I am your king.

Chapter IV | Part IV

Adrian sat on the throne with his cheek resting on his hand. He was leaning up against the side, completely uninterested in whatever whoever this was happened to be saying at the moment. His braid was messy from the long absence of his precious guard and he was, to say the least, very pissed off. Angry and with messy hair. Not the best of times. 

"Are you even listening to him, dear?" Rachel smiled with rage-filled eyes. 

"This is dreadfully boring, why don't you handle it?" 

"Because I'm not the king, darling."

"So?" 

"So...I can't make the end decision." 

"What if I just say that your decision is my decision because I love you so much your words are my words," he rolled his eyes. 

"You'd have to speak up then because I'm finding your love a bit lacking at the moment." 

"Because it doesn't exist?" 

"Yes, as a matter of fact." 

Adrian sighed. "Right." 

"Do you suppose you'll be needing another royal tournament to decide your next guard?" Rachel asked. 

"I don't need one." 

"You're still insisting that he is alive?" 

"Why do you have so little faith in him?" 

"Oh, I don't know, because it's been ages?" Rachel rolled her eyes. "You can't be without a guard this long. You'll seem weak." 

"What does it matter? If I die you'll be the only ruler. Isn't that great?" 

"Right, I'm looking forward to it," she huffed. "I'm practically the only ruler now. Do you even care about your subjects?" 

"I care enough." 

"What's all that noise outside?" Adrian could hear numerous voices. Yelling, the sound of fighting, and a few other things. 

"Maybe the Phantoms have finally come to kill us. I've been looking forward to this." 

Adrian stood up and began making his way to the door. It opened for him. A Phantom boy stood smiling at him, he grabbed his hand and led him down to where the commotion was. Phantoms everywhere, grinning and having a merry time. The guards tried to catch them but they ran around, which was what caused all of the noise as things crashed. 

"What is going on?" 

"We're celebrating our union with your kingdom. The Master says that you'll accept us fully and told me to bring you to him," the boy grinned. "It's been so long since Phantoms were a part of anything. We all got a bit excited. We'll clean it up! I promise." 

"Where are you taking me?" 

"To the garden! Master is there." 

"Who is your-" his voice was silenced by the sight of Vincent wearing a blue robe and dancing around with a flower crown on his head. He smiled, laughing in a ring of children, as they spun around singing rhymes. Sebastian (apparently he'd been released from his cell or maybe he'd escaped, no one really knows) was playing an instrument of some sort. 

"He said you'd want to see him," the boy let go of Adrian's hand and went behind him to push him forward. 

"Vincent?" Adrian blinked. His eyes had to be playing tricks on him. 

Vincent skillfully escaped the ring of children without their notice and made his way to Adrian. "I'll be taking that back now, thank you," he grabbed the ribbon from Adrian's hair.