The Royalty ||Park Sunghoon FF||

Chapter 5

"You did it, didn't you?" Taeoh inquired as he entered Nari's chamber.

"Did what?" Nari responded, closing the door behind her before making her way toward her bed. Both Taeoh and Nari sat on the bed, prepared to continue their discussion.

"The five soldiers—you killed them, didn't you?" Taeoh pressed, and Nari simply nodded.

"Why would you do such a thing?" Taeoh asked, panicking at the realization that his friend was the murderer he had been seeking on behalf of the emperor to uncover the truth behind the events.

"The soldiers were attacked by Nadia. If they had spoken, everything would have been at risk. I had no other option but to poison them," Nari explained, looking away, feeling the weight of her actions and the pressure Taeoh was under from the emperor.

"You could have just erased their memories," Taeoh suggested, clearly distressed by the situation.

"Are you serious? How am I supposed to possess the power of memory manipulation when the original power holder is also powerless?" Nari retorted furiously, standing up. She lacked access to various powers without the original bearers, who themselves were clueless about their own abilities. Although all the powers originated from Lord Dracula, they were now distributed among different owners. She wielded the power of elements and had inherited the powers of sunlight protection and body manipulation from deceased clan members. She also had access to weather control due to Nadia being the power holder. To access other powers, she needed the original holders to be in contact with her or for the powers to be inherited.

"Forgive me, Princess Nari. I was thoughtless," Taeoh quickly apologized, understanding the situation. Nari merely nodded and walked to the balcony, where the sun was shining brightly.

"Fortunately, you hold the sunlight protection power from the deceased clan member; otherwise, all vampires would be unable to venture out during the day," Taeoh said with a smile, making Nari smile in return.

"Taeoh, do you perhaps know why I inherited two powers from deceased clan vampires? They could have been passed down to Nadia, the oldest vampire of the clan, or even the boy. Why was I chosen?" Nari asked, gazing at the garden below the balcony.

"Because you are the most suitable to be the power holder for those abilities," Taeoh simply replied.

"I should be going. I need to make arrangements to cover for you," he said, walking off, to which Nari just nodded.

"Puppet... puppet..." She heard it again. Nari hurriedly looked around to find the source of the voice but ended up looking down at the garden, where she saw Sunghoon gazing up at her. They made eye contact, and suddenly everything felt like a thin line. They kept staring at each other. What is this? This feels familiar; it hurts. Hurt? Unknowingly, tears started streaming down Nari's face. Why does it hurt so badly? Hurt what? Nari's mind went blank; the only thing she saw was Sunghoon staring at her and the familiar yet painful sensation in her heart. The line snapped, and Nari collapsed on her knees, crying for an unknown reason.

"Why can't I stop crying?" Nari asked herself, continuously wiping the tears running down her face. Her heart was crying, no, it was screaming from within, holding a familiarity and extreme pain that Nari couldn't comprehend. The sudden outburst left her exhausted. It felt like her heart was being torn into multiple pieces, but she didn't know the reason for the sudden outburst; only her heart knew. Nari got up and lay on the bed to rest for a few minutes but ended up falling asleep.

"Father, I think I love someone," Nari said.

"Oh, that's lovely to hear. May I know who this gentleman is who has stolen my daughter's heart?" her father asked.