At the other end of the kingdom, the capital was beginning its preparations for the royal wedding. The people of the capitol not knowing that their Prince, that was to be wed, was missing. Inside the Royal Castle though, the people were beginning to panic as the King was going to come home from his trip, but his son was still missing.
The servants had first thought that the Prince had simply slept in later than usual due to the stress of the nearing wedding and his new tasks as a husband added to those of a future King. But as the hours passed by the more concerned the servants grew. The Prince was not one to sleep until noon, so one of the servants who was most familiar with the Prince hesitantly knocked on the door to his chambers without any success. The Prince who would usually respond to his knocks nearly immediately in less than a few minutes didn´t appear to open the door nor did he respond to their knock for afar.
Panic rose inside the castle and finally the servants searched through all of their keys in order to find the correct one for the Prince´s apartment. After a couple of minutes, a distinctive click could be heard and the valet opened the large heavy wooden door with intricate golden designs and made his way inside nearly on his tiptoes. He slowly passed the two salons of the Prince and made his way up to the door of his bedroom. Fearfully, the valet knocked hesitantly on the door. Just like before: no answer. The valet turned on his feet and looked at the entrance only to see the head of the servants peaking through the heavy door, peering at him curiously. Taking a deep breath the valet´s hand reached for the handle only to find out that the door was locked. After another round of knocking and calling for the Prince, the valet dug through his set of keys again and unlocked the door in front of him. The large door creaked open. The valet could see that the curtains were still drawn and that there practically no light in the room. It was surprisingly quiet in the room… The valet walked over to the windows and with a flick of his wrists opened the curtains to let the sun shine into the room.
The valet turned around only to peer at an empty bed. The sheets weren´t even rumpled. Shaking his head in disbelief, the valet practically ran to the bathroom and flicked the lights on, only the see it empty as well. The valet sprinted towards the dressing room, but the Prince wasn´t there either. The realisation knocked the wind out of the valet, who started to heavily lean on a nearby chair. Sweat started to drip down his forehead as he looked at the clock in the room: 13:00.
The King would be coming back tonight and the Prince had disappeared. The valet´s heart rate picked up dangerously, before he screamed for the servants to search through the whole castle and garden for a single hair of the Prince. Stunned the servants began running around the castle to spread the news through the castle and soon enough the cooks threw their casseroles away, the servants their cleaning rags and everybody started to look for the missing Prince. The Head Valet had been awakened from his nap and been informed of the urgent situation. The valet stuttered as he explained how he found the Prince´s bedroom as they both made their way up the huge marble stairs up to the Prince´s chambers. The Head Valet stormed directly towards the bedroom and inspected everything thoroughly. He threw the covers of the bed before inspecting if there was anything under the mountain of pillows.
The Head Valet then threw all of the Prince´s clothes on the ground, as if he was hiding behind the pills of shirts like he used to as a little kid. In the heat of the moment the Head Valet kicked his feathered hat away and sprinted towards the bathroom where he looked everywhere frantically, he was starting to hope that the Prince would appear and it all would have been a prank. Outside a small breath of wind ran along the walls of the castle before finding an opening and ingulfing itself into the Prince´s bathroom, opening the small window.
The Head Valet´s face lost all its colour as he looked at the now open window.
"Get some men on the roof ! We have to check for every possibility!" The Head Valet screamed.
The Prince couldn´t have been kidnapped. The Head Valet knew the Prince would have at least put up a fight and his room wouldn´t have neat like It had been.
Half an hour later, the men walked up to the Head Valet and shook their head indicating that the Prince was nowhere in the castle, nor was he in the gardens or the village. The Head Valet´s hands grabbed at his hair as if trying to pull it out. He knew he was done for. The King would be back in less than an hour. The head Valet ordered to everyone to keep searching.
The wheels of the gold, wooden carriage were starting to squeak due to the long way it had behind himself. The King, who had finally left his paperwork to lay beside his seat, was looking out of the small window, observing the fields of wheat that strangely reminded him of someone, but he pushed the painful memories away.
The carriage was slowly approaching the capital which over he would keep ruling until his son Adrien would be ready and old enough. Now his son would soon take step forward by marrying. His son would have a heir of his own and he would become more mature than he is now. Since his trip around the kingdom his son had had the tendency to be lazy and let his emotions get in the way of everything. He had caved after his son he told him about all the positive aspects that it would bring to his future and brighten his knowledge of the kingdom he would be ruling. In the end his son came back hot-headed and more stubborn than anyone else he had met, even more stubborn than his mother. Adrien had begun to drive his son crazy with his unpolite attitude, that he was once thankful for a trip out of the castle. Maybe some time out and distance between him and his son would do them both some good.
They finally reached the capitol and instantly the people as they saw the carriage, started bowing and stared at the floor in respect. King Gabriel snarled lowly before closing the curtains and obscuring the view.
Outside he heard the metallic entrance to the castle open and close behind them, after a few minutes the carriage halted as the horses were ordered to stop trotting. Soon the carriage´s door opened by a valet, who held the door opened s the King made his way out with his paperwork safely tucked under his arm.
Something felt off, the atmosphere was already tense even if he hadn´t been hear for over ten days. The servants and valets that greeted him seemed to be jittered and appeared to be trembling slightly. The valets´ hands that always gripped their armour were trembling making their armours and swords click even if they were standing still. The King brushed it away and directly made his way towards his office.
As soon a he sat down, he screamed for his secretary and the Head Valet to update them on anything that had happened, something that he would always do after a trip for over a week. Nathalie barged in ten seconds later, with a pile of files that had to be read by him and signed. She pushed them on his desk, before beginning to talk about the changes and preparations for the wedding that would be finished soon and that every single detail had been organized. The King was pleased to hear that soon the chaos of the whole marriage would be over and signed a couple of papers Nathalie handed him, before he began to read over the other papers she had brought. Before leaving he asked her to send the Head Valet as well as Mr. Damocles, both were responsible for the security of the castle and the coordination of the troops´ patrol.
The King frowned as the two men he had asked for seemed to be taking their time to come into his office, he was rapidly growing impatient. A knock resonated on his closed door and the door opened and came in two men. King Gabriel kept looking at his paperwork, whereas the two men were fidgeting , clearly not daring to sit down. They were not ready to face the King, but they had to. He had to know.
"Well, I am waiting for my usual report. I suppose everything is in order and there were no problems during my absence as usual." The King finally started as he kept his gaze trained on the piece of paper in his hands.
The Head Valet coughed uneasily, before silently urging Mr. Damocles to speak up, too scared to do it himself. After a silent battle between the two, the King grew more impatient at their silence.
"Well?" The King snarled, anger rising within him at high speed.
"Sir- King Agreste, unfortunately something occurred last night… and we were unable to correct the situation…" Mr. Damocles explained vaguely. The King stared him down, his foot tapping the side of his desk rapidly.
"Well, we searched for him the whole morning and afternoon, sir… but he isn´t anywhere to be found, although his horse is still here." Mr. Damocles rambled at a fast pace, mumbling half of his words, making it difficult to get him.
"Who are you searching for?" The King demanded to know.
"Your son, sir. Your son has disappeared." Mr. Damocles finally said.
The angry foot-taping stood instantly as for the first time in a long time, the face of the King became even paler.
"We thought he stayed in late, since the last weeks had been full and stressful, but after a certain time, we knocked, but didn´t get any respond. So we opened his quarters to see that he was missing, so we searched through the whole property and even in the whole capital by now, but your son has vanished." The Head Valet further explained.
"Any signs of kidnapping?" The King asked emotionless as he stood up and marched up to his large window to look at the sky.
"Not one, the only lead we have is that the window in his bathroom was open, and not forced, the bed was made, everything was in order but this window. All the other ones were closed. And his horse is still here…" The Head Valet added.
The King closed his eyes. He would bet anything he had that Adrien´s stubbornness and carelessness had stricken. His son had always had the same expectation about life than his mother: to live a simple and happy life. And of course his son hadn´t matured since, his way of thinking couldn´t be changed no matter how hard he had tried.
"Prepare a troop and my two fastest horses. I am going to get him myself."
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Thank you all for you nice reviews (^/^) !
Here is a brand new chapter I hope you will will also like :)
Eat chocolate !
