He watched her as she turned around to leave. His eyes fixated on the scene happening in front of him, where as his mind felt like it was wandering somewhere far away from reality. His eyes were focused and yet weren't focused and were blank.
Duncan's coachman got ready to take off as the guard immediately closed the door to prevent the rain from getting inside the carriage anymore.
But the door actually felt like it slammed on Duncan's face. "Huh?" He suddenly snapped back to reality. Now the carriage was slowly moving faraway from the entrance of the Eastern Palace.
He glanced at the silhouette, now very far away from his carriage. And for the first time in the entire time she was there in front of him, he noticed that she was wearing the wedding gown.
She was walking inside the palace and the guard held an umbrella over her. A heart wrenching feeling haunted him as his thoughts wandered.
He looked down at the suite he was wearing. It was the wedding suite he got from his mother.
White suite, the one which he was wearing since it was his wedding day as well. "Maybe I should've attended my own wedding? Why did I refused to go?" Maybe some kind of regret was creeping it and trying to steal away the peace he was trying to maintain the entire time.
He closed his eyes and rested his head back as he kept the documents he was pretending to read through all the time aside.
And suddenly a memory peeped into his consciousness -
"Son, wear this on your wedding day. This suite is what your father wore when he married me." His mother's words ringed in his ears. And her smiling face suddenly came in front of his eyes.
Reality finally hit him. "I am married." He took a deep breath and tried to digest the very fact he was trying to ignore for sometime now. It was tough to suddenly accept that. But afterall it was a decision taken by the court.
The royal court of the Kuravos empire, the authority that ruled the royalty, the Amalde family.
The royal court was an assembly of people who held important positions in the kingdom. The aristocrats, the heads of important organisations and powerful merchants. They were like the important peices of a game that helped the king and the royal family rule peacefully over the kingdom of Kuravos.
They promised a handful of services and a long list of benefits to the Amalde's and thus the ruler of the empire, the representative of the Amalde family had the responsibility to make them happy and make them feel important.
Duncan, on one hand agreed to have sponsors and thus appreciated people like these in his court but on the other hand it was rather difficult for him to even make the slightest of the decisions.
He wasn't the decision maker at the end of the day and thus he had to agree to the opinions the court, agree to the decisions of the members under the guise of being beneficial for the empire, Kuravos.
He had to at last, at the end act over the decision made by the members in the royal court, since they imposed it by saying 'This is what is best for the kingdom. This is the best for the royal family as well.'
He placed his hands on his laps, as the sudden feeling of emptiness crept on his palms. He rubbed his palms on his thighs and looked up at the ceiling of the carriage. It looked indeed expensive. Fit for the king of such a mighty empire. "Is this all for me?" He thought.
Perhaps just an empty question that knocked the doors of his consciousness, but the ceiling indeed made him think over the decision that he had taken in his life.
He smiled looking at the ceiling above him. It must've indeed been a fortune he had earned to have such an expensive and decorated carriage for himself.
Or maybe the carriage wasn't exactly the luxury he was appteciating but the silence in the moving vehicle he had for himself.
But as quickly the smile appeared on his face, was the same way he squinted his eyes to pretend and be happy. Then his smile suddenly dropped. "Who am I kidding? This is not mine." He mumbled, "I shouldn't let my thoughts flow in a wrong direction." He shook his head and looked down on his hands.
Resting on his laps, or rather gripping his pant as he could feel the emotions rush towards his finger tips. His thoughts didn't stop, the silence kept him entertained.
"I don't have a ring." He said, this time as clearly as he needed to understand his current situation. "I don't have a ring and neither did she wear one." He looked outside of the moving carriage, the palace wall that now stood or seemed as itwas running with the moving carriage.
"We aren't married yet." This wasn't a question anymore, it was a statement, it was the fact he knew about all along.
And the absence of the ring on his finger, made him realise that what the world thinks he owns,
What the world may think he rules,
What the world thinks he possess,
May not be his at all.
It may be a beautiful metaphor that his life is trying to take a turn in, but he certainly wasn't appreciative of it as much.
He scoffed and snickered, "I need to get my thoughts straight. It's not a war, it a game." He took a deep breath.
Then yet again picked up the file of the document, and started sifting through the sheets of papers.
Then -
The carriage stopped abruptly on the way.
"What happened?" Duncan asked his coachman through the small window inside the carriage.
"It's someone with a red umbrella." The coachman told the king sitting inside.
"Red umbrella you say?" Duncan immediately peeked outside of the carriage window, "Oh goodness, it's the wing of Kalsa." Duncan almost gave out a long and deep sigh.
And then there was a knock on the door.
"Your majesty." There was a high pitched, friendly call of a voice, the one that Duncan was very much familiar with. And the red umbrella that was visible from the window made everything all the more evident.
The working wing of Kalsa, the red umbrella and a familiar voice, he knew why the calculation suddenly started to make him so annoyed as the elements came together like the puzzle pieces.
And then the door opened.
"Good evening your highness. Mind if I join your ride as well?" The man asked with a wide and notorious smile as he peeped inside the carriage.
"Hey..." Duncan tried to close the door as soon as possible to avoid the rain from getting inside the carriage.
But the person clearly didn't give much thought to who Duncan was. "Thank you for the ride then your majesty." The person got comfortable as he closed the umbrella and then the carriage window.
"Hmm, where is she?" He thought as he looked around to see if there was anyone else sitting there with him inside before.
His eyes almost scanned the entire place and he knew that Duncan was supposed to pick up the newlywed queen by the Ninth gate wall.
But his sharp senses told him that, she had been in there in that carriage , but Duncan had different plans for her.
"Well he is himself unpredictable." The man came to a silent conclusion without spitting a single word.
"If you are done inspecting, will you love to step down from the carriage. Also know that I will indeed appreciate it." Duncan said with a sarcastic smile.
"Tsk. Don't be a kill joy, your majesty." The man said clicking his tongue and shrugging his shoulder.
"Does this behavior suite and official?" Duncan asked.
The man looked at Duncan's face for sometime and then took a deep breath. "Seriously, that is what you want to talk about on your wedding day?" He asked.
Duncan looked at him in the eye and then gave up. "Let's get going." He ordered his coachman from the small window inside the carriage.
The carriage took off.
The king wanted to say so many things to his face, but he held back.
Afterall his umbrella stood out with it's bright red coulour and so did his clothes, his shoes and medals on his uniform. He was the Chief Commander of the Royal knights - Kalsa.
Kalsa - An organization that worked under the order of the king was a special security knightship that Duncan's father established.
The necessity to protect the head of the royal family and also the leader of the whole empire was felt by the previous monarch and so under his sky, he established them to be like his personal soldiers he can order without informing the state or any member of the royal court.
Given the power and strength needed to protect the king, Kalsa knights were different than all the other knights and soldiers of the empire.
They would wear black uniforms, dorn a red ribbon and possess a sword that can protect the king in any given instance when attacked.
And thus he wore a black uniform along with a red ribbon stash going across his torso from his shoulder as well. And red was his umbrella as well. Well, the red umbrella wasn't necessarily because he was a Kalsa knight, but rather because he was an official.
He shamelessly boarded the carriage without even waiting for the permission, and that was so because he was the childhood best friend of the king.
He looked around the carriage. "Hmm. Impressive." He mumbled to himself.
Duncan couldn't take anymore of his mumbling, and thus decided to ask outright -
"May I ask, why are you here Sir Gordon?" Duncan asked in a sarcastically polite way.
"Ya. Of course, of course. I am obviously here to greet you." Said Gordan Van Heath, Duncan's childhood friend and now his best friend.
"Oh is that so? Then thank you for your well wishes. Now I guess you should get down from the carriage. " said Duncan hurrying to open the doors of the moving carriage.
"Ey, I am kidding. I didn't have anyone to give me a ride from the Office to central building, and I didn't want to get drenched so..." Gordon tried to come up with his best excuse. But Duncan remained unfazed.
"Who are you kidding? You have three personal carriages to drop you home after you leave work." Duncan said with a sarcastic expression.
Gordon took a deep breath and said, "Ok fine. I was waiting for your carriage to pass by. Fine now?" Asked Gordon in a slightly irritated voice.
Duncan kept on staring at Gordon's face expecting him to say something more. "Now what?" Asked Gordon instinctively.
"Umm..." Gordon was hesitating and Duncan was still staring at his face.
" What?" Asked Gordon.
"Tell me didn't your last date go well? Why are you roaming around alone instead of taking the lady around?" Duncan asked with a skeptical look on his face.
"Oh!! Ah... um... actually" Gordon started to look around for a way out of the conversation but Duncan immediately said, "Don't you dare use your little tactics on me. Just answer me." Duncan said.
"Oh shoot." Gordon mumbled.
"What?" Duncan asked.
"Nothing. Nothing. Actually I think that lady is not suited for me. I should just probably stop going on blind dates." Gordon said scratching his head and a little whiny expression on his face all indicating his laziness and nervousness at the same time.
Duncan who sat there with his arms crossed said, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Look at what has become of you. You are Sir Gordon Van Heath, and yet you look like some mugger down the dark alley in the cities." Duncan said shrugging his shoulder.
"As if. You are the one to tell. Hmph." Gordon smirked.
"Everything apart. Where is the new queen? Shouldn't you be taking her to the new palace?" Gordon shifted the topic.
Duncan just opened his documents and started to looking through them. "Hey don't just ignore me. Hey... hey..." Gordon started annoying Duncan.
But Duncan just kept on ignoring him even more.
The carriage was almost close to where they had to go, and Gordon suddenly stopped. Duncan looked up at him.
"What happened?" Duncan asked Gordon.
Gordon was looking outside the window of the carriage as the carriage came to halt eventually. Duncan felt a shiver run down his spine. And he looked outside immediately.
The magnificent building of the Central palace was just a few steps away from them. But it wasn't the palace building that mortified both Gordon or Duncan, it was someone else.
Someone looking at them as he stood there. The guards immediately opened the door of the carriage and laid the carpet from the carriage to the entrance.
"I'll tell you this once more Duncan. Make sure to stay safe in the house of snakes." Gorden whispered to Duncan and proceeded to get down from the carriage.
And Duncan got down from the carriage as well, keeping his eyes on the person standing there.