20 Monarchy audience (Part - 2)

There were two guards in their official uniform who were guarding the door toward the dinning hall.

A grand room that is used by the king when there are special guest going to dine with the King and the Queen.

"I greet His majesty the sun of Valmanchal Empire!" said Mr. Castillo, his right hand on the left shoulder as he greeted the king and then the Queen.

Theo glanced him and mimicked him, since she knew nothing about that country. Both the King and the Queen looked kind hearted and young.

Theo was amazed after seeing them and thought about Jasper who was nothing like them, "Maybe, they are kind only at the face!" she mumbled and silently stared the King who was laughing without any reason.

"Castillo! You have even taught your son how to greet us properly. You must have been very cruel to teach him as soon as he got well," the King said with a grin on his face.

He was staring Theo with a smile that doesn't showed any hostility.

Mr. Castillo shook his head and said, "I am not as cruel as your majesty mentioned me. He learned it when he was in the Castillo mansion so as to greet your majesty properly".

Theo glanced at him and put down her hand which was near her shoulder, "It seems that I should have avoided greeting him. Maybe becoming a mute for a bit is not a bad idea," she thought in herself.

The king stood up and stepped toward Theo, his eyes staring her from top to toe and stopped at a one hand distance, "I heard that you don't like strangers to be near you".

He said those words since Theo didn't reacted when the King tried to approach her.

His light grey eyes were penetrating through her thoughts while lips were still raised from the corner.

He seemed to be a King whose thoughts were hard to read for Theo and she gulped while looking down, "It seems that he is suspicious of me!" she thought and gazed up to meet his eyes.

"Maybe because he is habituated by my near presence, that's why he don't see you as an stranger. After all we are father and son," Jasper said as he walked inside the dining hall.

The King expression changed, he glared at Jasper and shouted, "You jerk! Where were you for all this time and who was your victim this time".

Seeing his emotions which was right on his face, Theo felt confused. It was weird because all the Kings she have met until now in her world were quite sharp and often hid their real expression to confuse their people and enemy, but he seemed different.

"Is he trying to confuse me by acting like that or is he really so naive?" she thought and turned her gaze down as the king glanced at her.

"What do you mean by habituated? Don't tell me that you were hiding in Castillo's mansion all along!" he said and stared at Mr. Castillo who was smiling awkwardly.

Jasper walked forward and sat next to the Queen, "What do you mean by victim and even if I did stay at Castillo mansion, it wasn't like I troubled them or threatened them, so don't spout nonsense".

The King gritted his teeth and looked at the Queen who was smiling gently, "That's why I told you to have a few more sons. Look at this stupid son, he don't know how to take care of his father's work and goes on making trouble".

The Queen elegantly glanced at Jasper with a pretty smile and twisted his ear with her hand.

Rather then moaning he had a mocking smile and he was staring Theo.

"Won't you ask them to have a seat?" the Queen said and left his ear.

The King turned back, his face was flustered and he coughed as he said, "He must have troubled you by his stay! You can tell me what he did and instead of you I will punish him".

Mr. Castillo shook his head and glanced at Jasper. Since he knew that it will be troublesome if he says something which offends the Prince, so he said only nice stuff, "Your majesty, rather then troubling us, he have helped us by protecting my son from the assassins, twice. Therefore, please be lenient to him".

The King laughed while glaring Jasper annoyingly. He knew him very well and knew that there was no way that he could come back without causing any trouble.

Staring at Jasper, he said, "I know there is no way that he have come back without causing any trouble, but since you are not going to tell me, there's nothing I can do".

"What with this odd family! Am I hallucinating! Does king's nowadays are so gullible and easygoing?" she thought, her eyes and thoughts both hazy.

They both sat opposite to Jasper while the King sat on the head's chair. The table was filled with numerous kind of dishes and even though Theo was unwilling, still she was feeling that her saliva might drools out because of the delicious smell.

"Its not that I have never seen delicious meals, but it's just that this body is still not immune to delicacy" she thought in herself while her cheeks red cause she could not stop her stomach rumbling sound.

Jasper who was sitting opposite to her, chuckled and passed the chicken dish to her, "Eat it, or I might end up eating everything".

Theo's head was down due to embarrassment and she glared him while keeping her head low, so that others won't find out.

The King and Queen stared him as if staring an alien. Because Jasper have never been kind to anyone, it was a shock that he was giving someone his own favorite dish.

"Dear! It seems that he have changed after coming back from the Castillo mansion?" the King whispered to the Queen.

The Queen glanced at him and whispered back, "If he does, then I will send him there for a few more months".

Due to her sensitive ears, she could hear their whispers without even trying and those whispers were quite troublesome.

She was silently eating while at the same time thinking of a way to refrain the King from taking such horrible measures.

"He must have given me his food just to cause another trouble!" she mumbled and grabbed the water to have a drink.

Jasper grinned while comfortably leaning on his hand and he said while turning his eyes toward the King, "I want your permission to take Theo to the Valmanchal academy. I want him to become my partner in study".

Theo gasped and coughed some water out as she heard those words. She knew about it already but the peace in the dining hall made her totally forget about it. Suddenly hearing it out of nowhere shocked her and she wiped the water with tissue paper kept in front.

"How can that be? He have just become stable, how can you ask me to send him with you when he has yet to learn many things," the King asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

Jasper glanced at her with a smile, a smile which was pretty horrible to others with deep secrets, "I will teach him since I know everything already and moreover, he is in the second in line to the throne, so of course he needs to learn everything quickly or how can he compete with me, isn't it right?".

She become stunned after hearing his words and glanced at her father, "What does this mean?" she asked quickly.

The King curiously stared Mr. Castillo thinking about Theo's reaction which was similar to a person who gets shock by some new words.

"Haven't you informed him yet! This was something not to be taken lightly, but you still forgot to tell him?" the King curiously asked.

Mr. Castillo hesitated and looked down, it wasn't because he was feeling guilty of not telling his daughter that she have royal blood flowing in her, but it was because he didn't had enough time to tell her, after all those troublesome things happened one by one in the Castillo mansion.

"Since he forget about everything once he become stable, it become hard to tell him everything at once and in the middle I forget to tell him about his mother," Mr. Castillo said.

The King nodded, "Yes, it must have been hard on you, so I will tell him instead of you," he glanced at Theo and said, "your mother was a priestess whose blood was no lesser then the royalties and you are her only son, so you have the right to the throne".

Theo was lost in her thoughts, she was curious about the real Theo's mother and what she was like. What most was going through her head was, how did she died?

The Queen laughed while keeping her palm near her mouth and said, "We wanted our son to marry in the Castillo family if they had a daughter, but since a son took birth, how about we marry our daughter to him?" she said.

"As if! Why would I marry a guy whose IQ is similar to a child? And moreover I have a guy I love, so there is no need for me to get matched with someone who is a laughing stock in this country," said a voice from near the door.