Lord Eudes smiled politely as he beckoned for them to follow him. “His Majesty has arranged our royal physicians to treat Commander Calhoun Sanders. Our kingdom also opened our Treasury to ensure his fast recovery.”
Several seconds passed by in silence before? Drayce took a deep breath and finally turned to leave. It did seem that his reaction was a bit extreme, and in the face of her family, he could not insist on being unreasonable in his demands. At least, not openly.
He was not aware of the entire situation, other than hearing vague things like the Third Princess causing disaster in the capital, creating a sudden heavy rain, and turning the palace into chaos.
Moreover, Drayce was not giving up. He had other means to go to where he wanted to, but for now, he thought to be patient with her family.
When Drayce and Arlan turned to leave, escorted by Lord Eudes, the brigade of knights in charge of the tower’s security immediately returned to their initial positions while Sir Berolt preferred to be with his King.
“Father, what happened to her?” Cian asked in a low voice while Sir Berolt waited to hear it.
“I will tell you later. For now, you should return to your bedchamber and rest.”
Cian didn’t like how his father was brushing him off. “I am not any stranger that Father would want me not to meddle in this. It’s about my sister.”
Seeing his stubborn appearance, King Armen sighed. “Fine. Come inside.” For the first time ever, King Armen permitted Cian to step inside the tower premise.
The knights opened the gate for them, and the two stepped inside.
Drayce had just reached his horse and was about to climb it when his ears caught what the father and son were talking about.
Just then, there was a loud call of alarm, a screech of an eagle, grabbing the attention of everyone around the premises of the tower. Drayce recognized the sound and looked up as Arlan’s gaze followed his line of sight. A familiar large bird soared in the gray sky before diving downwards.
“Dusk!” Arlan called out as the two saw Dusk approaching them.
The eagle landed on Arlan’s arm before fixing itself to sit comfortably on Arlan’s shoulder. He then looked at his master and called out to him in greeting.
“This bird dared to sit on my shoulder? Seems like he doesn’t love his wings,” Arlan commented, and the next moment, Dusk fled away to perch on the arm of a rock mural that was kept nearby.
Arlan chuckled while Drayce faced Dusk and asked while caressing his head, “Is there something wrong?”
Dusk rubbed his head against his palm, his usual signal of saying ‘yes’.
“Is she not fine?” Drayce asked.
Dusk did the same thing again before pecking on Drayce’s palm.
Just then, Drayce’s ears caught something. He raised his hand, signaling Arlan and Dusk to keep quiet.
Drayce could hear the conversation between King Armen and Prince Cian after the two entered the tower’s garden, and the gate was closed behind them.
As he continued to listen, his expression turned cold and grave, and without saying a word, he turned to go back towards the tower.
Drayce didn’t understand why he was so concerned about this Third Princess when he didn’t even know her, aside from those several odd encounters they had. But every time he heard anything negative about her, there was a strange emotion inside him as if something inside him was pushing him to protect her. All rational thoughts flew as his mind was only filled with anxiety and worry for her.
“Dray?” Arlan called behind him, but Drayce didn’t stop as he marched towards the tower. The Abethan knights standing guard stood in his way.
The old advisor barely kept up as he called out, “Your Majesty, what—”
Even before Lord Eudes could complete his statement, the knights in Drayce’s way were pushed away with an invisible force of energy. No one had touched them, but Lord Eudes saw the guards fall down several feet away.
The next moment, the gate of the tower opened on its own, and Drayce stepped inside the tower’s premises. His red eyes had turned considerably darker, the same way they always did whenever he used his powers. In his mind, he had thrown caution in the wind, and no etiquette and palace rules mattered to him at this moment.
Arlan and Lord Eudes followed him while Dusk had flown away towards the top window of the tower.
King Armen and Cian looked at the gate that was suddenly blasted open with a great force.
On normal times, only one side of the gate was opened to let a single person enter at a time, but now, both sides of the gate were slammed open in great fanfare.
“What’s going on?” King Armen asked with a furrowed brow. He saw the King of Megaris enter with a cold expression, marching inside the garden as if he was in his own backyard. “King Drayce? What is the meaning of this?”
King Armen found himself angered to see the young king trespass the residence of his youngest daughter. He had been civil to him earlier, which was because of his merit of saving his son. Other men would be directly thrown out for even approaching this tower.
Although they were both monarchs, this was Abetha, not Megaris, and here, his words were law!
Cian stepped forward and blocked Drayce’s way, not even moving aside as they both glared at each other.
His father had already thoroughly informed Cian about the incidents that happened for the past few days inside the capital, especially the ones involving Seren. He was still in shock, barely digesting the series of events leading to the helplessness their father felt for being unable to know the current situation of his sister. Just like their father, he too tried to enter the tower to no avail because of the magic spell cast on it by Martha.
As it was, the helplessness he was feeling had already turned into anger. Seeing Drayce acting so bold and entering his sister’s place only added to his rage.
“Move,” Drayce said coldly. His intimidating red eyes stared into another pair of anger-filled sapphire blue eyes.
