Conquering His Cold Heart

382 Reuniting with the King

The carriage that Lorenzo rented came to a halt in front of the huge gates of the castle yet again. This time, he got out of the carriage before the guards could come and ask for his pass or the purpose of the visit to the castle.

He went to find the guard who had denied him entry to the castle before. Although the guard was extremely busy, Lorenzo managed to get that guard’s attention. “Good afternoon, gentleman. I was here yesterday morning as well. I am Lorenzo.”

“Ah! Good afternoon, Mr. Lorenzo.” The guard instantly looked in his direction and gave a bow to him.

Lorenzo was a little surprised to receive such a greeting because the same guard hadn’t hesitated to harshly send him back from the gate when he came to visit yesterday.

Lorenzo quickly understood why the guard was being nice to him.

The guard gave a polite smile to him and said, “I delivered your message to the King yesterday. The King has left a pass for you.” He gestured towards a post by the gate and asked Lorenzo, “Please come this way.”

Lorenzo gave a slight nod and began following the guard.

The guard shuffled through a box that was on the table inside that post and quickly grabbed a parchment paper. He then handed over the paper to Lorenzo while saying, “Here’s your pass, Sir.”

Lorenzo grabbed the paper and looked at it. It had his name written on it and also had a royal seal on top of the paper. “Oh, thank you very much! I will forever be indebted to you,” he said to the guard, extremely happy that the guard had actually passed his message to the King.

.....

The guard looked somewhat embarrassed when he replied, “You don’t have to thank me, Sir. I was just doing my job.”

“Even then, thank you!” Lorenzo said again. He was indeed really grateful towards the guard because he didn’t have to wait several days trying to contact King Everard, while on the side, being constantly pecked by Regulus.

Lorenzo went back to find his rented carriage and got inside it. “Take me inside the castle,” he ordered the coachman.

“Will we be allowed to go inside?” the coachman asked while looking at the carriages that were turning around from the gate itself.

Lorenzo looked at his pass and said with a proud smile, “Yes. I have the pass to go inside.”

Unlike yesterday, Lorenzo’s carriage wasn’t stopped from going inside the castle. Soon, the coachman stopped the carriage near the main entrance of the castle.

And after getting out of the carriage, Lorenzo asked the coachman, “Wait for me. I will return in an hour or so.” He then made his way toward the King’s study room, hoping that no one would stop him again.

Unlike how he had expected though, the guards checked his pass at several entrances before he reached the King’s study at last. Even at the door of the study, there were two guards who demanded to see the pass before announcing Lorenzo’s presence to the King.

“Send him in,” came the order from the King.

As soon as the guards opened the door for Lorenzo, he was greeted by the open arms of Everard.

“Lorenzo! Where have you been? You suddenly disappeared after my coronation. I was starting to get worried!” Everard gave a warm hug to his old acquaintance and then looked at him happily.

Lorenzo’s heart warmed up upon receiving such a warm welcome. He smiled and answered while lightly scratching his jaw, “Er… some things came up. I’m sorry for making you worried, Your Majesty.”

“Well,” Everard sighed and said, “You’re here now. So, I forgive you.”

“Come, sit.” He gestured for Lorenzo to take a seat in front of his desk and jokingly said, “I almost thought about issuing a missing person notice all over the country.”

Lorenzo sat on the edge of the chair and looked down. A sad smile danced on his lips as he mumbled, “It wouldn’t have been for nothing. I was indeed a missing person.”

“W-What?” Everard instantly knitted his brows in worry when he heard Lorenzo. And he immediately asked in a serious tone, “Did something happen? Wait! Did your late alpha actually do something to you? He was threatening to kill you at my coronation if I remember it correctly.”

Lorenzo didn’t want to gain sympathy right after meeting the King. However, since the conversation was heading in that direction anyway, he looked at the King and began retelling his bad luck.

“The alpha was really mad at me that day. And he umm…” Lorenzo cleared his throat and took a deep breath before continuing, “He locked me up and had me battered up.”

“He beat you up?” Now that Lorenzo mentioned it, Everard noticed a few light bruises on Lorenzo’s face. “Are those the bruises from when he beat you?” he asked, angered.

Lorenzo nodded and replied, “He had me take some herbs to prevent me from healing.” He smiled and lightly touched his cheekbone while saying, “It looked way worse than this just until yesterday. I think the herb’s effect is wearing off. So, I am healing pretty quickly.”

“Your bruises are still visible! Just how much did he beat you?” Everard frowned. He was completely shocked as to how his friend was treated so cruelly. “Then what happened? Tell me everything in detail. And…” Everard held out his hand and reassuringly patted Lorenzo’s hand before saying, “You don’t have to hide anything from me.”

‘But I still need to hide a few things,’ Lorenzo thought to himself in his heart. ‘I don’t want you to resent me. I am sorry!’

Lorenzo had given it much thought. About how he had deceived the King by blindly following the late alpha’s order. He even wondered if the King would forgive him if he was to be honest about all the schemes that the late alpha had woven to trap Everard. But he shook off the idea since he had also played an active role in those schemes.

Thus, Lorenzo only told the half-truths, which would put him in a favorable spot with the King. He began telling how he was tortured, how he had thought of leaving the Kingdom and he even had left the Kingdom.

Then he lied again. “But I came back after learning about the death of the alpha. Since he is no more, I don’t have anyone to fear.”

Everard leaned back on his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose while closing his eyes. His head was hurting after listening to all the things that his friend had to go through at the hands of the late alpha.

He took a deep breath and looked at Lorenzo with a sad look on his face. “I am sorry you had to go through all that, Lorenzo. I should have looked for you when you suddenly went out of contact but there were certain things… weighing me down.”

“It’s alright, Your Majesty. I understand that you were busy since… that unexpected assassination happened,” Lorenzo replied.

Everard hummed and went into deep thought for a while. Then he asked Lorenzo again, “But I don’t understand one thing, Lorenzo… Why would he punish you like that? I mean, I always knew that he wasn’t a good man like he always tried to portray. But to punish you so mercilessly! Why? And to what end?”