On My Way: The Demon King Made Me His

Chapter 69: Battle of the Queens

"Want to know?" Queen Rivera asked her long lost best friend standing shocked in front of her. 

"Don't mess with me," Empress Lihua said controlling her temper trying her best pretending to be cool and not give away her fears. 

"Let's say I hold the funeral for my daughter, and shut down her power source forever in precious fall, will anything survive then on, everything that she had touched? No all will die eventually." Rivera eyed Lihua as she circled around the Empress. "Then people who use her power to support their life will too," she said. "I mean can you afford to lose Huo'er again you highness? I didn't know that you would take Emperor's side this time and let go of your son?" She asked Lihua sarcastically. "I don't mind if you do, but I would not have hesitated to bring Huo'er back home here since Aqua's part is living inside him, but unfortunately, " Rivera paused. Looking into her eyes directly this time. "Being ungrateful runs in the family that we stopped caring shit about people who can't treasure the love we give," she gave an evil smile. 

"I don't get you?" Lihua still pretended. 

"Your eyes has given you away my friend, why do you have to hide it with me?  My daughter is the reason he is alive and I gave birth to her, you think I wouldn't know if some part of her is living in this universe?" 

"Don't cross the line," Lihua warned her. 

"You are already in my court way past beyond the line, and yes I will hold the funeral then with your permission, " Rivera said staring at Lihua for one more time before she walked back to her palace. Lihua stood there tensed, wondering what to do since she was not aware of how depended her son is now.

"Of all the people in universe, why did it have to be Rivera's first born?" Lihua said and trudged back to the guest palace. Her body has been aching since she has been making an elixir using her blood along to bring back Huo'er's strength. But she wasn't sure whether it would restore his memories. "Why couldn't you fall in love with someone better Huo, why her?" She kept thinking inside her head. Tai walked in at the same time Lihua entered the chamber. She sat on the chair in the front hall and asked the maids to serve her wine instead of tea. 

"Unsual habit of drinking," Tai noticed and asked her.  "What is it?" 

"I have heard Water Realm has the best brewed wines," Lihua said and sipped from her grail. 

"Happy to see your best friend?" He teased her. Lihua shot an angry look at Tai. 

"I would have been if I listened to her," she said coldly and Tai's expression changed quickly.

"What is that I did wrong to make my love mine?" He asked her again. 

"Just everything," she said casually and asked for the refill. 

"Leave," Tai ordered the maids in the room to get out of the palace and waited till they shut the doors behind. 

Lihua looked at his face wondering what he is going to do. She wanted to know about the funeral plans he has in his mind, to know if it was planned to not stop Aqua but her son deliberately. But she could not bring up the topic since she didn't want him to know about Huo'er's fragile return until he grew strong.

"My plan is on the right path, like i thought, Aenon is still searching for his daughter,  waiting for her return," Tai said proudly to have found out about the truth even the flowers in the garden knew about. " Did you notice how he panicked when I mentioned it in public? It is time he gives up on selfish ideas and make peace like his wife. He always had a thought that he can rule over with his daughter under his commands, it is going to be over now," Tai said what he believed is right. Lihua looked at him in wonder and disgust. She finally understood why Tai wants the Water Realm to be removed from the surface. She felt disgusted as well as bad about herself to have supported the extermination decree hating the water royals for killing Aaron. Rivera and her history gushed into her head that almost brought tears in her eyes. Then she recalled about what happened between her almost daughter in law Aqua and her friend Volca at school who became the reason for the death of everyone. 'No I have been like Volca but I can't become exactly like that,' the empress thought and got up from her chair. She looked calm on the outside. 

"Your higness so you have decided to hold the funeral for Aqua? She asked him. "I don't think there is a need to, their life is hopeful while they search though she cannot come back any longer, We lost Aaron and we should atleast know what it feels like," she tried to remind Tai. 

"I lost Aaron because of them," he blamed.

"No," Lihua said. "We lost our only son because of that Demon woman you have close ties with, do you think I don't know about the fact that you shared your bed with her?" Lihua openly said it. Emperor Tai was shocked to know about it. He was not expecting for Lihua, his wife to know about it. "Like I said, you were just obsessed,  but when you did it with Fiona I understood that the obsession was not even with me but Dritan, the person you were always jealous of, a demon who never acted like a demon, a demon the universe praised than they did you. You wanted things that he had, even Fiona was apart of that, making his fiance your mistress," she said to him. "You thought I would never find out when am supporting you in every way? Well leave that, about the funeral, am not I interested in it for all these reasons," she said plainly, sharing her opinion.

"Am an Emperor, I can't change my words," he said looking at her. It was a success for Lihua to have wrecked him in a short moment pointing out his secret and confusing him to withdraw from his decisions. 

"It is not like you have never changed your promises, you let go of the demons that killed Aqua, when all the kingdoms accused that lady together, did you not find a way to silence them protecting the mistress and daughter?" Tai couldn't say anything back and remained silent. Few minutes later after pouring a cup of wine and gulping them down. 

"The typhoon on earth,' he started but she stopped him.

"It could also mean that someone powerful is dying too, have you not heard of that, there are lots of deities, we don't know each one of them personally do we?" She convinced him straight. 

Tai was hesitant. He wanted to look into the intentions of Lihua but he didn't have the courage to since she had known about his extra marital affair. He tried to overcome it and remained proud in front of her. She poured wine again and also poured for him. She clinged her grail with his and sipped them walking around the hall and stepping into the bed chamber. 

"The dinner will be held soon," he informed her and asked her to change. "You don't have to dress fancy, they are still mourning, let's respect that," he said and walked into his separate chamber. He asked the maids to help him take a quick bath and put on fresh clothes. He asked for a head massage before he did his hair and spend sometime relaxing trying to avoid the thoughts. He coughed and felt tired. 

"Your highness, King Aenon is waiting outside to invite you to the dinner," his guard walked in and informed. 

" Already?" He asked his eyes still closed, continuing with the massage. 

"Yes your highness," the guard said.

"Infrom the Empress about it and we will go," Tai said to the guard and asked the maid to stop massaging his head. 

He stood up and corrected his dress and put on his crown carefully. He remembered to hanf the perfume sachet on his belt and and out on the shoes. He coughed again. He then sneezed and  felt the runny nose. He asked the maids to being him couple hand kerchie to use wondering how he had caught the cold and stepped out of the palace waiting for the Empress.

"Hope you had a good rest your highness," Aenon smiled and said to Tai. The Empress walked out accompanied by her personal maids at the same time and greeted the men. Rivera was not around. Instead she noticed Aiden standing behind Aenon looking at her. Lihua avoided him and walked along with Tai. She couldn't bring herself to forgive Aiden for the way he murdered Aaron. Aiden didn't seem to be bothered about her treatment towards him at all which pissed Lihua off again. She wanted him to beg for forgiveness but he was not doing it. He looked proud of what he had done.

Rivera joined them coming out of her Palace. "Hope everything is fine your highness," she said greeting the Emperor and Empress together. 

"Yes, yes, more than fine my dear," Tai said and coughed suddenly. 

"Are you okay?" Aenon asked and suddenly collapsed. The guards held on to him. Everyone was shocked 

"Tai," Empress called him dropping her honorifics as he fell down. No one knew about what was going on except holding on to the Heavenly King.