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CHAPTER 24
By the evening of the next day, the news about Scarlet's disappearance reached the ears of the king who, more than anyone, was not pleased.
He had received another letter stating Prince Jasper's sudden arrival within a few days and now his daughter was nowhere to be found.
Honestly, King Blaze was not a fan of being made a fool in front of others.
Unlike Queen Diamonique, he did not receive the news well and immediately ordered her portrait to be drawn.
"Find her. Comb the kingdom for her I do not care. Turn everywhere upside down if you must but find my daughter by all means necessary," Blaze ordered while standing before the troop of 300 soldiers he had gathered for the search.
He did not mind making everyone fret. Anything to get Scarlet out of wherever she was hiding.
After that, he planned on having her monitored every bloody minute until she was successfully married off to the prince.
"No one returns without her," he issued again, his eyes turned red with anger as he scanned the men with his menacing gaze.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
*******
Soon enough, the days rolled by with Zale staking out at night outside the Bone Man's shop, and during the day he always visited Pearl.
Each time, Scarlet feigned being in so much pain to garner his pity.
At first, Pearl believed her and pitied the princess but by the morning of the third day, she expected relief to have occurred but Scarlet still screamed nonstop about it.
In the end, Zale decided he was going to help her heal a bit to ease off the pain so she could return to the palace sooner.
The more she stayed there, he could not shake away the growing pith in his stomach and hoped nothing bad happened.
Like every other day, Pearl was sent over to the market by her mother to get two loaves of bread for themselves and their guest.
One thing they made sure they did while explaining things to her parents was to leave out the fact that she was royalty and just leave the fact that her parents were stricter and she was from a rich family.
The very same story they had been told right from when Pearl met Scarlet.
With the thoughts of Scarlet's actions lately around Zale, Pearl began to grow suspicious and jealous.
The previous night when Zale was not around, she caught Scarlet flexing her feet and having more relief than usual.
As to that, she expected a better improvement today but upon seeing Zale, the latter cried more and acted helpless.
Pearl heaved out a deep sigh and shook her head. She did not want to think ill about her friend but what could she do?
The whole situation up till this moment had been suspicious.
Shaking her head, she lifted her eyes when they landed on some soldiers flooding the marketplace and stopped.
"What…" She tried to stop talking and went straight to one of the flyers posted on the wall.
Getting close to the wall, she saw many of the same flyers plastered all over the walls, trees and anywhere specifically that had space.
That wasn't what made her stop and have her jaw fall. It was the idea of the person in the flyer.
"Missing," Scarlet read in a whisper as her brows furrowed deeply.
"Any news about the missing girl would be rewarded at the palace."
She breathed in and without thinking too much snatched one of the flyers. Just as she was about to make a turn, she heard the soldiers asking most of the villagers if they had seen Scarlet.
Covering her head with her cloak, Pearl turned around wholly and raced back in the direction of her house.
The whole matter had proved her suspicions and with her thoughts coming to play, she could not wait to speak to the liar of a friend.
As soon as she got home, she met Scarlet resting her head against Zale's arm. Her gaze trailed down following the princess' free hand soothingly caressing Zale's leg and frowned.
Now it made sense.
She had wished for Zale to go with her to the market but Scarlet complained that she would be lonely.
Now watching the two of them converse as one happy couple made her insides churn.
She hated being lied to but that was not the only thing that put her in a difficult state.
While she contemplated what to do, Zale's eyes me with hers from where she was standing and immediately, he called out her name.
"Pearl."
Like a man caught stealing, he stilled for a second and when she turned her head, Zale rose to his feet, yanking his hand away.
Ultimately, Scarlet, who was not expecting such a reaction from him, fell off the bench they were seated on and landed on the ground.
"Ouch!"
Without further ado, he rushed after Pearl, chasing her to the back of the house, and leaving Scarlet alone on the ground.
"Pearl! Wait up, please!" Zale called out in a pleading tone.
She stopped walking when he rushed before her and blocked her path. Her hands clenched at her side as her breathing tried to calm down.
She was not happy and she wore the expression on her face. Somethings he was not rumoured to do.
"Pearl, what is wrong?"
"I don't know. You tell me. You two seem to be chumming with each other now, right?"
"We? You mean Scarlet and me?"
Pearl twisted her lips and crossed her arm in front of her chest.
"No. I have nothing to do with her," Zale explained, hoping she would believe him.
"You two looked like it. You were having a very important discussion."
"Yes. And that is about how we first met. When I saved her from an ambush and she was being thankful," he explained quickly.
"Wait, you said what?"
"I said, she spoke to me about how we first met and…"
She zoned out his voice as her mind began placing two and two together.
Like the wheels of a puzzle, all of the pieces were coming together. All of the actions
She had thought about it but he did not want to believe it. Hearing him say that, Pearl could tell now that the person Scarlet had been in love with was Zale.
It also explained the timing of her fall. Right before she had placed her leg on the tree, Scarlet's gaze drifted off in the direction Zale had come from.
At that moment, she was worried about her friend instead of bothering about such and when she was about to call her attention to the tree, she placed her leg wrongly and fell.
She scoffed a sad laugh, shook her head and returned her eyes to him. "That explains everything."
"Explain what?"
Her wanton smile disappeared, replaced by boredom and anger.
"This."
Immediately she slammed the flyer on Zale's chest and said, "The bitter truth."
He swallowed hard, sensing something was wrong but when she clicked her tongue at him suggestively and spoke, he understood.
"Well?"
Ignoring her attitude, he held the flyer before it fell and turned it around so he could see what it contained when the truth shocked him.
"Oh no… Pearl I…" Before he got the chance to voice out any words, Pearl turned back and stormed off.