Chapter 50: Disgust

“Prince, the prime minister, is waiting for you in the throne room,” The guard standing at the door of the royal palace welcomed Pento and told him about the meeting place. Pento’s heart skipped a beat when he heard about the location of the meeting. A bad feeling rose in his heart as he walked down the gate toward the throne room.

When he reached the throne room, he finally knew why he was feeling bad. There were only two people present in the throne room. One was the prime minister, and the other was his father, the king.

The king was sitting on his throne while the prime minister was standing and talking to the king.

“Royal father,” Pento bowed and greeted his father from the gate of the throne room as he couldn’t enter the room without the permission of the king when he was present in the room.

“Enter!” The king responded in an emotionless and majestic tone after seeing his son standing at the door.

“Thank you, royal father,” Pento thanked his father and entered the throne room. “Prime minister,” He then bowed toward the prime minister as per the royal etiquette.

“Prince,” The prime minister emotionlessly nodded and responded.

“Prime minister, do you need something from me?” Pento flatly asked right away without a hint of respect in his voice. He didn’t want to waste time and let the prime minister take advantage of his position.

At first, the prime minister was taken aback by the respectless response from the prince for a moment, but he regained his calm the next moment and responded, “Yes. Your best friend Ben died yesterday. What had you done until now to avenge him?” His question was also blunt.

Pento fell silent as he had no response. It was true that Ben was his best friend, but he didn’t want to make that store owner his enemy. He loved the throne more than Ben.

“Son, I heard you were last seen with him coming out of the store where everything had happened. Why had you done nothing despite knowing he’s the son of Barry and one of my best friends and the prime minister of the Bisan Kingdom?” The king asked, seeing his son silent.

He never liked Pento because of his character, but he was his own blood and son of his dearest wife, so he let him do anything he wanted. But now, due to him, the Kingdom was on the verge of war. He had already found out that Pento had taken Ben to the store where everything started, so Pento was also to blame for whatever was happening.

“Royal father, I…” Pente had no words to speak since everyone in the Bisan Kingdom knew that his father disliked him. If he lied here, he was confident that his father would disown him. He could see the prime minister and his father had already made plans for their actions against the store.

After thinking for some time, he decided to tell the truth about Ben to his father and hope that his father wouldn’t make it a Kingdom issue. “Royal father, I took Ben to the store because of my conflict with the last owner of the land. I wanted the store owner to give up the land. When I arrived there with Ben, there was already a girl customer present there. Her name was Maria…” He then told his father everything Ben did to Maria and how he forced the store owner to throw him out of the store.

“SO WHAT?” The prime minister angrily growled after Pento finished his entire story. “You have done so many things. Did the king ever give up on you?” He angrily questioned. Ben was his dearest son, so no matter who he killed, raped, or insulted, he would kill anyone who harmed his son.

King only watched. He didn’t stop Barry from raising his voice. After that, he looked at Pento to hear what response he would provide.

“He acted like an idiot. I tried my best. I even forcefully took him out of the store. But he, without telling me afterward, tried to destroy the store by taking a mob with him. He himself is responsible for whatever happened to him. I, as his friend, did whatever possible to stop him from acting like an idiot,” Pento bluntly responded and put all the blame on Ben. He had seen Aakesh’s power from his own eyes, and he was confident that Aakesh was at the very least stronger than his father. He didn’t know the difference between his grandfather and Aakesh since he had never seen him.

“What kind of a friend are you?” Barry couldn’t help but question Pento in anger. He already knew his son was in the wrong, but does it matter? No, it doesn’t matter. No matter what Ben did, he would kill the store owner as he harmed his son.

“A good-”

“Tell me, what do you think we should do? An attack on the Schiller family is equal to an attack on the Bisan family. What should be our next step?” The king cut off his son in between and instead asked him. His patience had run out, and Pento’s response disappointed him.

“Damn it, I knew it. It had become a Kingdom issue,” Pento cursed in his heart. What he feared came true. His father had decided to punish the store owner.

“We should make a compromise with the store owner,” Pento responded, clenching his fist. He knew his father wanted to hear something else from him, but he still went through with the compromise. He didn’t know the full extent of Aakesh’s power. If Aakesh turned out to be even stronger than his grandfather, his dream of becoming the king would disappear right in front of his eyes.

As expected, his father and the prime minister scoffed at the same time after Pento responded. “Royal father, the store owner, isn’t an ordinary person. He’s more powerful than you,” Pento continued despite the look of disappointment in his father’s eyes.

“Does that mean anybody could attack anyone in our Kingdom?” The king responded as he stood up from his throne. The next moment, he appeared right in front of Pento as he said, “You disgust me.”

***

A/N: Finally the half-century of the Book is complete. Please don’t forget to leave reviews about the story so that more people may find it.

Thank you for reading the book until now!