Chapter 167: Chapter 167

167 Chapter 167 : You!

James Burchard didn’t even think to respond to his general, he pushed passed him and walked hastily towards the palace exit. His son had returned? Really?!

As he walked, Bradley called to his wife, “Margret!” He yelled, “Margret! Someone fetch my wife!”

The Gavarian king heard some ruckus from the outside as he approached the door. What in the world was going on? Hadn’t Adam returned home? Then what was with all the violent noise? James threw the doors open and halted in his tracks when he saw his son being pushed towards him with chains binding his arms.

The laycan soldiers who were being trailed by a caravan of about five hundred elves and dwarves pushed Gareth to his knees in front of the king. Shortly after, Margret rushed out of the palace after hearing her husband scream her name, and immediately covered her mouth in shock.

“What are you doing!” The queen screamed and rushed to her son. She crouched down and took his binded hands in hers.

“Hello mother,” Gareth muttered with a sheepish smile, “sorry for dropping in on you like this.”

Margret’s eyes watered immediately upon hearing her son’s voice. She hadn’t seen him in so long that all her emotions bubbled up and spilled out her eyes as tears.

“What are you doing?! Untie my son!” Margret yelled at the lycans who were now glancing at each other in confusion. She turned to her husband who was still as frozen as a statue behind her and gave him a pleading gaze.

The king shook his head to awake from his reverie and turned to look at the lycan soldiers, “unchain him!”

.....

“But your majesty, this elf attacked three patrol soldiers!”

“This elf is my son!” The king responded, “and your prince! Now unchain him! This is a family matter, I’ll deal with him myself.”

One of the lycans hesitantly walked to Gareth, and with his claws slashed Gareth’s chains loose. When the elven prince rose to his feet, Margret Burchard wrapped her arms around him and sobbed.

“Oh my baby boy!” She wailed in both sadness and relief.

Gareth returned his mother’s hug, he didn’t realize how much he’d actually missed his mother till now. He pulled away slightly and wiped her tears away, “I’m alright mother, and I’m home. You don’t have to cry anymore.”

The king walked down the steps towards his son. “My son..” he mumbled. Gareth let go of his mother and gave his father a hug.

The last time his father had hugged him was when Gareth was a little kid, he must have really missed him.

“Welcome home son,” king Burchard spoke.

“It’s good to be back,” Gareth responded happily. He didn’t expect such a warm welcome especially after the way he had left. And also there was the fact that he had started a fight on his first day back, talk about an entrance.

“Come in,” James spoke happily, “we have much to talk about.”

“Of course,” Gareth responded, “but first I’ll have to make sure my friends are well taken care of as well.”

King James looked at the five hundred men Gareth was pointing at dressed in armor and carrying weapons. Luckily, the king had hosted more people than this at his balls and parties, so five hundred would be nothing. James called his general and instructed him to take the men to the cottages around the palace grounds. “Make sure my son’s friends are well rested and fed.”

“Of course your majesty,” the general responded with a bow. He then turned to Gareth, smiled at him and bowed as well, “welcome home your grace.”

*

Clovis put his fork down and instantly lost his appetite. Julia had to be punished? For an accident?

“Father,” Elric spoke having noticed how pale Clovis’ face had become. Clearly his brother had really become attached to the dwarve woman, letting anything happen to her would not only break Clovis heart, but also give the dwarves a reason to come after the Merian kingdom, and at this point Elric really had no fight left in him. After realizing that all the fighting he had done was in vein because the woman he had been fighting for didn’t even want him anymore. “Julia is an important part of my stance as king.”

“But she killed your mother!” Bradley spat back, “that woman has to pay for her sins. My wife is six feet in the ground rotting because of her and you’re calling her important?! She needs to be beheaded, hanged.. anything! She can’t be waltzing this earth in peace when she murdered your mother!”

“It was an accident..” Clovis mumbled while folding his fists up in a ball and trying hard to stop himself from going wolf in front of his father.

“What did you say?” Bradley asked his oldest son while practically hissing. “That woman is a murderer, and the punishment for murder in this kingdom is death! You know the rules!”

“It was an accident!” Clovis yelled and got to his feet. His eyes were already glowing yellow and his nails had elongated. “She didn’t murder our mother, hence she doesn’t deserve death!”

“Are you going to take some woman’s side over your own mother?!”

“Oh please father, mother hated us and you know it!” Clovis yelled.

“Oh my gods,” Jeffrey muttered as he sipped more of his wine.

“She didn’t love us, she practically did everything in her power to avoid us,” Clovis continued yelling, “she even used to call Elric the devil’s spawn! Heck she never even loved you the way you did her, she just tolerated you because the marriage was arranged!”

“How dare you speak to me that way!” Bradley roared, “I am your father!”

Clovis’ fangs sprouted, “I’ll do a lot worse if you as much as think of laying a hand on Julia!”

Bradley Aldos glared at his son in disbelief, what had gotten into Clovis? He was always the one who took after Juliet, he was the quiet, soft spoken and level headed one. No, could it be possible that he was-

“Do you...” Bradley had to take a deep breath in order to keep his own anger at bay, “do you have feelings for this woman? This Julia?”

Clovis went quiet for a few moments before focusing his gaze back on his father. “I do..”

“Wow!” Jeffrey mumbled.

“I don’t just have feelings for her,” Clovis added on, a look of determination on his face, “I love Julia, and I will not allow any harm to come to her. I’d rather bare her punishment myself.”

“Oh my goodness-”

“Shut up Jeffrey!” Everyone at the table yelled in unison.

“You, my eldest son would defy me and bare the punishment of a.. a pair of tiny tits?!” Bradley growled.

“No one touches Julia without going through me!” Clovis proclaimed.

“Just get out..” Bradley mumbled. His every vein flawed with pure rage and disappointment. “Just get out of my sight!”

Clovis kicked the chair back and turned to leave, but before he disappeared out of the dining room he glanced to the side, “if anyone touches Julia, there will be blood.”

*

Achoo!

Julia blew her nose into her handkerchief after sneezing for the third time.

“Maybe someone is talking about you,” the maid who was picking up the tray after Julia’s evening tea mumbled.

“I wish someone would talk to me, rather than talk about me.” Julia responded.

“Oh I see,” the maid spoke with a sly smile, “you miss the prince.”

Julia’s eyes widened at the woman’s comment, “no I don’t! Why would you think that?!”

“Because you’re blushing and the pitch of your voice rises whenever you speak of him.” The maid stood up straight and smiled at the green eyed woman. “You should be happy, the prince really likes you. Soon you’ll be the lady of his big fancy house out in the capital.”

“You think he likes me?” Julia mumbled nervously.

“you are the only person who doesn’t see that he does,” the maid responded.

Julia blushed even more, honestly she couldn’t really tell if Clovis liked her or was just being friendly.

“Also if you’re looking for someone to talk to, maybe you can visit queen Melissa,” the maid suggested, “I hear she can’t leave the room after she had a big fight with her husband. I bet she could use someone her age to have a conversation with, poor woman must be bored out of her mind”

When the maid left Julia remained in thought, Melissa huh? She had avoided meeting Melissa all this time, it was the reason she hadn’t even gone to the coronation ball. She felt guilty for suspecting her of being a witch and trying to kill her. Julia really wanted to make amends somehow, maybe going to check on her wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

The green eyed woman stood up and walked out her door, down the halls towards Melissa’s chambers. This was the only chance she was going to get to apologize, she didn’t want to have bad blood with anyone anymore. The woman stood at the entrance to the royal chambers and knocked lightly. Would she even answer the door? What if she was still upset after her fight with Elric? What if this was a bad idea? Julia was about to turn around and leave when the door to the room opened.

“Hey,” Julia spoke nervously.

“You!”