205 Awkward Silence
Alexander also wanted to sprint to his sister’s side the moment she greeted him. He wanted to lovingly stroke her head and also give her a warm hug. He missed his little sister greatly.
However, since several pairs of eyes were on them, he maintained the etiquette that was deemed fit of a Crown Prince and simply gave his sister a wide smile and greeted her, “It’s nice to see you too, dear sister.”
When Alexander addressed the Queen of Sorvando as his sister, the people of Xanmar who worked closely in the castle seemed to understand why the King of Sorvando was invited to the ball. And they guessed why Caspian accepted the invitation and came all the way to Xanmar even when he was infamous as the King who didn’t like to mingle with any of the other Kingdoms.
While almost everyone’s eyes were glued to those who arrived late to the ceremony, Everard was no different. He was unable to take his eyes off of the exquisite beauty who was standing not too far away from him.
‘Is it just me or does she look even more beautiful than before,’ he thought to himself while gazing at Anastasia from her head to her toes. He completely forgot that she was now someone else’s wife and that her husband was standing right next to her.
Nobody noticed the little frown that formed in between Caspian’s forehead when he saw that werewolf drooling over his wife. He scoffed to himself and angrily shouted in his mind, ‘So, he is not even trying to hide the fact that he likes my wife, huh? How can someone be so indecent?’
Caspian abruptly stepped in front of Anastasia and looked Everard right in the eyes as a sign of warning to stay away from his wife.
Everard also frowned when his view was suddenly blocked by a broad chest of the man he wished hadn’t come to his celebratory ball. When his eyes locked with the pair of blood-red eyes, he automatically clenched his fists.
‘So, this is the monster who has kept Anna as a hostage,’ Everard thought to himself, a little disappointed by the fact that Caspian didn’t literally look like a monster, but rather, he looked like every woman’s dream.
.....
Caspian’s thoughts were also along the same line. After hearing from his wife that she had insisted on being just friends with Everard when he had proposed her to be more than just friends, Caspian had assumed that he lacked in certain ways, probably his physical appearance.
However, just by looking at the lower half of his face, and the extraordinary build of his body, Caspian could tell that the man was a heartthrob among women.
‘I should be more cautious of him,’ Caspian thought to himself while he kept on glaring at Everard.
With those two Kings talking with themselves in their heads, the atmosphere was becoming a little heavy.
Anastasia nervously looked around the hall. She could feel the questioning glances from almost everyone in the room. She glanced at the back of her husband. Her heartbeat was escalating really fast.
She nervously clutched her gown and restlessly thought to herself, ‘Why aren’t they saying anything? Should I say something? Or should I take Caspian somewhere else? Ugh! What do I do?’
Just like how Anastasia was aware that Caspian didn’t like Everard, Alexander was also aware of how much Everard despised Caspian for no reason whatsoever.
And he also wondered if it was right for him to intervene. ‘Is it okay if I introduce the two of them to each other? Why isn’t Anna doing it already? Since she knows both of them, it would have been nice if she had done that.... I think I will take one for everyone.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake! Why is it suddenly getting hot in here?’ Alexander sighed and pulled the collar of his shirt. He needed a second before stepping in between the two of them.
Not just Alexander and Anastasia, but everyone present in the hall could sense the tension between the two Kings. Everyone was expecting to see some kind of drama between them.
Alexander was now ready to intervene again, but he was thankful that his brother-in-law broke the awkward silence just in time.
“Congratulations on being crowned as the King of Xanmar. I wish you my very best for your reign.”
Everard almost couldn’t believe his ears when he heard the polite voice of Caspian. In his mind, he had assumed that Caspian would sound like a grumpy middle-aged man, considering that he was a vampire who could be way older than he appeared.
He held in his discomfort and tried to reply to Caspian with similar politeness, “Thank you for your best wishes, and thank you for coming all the way here to attend the ceremony. I would like to heartily welcome you to my Kingdom and also to my castle.”
Since the two Kings had now exchanged their greetings, Alexander stepped in and then gave a gentle bow to Caspian. Then he formally introduced himself, “Your Majesty, I am Alexander Vairina, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Orsenia. And also the elder brother of the Queen of Sorvando.”
Finally, a subtle smile appeared on Caspian’s lips. Even though it was his first time meeting Alexander, he was feeling as though he was already very close to the Prince.
He held out his hand and then said while shaking Alexander’s hand, “I was looking forward to meeting you, Prince Alexander. It’s a shame that this is our very first meeting.”
“Likewise, Your Majesty. I was also eagerly waiting to meet you,” Alexander gave a broad smile to Caspian, which suddenly reminded Caspian of his wife. They somewhat looked alike when they smiled.
Caspian stepped aside and pulled his wife to his side. He held his beautiful wife by her waist and gave her a gentle smile. He then looked back at Alexander to say, “I’ve heard a lot about you from Anna.”
“She also wrote me some letters praising you,” Alexander replied while smiling at his sister.
Just from the little things that Caspian was doing, and the way his sister was looking at her husband, Alexander could tell how much they adored each other.
He happily looked back at Caspian and said, “I can see that she wasn’t exaggerating anything in those letters.”
“Really? She wrote to you about me?” Caspian looked at his wife and playfully said, “Now I want to read those letters just to know if she ever complained about me to her brother.”
Alexander burst into laughter after hearing that. With every word that Caspian said, he was liking his brother-in-law more and more.
“Why would I complain about you? There’s nothing to complain about,” Anastasia mumbled in her shy voice.
Alexander also agreed with his sister, “I can assure you that she never complained about you.”
Everard, on the other hand, was feeling excluded from the conversation even when he was standing right there. He was gritting his teeth and wondering how much of that act between Anastasia and her husband was real, and how much of it was just a fa?ade.
He couldn’t help but think, ‘This cannot be the truth. There’s no way in hell this is all real. Anna is simply putting up an act for Alex, isn’t she?’
He turned his glare at Caspian and thought, ‘Let’s see how long you can keep up the act. You are bound to slip up somewhere. And when you do, I am going to catch you red-handed.’
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l