Chapter 84: A stone heart can care.

Hunter moved back slowly and sat on the bed, perfectly still. To anyone else, he looked completely expressionless, like a statue carved from hard ice. But deep down, beneath his calm exterior, his blood was reaching a violent boiling point.

His hands, resting on his knees, clenched into tight fists. He gripped so hard that his knuckles turned stark white, and the wood beneath his mattress groaned under the sudden, accidental leakage of his pressure.

They dared, he thought, a dark, murderous storm brewing in his soul. They dared to push her to the brink of death.These horrible people were out there living their lives,while Zyra lived like a fugitive! And these were people that were supposed to protect her!

Zyra didn’t notice the terrifying aura radiating from him. In her desperation, she closed the gap between them, sinking onto the edge of the bed right next to him. She grabbed his arm, her fierce eyes suddenly turning soft, pleading. "Hunter, you have to help me. Lita would rather die than see her marriage to such a prestigious family get cancelled. Ruining this wedding will be the beginning of her suffering. Please. I want her to taste the shame and fear she put me through."

She thought back to the day she was stripped naked and paraded through the street. Lita was there, showing off her proud pregnant belly, with Hans by her side. That bitch was the one that suggested the whole naked parade humiliation ritual. Something like that had never been done before. It was unheard of.

"I will never let her have a happily ever after." Zyra muttered, gripping Hunter’s hands tighter.

Looking into her desperate, wide eyes, Hunter felt his heart ache slightly. He almost, almost said yes right then and there. The urge to destroy the wedding just to make her smile was overwhelming. But he forced himself to look away from her face and pull his hands from hers. He took a slow breath and said flatly, "I cannot do that."

Zyra’s face dropped. "Why? Why won’t you help me?"

"This marriage was likely engineered by the divine soul maiden herself; the last thing I want is to make that woman an enemy when I don’t have enough strength to fight back or protect myself." Hunter told her, he also couldn’t go back home just yet, the Kaelion estate was the last place that he wanted to be.

"If you won’t do it...then I will." Zyra vowed.

Achilles stepped forward, waving his hands to calm her down. "Hey, crazy Soul maiden, listen to him. Zyra you are safe here, this marriage is all about politics. If you ruin it, the Divine soul maiden will not be too pleased. Rumor has it that you are already on her watch list. She did not get along with your mother, I doubt Trinity likes you either.

But don’t despair, you don’t need to ruin anything for this Lita. Eliot...he is a very complicated, very cruel man. The Kaelion clan is a den of wolves. Trust me, Lita is going to have an absolutely horrific, miserable time there. Be rest assured. I know this because I know that family. Her life there is going to be no different from a life of cleaning shit in the pits."

Zyra let out a long, heavy sigh. She looked between Achilles and Hunter’s stubborn profile. Achilles’ words actually brought a small, cold comfort to her troubled heart. If the Kaelion family was as bad as they said, maybe Lita was stepping straight into a nightmare.

Hunter was not wrong, if the Divine Soul maiden was involved, then she didn’t need to rush. Her options were to destroy Lita before the wedding or wait until she was powerful enough. Right now, waiting was the best option. Lita was probably under tight watch because her father would not want anything to go wrong.

"Fine," Zyra muttered, standing up and smoothing her shirt. "For now." Without another word, she turned and walked out of the room, leaving the door swinging behind her.

The moment her footsteps faded, the temperature in Hunter’s bedroom dropped to absolute freezing.

Hunter stood up, his eyes pitch black with suppressed rage. He looked at his cousin. "Achilles. Find her ex-fiancés...I want to know everything about them, absolutely everything."

Achilles stumbled backward, looking at Hunter with genuine terror painted all over his face. The pure, unadulterated killing intent radiating from the quiet man was suffocating. "Wait, wait! Hunter, what are you planning to do?! Do not do anything insane!"

Hunter hissed, his voice dangerously low, like a dragon waking from a century-long slumber. "Did you not just hear what those trash bastards tried to do to my wife? If she doesn’t get revenge, she won’t rest."

Achilles stretched his hands out, waving them frantically, urging him to cool it off. "Bro, cool down! Breathe! Let’s remember the facts here. Zyra is your contract wife! It’s a fake marriage for convenience! You both literally agreed to stay out of each other’s personal lives and past drama!"

Hunter sneered, his jaw locked tight. "I agreed to nothing. She wrote the clauses that she wanted. I never signed away my right to slaughter trash." He turned his back to Achilles, staring out the window towards the Beast pavilion. "Those fools are going to pay. Every single one of them. For sure."

Achilles opened his mouth to argue, but the words completely failed him. He slowly closed his mouth, his mind reeling in utter disbelief. What on earth did Zyra Scorpion do to my stone-hearted, emotionless cousin? Achilles wondered, staring at Hunter’s tense shoulders. It’s only been a few days! Is she secretly using some high-level Soul Maiden bewitchment spell on him? Because the Hunter he knew would never lift a finger for a stranger, yet here he was, ready to wage war against people for a girl who paid him in insults and by challenging him.

"Go check on her and make sure that she does not do something stupid." Hunter told Achilles.

Achilles blinked, his mind going entirely blank for a second. "Wait. What do you mean by stupid?"

"She must be upset right now," Hunter said, his voice flat but his eyes shifting away. "She could probably use someone to talk to. Go tell her one of those jokes of yours. You know, the ones that aren’t actually funny, but at least they’ll keep her mind off whatever is tormenting her."

Achilles stood there, absolutely stunned. He stared at his cousin like Hunter had just grown a second head. "Why are you not comforting her yourself? She is your wife."

Hunter let out a sharp sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Because I am the reason, she is angry in the first place."

Achilles scratched his nose, a nagging thought finally bubbling to the surface. He squinted, trying to read his cousin’s notoriously unreadable face. "Hey... do you actually care about her?"

"No," Hunter denied instantly, his posture stiffening. "I just need her mentally stable so she can breeze through her training quickly. A distracted mind wastes energy. That is all."

Achilles nodded slowly, but he wasn’t convinced for even a fraction of a second. Right. And I’m the world Emperor, he thought.