El Destino

CHAPTER 42 : LOYALTY

(Carl's Room)

"*Knock, Knock*"

"Come in," Carl answered while reading some official documents.

"Good evening, father," Lucio greeted his father.

"Good evening to you too, son. So, what brings my free-spirited son back to me?" Carl asked, jokingly.

"Uh-Father, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Sure, come sit," Carl replied, gesturing Lucio to sit on the opposite chair while he continued to read his documents.

"Fathe-"

"*Knock, Knock*"

"Just a second, son. Come in," Carl said while Lucio groaned mentally. As it is, he did not know how he would convince his father to allow Marina and others to leave and all these interruptions were clearly not helping his state.

"Sorry to disturb you, my lord," a man in his 40's apologized to Carl, while entering the room.

"My good man, Aeduuin. What brings you here?" Carl asked, smiling at his friend.

"I came to thank you and the young man who had extinguished the fire at the right time or else the emergency food storage would have turned to ashes," Aeduuin replies.

"Yes, I got to know about it. I will surely do that."

"Thank you, my lord," Aeduinn says before exiting the room.

"What was all this? There was a fire? And who is this young man? Is everyone alright?" Lucio bombards his father with questions.

"Don't worry son, everyone's fine all thanks to Prince Nathaniel. He and his friend came at the right time and extinguished the fire before it could destroy our food stocks."

"Did I just hear you being thankful to Prince Nathaniel?" Lucio asked, bemused at what he heard.

"Yes and now don't make an issue of it. Your majesty, Princess Marina was right, he is different from his family."

"So, will you now allow them to leave?"

"What?"

"I actually came to talk about this only. I and Mari reconciled our friendship during our duel-"

"You had a duel with Your Majesty?" Carl asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"Yes and she won. So, as a prize she asked her companions and herself to be allowed to leave Benedizione."

"Well, I can understand, they have been staying for three days. They can leave," Carl replies while stacking the documents and keeping them aside.

"What? Are you letting them go?"

"Do you want me to change my decision, son?"

"No, but I don't get it, till yesterday you couldn't even stand being near Prince Nathaniel and now you let him off so easily?"

"People and their opinions change with time. I have been observing Prince Nathaniel, his behaviour with Princess Marina, servants and with everyone in general. He is not arrogant because of his noble birth or richness nor does he discriminate between people. Unlike his family, he tries to understand and help others. He is different, a good different and we are not the only ones to see that. Maybe our Princess's kindness rubbed on him?" Carl says while laughing.

"What do you mean by we are not the only ones to see that?" Lucio asks his father.

"You are well aware of the rules of Alves - the eldest son ascends the throne. It's an orthodox society and people there honor all such traditions and rules, even if they don't want to. Everyone knows how good Prince Nathaniel is, his strong opposing views against gender discrimination. Nobles fear that if he becomes the king, he will change the rules. Those narcissist, dominant, thick-headed idiots can't see women standing shoulder to shoulder with them them. Those courtiers don't want to lose their superior status and power against womankind. So..."