Ahren's POV

♕✿~♕✿~Chapter 3//: King of Norta♕✿~♕✿~

When Gregory walks into my room with a regretful look on his face, I know I can't expect any good news from him.

"Anything?" I still ask with hopefulness. At this point, though, my hope has gone down a lot.

As expected, Gregory shakes his head. A troubled look is in his eyes as he watches me, looking for my reaction.

I swallow a lump in my throat. Relax. Just because she hasn't been found yet, doesn't mean she'll never be found.

"But doesn't it? After all, you've been searching for three days nonstop and where has that lead you?" a small voice in the back of my mind says tauntingly. I push it away.

"We need to go further with our search parties. Send the next one further south. I'll plan out the spots they'll check and give it to you late-"

"With all due respect, Your Majesty," Gregory cuts me off gently, "we don't have time for any more search parties to be sent out."

I freeze up at this, my eyes slowly meeting Gregory's. At first, I feel shock. Then, I feel indignation.

"What do you mean 'we don't have time for this'? We aren't doing anything of importance right now. Our time should be spent on sending out search parties. This is a person we're looking for!" I tell Gregory in desperation, trying to convince both him and myself that the search parties aren't wasted efforts.

Gregory looks slightly regretful as he says, "It's just one girl, Your Majesty."

A fire builds up inside of me, and I clench my fists to stop the fire from showing. By my wrists, my fire bracelets click and I see a small spark of flame burst from them. It was tempting to grab onto the small flicker of flame, turn it into something bigger and more dangerous. At least I would have control over one thing in my life right now, then.

I open my mouth, ready to get into another argument with Gregory like I have been for the past few days, but Gregory beats me to speaking. "And there is something very important we are supposed to be doing right now, Your Majesty. Actually, two things."

The confusion on my face must have shown. As far as I knew, the only "important" thing I was supposed to do right now was continue the Choosing. But that wasn't going to happen without Madi here with me, safe and sound.

Gregory sighs in exasperation, disappointed that I don't know the answer. "Your coronation?" He prompts. My face slackens. Of course. My coronation. To officially become king.

"That can wait," I bite out. I move past Gregory to go to the training room to get some of my frustration out, but Gregory grabs my arm and holds me in my room.

"It can not wait, Your Majesty," Gregory insists. "Right now, Norta is without an official king. They only have what seems to be two heartbroken children not physically ready to lead the country. There are dangerous rebels running around the country, killing innocent people. They've already infiltrated the palace multiple times, so how can anyone expect to be safe in their own home when the most guarded place in the country was infiltrated more than once? They need someone right now to guide them, to reassure them, to keep them going with their heads high. Your people are frightened. Are you really going to leave them like that because of your own selfish reasons?" Gregory asks me, the need for an answer shining in his eyes. Throughout his talk, his grip on me had tightened considerably. It was like I was shackled. Gregory notices this and immediately lets go of my arm, the blood rushing back to my arm.

I can't meet his eyes, even as he waits for an answer. He was painfully right. I know my people are scared. I know they need someone to assure them hope and safety. And yet I blatantly turned away from them when I am supposed to be that person. All because I wanted to wallow up in my room and spend my days waiting for news of Madi's return.

What would Madi think of you if she saw how you were acting right now? I flinch at this thought. She wouldn't allow it. She would tell me to get out of my room, be strong, and be there for my people.

But my selfish thoughts were still there. What about organizing search parties to find Madi? When I become king, I'll be bombarded with work as a new king and won't have time to organize the search parties. But I couldn't just leave my people in the dark, alone and without guidance. Maybe Juliet can become the new Queen instead. But as soon as that thought came into my mind, I knew it wouldn't work. Juliet has been more cooped up in her room than I am in mine. She hasn't come out for food and hasn't talked to anyone, even me.

A new idea popped into my head. Maybe Gregory could organize them. But that would be too much on him. He was getting older and already had to deal with me acting like a toddler throwing a tantrum. I didn't want to add more weight to his shoulders.

Then one name popped into my head.

I turned to Gregory, new determination set in me. "Ok. I'll agree to have my coronation soon and become king. But I want to be able to put someone else in charge of organizing the search parties for Madi. I'm not giving up on her."

Gregory hesitates for a second before nodding. "Alright, Your Majesty. I will agree to it. But you can't back out on your end," he warns me. I nod my head vigorously, ready to go off and confront the person I'm going to place my trust in to find Madi.

I excuse myself quickly after that, rushing down the halls. My eyes scan back and forth, searching for the person. I wasn't entirely sure where to find this person at this time.

Soon, I see the person standing at the end of a hall. I rush towards the person with renewed energy. The person looks slightly alarmed as I reach them at a fast pace.

"Your Majesty. What's the matter?" Nick asks me with alarm and concern etched on his face. Although we were always on the wrong foot, our past differences had been put behind us when I had allowed Rose to stay here in the palace with Nick. Surprisingly, the guy wasn't such a bad person as I thought he would be.

"Nothing alarming," I reassure him. I get straight to the point. "Nick, my coronation is going to happen soon. Possibly next month."

Nick looks slightly confused that I had rushed over here just to tell him that. "Oh. Uh, congratulations?" He tells me uncertainly.

I wave it off. "That's not why I came here to talk to you." I take in a deep breath. "When I'm king, I won't have enough time on my hands to organize search parties to look for Madi."

I notice Nick visibly tense when Madi's name is mentioned. Like the others who were close to Madi, Nick was still worried sick about Madi's whereabouts. According to him, Rose was even worse.

"I'm not going to give up searching for her until I find her," I tell him. "And that's why I want you to be in charge of organizing the search parties."

A look of surprise crosses Nick's face. "M-me?" He stutters out, still shocked at this. "But I'm just a regular guard." He points to his uniform like I can't see for myself that he's a regular guard.

"I know you're a regular guard. And I know you would be busy with your shifts," I explain to him. "So that's why I'm going to make you one of the King's guards."

This time, Nick's mouth drops open. It sounds like he wants to say something, but all I hear is a slight croaking sound. He closes his mouth, opens it, then closes it again. After a few moments of repeating this, he finally stammers out, "Why me?"

I shrug, trying to appear indifferent. "Well, I trust you. I know you care about Madi, and I know you'll take this job seriously. And, well, there's a spot for you in the King's guards." My jaw slightly tenses as my mind goes back to the reason why there's a spot for Nick. Because Lucas betrayed the royal family and Madi.

After a few moments of silence, Nick finally looks at me. His eyes show fierce resolution, and he puts his right hand over his heart. A salute to the king. To me.

"I won't disappoint, Your Majesty. Thank you so much for offering me this position." He tells me genuinely.

I nod appreciatively. It felt good to know that someone trustworthy was in charge of helping me look for Madi.

"Thank you, Nick. You have no idea how much this means to me," I tell him. He nods at me, and I take that as my cue to go look for Gregory.

It was time to become the King of Norta.

♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~

Heellllooooo~

I am seriously so sorry this chapter took forever to be published. Right now, I have my finals (they're a pain in the butt). I finally found motivation to write this chapter, and it was actually very nice to just sit down and write. Really helped with getting rid of some of the stress of finals :)

I'm honestly happy that I decided to start a bromance between Nick and Ahren lol. Two of Madi's favorite males, finally being friends.

So, great news! School for me ends tomorrow! (YES SO EXCITED!) And guess what that means? MORE TIME TO WRITE. I am literally doing nothing during summer, so I have a lot of time to just pick up my computer and write. Hopefully the chapters come sooner during summer because you guys deserve it:)

Have a good rest of your week!

Glass_Sword