"Your Highness, it's your wedding day, yet you ditched your bride to sneak away with a maid. You think that won't hurt her feelings?"
"Don’t even mention her. That Adelaide Yerburgh is all blood and blades, not an ounce of femininity. She drives me nuts. If I didn’t need her for securing my title, I wouldn’t even let her shine my boots, let alone marry her."
Adelaide stood outside the room, dressed in her crimson bridal robes, cold as ice.
Then she heard the man go on, "Alright, now you’ve got me in the mood. I’ll go do my duty with her, then come back and really enjoy myself with you."
Her lips curled into a sneer. She lifted a foot and kicked the door open, stepping in with elegant calm.
Looking at the panicked pair tangled in the bed, her voice was light but sharp. "You got some nerve, Frederick Fable. Humiliating me, a Dragon Princess, like this? You must be tired of living."
She walked straight to the bed, gave them both a cold once-over, then without a blink, drew the Dragonblood Sword and slashed straight for the man’s groin.
"Aargh—!"
His scream pierced through the ceiling.
Sliding the sword back into its sheath, Adelaide leaned down, giving his pale, twisted face a light tap, lips curving. "No charm, huh? Well, silly you, only one of us needs it, and now it seems you've picked up what I lacked."
She glanced down with a smirk. "See? Now you’ve got the charm. Happy with it?"
Frederick writhed, face twisted as he roared, "Adelaide! I’ll see you chopped into a thousand pieces!"
Adelaide turned with a breezy swing of her sleeve. "Then stop talking and come try."
She paused at the doorway, looked back with a teasing smile. "Oh, wait. My mistake. You can’t."
...
Three days passed.
Adelaide, soaked in blood, wiped out all the enchanted soldiers Frederick had thrown her way.
Another three days later.
Four thousand elite troops encircled her, and her body was mangled and torn—but her smile hadn’t vanished for a second.
Finally, Frederick ran out of moves and sent in his father.Adelaide might have lived for three thousand years, but compared to a phoenix emperor like Reginald Fable who'd been around for tens of thousands, she was no match.
With just a lift of his arm, Reginald crushed every bone in her spine.
Her body gave out as she slumped weakly against a boulder, eyes cold and steady as Frederick Fable strode toward her.
"Adelaide Yerburgh," Frederick said, his voice filled with venom, "you ruined me, and now I'll make sure you know what it's like to have your pride trampled."
He pointed at the grotesque horde behind him—over a hundred demonic creatures—and spat each word: "From now on, you're their plaything. And when they're done with you, I'll come back and—slice you into pieces!"
Adelaide curled her lips in a faint smile.
Idiot. Full of yourself, aren't you?
You really think I've lost everything?
I knew this day would come. That’s why I secretly took your blood. With it, I can track down the true emperor of your phoenix clan.
The day I bring him back from the Three Thousand Small Worlds is the day you and your father fall.
Frederick’s face froze in shock.
And then—Adelaide smiled, and detonated herself.
The explosion lit up the place in a burst of blood-red.
…
Everyone thought Adelaide had perished completely.
But her soul had already crossed through time and space to the mortal realm.
Why was she so bold, so unafraid to defy the phoenix clan?
Because she knew one of their darkest secrets—
Frederick’s father had claimed the emperor’s throne by murdering his own younger brother. His rule was neither rightful nor respected.
That brother, the real heir—the one called “Little Emperor” in tales—had possessed an unmatched bloodline, the strongest the phoenix race had ever seen in hundreds of thousands of years.
He only lost back then because he was too young, never got the chance to fully grow into his potential… and died too early.
But now—Adelaide had found the boy’s reincarnation.
She passed through a wall, quiet as a shadow, and looked down at the young man sleeping on the canopy bed.
He was tall, sharply handsome, complete with sword-like brows and phoenix eyes, a profile so chiseled it could rival even the most beautiful of emperors from the demonic realm.
