The Cursed King

It was a beautiful evening and the couple enjoyed it by cooking together and ate dinner while chatting about the wedding. It was so heartwarming. Elise told Loriel about some of the wedding ideas presented by Alex and asked the man about his preference.

Loriel shook his head and smiled dotingly. "I like everything you like. You can have the wedding of your dream and I want to be part of it."

"Hmm..  don\'t you have anything specific that you want regarding the wedding?" Elise asked again. "I am not the only one getting married here. Are you not interested in our wedding?"

Loriel\'s eyes went droopy at hearing this question. He remembered their first wedding. He was mentally not present because his mind was not with his body. He only wanted the wedding ceremony to be over with so they could get on with their lives.

Now,  looking at his innocent wife, he was feeling a pang of guilt for the past. He decided, this time he would do things right, including for their wedding.

"Hmm... I am a man who is not talented at such things," finally, he admitted truthfully. "I don\'t have any more family or friends to invite. I only have you, and Marc. I promise you, that I am invested in the wedding and will do my best to be a good husband to you in our marriage going forward."

He added, "Maybe, there is only one thing that I want to have at the wedding. Once the wedding ceremony ends, I want to drink a cup of wine with you to formalize our marriage."

"Wine?" Elise looked interested. "We drink wine all the time. What makes this wine special that we have to do it after the wedding?"

Loriel smiled faintly. "Well, it\'s not the wine, but the cup. It\'s special."

"Oh..." Elise\'s eyes batted in excitement. She was happy to know that Loriel wanted something specific about their wedding. It showed that he was invested too. "Okay. That sounds good. I will make sure to include that."

Loriel was glad he still kept the wine cup he used to drink their wedding ceremony wine from 15 centuries ago. It symbolized many things to him now and he would love to restart his marriage with Elise in a good way.

Ahh, he couldn\'t help but think about the past whenever he saw the cup. He kept it in his small \'museum\' where he kept many antiques and old artifacts that made up probably the most valuable collection in the world now.

***

"Your Majesty," Horatio knocked on the king\'s study door frantically. His face looked worried and helpless. This made Loriel dropped the quill in his hand and immediately rose from his seat.

"What happened?" he asked the man.

Horatio bowed down his head several times. "Her Majesty is very sick. I have called the royal physician and we are waiting for his arrival. I want to let you know what happened."

Loriel left his study before Horatio even finished speaking. The Summerian king was really worried when he heard Elise was sick. She looked fine last night, he thought.

After he apologized to her for teasing her and making her cry, she was willing to eat something and rest. However, she refused when Loriel offered to sleep with her for the night. She said she didn\'t want to disturb the king\'s sleep since he just returned from the frontline and needed quality sleep.

Loriel knew it was her polite way to tell him to scram. It was his own fault that he made her cry earlier and even though he had apologized, he felt that Elise\'s treatment of him was justified.

Secretly, he actually felt impressed that Elise stood up for herself. He thought his wife was a pushover. Even though she didn\'t say it openly, the way she phrased her words showed that she didn\'t want Loriel to stay at her chamber.

Well, Loriel was a man and he had his ego. So, he didn\'t need to be told twice and decided to leave her alone.

He slept in his own chamber for the night and in the morning he started his day like usual. When he didn\'t see Elise in the dining room for breakfast he asked Horatio where she was.

His loyal butler assured him that the queen already had her breakfast in her chamber and didn\'t feel like going out. So, Loriel left her be. He thought probably Elise was still angry at him and didn\'t want to see him for a while.

Fine. He could accept that. When he went back to his chamber to get dressed before he attended a meeting with his ministers, he was surprised to see most of his clothes were already back in his closet.

Weren\'t they in his wife\'s chamber already? Why did she have them returned here?

Gosh.. now, how could he use those clothes as an excuse to come to Elise\'s chamber?

Loriel thought it was fine if Elise didn\'t want him to spend the night with her and she didn\'t want to see him during mealtime.

But if his clothes were still in her chamber, at least the king would be able to go there and visit her to \'get his favorite clothes to wear\'. Now, he realized his plan failed miserably.

Had Elise started to hate him?

The man\'s heart felt hurt at this thought. He was used to seeing the adoration look on Elise\'s eyes whenever she saw him, but now she didn\'t even want to see him?

She had avoided him in breakfast... would she avoid him for lunch and dinner too?

She was pregnant with their baby and he understood that her mood was probably not the best right now, so, Loriel tried to be understanding. He let her be and tried to focus on his work, even though his mind was all over the place.

And now, suddenly Horatio told him that Elise became sick?

Gosh...  foolish woman!

Loriel no longer cared that Elise didn\'t want to see him after he made her cry yesterday. He walked in long steps toward the east tower to get to his wife\'s chamber. He must see her and tell her that from today onward, they would share a chamber.

He must see her every day and make sure that she and their baby were fine. 

KNOCK

KNOCK

Loriel knocked twice and opened the door to his wife\'s chamber. There were several maids inside who immediately bowed down deeply when they saw the king. Elise was curled up in a ball on her bed. Her face looked as white as cotton.

Loriel immediately approached Elise\'s bed with worry plastered all over his face.

"How long has she been like this?" he asked the maids.

His expression looked so fierce that they stepped back out of fear. Even though they didn\'t do anything wrong, they were worried the king would punish them for their failure to take care of his wife.

One of them, who was the oldest one, exerted her courage and replied to Loriel\'s question, albeit with a stammer. "H-her... M-majesty suddenly fell ill an hour ago."

"That long?" Loriel was furious. "Why didn\'t anyone tell me????"

Elise tried to sit up with difficulty when she saw Loriel. She reached out her hand and gripped the man\'s arm. Her voice was weak when she begged him to spare the maids. "Your.. Majesty... it\'s not.. their fault. I suddenly felt unwell, and I thought it was just a regular morning sickness..."

Loriel\'s expression instantly turned gentle when he turned to Elise and sat by the bed, beside her.  He touched her forehead and cheeks to see if she had a fever. "Do you have bad morning sickness?"

Elise nodded weakly. "Sometimes."

"Oh... then you have to get better care," said Loriel. "Why didn\'t you tell me about this?"

Elise didn\'t reply. She looked away and slowly tears started dripping from the corners of her eyes. Loriel assumed this must be the raging pregnancy hormones that she cried so easily for nothing.

He waved at the maids and sent them out. "All of you, wait outside. When Zaff comes, bring him inside."

"Will do, Your Majesty," the maid all responded in unison, while bowing down deeply. They walked out of the queen\'s chamber and closed the door behind them. They stood outside the chamber while waiting for Zaff the royal physician.

Loriel pulled Elise to his embrace and tugged her chin to look in his direction. His eyes looked very serious when he spoke. "This can\'t do. From now on, I will move into this chamber and stay with you. This is for our child."

Actually, this was for him too. He couldn\'t bear to be apart from her while she was carrying their baby. But he could only say that he did it for the child. He had his pride.

He also felt hurt if she no longer loved him. Not when he had already decided to consummate their marriage and tried to make things work.

Loriel added, "I need to make sure that I can be with you when you are unwell. So, I don\'t want to hear an excuse. After Zaff checks on your condition, I will ask Horatio to move my personal belongings to this chamber."

Elise looked at the man with a disbelief expression. She couldn\'t understand what Loriel actually wanted. Did he really want to move in to be with her, or only for the baby?

However, Loriel misunderstood her gaze and added, "I will move out after the child is born."

Elise lowered her head and bit her lip. Ahh... so, it wasn\'t for her.

She nodded weakly and replied, "Understood, Your Majesty."