the hall. "A message is here from the Grand Preceptor’s island!"

“What?!”

“The Grand Preceptor?”

"The oldest man in the Kingdom... Is he dead?" someone whispered faintly, as if afraid to be heard.

The crown prince's blade clattered to the floor. “The grand tutor is out of seclusion?" he panicked. "Where is the message bearer?"

“Hurry! Let's welcome him!” my father finally snapped out of his shock.

Everyone in the hall rushed towards the door.

I'd thought that they've forgotten about me, suddenly, my father paused, turned to a guard and ordered,

“Take that cursed thing back to her room,” he continued, "Also, station guards around her cell."

"Yes, Your Grace," the guard bowed and came for me.

…

Back in the dark dungeon, I lay on the makeshift bed, made from dry hay covered in my clothes. I stared up at the ceiling but wasn't seeing anything.

The pain had dulled, but was still there.

For a long time, I didn’t move. I was playing dead.

I did that often, when I felt the walls had closed around me. It was easier that way, to imagine yourself dead.

If I didn’t move… didn’t think… didn’t feel… then maybe the pain wouldn’t find me. Maybe the world would forget I existed. Maybe… they would finally leave me alone.

But this time, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't not think of what had just happened.

The hope I'd nursed for most of my life was not only shattered today, the goddess mocked and smeared me with humiliation.

What was the point of making me experience what having a mate felt like, only to rip it away so cruelly?

And Jeanine, she could even harm herself just so the prince wouldn't make me his concubine, or compensate me with monetary benefit.

If the crown prince hadn't rejected me, I would have been freed from this so-called curse. It would have meant that the goddess had redirected my fate. But rejection... It was worse. It meant that I was irredeemable.

Jeanine would rather kill herself than give me a chance to live.

But why?

No matter how hard I tried to piece the puzzle, I couldn't understand Jeanine’s hatred for me. I simply couldn't wrap my head around it.

Maybe I was just too stubborn to accept that a person we shared the same stomach, nutrient, and everything else, would hate me that much.

I tried to stop thinking about it, trying to fill my thoughts with other matters. Anything...

Then, I heard the guards outside my cell talking about him.

The Grand Preceptor.

"What do you think the people from the Great Island are here for? Do you think they are here to announce the old man's death?"

The other sighed with regret, "It will be a great loss for the kingdom if such a great man dies."

I listened.

For some reason, whenever the grand preceptor or grand tutor was mentioned, I always found myself listening.

His legend always left me in awe.

According to historians who taught us about the history of the kingdom, back when I was still a child in the temple, they said that back then, our land hadn’t been a kingdom. It was merely a small country surrounded by powerful enemies who saw it as nothing more than prey.

Neighbouring countries attacked us again and again, leaving behind nothing but ruins, blood, and grief. Villages were wiped out, families torn apart, and the people lived in constant fear of the next invasion.

For tens of years, the country bled, our resources were stolen, girls were kidnapped from their homes, raped and abused and people were treated as spoils of war.

Until the Grand Preceptor appeared. No one knew where he came from, and no one knew who, or what he truly was. But the moment he stepped onto the battlefield, everything changed.

The war didn’t drag on for months or years. It didn’t even last days. According to the stories, it ended in a single night. They said that the sky wept at the massacre, and the ground trembled so violently that people thought the world was ending. By the time dawn came, the enemies were erased.

Some even said that the goddess herself came down to beg him to stop.

From that destruction, he gathered what remained of those countries and forged a kingdom. Naderlands.

And then, as if it meant nothing to him, he placed the crown on the head of one of the many Alphas of that time, Stallion Vander, making him the first Alpha King.

It was also said that Alpha King Stallion was his student. Other sources said he was his friend, who cried to him for help.

To thank him and make him stay with the kingdom, Stallion Vander gave him the title of the Grand Preceptor. A position above all teachers and elders, one that made him both a guide and an unseen force behind the throne.

Some also said that he was just a Grand Preceptor by name, that he was the Emperor of three Kingdoms, Naderland included.

Before Alpha King Stallion's, death, he had begged the grand preceptor to remain with the royal family, to guide every future ruler so the kingdom would never fall into weakness again. And the Grand Preceptor agreed.

From that day on, he became the grand tutor of every chosen Crown Prince. They were trained into kings worthy of the throne.

In Naderlands, kings were not simply born, they were made. And he was the one who made them.

After the current Alpha King took the throne, the grand preceptor went into seclusion.

Now, suddenly, after so many years... Some said twenty, some said twenty-five, there was finally news about him again.

And people from the Great island had shown up at the Duke of Nadrasei’s place instead of the palace, on the day of the mating ceremony…

I stared blankly at the ceiling, my thoughts circling around his many reasons for coming out now.

If he was dead, the palace would be the one sending out messengers, not the island itself.

Why was he here? For the crown prince?

I shook my head, it was unlikely. Perhaps, he was here to see the jewel of the kingdom before he died.

The historians said he had no wife nor children. Perhaps, he wanted to make Jeanine his adopted daughter or give her all his wealth.

I strongly believed this logic because the Duke of Nadrasei doesn't have anything of interest to the Grand Preceptor except the treasure, Jeanine.

A bitter feeling rose in my chest.

If he found Jeanine in such a terrible state, would he blame me? Would the grand preceptor hate me too?

I shut my eyes, unwilling to think that the one person I had so much respect and admiration for, would hate me too.

Jeanine was truly blessed. She even caught the Grand Preceptor’s eyes. I truly envied her.

At this moment, a silent thought crossed my mind.

"I wish I was Jeanine."

A lone tear rolled down the corner of my eyes.

…

Time passed in a blur.

I waited patiently to be summoned and executed. Every moment that passed, I subconsciously relived the life I've lived since my childhood.

Suddenly, a pile of laughter burst from my throat, harsh and resounding.

“Harbinger of evil, you're finally going to find peace—” I whispered to myself.

Suddenly, the lock on the cell rattled. I turned my head, it was the guards.

It took them so long.

“You have been summoned,” one of them said.

I struggled to push myself off the bed and stumbled out of the cell. Giving one last look at what had been my house for six years, I turned and followed the guards.

If only I knew what awaited me. I could have begged the guards to kill me already.