"Let"s see how"s she"s going to explain her behavior"King Harold turned his gaze away from Princess Kate and started to walk towards the castle entrance to see Darlene as Queen Bella and Kate followed him
After a few minutes, King Harold reached the entrance and waited for Darlene"s carriage to reach the castle. Normally King Harold would not wait to welcome someone except for another king but today he was so angry and mad that he couldn"t wait to chew Darlene"s head off the moment she steps on his castle ground.
"huh?" Finally King Harold saw the carriage entering through the metal gates but he frowned when he saw the armed guards from Emir escorting the carriage.
********************************
After an uneventful journey from Emir, the carriage got nearer to the castle as Arrora saw the gate to the castle with large metal doors slowly opening to reveal the King"s castle of Korrinth.
Eight slim, square towers were low, but set firm and strong for a great defensive line, and they were connected by big, narrow walls made of grey stone.
Spotless elegant windows were scattered here and there across the walls in an asymmetric pattern, besides the same-sized holes for archers and artillery.
Even though this castle was like a poor child compared to the majestic castle of Everlight, the castle of Korrinth"s king looked new, but without knowing its history it was impossible to tell if it was a newly built castle or a well-kept one.
A handful of waterfalls around the castle gave a beautiful charm to it as well as provide the needed water for the farm fields outside the castle.
Slowly the carriage came to its stopping when it reached the entrance of the castle where King Harold was waiting with Kate and Queen Bella.
Seeing the soldiers of Emir, some soldiers from Korrinth came running towards without knowing what"s happening to be stopped by King Harold.
As the carriage stopped a soldier from Emir jumped down from his horse and stepped forward at the carriage to open the door.
"Darlene"
"Big Sister"
Kate and Queen Bella rushed towards the carriage when they saw Princess Darlene stepping out while King Harold recognized Uncle Steve inside the carriage but he knitted his brows when he saw two unfamiliar figures beside Uncle Steve
"Darlene are you alright? Where did you go? you made us worried"
Queen Bella said as she hugged Darlene tightly without noticing Darlene was struggling to get out of the hug
"Uncle Steve" beside the mom and daughter, Kate welcomed Uncle Steve with a wide grin on her face.
However, their happy reunion had come to an end just as Arrora stepped out of the carriage.
"Who are..." Princess Kate opened her mouth but she stopped when she saw Don coming out.
The moment King Harold laid his eyes on the youth in front of him,for some strange reason he felt threatened and small despite his position as a king
"Darlene, who are they?" King Harold asked glaring at the two new faces
"Father, can we talk about this inside?"
Hearing Darlene, King Harold nodded and gestured to them to follow him inside him while Don signaled the guards of Emir to wait outside.
As following King Harold, Don saw nothing fancy that could awe him but just an ordinary throne hall which couldn"t even be compared to some rooms in Everlight castle. Also, he didn"t fail to notice the young girl beside Princess Darlene looking at him while he was looking away but Don didn"t mind the girl.
After a bit, King Harold stopped walking and turned to look at Princess Darlene
"Care to explain yourself, Darlene?"
Princess Darlene took a deep breath and answered
"Father meet King Don of Everlight, he and I in love" the moment Darlene said this, everyone standing in the throne hall felt like they had been struck by lightning except for Don, Arrora, and Uncle Steve.
"WHAT!???" King Harold shouted and he was unable to believe what she just said, the view before Queen Bella started to become dim as PRincess Kate looked at Darlene and Don with slightly opened mouths.
"I"m in love with King Don father, I can"t marry the Agorian Prince I"m sorry"
King Harold"s whole world shook before his eyes when hearing Princess Darlene talked but as time went, his head started to ache in anger as he threw the scepter at Darlene but with a move of her finger, Darlene redirected the scepter away from her.
"Do you hear yourself! you ungrateful brat?" King Harold shouted again in anger and turned his gaze towards Queen Bella
"Is this how a princess behaves Bella? Tell me" Queen Bella couldn"t do anything but stand there like a statue
"Father I know this is a shock to you or even unacceptable but I rather die than marry someone else"
Don was surprised to see Darlene"s acting skills but he was more concerned about his plans and his price for being here and doing this for Darlene
Knowing Darlene, King Harold knew she would not change her mind when she fixed on something but still he couldn"t accept this very easily as his anger still erupting in his heart.
Seeing King Harold saying nothing, everyone kept their mouths shut and waited for him to say something
"LEAVE ME ALONE" after staying silent for a while King Harold ordered in a loud voice.
"Princess come on, leave him be for a bit" Uncle Steve said in a husky voice and led everyone from out of the throne hall to another hall.
Don didn"t give a d.a.m.n about King Harold or his outburst as he followed Uncle Steve with Arrora.
Reaching the empty hall which Don had no idea what its purpose was, Queen Bella and Princess Kate stared at both Don and Princess Darlene while Arrora stood a few feets away from the duo.
"When did you even meet him, big sis?" Princess Kate winked at Darlene without worrying about the current situation
Princess Darlene made a wry smile and started to spin another tale.
Don"s mind was planning his next move as he didnt hear Darlene"s tale except for words such as pigeon, letters, and love without seeing each other.
At the end of her story, Princess Kate leaned towards Darlene and whispered something in Darlene"s ear then Darlene whispered something in Kate"s ear in return. However the moment the Darlene finished whispering, Kate"s look towards Don changed and as a woman Arrora knew the meaning of Kate"s look, it was disdain and a slight disappointment. However, Kate quickly hid her look with a fake smile on her face when Don looked at her but Arrora noticed all from standing behind Don.
"Your majesty, please forgive us for..." as Uncle Steve started talking but he was stopped by Don
"Big sis, go talk to mother " on the other side Kate said to Darlene
While Darlene and Queen Bella were talking, Don started to walk around in the empty hall with Arrora away from the Princesses and Uncle Steve.
"Why didn"t she mention you are also the king of Emir?"
Arrora asked knowing they couldn"t hear her and Don just shrugged
In Don"s mind, the first thing he was going to do after everything here settled was changing Warren"s position from king to a duke or something even though the rank 4 kingdoms did not have t.i.tles such as dukes, counts and viscounts and so on.
And he didn"t care much about why Darlene didn"t mention that he"s the king of Emir to King Harold and as far as he knew, King Harold would have behaved the same as he did even if he was the king of a rank 3 or 2 kingdoms because no one would behave as usual when their daughter appeared with some stranger from who knows where telling he"s the one she loves and King Harold was not an exception.
"Do we really have to put up with this drama and lies Don?"
"We have to if we want that access key to the dungeon"
Arrora had to agree with Don since she knew the value of the access key just like everyone else in this world.
"Did you see that?"
Suddenly when roaming around the empty hall Arrora asked Don pointing towards a window at the end of the hall.
"Someone is watching us" Don said
"That person was watching us since the moment we reached the castle"
"Who is that? That person must be good, I"ve just noticed" Arrora said and looked at the windows and searched for that person but she couldn"t find anyone
"Be alert, I"m sure we"ll get some surprises here"
"You don"t say" Arrora rolled her eyes and looked at Princess Darlene and her mother
Don and Arrora spent some time roaming around and chatting about the development of Everlight while Uncle Steve finally came to Don and said
"Your majesty, his majesty king Harold is ready to meet you and waiting for you"
hearing Uncle Steve, Don nodded and started to follow him towards the throne hall to meet King Harold