Chapter 232: The King’s Bad Temperament

It didn’t take Darius long to find Lauren in the palace’s underground secret chamber. At first, he hesitated about freeing her, but then Lauren said that she finally unlocked the book and learned how to break her curse and defeat the enemy. He also believed nothing bad would happen to her under his protection.

He was careless, he knew that, which was why when Alec returned to the palace and massacred all the remaining enemies, he was ready to die by his hands. Darius blamed himself for what happened and he was sure Alec also did.

Alec did try to kill him. He was beyond livid. He was mad furious as if all he could see was red and nothing else. But Vincent went in between, putting a barrier around Alec. The first barrier broke in a matter of seconds, so Vincent created a stronger one.

"Listen, Alec!" It was one of the rare occasions where Vincent was very serious and angry. "You can’t go keep killing everyone! I understand it hurts like hell but even if Lauren didn’t get help, she would have found a way to break the barrier herself and execute her plan!"

Alec refused to listen. His raging emotions had his powers surging. He broke Vincent’s barrier and fought with him.

Alec only calmed down a little when he got his hands on the book Lauren found on the spellbound ship. After reading what was inside, he realized that Lauren would still have done what she did even if she failed to do it that day. Because she found out that the only way to break the Capewell curse was the death of the descendant from the last generation. She would never choose to stay with him knowing that she could never bear his children and have the family she always dreamed of.

"Your Majesty." Darius bowed before Alec.

Alec stood by the tall shelf of his office, a handful of reports were in his hands. He had been working too much these years, his attention seemed to be solely focused on state affairs.

He was either in his office or in the courtroom during the day, and at night, he was anywhere in Evardin but in the palace, investigating all sorts of cases and killing hooligans in the middle of the night. He made sure he had something to do, which resulted in the court officials barely left with any work.

"The situation in the south has been pacified. I have also checked the housing project in Raven village on my way, so far there is no flaw and the residents are grateful for your generosity."

"Haven’t I told Matthias that I will be visiting Raven village myself?" Alec walked to his table, putting down the piles of court reports he was holding. "He told you to do it, didn’t he?"

"I only happened to pass by Raven village on my way back, so I thought I could spare an hour to check," Darius answered in his usual bleak tone, unmoved by Alec’s fierce and almost annoyed expression.

Matthias suddenly arrived, and when he saw Alec’s dark face, he swallowed hard as if he were thinking twice of going anywhere near Alec.

"Your Majesty, a concern has been raised by the head maid, Isobel, and I am here to relay her concern."

Alec was about to bring up how Matthias broke an order again, but he let it slide for the nth time and eyed the man with impatient eyes.

"Tell me."

"The thing is, a lot of maids have resigned in the past months. The palace is currently under a shortage of servants and the royal banquet will happen in a week."

Next week’s royal banquet was an important event Evardin would host. Bodeville’s king wished to have an economic alliance with Evardin and so the royal family of Bodeville was expected to be the special guests.

"Can’t you decide what must be done with that matter yourself? If there is a shortage of servants, then go hire a bunch of new ones."

Alec gulped down the glass of blood from his table and went back to the court reports he was reading before the two came to interrupt his work.

Matthias, however, had more to say.

"Of course, we can hire new ones, but Your Majesty, it has come to my attention that the reason why servants are quitting..." Matthias breathed before he continued, "is your bad temperament."

"According to Isobel, in the past, the palace only hired new servants once a year to fill the places of those who had resigned, but in the past years, new servants have been hired three or four times a year. I am bringing this up because their decision to leave is because of you, Your Majesty."

From the papers on his table, Alec lifted his gaze up at Matthias with a scowl.

"I shall take my leave, King Alec," said Darius at the corner before pulling himself out of the room.

Matthias glared at Darius’ back. ’What a disloyal prick. How could he leave me alone in the devil’s den? Doesn’t he care about me at all?’

Matthias sighed. He must face this irritable king for the sake of the servants in the palace. He believed this attitude of Alec should be pointed out for him to realize what he was doing.

"What do you mean?"

"I am trying to say that you intimidate the servants. You are easily angered by small mistakes, which they often do when you are around. You also kept doing things that make them fear you, just like how you asked a maid to cut her wrist on the dinner table a couple of months ago. It didn’t help that rumors are circulating in the town that you have gone insane after..." Matthias did not continue as mentioning the queen’s death might trigger Alec. Losing his head at the early stage of his life did not sound appealing.

"It’s the people who created rumors about me. I don’t understand why those maids are so afraid of me when I did nothing so gruesome in front of them. Tell me. Have I ever killed any of the servants or initiated torture? I haven’t." Alec’s eyes narrowed darkly, his impatience made his eyes turn a subtle shade of red. "Now, it is your job to replace those useless maids with ones that can do their job well."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read