44.
"Indeed, we have come to break the engagement ourselves." I said before continuing
"Considering Princess Aria's attitude, we would really be glad if her engagement with my brother is dissolved. I wouldn't want someone like her being associated with our Royal Family." I said coldly as the King nodded and felt ashamed at the way Aria acted towards Lucis' Princes.
"You... are... lying... we are talking... through letters... how could you say she died?!" Somnus said with a grieving voice.
"She died on the night of her 18th birthday. It is also confirmed that it was her because there was a burnt body when the fire was extinguished. Also one of the things recovered on the body is a locket that she is always wearing. Though the content of locket is only known as metal, we couldn't find out what it took shape because it melted inside the locket." King Marley said and Somnus' knees lost strength.
He remembered the locked locket he gave Helen on her 18th birthday that contains a pretty necklace alongside his letter of congratulations. He gave her a locked locket because he will personally be the one who will open it and put the necklace on Helen's neck when they meet again.
He could not come personally because he was swamped with work of cleaning the nobles' estates who tried to fight against King Regis' decision of abolishing the noble system.
His world already crumbled once when he learned of his engagement with the third princess, but he recovered when he and Helen were talking through letters and consoled each other. Now he had learned that Helen died a few years ago, he was confused and filled with regret. His world once more, started crumbling slowly on its own.
He was confused because when he received Helen's reply after her birthday, he felt like he was talking to a different person. The time when Helen's reply comes also didn't match as well. Usually her reply would come after four to five days but the reply came to him after two weeks.
He was also filled with regret that he didn't see her personally to congratulate her. He was the shadows' leader but he never thought of having someone guard Helen from the dark or to spy on her about her condition.
He suddenly felt like there was something heavy on his back and he couldn't lift it up to stand up. He felt the world crashing down and the world's color became monotone. A world of only black and white.
Seeing Somnus' state I know that the discussion have to end here and would have to come tomorrow or another day. I thought of sending Somnus home with one of the shadows' member but I suddenly had an idea.
"I apologize, King Marley. It looks like we'll have to postpone the talks for now. May we know where Helen is buried?" I asked and the King told us where the members of the royal family is buried.
I was about to pick up Somnus when he grabbed my arm and whispered in a broken voice.
"Lo...ck...et" I nodded at his words and asked the King if they still have the locket that proved it was Helen.
He nodded and asked a servant to get the locket from his room. It was the last thing that reminded him of Helen but it was time for the locket to return to its rightful owner.
We traversed the graveyard of the Royal family and easily found Helen's tomb because it is arranged alphabetically.
Somnus couldn't bear to see Helen's grave as he continued looking at the sky, not daring to look at her grave because of guilt. King Marley left us after he guided us to Helen's grave and he let the brothers grieve for her daughter.
"Somnus. Look at her grave." I said sternly.
"I can't." He said weakly.
"Are you really going to be indecisive your whole life, Somnus? You already lost her twice. At least take a look at her, for once in your godd*mned life." I said with a hint of anger in my voice.
"Brother... I really can't." He said as I grabbed his head, I sat down, and forced his head down and made him dogeza by force and lifted his face so that he could be eye to eye with Helen's portrait in her tomb but Somnus closed his eyes.
"Listen to me, Somnus. The only time, a man can be brave, is when they are afraid." I said to him as he slowly opened his eyes and looked towards the portrait of Helen.
"..." Somnus just went silent. The shadows hiding in the dark wanted to intervene but when I looked at them with the clear message of 'do not intervene', they followed my orders. The king's order was only to protect us in the dark.
"Somnus, it is fine if you want to grieve. Bottling it all up wouldn't help you. Do you want to keep living on a world that you created without colors?." I continued.
"I'm... sorry... Helen." Tears started streaming his eyes as he wailed like a kid in front of Helen's grave
While Somnus is grieving, I am talking with my system.
'System, can you confirm whether the corpse inside her grave is really her?' I asked.
[I can, but the system does not have a reason to help you with this. My mission is to make you a tavern master while becoming a cool father in front of your kids. Scanning her grave doesn't collide with the system's mission or intentions.]
I knitted my eyebrows as I tried to think of wordplay that would make a viable reason to let the system scan it. After thinking of a minute, I thought of one.
'System, won't I look cool in front of my daughters if I told them the story of how I save their uncle's lover?' I could only hope that my reason is viable enough for the system to do it.
[Host doesn't even know if the body belongs to Helen or not.]
'I have full confidence that it would work.' I thought.
[Okay, but it would cost you a lot since it is far from the system's directive.]
'It doesn't matter! Take all you need.' my lips curved into a smile. I then saw that my 16,000 points was siphoned down to 5,750 points, but I don't care. Points could be earned back, losing your other half could not be earned back.
[The body in the tomb is not Helen's body.] My smile slowly turned into a grin but Somnus didn't see it because he is still grieving about her death.
When Somnus lost all the tears in his eyes, he finally felt his body turning light as he raised his head from the dogeza and sat down.
He stared at her tomb and swore to never be indecisive anymore. He would grasp at any opportunity to improve himself without holding back anymore.
Seeing Somnus face and the look in his eyes, I saw the makings of a great king. Although he has regained himself, I still know that he is still emotionally stable as I motioned a shadows' member to come closer before whispering something in his ear.
My mission for them is to follow the tracks of the third princess and send a member report if she is acting weird or going off to somewhere.
He nodded his head as I spoke to Somnus.
"Let's go and rest. Maybe there is something interesting that will happen tonight." I said making Somnus confused at my words.
I am sure of it. The third princess will make a move since she just learned about the dissolution of her engagement with Somnus. I'm sure she will guide me to where Helen is. She is a whale shark and sharks don't ignore baits and food.
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