Chapter 312 - 312 Waiting

312 Waiting

“No, it’s alright.” Anastasia gave a forceful smile to her husband so that he wouldn’t feel bad about himself for the whole day.

“I know you didn’t mean it like that,” she further added, even when she doubted that her husband had been pretending to like the tea that she had prepared for him for all this while, just because he didn’t want to hurt her feelings by saying that the tea tasted bad.

Caspian, on the other hand, believed that his wife really understood him. He let out a subtle sigh of relief and held both of her palms. He brought them closer to his lips and kissed her knuckles.

Then he expressed how he felt about this friendship thing that she was talking about, “Anna, I don’t really think I can maintain a friendly relationship with Everard. Even if I try, I know I will end up getting annoyed by him.”

Anastasia didn’t say a word. She knew that her words had no meaning in this matter anymore. She simply tried to maintain a neutral expression on her face so that Caspian wouldn’t overthink. As a result of his overthinking, she didn’t want any problems to arise between them.

Caspian could still see the discontent that was hidden behind her perfectly neutral expression. He gently massaged his thumb on her knuckles and softened his voice. “If you really insist, I could try faking it, but… it will only backfire in the long run. So, I think it’s better to leave the relationship as it is.”

After already witnessing her husband’s bitter reaction earlier, Anastasia didn’t want to keep on insisting on something that was not in her control. The future that she had imagined was only a pipe dream after all.

“No, I don’t want you to fake it.” Anastasia then said with finality, “I think we should leave this topic here. It was just my dream after all.”

Caspian felt a little bad for not being able to fulfill his wife’s wish. However, he hated the idea proposed by Anastasia from the deepest corner of his heart. How would he extend his hand of friendship to the man who he didn’t even wish to see again?

.....

He hugged his wife and softly said, “I am sorry, Anna.”

“Oh, don’t be,” Anastasia replied while softly smiling. “It’s alright.” She then broke free from the hug and said while gently pushing Caspian’s chest with her palm, “Now, you should go and get ready for your day, Your Majesty. I don’t want to keep you here for the whole day.”

Caspian pressed his palm over Anastasia’s and even though he wanted to stay with his wife for a little longer, he decided to focus on his duty for now. He wanted to check if the spies were back from Xanmar yet.

“I will see you in the evening,” he whispered before storming out of the bedchamber.

After getting ready for the day, Caspian finally headed out for his workroom. And as soon as he got there, he was greeted by Zenon.

“Good morning, Your Majesty,” he bowed. And immediately after, he began to brief the King about all the tasks that were scheduled for the day.

Caspian, however, wasn’t interested in listening to all those things. Even then, he waited for Zenon to finish speaking before finally asking his question, “Zenon, did the spies come back with any reports?”

Zenon felt his heart drop when he heard the question. For a second, he froze because no matter how many times he had reminded himself that he didn’t want to say anything about the report related to the Queen until the spy brought some more pieces of evidence, he felt the urge to answer truthfully when the King questioned him.

However, he controlled his urge to be truthful because they were already in a crisis related to the werewolves. He didn’t want the King to go through another problem related to the Queen who, at the moment, was the King’s biggest emotional support.

Zenon was well aware that the Queen was someone whose betrayal would surely drive the King mad.

‘This is all for the good of the King and for the good of this Kingdom,’ Zenon reminded himself before blatantly lying to the King.

“No, Your Majesty. There are no reports yet. But I am expecting that they will be here by tonight or early in the morning tomorrow. After all, it’s been quite a few days since they left.”

“Hmm…” Caspian furrowed his brows and restlessly tapped his fingers on the table.

Zenon was trying his best to remain utterly calm so that the King wouldn’t suspect him of lying or hiding anything from him. He didn’t want the King to think that he was also betraying the trust.

Caspian nodded his head after a while. He didn’t suspect Zenon one bit because his advisor had never once broken his trust before. “Alight then. Keep me updated.” He dismissed Zenon and began working on a few files that needed his immediate attention.

The day passed very slowly for Caspian. He had to sit through all the long meetings that he really had no interest in for now. He had to work on the files that he didn’t wish to read.

And it seemed like Anastasia had decided not to serve the tea to him because it had already been way past the usual time and yet, Anastasia was nowhere to be seen.

‘She is mad at me, isn’t she?’ he asked himself while looking at the huge wall clock on the wall of his workroom. The hour hand was already pointing that it was 5 in the evening.

‘What should I do? Should I leave everything and go see her?’ he wondered. However, he shook his head and forbade himself from doing that. ‘If I procrastinate today, then even more work will pile up for tomorrow. I better finish everything in the schedule before I go see her.’

Even though he didn’t want to, Caspian forced himself to stay back and work.

Another reason why he didn’t want to leave his workroom early was that he wished to read the report brought by the spy as soon as it arrived. And if the spies came after he went to rest for the night, Zenon would wait until the morning to hand him the report, which he didn’t want.

‘I want to read the report before meeting Anna. That way, I will have correct facts at my disposal if she is mad at me because of that wolf.’