Loving The Mad King

Rine - The Fourth Alter (1)

"Arlo?" Trish was a little surprised to see Arlo's sudden appearance.

"What's wrong? Why are you here?" he asked after Arlo saluted him.

"I was sent by Her Highness Cristela to tell His Majesty the King to immediately return to the palace, because King Edward will come to the palace. Her Highness Cristela wanted King Rion to return to welcome them," explained Arlo.

After hearing his right-hand's report, Trish rushed to tell the king what Arlo had just said. However, when he arrived at the king's study, he didn't see the king there.

He turned to go to the king's room, but the king was not there either. He was confused and wondered where the king had gone. Trish asked the servants about the whereabouts of the king, but no one knew where the king was.

He was starting to get a little worried as it was unusual for the king to leave without telling him. Trish wondered if this time the king was taken over again, but by whom? Lucifer? No, because if it was Lucifer, then he would have already made a fuss.

"Trishy, what's wrong?" Anwen came along with Odette. Trish immediately asked the two girls about the whereabouts of the king, but neither of them knew.

"What is it?" Anwen felt confused seeing Trish's worried expression.

Trish also explained that he had been looking for the king for a while, but couldn't find him anywhere, he was worried that the king was being taken over.

"Don't panic. Have you checked in the bathroom? Maybe my brother is in the shower."

"Yes. We have to find him quickly."

"Hm. Then we should split up," said Anwen, to which Odette and Trish agreed.

The three of them started to check every part of the castle and also checked every room, but they really couldn't find the king. The man disappeared as if he was being swallowed by the earth.

"Wait, have you seen the king?" Odette stopped a maid, and the maid shook her head in confusion.

"Okay, thank you."

The maid actually wanted to ask what was wrong, but Odette had already ran away from her. On the other hand, Anwen was checking on her brother's horse because she knew that every time her brother went somewhere, he would take his horse with him.

"You are here, then where is brother?" Anwen asked the black horse in front of her.

*** 

A creaking sound was heard when the door was opened. 

"Your Majesty?" Trish stepped into the king's training room and looked around, but he couldn't find anyone there. He was getting worried.

Back to Odette. The girl was now standing at the entrance of the rose garden. She wanted to enter but she considered the consequences she could receive for disobeying the king's orders.

"Miss Odette, what's wrong?" A guard came over.

"Is the king inside?" asked Odette which made the guard feel confused.

"No. After leaving here, I saw you two together. Is everything all right? Knight Trish also came here and asked the same thing."

"Ah, it's okay, then I'll go first." Odette ran again, and the guard could only stare at her in confusion.

'Rion, where are you?' Odette recalled Rion's face in her mind. She wished the man was doing well.

An hour had passed but Rion still hadn't been found. The servants and guards were confused because Odette, Anwen, and Trish took turns asking where the king was but none of the three gave an explanation. In the end, they could only speculate that the king had relapsed. Some of them were afraid but not a few were worried.

Odette had just turned and walked down a rather dark and cold hallway.

"Ri-Rion...." she called out in a tone that sounded hesitant, and she swallowed hard when she thought of Lucifer. She got goosebumps at the thought of Lucifer suddenly appearing and slashing her neck in that place.

Because she was afraid, she decided to go back but the sound of something falling stopped her. Her blue eyes looked at the door a few meters ahead. She felt sure that the object that fell earlier came from the room behind the door.

Her mind and heart clashed again. Her mind asked her to go and save herself, but her heart asked her to check what happened, because maybe Rion was in trouble and needed help.

After a moment of contemplating, she finally decided to follow her heart. After all, now she was Rion's doctor, she had a duty to make sure her patients were okay. Odette took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. After that, she started walking towards the door.

"Ri-Rion... are you in there?" She put her ear to the door and waited for someone to answer.

"Rion!" she called again. She heard a voice from inside but no one answered her. She was afraid to open the door, but she got up the courage again, and to her surprise when the door opened, she saw Rion's body hanging from a rope around his neck.

"RION!" Odette shrieked. She spontaneously ran, and grabbed the chair that was lying under the man.

Odette's whole body was covered in cold sweat, her heart was beating very fast. With very trembling hands, she made both Rion's feet rest on the chair after which she ran to take another chair, which she climbed up on to untie the rope that bound Rion.

"P-please, hold on," she stammered. Odette panicked even more when she saw Rion's face which was already very pale.

The rope was loose. Odette held Rion's body, but since she was unable to support the man's weight and the unstable state of the chair, they fell together on the floor.

Odette quickly got up and lifted his head and made the man lean on her. "Rion, Rion, wake up!" 

She patted Rion's cheek, but the man gave no response. Odette then checked the pulse on the man's wrist and neck. Although it felt very faint, the pulse was enough for Odette to tell that Rion was still alive.

"Hold on, please." Odette laid Rion back on the floor, after which she started to press the man's chest repeatedly to restore his breathing ability.

Beads of sweat appeared on Odette's forehead. She was still trying to save Rion's life by performing CPR and her efforts were not in vain. After five minutes, Rion finally breathed again, and that was a great relief for Odette.

Rion, who slowly opened his eyes, was confused to see Odette sitting next to him. 

"You?" He rushed up. "What is…" 

His sentence was cut short when Odette suddenly hugged him tightly.

"Thank goodness... thank goodness..." said Odette while crying, but at the same time she was also smiling. She couldn't describe how relieved she was.

Meanwhile, Rion knitted his brows, he wondered what was going on, but it didn't take long for him to understand what had happened when he saw the rope hanging above.

It looked like he was taken over by Rine, then he tried to kill himself and Odette saved him but…

What's with this girl? Why was she crying? Was she worried?

"Tsk. If you don't let go, I'll call you a seductress."

"W-what do you mean?" Odette quickly let go of her arms, while Rion immediately stood up as soon as Odette let go. However, because he felt dizzy, he almost fell. Luckily Odette quickly caught him.

Once he found his balance, Rion straightened his body quickly and moved away from her.

"What are you doing? You seem so terrified that I'll harass you." Odette looked cynically, because Rion's attitude seemed very uncomfortable to the touch, even though Odette just wanted to help and had no other intention.