A Night With The King

Lance paused and checked his progress so far, he was tired but for the last two hours, he had seen a lot of progress. He felt relief, the anger and anxiety he felt earlier were almost gone now, he really needed this time away from everything, If only he could do this more often but being king means he has to give away his free time and a lot more other things; the fact that he gives away so much and yet, when he does decide to put himself first, it becomes a problem. Painting was what his life had been all about before he gave it all up and came to Otano to take over from his father. These days, he never has time to paint, he gave it up willingly, he gave up his whole life and they still want him to do more.

“Yikes,”

He let out and dropped the brush he held. He wasn’t doing anything special right now, he was painting a meadow, the only thing that came to mind when he got here. This place was the only place he could find some kind of alone time, Of course, that crazy advisor of his knew this place, Lance was hoping the man would take a hint and leave him alone but knowing Patrick, he would probably be on his way here already.

“Lancelot,”

“Speaking of the devil,”

Lance snorted when he held Patrick’s voice, two hours was all he could get for himself, he picked up his brush again, determined to ignore him.

“Lancelot,”

Patrick called again, this time, he was in the room Lance was in, standing right behind him, Lance still chose to ignore him.

“You know you can’t keep ignoring me,”

Patrick let out.

“I don’t want to speak to you right now Patrick, I specifically said no one should follow me,”

Lance let out wishing Patrick would take a hint for once and just leave him be.

“Well, you said that to Patrick the special adviser, not Patrick the best friend, I am here as your friend and not a special adviser or personal assistant,”

Patrick replied. He took a seat next to the canvas Lance had dumped. There was no difference between Patrick the advisor and Patrick the best friend, they did the same thing, and that was to make him see things clearly, One of the main reasons Lance had chosen Patrick as his special advisor, was that Patrick knew how to put him in his place, he knows how to make him do things, back then, Lance had seen it as a good thing, but now, he wasn’t so sure anymore; Patrick was no fun, he always wants to follow the rules and always find a man to talk Lance into doing things but not this time, this time, he wasn’t going back on his words no matter what Patrick says.

“Lance, I know you are angry but one thing is sure anger won’t fix anything,”

Patrick tried. So much for him being Patrick, the best friend.

“I don’t want to talk about it, You came as a friend, right? Why are you still acting like my special advisor?”

Lance asked without looking at him.

“Not going to lie, Lance, I can’t different them anymore, maybe I never could, I just know that it is my place to tell you when you are doing the wrong thing and I can’t keep quiet about it no matter how you try to shut me up,”

Patrick continued.

“I have no intention of shutting you up, you can keep talking but just know that nothing you say would change my mind, I am not marrying that lady and that is final, take my words for it,”

Lance told him. He gave up trying to focus on the canvas before him and dumped the brush.

“Now you have come to ruin my mood, I was doing good until you came in, why didn’t you just stay at the palace?”

Lance let out in frustration.

“You left the palace without a bodyguard or a driver, you are here unprotected with the palace vehicle, I am looking out for your safety, In case you have forgotten, you are the king, not just that, you might not believe it, but you have a lot of enemies, you can’t just leave the palace unprotected.”

Patrick scolded.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“So, what you are trying to tell me now is that my people can hurt and harm me? Is that it?”

Lance asked in anger. He could prove his point without trying to make it seem like he was in danger of being killed once he stepped out of the palace.

“You know that’s not what I mean, Lancelot, The people have no reason to harm you, but you have enemies, you keep forgetting what happened four years ago,”

Patrick let out. Yes, Lance remembered what happened four years ago but that was a long time ago and since then, he has made sure the security of the kingdom increased, he also made it harder for foreigners who seem fishy to come into the kingdom. Of course, those who attacked him were not all foreigners and he had reasons to believe that Justin might have sent them but none of them that were caught lived to tell who sent them so they never found out; that happened only two months before his father died. Right after his father died, he was crowned the permanent king, so whatever his brother planned did not work, What Lance did make sure to do, was tighten security around the kingdom and also make sure his older brother could never come to the palace, even though the crazy clown had found his way around and entered the palace, he had a spy who turned out to be his mistress, Lance found out she was pregnant, after the baby was born, the mistress left the kingdom and left the baby with his brother who refused to take responsibility as a result, the child was sent to the care home.

“See how you are suddenly silent when I mentioned the event of four years ago?”

Patrick let out. Lance snorted.

“Patrick, four years ago, I was still new, so many things that my brother did were still in place, nothing was working then, yes, there was a small issue,”

“You call that a small issue? You almost died, people died that day,”

Patrick yelled out, cutting him off.

“I know people died, I know what happened, I was there, you are talking as if the people that were killed were innocent, they were the ones who came to harm me,”

Lance yelled right back.

“See, that’s what I am saying, Anyone would still have that in mind, You think something like that is easily forgiven? No, Lancelot, no! Your brother can also be looking for a way to get you, You literally took his throne and banished him from the palace forever,”

Patrick reminded; Lance paced around trying to calm down, Patrick didn’t just make it sound like he stole from Justin, his brother who almost ruined the kingdom.

“Why are you making it sound like I stole it from him? He was doing a horrible job and Father asked me to come to take his palace, I gave up my whole life for that fucking throne, don’t make it sound like it was just handed to me or I was waiting on the sideline to take it,”

Lance let out.

“That’s not what I mean, You seem to be misunderstanding everything I am saying, I know what happened, I was there, I am just saying that it is not safe for you to leave the palace or go anywhere without the palace guard and a team of well-trained men, it is for your safety, my king,”

Patrick said each word as if he was talking to a toddler, fuck the man. Well, it did make him calm down a little.

“Whatever, I don’t even want to listen to you right now, I already know why you are here, I am just going to tell you that whatever you say, I won’t change my mind about my decision, if things do not go well like I already know it won’t, I would be the one trapped in the marriage and not you,”

Lance told him. Patrick didn’t look like he was going to take the hint and leave him alone.

“This is pretty, I forgot just how good you are at painting,”

He complimented, pointing at the piece he was still working on, Lance ignored him, he knew Patrick enough to know that the man was just looking for ways to get to him, What was better than complimenting what he was doing? They stayed like that for about two hours with him painting and Patrick just sitting and occasionally saying a few words that he ignored. Patrick gave up after a while and there was only silence. Lance knew he was just plotting and he would hit him soon.