Stronger than You Think

Corvus woke up, and the first thing he did was to check his hand. He was utterly devastated when he saw that his hand was still raven claws, a pair of ugly claws that could kill anyone with one slash.

He really thought for a moment that he had turned into a regular human once more, and he hugged Anna as a human.

But everything was just a dream, but his feeling still lingered because his feeling was real.

Corvus didn't understand what love was, but if love made you want to stay with her forever, Corvus would confidently say that he had fallen in love with Anna.

He wanted to stay with Anna, no matter how hard it would be. Just like his promise in that dream, as long as he could be with her, then he would push through any fate that would stop him.

"I still have to find a way to control my transformation, though," Corvus thought. He had been busy trying to find a way to control his overwhelming magic. He flew to the palace library and sneaked in. He read some books about people in the previous era that had too much magic in his body. Maybe he could find a similar ground.

But all of them died early with beheading.

Corvus swallowed his saliva and rubbed his neck. It seemed whenever someone was a threat to the society or the kingdom, the ruler would execute them immediately to maintain the kingdom's safety.

"Maybe what mother did to me is better than these people. At least, I don't get beheaded instantly," Corvus thought.

Now his time was spent mostly on watching Anna every day, playing with her as Mr. Raven. Then he went to the palace library to continue searching, still no result so far though.

Corvus was pondering for a while until his door was knocked. Corvus turned his head, and he reacted immediately, "What are you doing here?" Corvus asked warily.

Queen Seria sighed as she put down her holy cape and approached Corvus carefully. She saw her imperfect son, who had a raven claw, and feathers around his neck and cheek.

"My son, how have you been so far? Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine," Corvus replied. He stared at his mother and asked again, "Why are you here, mother? As you can see, I'm still bound in this place, so you don't need to worry if I will ever hurt someone."

Queen Seria approached Corvus carefully, like approaching a wild beast. Corvus could see the fear and wariness in his mother's eyes. This was the reason why he never wanted his mother to come to his tower.

Because he would face that same judgemental eyes that looked at him as if he was a monster who needed to be caged and feared by the people.

Queen Seria's hand glowed with bright light. She silently cast a spell upon herself. In the case of Corvus attacker her, she could push and repel him with a blinding light fist.

"My son, I'm here to ask you about something," Queen Seria didn't want to dilly dally anymore, and she asked, "Have someone else ever come to your tower?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just answer me. Have you ever meet someone else here other than the guard and me?" Queen Seria pressed Corvus further.

"… No, mother," Corvus answered.

'As I expected, he wouldn't admit it,' Queen Seria thought. She took a deep breath and asked another question, "Then, have you gifted a woman with your jewellery, like a bracelet?"

"… No," Corvus answered again. He had a bad feeling about this question. It was best to leave Anna out of this.

Queen Seria took a deep breath. She knew it wouldn't be that easy. Both Ignis and Corvus would never admit something like that, and she was afraid that they might have been influenced by an evil woman.

"I see." Queen Seria walked to the drawer and opened the drawer to take out Corvus' jewellery box. "I will have to check it myself then."

"STOP!" Corvus tried to grab the jewellery box with his raven claws.

"Back off!" Queen Seria warned, but Corvus didn't abide by her order. He rushed to Queen Seria with his scary raven body. Queen Seria used her light fist to push her son away from him.

"Ugh!" Corvus was pushed until his back hit the wall.

Queen Seria watched her son with pity, it was hard for her, but she did it out of reflex. Truly, Corvus looked so scary when he rushed at her. And the worst thing was, Queen Seria couldn't use her magic to heal Corvus because he was a dark creature, so a light healing would only hurt him even more.

"I'm sorry, my son. But I need to know."

Queen Seria opened the jewellery box. She checked everything and noticed one thing was missing, a bracelet with a crescent diamond on it. She darted her eyes at Corvus, who was still grimacing on the ground, holding his stomach that had been blasted by a light fist from his mother.

"My son, where is the crescent bracelet?"

"…" Corvus shook his head, refused to answer.

"Where is it? Did you give it to someone?" Queen Seria continued pressing Corvus, but the usually meek Corvus became very stubborn today.

Queen Seria was paranoid that Corvus might be influenced already, and he would start following that woman's order to do her bidding. But this already confirmed her suspicion.

"Corvus, did you turn into a raven to leave this tower?"