Chapter 55 - Bring Life Back

Alexander took Sofia to the throne room and had the guards open the door. He held her hand and walked inside the room with her. The subjects of Arimelari felt happy to see her but none of them showed in their faces. It had become a crime to smile or celebrate in Arimelari.

They wore blank faces in their seats. The King and queen took their seats at the throne and looked down on the subjects.

"Here is the queen. Now you may go on," the King said. His voice is icy as usual.

A man in his late forties with white hair in his head stood up. He took his place before the king and queen and bowed to the king and queen. He stood straight and faced the queen.

"Your Highness, we have come to you to plead for your help," he said to her.

Sofia turned her head and stole a glance at Alexander who couldn't be bothered by what the people were saying. He had his eyes looking outside the window which was facing the palace in which Francis laid in. He couldn't wait for the meeting to end is that he could return to Francis's side.

"What happens to be the problem?" She asked the man with a soft voice.

"We can't live like this anymore my queen. We implore you to help us get our freedom.

Arimelari is now a dark kingdom. There is no joy or laughter in the kingdom and many and many people are deserting the kingdom and moving to other kingdoms. But others are hesitant because they fear the king. Please help us," the man said to her. The others just nodded their heads to show they agree with him.

The men and women who had come to the palace were among the ones who were brave enough to face the king. They had gotten tired of the lives they were forced to live just because of the king's mood swings.

"The people are not responsible for what happened on that faithful day. We had nothing to do with Francis's death," another man said. Queen Sofia's face was crossed with fear when she heard what the man said. He not only mentioned that day but also dared to utter his name with his lips in the king's presence.

Flames of anger shot through Alexander. It was one thing that they were running their mouths freely and saying things against him but now they dared mention that day when he had strictly forbidden it. And how dare that low life utter his beloved's name when he was not worthy of calling it.

He stood up from his seat ready to shed the man's blood and mopping the floors of the palace with it but he felt a handhold him back. The man who had spoken and the ones in the room trembled with fear as they could see their deaths coming. The man regretted opening his mouth, in a state of anger he had made the mistake of talking about Francis.

Alexander looked back to find that his queen was holding him, she had her eyes closed and even the hand that was holding him was shaking. It reminded him of that day and how Francis had held his hand before he lost consciousness forever.

He sat back down and went back to staring out the window and tuned out all the noises in the room.

"I will listen to your complaints but please avoid breaking the law while you represent your complaints to me," the queen said to them. She relaxed a bit that she didn't see Alexander murder people in the throne room again. It was something that has happened many times before since the people always seem to forget their place and say just as they feel forgetting that Alexander is no more the dragon prince they knew.

He was the dragon king and had a whole army of dragons at his beck and call. They were not afraid to burn people or things to the ground as long as it was an order from their king and the king was more than happy to give the orders without any hesitation.

"I apologize, my queen," the man said feeling grateful that the Queen was able to stop the king before he could kill them. "But until things change there are going to be more and more deaths in Arimelari. Our kingdom is dying because of things that are not even our fault my queen," he went on to say. He just couldn't see the suffering of the people and just as he had lost his temper and spoke out of term. Many more will do the same when they lose their temper and reach their limits with the situation.

"Yes my queen, if you don't do something to change the way things have become then you can be sure that there won't be a kingdom in Arimelari anymore. The people would either die or they would have migrated to live somewhere else," a woman said to her.

"More than that, what future awaits our children in such a kingdom my queen. You are a mother and as I have heard, you love your son very much. What future do you expect him to have in this kingdom," she continued making the Queen cry.

She wiped the tears in her eyes knowing that the woman had a point. She had worried about that for a while now and now things will only get worse if she doesn't do something. She had to find a way to make the situation a little better for when Ander grew up so he won't grow up and live like they do afraid to die at any moment.

"I have heard what all you had to say. As your queen I will make it my priority to solve the problem," she said determined to make Arimelari a better place for her son.

The people made their way out of the palace bidding goodbye to the queen and king. They did have any hope of things getting better but they didn't want to give up hope and just wish that the queen would be able to fix everything.

"I'm going back to my palace," the king informed the queen and made his way down the throne.

"My king waits," she called out and got up. She rushed to him and stood next to him. , "I wish to talk to you about the problems the subjects raised," she said to him.

"I don't want to hear it and I don't care what they want. I have more important things to do than worry about them," Alexander said and walked away.

"What would Francis want?" she asked him. Her hands folded into a fist behind her back to give her the strength to face him. She digs her nails into her skin to prevent herself from bowing down to the fear that was crawling through her skin for saying Francis's name.

Alexander turned around to look at her. His eyes showed extreme displeasure and his annoyance flared up. He took slow steps walking towards her. She felt sweat trickle down her back from how scared she was at him coming close to her. But just thinking of the unfair life that Ander was being made to live for the mistakes of other people gave the courage not to back down.

"If he were to wake up, what kind of kingdom world you want him to wake up to?" she asked him nervously.

Alexander stopped in his tracks. He thought about her question, it was true that he was looking for ways to mend Francis's broken soul and to revive him but he had not thought about the world he would want him to wake up to. Francis would not like a reality that he had created in Arimelari.

"What do you want?" he asked not answering the question she asked him.

"The right to bring life back to Arimelari and for Ander to get his rights as the crown prince of Arimelari," she said her fingers crossed that he would agree.

"Fine but if you can't make Arimelari better and more beautiful for Francis then I will kill that thing with my bare hands," he said and walked away.

Sofia fell to the ground after he left and wiped the sweat on her forehead. She had never been so scared in her life as she was at that moment. More than just scared, she had seen death in the eyes for the few seconds that they talked. But she was happy that he had agreed to it. Now all she had to do was get rid of the stupid laws that made it impossible to live in Arimelari and make a few changes.

She was just happy that the king's heart still melted at the mention of Francis's name. It was a shame that Francis had to get hurt, they would have been perfect for each other. If there were no misunderstandings between them and Olivia was not a part of his life.

"Thank you, Francis," she said knowing that it wouldn't have been possible to get Alexander to agree without him.