Chapter 62: The Empress of Valyria!

The crowd was waiting outside the entrance with heated breaths, unsure and worried about what was happening in there as it had been half a day since they went in and there was no indication of either one of them emerging as the victor. Now their biggest fear was whether they had finished each other off in there.
Even the Queen started worrying about the safety of her daughter and prayed that she beat all odds and emerged victorious.

Everyone was starting to get restless, being worried out of their minds. In their minds, quite a gruesome and hectic battle was going on in there and both the parties were anxious about the results and was murmuring amongst themselves, feeling angsty and worried for their respective candidates who they themselves had send in to battle for the throne of Valyria.

Dominic’s father, Mr Vanhuesan haughtily sneered at the Queen and sspat venopumsouly, “Maybe you lot should head back to your homes. There is no point in waiting outside, after all, my son is going to emerge victorious without a doubt. He is undefeatable and never have lost a fight in his life.”

The Queen snorted at the ancient vampire and spat back haughtily, “That’s become he had never run into Selena before. And Selena holds an unconquerable title too and there is been rumors going around indicating who the stronger of the two is. Today that rumor can be finally out to rest as we can see the result right with our very own eyes.”
They immediately leapt up to their feet as they saw their princess head out first and yelled out a triumphant cheer when they saw her dragging behind a tired and defeated Dominic Vanhuesan out.
The queen heaved a sigh of relief while there was a collective, disappointed sigh from the Vanhuesan clan. One of the men came forward and took hold of Dominic and supported his weight.
The council head stated in a loud and clear voice everyone to hear, “The throne of Valyria shall unconditionally belong to the victor of the King’s duel, Selena, first of her name, daughter of the royal Queen, Melissa Langdon. I hereby declare her as the rightful empress of Valyria.”

Selena bowed respectfully towards the elder accepting her new throne while the citizens of Valyria who had gathered around the entrance of the labyrinth went bonkers and cheered loudly for their princess who was now their Queen. Valyria just got its first female ruler and her mother was the proudest of all, everything evident form the proud and happy smile on her face for her mother was a person who rarely smiled.


As Selena went with her mother, Dominic raised his head slightly and winked at her, without anyone quite seeing his rather daring act and she grinned at him in return and then turned around shyly, feeling bashful all of a sudden. He was a hopeless romantic at heart and his influences were starting to rub on her too.

The palace was soon rejoicing that they were successful in keeping the Vanhuesan’s out of Valyria and that the royal family of Valyria had valiantly claimed back their rightful throne.

Soon everyone in and around the palace was busy in preparing for the ceremony in which Selena would be officially crowned as the Empress of Valyria by the council and Selena found herself constantly surrounded by people who wanted to pay their respect to her. King Andrew had gone missing right after the news reached him. Selena felt it was a pity that her half brother had chosen to run away as she had quite a high opinion of him from just their one encounter. But it was told that he was ashamed of himself being so uselessly used by his mother and ruining their citizen’s life that he had willingly stepped outside the kingdom by himself and set on a journey of self reflection.

Her mother getting a moment alone with her after quite some time, whispered into her ear, “The concubine and her daughter seem to have gone missing from yesterday itself. I feel like you have a hand in this.”
Selena eyed her mother warily, then nodded at her and replied in a low tone, “Did you forget the very purpose for which I had entered the palace? Taking the throne was only secondary, my ultimate goal was always to get rid of the perpetrators behind my twin sister’s brutal murder.”

The Queen tutted at her and asked, making sure to keep her voice low so as not to attract any passerby’s attention, “And how did you get rid of them?”
Selena smiled smugly at the Queen and shot back, “Exactly the same way they got rid of my sister”
The Queen smiled a little, seeing her glimpse in her daughter. If they were drowned, there is not going to be any proof as their body itself is never going to reappear. The Queen herself heaved a sigh of relief as she realized that at last her daughter had got the justice she deserved.
One of the council head bowed their head politely before their Empress and the Queen dowager and said formally, “Your majesty, the preparations are all done. You may have to enter the throne room any moment now.”

Selena nodded at the male vampire and he bowed respectfully and went along his way.
The Queen dowager eyed her daughter proudly as she was able to achieve the impossible, a thing even she, herself couldn’t achieve and asked her, “Ready?”
Selena nodded at her mother and straightened out her shoulders. She looked absolutely stunning today with a bejeweled gown and a necklace made of rubies and diamonds on her neck. She was dressed royally from head to toe and she was having a hard time in even moving in such a heavy gown.

As the trumpet blew loudly, indicating her arrival, she tilted her head up proudly and followed her mother into the throne room while the guards opened up the door.
Every single one of the vampire present in the room, be it an ally or a foe, an ordinary citizen or a council member, every single one of them kneeled down to the floor and bowed their heads, out of respect to their new empress.

Dominic and his clan seem to have already left the Valyrian grounds, after all, there was no more need for them to stay in another kingdom for such a long time while disregarding their own. Selena, feeling a tad disappointed that he had left without even a word to her eyed the crowd bowing before her intently, desperately hoping to see him again, but to no avail as he was nowhere around to be seen.

Frowning a little, she seated herself on the throne and the council elder promptly placed the Valyrian throne on her head. She watched her trusted mate, Demetri watching everything from afar and she winked at him and he smiled back, but his eyes and ears as usual were highly alert. After all, he was now the royal shield of the Empress of Valyria.

A masked royal guard then offered his hand for her to step down and address the crowd chanting, “Long live the Queen!”
But his touch felt familiar to her and Selena’s eyes snapped to his and she found herself smiling like a fool when she saw the familiar eyes. So, Dominic hadn’t left with his clan after all.
She approached the crowd and motioned for them to get back on their feet and said in a clear, loud voice, “Let’s live a peaceful live with love, forgiveness and happiness. The heavy taxes that the royal family had imposed on you for the last fifty years is hereby lifted off.”
The crowd cheered in appreciation and the Queen dowager shot an approving look at her daughter as Selena held the crowd in the palms of her hand without any qualms.
The council head approached her slyly and said in a low voice, “Your majesty, if I had ever offended you in some manner before, I deeply beg for your forgiveness”

Selena smiled at him and murmured sternly, “Sire, I don’t know about the past rulers of Valyria, but I, myself have no intention of becoming a mere puppet of the council. I, however do assure you that I will listen to your advices and won’t disregard it out of prejudice blindly. I will treat you with the respect you deserve and I implore you do the same.”