Cheyenne's voice once again broke King Caspian.
'Love? Impossible!' his mind became overcome with emotion.
There was no way the Queen loved him. They had an arranged marriage.
There was barely any love in ninety-nine percent of all arranged marriages!
This was the first time hearing of the strange concept of his wife loving him.
He wanted to dispute it, but, deep down, he couldn't! The facts were laid bare in front of his eyes.
He could remember the peaceful smile his wife always gave him. It was the same smile she had when she died.
To be honest, it always unsettled him because of the guilt he tried so hard to hide.
How could he have not noticed all along? Or, perhaps, he had noticed but decided to ignore it?
Faced against such truth, Caspian cried in his mind, 'Heavens! What type of man did I become?!'
He couldn't help but ask himself, 'Did she really think I was worth saving?'
It didn't help that Cheyenne kept screaming, "Why? Why? Almost every day, beneath the eyes of the palace, Mother would cry. She would come here after her rounds of crying, trying to hide it, but we could always see it, her swollen red eyes."
She repeated, "Why? Why were you so cruel to her?"
"Uh!..." Caspian became tongue-tied.
He fell short of words.
What answer could he give?
Was his reason even sensible?
He reckoned if he were to talk, he would sound more like the children than them?
'I couldn't see it all this while! It has come to the point where I am now ashamed of myself,' lamented Caspian.
He looked down at the comfortable grass floor. Yet, he couldn't feel any warmth.
All he felt were the grasses judging him, mocking him for being a failure as a family man.
"You can't talk, can you? You don't even know yourself anymore!" jabbed Cheyenne with a poison-laced voice.
With a spiteful glance, Cheyenne scorned, "Oh, I was such a foolish young girl. I always tried to get into trouble so I could see you again. Always vied for your attention. Now, looking at the real you right now, I realize that you aren't worth it, not even a fraction of my admiration! There is nothing worthy in you as a father!"
Her brother, Roan, who was watching this, softly called out, "Cheyenne…."
It was an emotional moment for him too, but he had to interrupt for his sister's sake.
He walked to drag back his hysterical sister but was stopped by the raising hand of his other sister, Princess Sierra.
"Why?" he asked.
"It is high time he heard it. Don't you feel it too? The frustration building up within us? Cheyenne is not just expressing herself, she is talking for us," replied Sierra.
She looked at her father, and shouted, her eyes reddening, "Way back, I could tell that Mother loved you from the way she smiled anytime your name was mentioned. If I'm being truthful, that was her only fault, that love was stupid as the person she loved wasn't deserving of it!"
Throughout her outburst, Roan didn't interrupt. He stepped back and chilled his soft hear, evidently siding with his siblings.
He was also disappointed with his father.
Since the first time he knew he would be the crown prince, he vowed to become exactly like his father. The person who the public loved so much.
However, reality struck him hard, when after all his achievements, his father wasn't there to smile at him. It was always his mother.
He became a bit of a Mama-boy and spilled out his desire to his mother, who became supportive of the idea.
He could remember her laughing, "Haha, your father is wonderful, isn't he?"
Years passed, and he became an outstanding young man. He became one of the Four Stars!
Yet, he never heard his father praise him or even smile at him.
Was it so hard?
Did he not at least deserve something like that?
Or was he spoilt to think that?
He didn't know the answer to those questions. What he knew was that whenever he was sad, he would always go to his Mom to cheer himself up.
Yet, she was taken from him!
Roan clenched his fists as he spotted the culprit of the whole fiasco.
....It was bound to a not-so-silent day in the palace.
......…
Meanwhile, at another side of the Capital.
Jake happily strolled as he witnessed the different parts of the night-time Capital.
One may wonder why Jake was doing this as he didn't seem the type, but Jake begged to differ.
He was always like this; having varying moods.
He was the type to kill a dude and later mourn his death with his parent.
That was the aspect of Jake that very few people had seen, the crazy part.
So crazy, he decided to commit a massacre after his only tether to his previous world had broken.
He remembered once he bombed an entire bridge when he found it hard to assassinate a target on the bridge.
In his defense, that was an extraordinary level of efficiency.
That was how to get things done, "Rule Number One: If there isn't a way, then make a way yourself."
That rule had helped him many times.
However, back to the topic. What was Jake doing strolling on the streets of the Capital?
Simple, he was taking a rest.
Jake wasn't the type to cultivate day and night. To him, it was no wonder those that of people weren't always successful.
Cultivation helps take care of the body's needs, but the mind also needed care too!
Jake had just been through a fight yesterday, and currently, he looked good. His comprehension of the [Sword Drawing Technique] was already about to break through to another stage.
His cultivation stage was also close to breaking through and he also qualified for a place in the final stage of the competition.
Everything was doing great and he just needed a little push to break past them all.
However, he had learned from time spent studying the [Sword Drawing Book] that one should always take some time off to appreciate things.
That was how Knight, one of the past possessors of the book, broke through.
So, here he was, watching the nightlife of the Capital.
He didn't know where he was going. It was wherever his legs took him, but he was okay with it as he at least knew the way back.
Looking at the massive flow of different people, he smiled, 'People...they are toxic. Spread like an infection, staining the images of perfection. What a sad life?!'
He was thankful that the natural life in this world could protect themselves, unlike his previous world.
Don't get him wrong, Jake didn't care for wildlife or pollution, but he cared for the images of perfection in them. However, if push came to shove, he would casually discard them as they only contained hints of perfection anyway.
"Hmm..?" Upon deciding to go back to the guest house, Jake sensed something with his sixth sense.
Unlike the previous time, his sixth sense was now twenty(20) feet long and could sense any disturbance with the usual environment. That way he could predict attacks in battle. It was not like an actual sixth sense which could do more than that.
However right now, while the people on the street were walking gently, he sensed an unknown movement that was quite fast, using the shadows to cover its pace.
It was certainly interesting to Jake, but he couldn't be bothered more or less.
He used his memory to trace his steps back.
However, he realized that he could still sense this strange movement! He could still sense the abnormality that stayed at the edge of his sense coverage.
'Hmm. It is in front of me. It might look like it is following me, but I can tell it isn't as it is ahead of me,' reasoned Jake.
He decided not to judge the situation too quickly as he continued walking back to the guest house.
However, by the time he got to the gate of the house, he could still feel the movement. This time it had stopped and Jake thought because it was blocked by the fences of the guest house.
At the next moment, it moved further, signifying it had crossed over the obstacle.
The situation was now serious and Jake was now met with a choice.
Should he investigate the strange movement or should he not?
'This is not my business,' analyzed reasonable Jake.
'But it will be interesting,' retorted crazy Jake.
'There's no need for going through the trouble,' shot back reasonable Jake.
'True, but you fail to understand one point...' smiled crazy Jake.
'What is that?'
'This movement, possibly belonging to an individual, is quite sneaky and has invaded the guest house. Did you forget you live inside the guest house?' counter-attacked crazy Jake.
'That's true. I can't possibly ignore something cooking under my nose,' admitted reasonably Jake.
The two sides of Jake reached an agreement and Jake decided to investigate the movement.....