"Father-"
A strong slap interrupted the prince from greeting his father.
The prince's cheek immediately turned red and his face was forcefully made to face the other side, looking down on the floor while rubbing his cheek. The slap woke the prince's sanity again. His cocky smile faded and his darkened orbs caused by obsession returned to their original color.
The knights flinched in surprise and gulped down at what they witnessed. They had never seen King Taehyung hit his son before or talk bad about him. The king had never humiliated the prince before.
But judging from the expression of the king right now, they had figured that the king was in a terrible mood. They all looked down and acted as if they weren't watching the two or listening to their conversation.
The sudden appearance of the king, Jennie's older brother, had calmed Jennie.
The original color of her eyes returned as she looked away from them. It had been years since she last saw her brother and she could see that her brother had aged a lot, and looked stressed.
Jennie still had her mask on, that is why she was somehow calm, or at least that's what she believed.
"Are you out of your mind?!" The king shouted, glaring at his son and gritting his teeth. He's clenching his fists hard to stop himself from hitting his son again.
"You brought 15,000 of our men just to pursue that obsession of yours. I wasn't around and there are barely 3000 men that you left here. Do you know what could have happened if our kingdom's enemies learned that? Our kingdom will be doomed and thousands of civilians will lose their lives. What kind of leader are you to set aside your Kingdom just for a mere woman?"
Prince Jungkook clenched his fists hard, guilt flooding him now that he had realized how selfish his actions were.
He was embarrassed, not because his men witnessed this, but because he was a failure, as someone who would soon be the next king.
It's not like he loves Lisa so much to the point of obsessing her. It's just that he couldn't accept it. His pride was refusing to accept that he had wasted more than one year searching for Losa because he thought that Lisa wanted him to find her.
He thought that Lisa was waiting for her prince to save her from the beast, not falling in love with the beast and hating the prince for being a hindrance.
Jungkook thought that Lisa needed him. No one dared to say that he wasn't needed anymore. No one dared to make it clear to him that he could advance with his life already and just forget about Lisa.
Is he really to blame?
Is he really a bad person here?
He's just moving forward because he can no longer go back to the time he wasted.
"Forgive me, Father no- Forgive me, Your Majesty." Prince Jungkook apologized and bowed down before his father.
Taehyung's expression softened at his son's apology. He just heaved a sigh and placed his hands on his waist. "Just be careful with your decisions next time. Anyway, what happened to your expedition?"
