The King’s Relentless Desire のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 171 - チャプター 180

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-SevenLiana POVThe room stays frozen after his voice fades. I can feel every stare pressing against my skin. No one breathes. No one moves. It is like they are waiting for the walls to shake or the ground to split open. But nothing dramatic happens. The air just stays tense around me, thick enough that my chest feels tight.I breathe in slowly. The heat in my palms takes longer to fade this time. It settles under my skin like it wants to stay there.The High Advisor is the first to move. She steps back, but only by an inch. Her eyes stay locked on me like she is trying to understand something that won’t fit into her mind.“What did you do?” she asks. Her voice comes out thin. “How did you do that?”I look at her without blinking.You wanted proof. You have it.Her throat moves when she swallows. She looks at the councillors beside her, but neither of them can speak.My heart beats steady. Not fast. Not slow. Just steady. It feels heavier than before, like it

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Nine Liana POVThe sound of the crowd pulls tighter around me as I move down the first step. It feels like the air gets thicker, like everyone breathes in at the same time. Their eyes follow me, wide and unsure, but there’s something else under it now. Something warmer. Something that settles right under my ribs.I don’t break eye contact with the people closest to me. Their faces blur together at first. Then I start to see them one by one. A boy standing behind his mother, gripping her sleeve. A guard with a bruise still healing on his cheek. An older woman holding her hands together like she’s praying even though her lips don’t move.None of them look away.I step down again. And again. The stone feels cold through my shoes, grounding me. I keep my pace slow. I don’t rush toward them, and I don’t hesitate either. I move like I belong here, right in the middle of this shift happening in front of me.When I reach the last stair, the front row shuffles back a

Chapter One Hundred Seventy One Liana POVKael stands close enough for me to feel the energy coming off him, but he still doesn’t touch me.He keeps his hands at his sides, steady, controlled, unreadable.The crowd watches us like they’re waiting for permission to breathe.The courtyard feels hotter.The noise has changed.People aren’t shouting now.They’re murmuring, trying to make sense of what I said, trying to understand why Kael let me speak at all.My heart keeps knocking against my ribs.It makes my breathing short and uneven.I feel exposed.Not because of anything I saidBut because all of them are looking at me like they’re trying to see inside my head.A man steps forward from the center of the crowd.He looks older.Weathered.His clothes are worn, like he’s worked his whole life with his hands.He asks me why I stayed.His voice isn’t angry.It’s confused.Almost wounded.He asks why I didn’t run when things got dangerous inside the palace.He asks why I trusted someone

Chapter One Hundred Seventy Three Liana POVThe man hits the ground face-first, and the sound punches through the courtyard.People jerk back.Some scream.Some freeze.My pulse jumps so fast my vision blurs.Kael steps in front of me without thinking.His arm shoots out, blocking me from the body like instinct, like muscle memory.Guards close in around us, weapons raised, eyes scanning the rooftops and the shadows and every shaky hand in the crowd.I force myself to look at the man on the ground.He’s bleeding too fast for him to still be alive.The stain keeps spreading across the stone like it’s trying to swallow the whole courtyard.I don’t see a weapon in his hand.I don’t see anything that explains the way he fell.Kael kneels beside him.The guards try to stop him, but he waves them off.He rolls the man just enough to see his face.I recognise him instantly.One of the old council’s men.Not high-ranking, but close enough to carry secrets.Close enough to know things that sh

Chapter One Hundred Seventy FiveLiana POV The riders keep coming.Their horses hit the ground hard, one after another, the sound rolling through my chest like thunder.Kael steps in front of me, blade lifted, body tense in a way that tells me the fight has already started in his head.My hands are shaking again.I try to stop it, but my fingers won’t listen.The archers wait for Kael’s order.No one fires without him.The lead rider slows.He lifts a torch, letting the light touch his face.I know him.That’s what hits me first.I know him.His face is older, his hair darker, his posture tighter, but I know that mouth, that scar across the left jaw, that cold stare that used to tell me to shut up and listen.My stomach twists.My throat closes.Kael sees my reaction.“Who is he?” Kael asks without looking back.“My brother,” I whisper.The word tastes wrong coming out of my mouth.Kael freezes for one second.Then everything inside him sharpens.The rider lifts his torch higher.“Li