DAD
"My lord, please!" The man begged on his knees in front of the newly crowned king, Kito.
He glared at the man, "I don't need your begging. I'm asking where the whereabouts of the rebels are."
"I don't know, Sir!" He cried. "Please!"
"An informant told me that your son is one of them. Are you sure you don't know or are you protecting him?"
"I really don't know." The man cried. "I really don't know!"
King Kito sat down on his throne and waved a hand motion for a palace guard to come to him.
"First-in-Command." King Ryou called. I looked at Kito-sama and he nodded urging me to go to his father.
"Yes, your majesty?"
"I wish to be sent to my other house in a few days." He said.
"Understood, your majesty." I said bowing.
"How is your daughter?" He asked. I looked at him and scratched the back of my neck.
"As of the moment, we couldn't reach her. Yuuki and I are both worried if something happened to her." I said in a low voice. I need to be careful just in case Kito could hear our conversation.
He nodded, "You should hear from Yuuki soon. I told him to go check on her since he was restless earlier. I would've felt the same if my sons were out of reach from me."
"That's very kind of you, Sir." I said touched at the fact that King Ryou thought of Haru. I knew that he wanted a daughter but instead he got blessed with three sons.
"Although Ken and Keita fled from their positions in the palace, they still send me letters." He said. "Don't use such polite words to me. We were once great friends."
I forced a smile. It was true, we were great friends. Ryou, Jinro and I were great friends but due to a certain law that's passed on to the kingdom which forbid both Jinro and I to live with our wives, we all naturally grew apart.
"Yes, we were." I agreed.
"I'm sorry to hear of Maki's passing."
I felt my chest hurt from hearing my wife's name.
"I'm sorry for a lot of things." Ryou said. "Now that I've passed the crown to Kito, I want to make amends with you, Amakusa and Jinro."
"It's not your fault." I said as I wiped the tears that were freely flowing.
"What's happening here?" A familiar voice asked.
"Jinro." I said as I turned to look at him.
"I was saying sorry." Ryou answered.
"It wasn't your fault, Ryou." Jinro said. "Wipe your tears, Amakusa. What will the soldiers and guards say when they see their First-in-command crying."
"I'm really sorry that Maki passed. My condolences to you and your family, Amakusa." Ryou said as he patted my back.
"Maki died?" Jinro asked in shock. "What happened? Is your daughter, okay?"
"She had cancer." I answered. "My Daughter is all alone in the neighbouring country."
"Why didn't you say anything?! I could've covered for you!" He whisper yelled angrily. "Come to Amakusa's room in 5 minutes." He looked at Ryou. "You too."
I looked at Kito and bowed at the newly crowned King. He waved his hand and lightly smiled at me, ushering me to go. He then looked back at the man with a glare.
I walked back to my room and looked for my phone. I saw Haru's baby picture fall from the wall.
The door busted open with Jinro carrying a case of beer. "You all can say thank you to me later once we're done."
Ryou was carrying a paper bag and came into my room. "Jinro asked me to hold this for him."
"What's that?" I asked.
"Chips from the neighbouring country." Jinro proudly said before opening a bottle of beer using his teeth. "My wife bought it for me to bring."
Ryou widened his eyes to Jinro, "Ohh!" Jinro gasped and laughed sheepishly. "Sorry."
"It's fine." I said as I hit the top of the bottle on the table and opened it.
Ryou used a spoon to open his. Jinro and I smiled at him, "You never lost touch, huh?" I said to Ryou and chuckled.
"Of course!" He laughingly said.
We all talked about the burdens of our jobs and talked about the growth of our children.
"Sato wants to retire when he reaches 30." Jinro said. "He said that he wants to get married like me and have children."
"I don't know if Yuuki ever wants to get married." I said with a sigh. "He's all about being the successor to being the First in Command these days-" I trailed off as I heard my phone ring.
I saw that it was Yuuki. I answered, "Yuuki?"
"She's not here, Dad!"
"Calm down! Maybe she went outside."
"The dishes are piled up in the sink. It already has mold on them, Dad. Haru would have cleaned it after using it!"
I covered my mouth with a hand, "Where could she be?!"
"Is there a problem?" Ryou asked.
"Yuuki, try and report to the police. Also go and ask for footage of the CCTV of the apartment building." I said. "Let's not jump to conclusions."
"I'll call you when I get an update." He said before ending the call.
"Haru is missing." I said as I punched the wall in frustration.