CH 128

A foreign emotion rose inside him. He wanted to ask why she had returned so late or if she knew how worried he was, fearing that something might have happened to her. He wanted to express the horrible feeling he had just experienced, but he couldn’t. Instead, what came out of his mouth was a voice void of as much emotion as possible.

“You’re late.”

“Oh, um… I was enjoying my time looking around the temple.” Contrary to her words, his daughter had a glum look on her face. In fact, her words made no sense at all, given that she hated crowded places by nature. But Regis didn’t want to continue finding faults with her, afraid that his barely maintained relationship with his daughter might become flawed.

“Go change. I’ll be waiting for you.”

“Yes, Father,” his daughter replied with a weak nod.

Regis stared at his daughter’s back as she walked away, then clenched his fists. ‘That disgusting brute. How dare he leave my daughter alone like this after telling me she was his weakness?’ Although he couldn’t say his daughter had been full of vitality, she was definitely livelier when his disciple was around. Ever since his disciple had left for war, Jubelian had been downcast. Even though Regis wanted to live like this with his daughter for a long time, he knew that it wasn’t possible. Now that he had made up his mind, he knew that his wish was as good as useless.

‘I have no choice but to admit it now.’ Regis had tried his best to deny this until now, but he decided to give in to the fact that his daughter needed someone to protect her and soothe her loneliness even when he wasn’t around, and the person she needed the most right now was his disciple.

* * *

Dinner was quiet as usual. My father was never a talkative person, and if I thought about it, I was similar to him. ‘I guess we haven’t had anything to discuss lately…’ I was already aware that I wasn’t a chatty person, but this suddenly felt unfamiliar to me. Merilyn had attempted to start conversations with me when I was home and I had often met with the members of the tea tasting party, but there was something that couldn’t fill this gap inside me.

I stared at the steak on my plate for a moment, then sighed. ‘Is he eating well?’ Although I had only spent a short amount of time with him, he made me feel comfortable since I could be myself around him. We would laugh and joke around. The time we had spent together had also helped me discover what kind of person I was.

‘If I had known that he would be gone for this long, I would have asked him to send me a letter,’ a regretful thought passed through my head. On the other hand, I was afraid. ‘What if he ends up not coming back?’ I didn’t dare to mention him to my father, but I wanted to ask, in hopes that he knew the whereabouts of his only disciple.

‘Should I ask?’ I wondered, then smiled bitterly. If I asked him, he would think that it was strange that I haven’t received a single letter from someone I called my lover. ‘I guess the only choice I have is to wait for him to come back.’ I was lamenting my situation, when I heard my father’s voice.

“The crown prince’s victory banquet will be held a month from now.”

I stilled at his words. “Ah, yes. That’s what I heard.” I remained rigid, wondering why on earth he was bringing this up.

“You must be looking forward to it,” he continued.

‘Looking forward to what? I’m not looking forward to anything.’ 

I felt like cold sweats were running down my back from the astonishment. Still, I forced a smile on my face and replied vaguely. “Ah, well, it will be a banquet after all.”

My father showed a slight smile at my words. “It’s just around the corner. Have you gotten a dress fitted yet?” he questioned.

“Ah, no, I haven’t.” I had planned to wear whatever to the banquet, but couldn’t say that to my father. Instead, I kept quiet.

My father then spoke with a serious expression. “Why don’t you make a dress you want and wear it to the banquet? You won’t have to worry about the price.”

In other words, he was telling me to order the most colorful dress so that I would catch the crown prince’s eyes. I started to feel suffocated by his words. Max’s face came to mind, but the reality was that there hadn’t been any news from him ever since he left. It would be unreasonable to use dating him as an excuse to refuse my father’s words.

I clenched my fists tightly. ‘Alright, I can’t ask for his help forever. I’ll have to take care of things on my own from now on.’

* * *

“There might be a spy among us. I think it’ll be best for Your Highness to travel back separately. I’ll have Victor stay here and wear his disguise.”

For this reason, the crown prince had decided to only take his close aides with him and was traveling back separately, away from the triumphal procession.

“Please slow down, Your Highness! At this pace, the horses won’t be able to keep up and will faint!” Dennis, the captain of the guards, shouted, but Max paid no heed to his cry and kept his pace. “Did he hide a treasure or something in the capital? Why is he in such a hurry?” Dennis muttered with a frown as he trailed behind Max. At this rate, the journey that would normally take about three to four days was going to be shortened by one, or even two days.

‘What on earth is he thinking? We’ll have to wait for the triumphal procession if we want to enter the palace… Is he doing this to observe the capital’s movements in advance?’

However, contrary to Dennis’ thoughts, the reason why Max was in a hurry was rather simple.

‘I’ll finally be able to see her.’ 

Thanks to this war, the crown prince’s reputation as a murderous, cold-blooded man who didn’t value his subordinates had now been wiped clean. Max recalled what the people had been saying about him.

“His Highness the Crown Prince is so amazing!” 

Max was smiling as he recalled Jubelian’s face, when he suddenly heard a voice call out to him from behind.

“Your Highness, I think we need to take a break!” 

Max halted and looked back. His subordinates’ horses were standing still from exhaustion.