The King's Lover-Chapter 491: Then Tell Her

"Did something happen between you and Rose?"

Caius raised his head from his desk to glare at his cousin. He was irritated that Rylen could read him like a book, and he didn’t want to discuss her rejection with anyone, but at this point, he was going to go mad with all the thinking.

"I asked Rose to marry me," he admitted.

Rylen did his best not to show his horror, but if he knew anything about his cousin, it was most likely as bad as he imagined. "What happened after?" he softly asked.

He could take a guess. If it were good, Caius wouldn’t be brooding. He could tell the King needed his help. If he knew anything about Caius, he knew he was the reason it didn’t go well.

"She was horrified."

Rightfully so.

But Rylen knew better than to say that, so he simply asked, "Did she say no?"

Caius paused and thought about it. "Not exactly." But it certainly didn’t feel like she was going to say yes, and he had felt horrible about this. It wasn’t a nice feeling; his chest still hurt.

Rylen went quiet for a bit. "If she didn’t say no, she probably needs time to think about it. Your Majesty should try to put himself in her shoes for a moment. You suddenly just sprang marriage on her without any prior hints."

"She already agreed to stay with me. Isn’t being married better?"

Rylen would have laughed at his cousin’s reasoning if the latter didn’t look so serious and hurt. However, his approach was clearly wrong. He was stating it as though he was doing her a favor instead of telling her exactly how he felt.

Rose had no idea he was in love with her—even the blockhead didn’t know. It did make sense to be married, but that wasn’t the point. He had to tell her exactly how he felt, or else she would be confused.

Rylen could certainly understand her horror, but the fact that she didn’t outrightly say no gave him hope. Perhaps they could work through this; his cousin just needed better communication skills.

"Your Majesty," Rylen called. "You aren’t getting married to her for the sake of being married. You have to tell her how you feel; otherwise, she’s not going to know."

"Isn’t it obvious?"

Rylen slowly closed his eyes. His cousin wasn’t stupid, just a little dense, and it didn’t help that he had never needed to convince women to stay with him. Getting rid of them was actually harder.

"You are willing to do anything to make her marry you, right?"

Caius looked insulted at the question. "Of course."

He knew his cousin was more worried about losing Rose than anything else. However, he couldn’t always brute force things as he had always done.

"Then tell her that. Not that it would be better to be married, but rather that you couldn’t see yourself being married to anyone else and she is the only one you want to spend the rest of your life with."

Rylen knew better than to bring love into it; it would just complicate things for everyone. If Caius didn’t know that himself, then telling him wouldn’t make any difference.

Rylen was trying hard not to pull at his hair. How could Rose stay with him? He would never understand, but perhaps even someone like him could find love in the strangest of places.

Caius sighed. He knew exactly what he was frightened of. It wasn’t that he couldn’t say these things to Rose, but he worried that it wouldn’t make any difference, and it was slightly terrifying. He didn’t want to lose her, but aside from his actions, he wasn’t sure there was any other way to keep her by his side.

He waved his hand at his cousin to dismiss him. Rylen bowed and exited the room, hoping he had helped in some way. His own situation was more complicated. He was trying the slow approach, but Rylen wasn’t sure he was getting through to the princess.

When Maximus walked into the study, Caius was leaning back in his seat with his hand on his temple. He could feel the start of a headache that was only getting worse.

Caius was bothered about why she wanted to see her father. He hoped it was because she wanted to tell him about the proposal. He was also slightly worried that she would find out about the medicine; he intended to tell her when she accepted his proposal.

"Your Majesty," the huge man said with a bow as he walked in. "You called for me."

"I have a task for you," Caius said without lifting his head.

"Whatever Your Majesty needs."

"Before that, I need some information." He finally raised his head to look at Maximus. They met eyes briefly before Maximus averted his gaze. "What do you know about the masked auction?"

Maximus didn’t even look surprised at the question. "Not much, Your Majesty, but I know it has ties with Wresthal. It is one of the many ways they make money in Velmount. Most of the proceeds from the auction go to Wresthal. The auctioned pieces are mostly stolen or otherwise—I am unsure of that—but I suppose it is gotten through illegal ventures, just like the children and young women."

Caius’s eyes darkened. "Why would Father allow that?"

"I do not know the exact reason, but there is some kind of agreement between them."

"Who is in charge of it here in Velmount?"

"That I do not know, Your Majesty. Your late father was very secretive about it, and he left them unchecked to do as they wanted. However, your new rule may have angered a few people."

Caius knew Maximus was talking about stopping them from auctioning people, the tax implementation, and occasional check-ins. He no longer sent guards as he often would, but Lady Delphine still attended when she could and provided him with information.

"Well," he chuckled. "They are not going to like my next rule."

"May I be so bold as to ask what?"

"I intend to shut it down." When Maximus did not react, he continued. "Originally, just finding out who ran it might have been enough, but discovering that this has ties with Wresthal is reason enough to close it."

"King Vodnik isn’t going to like it."

"I do not care for the old geezer, and perhaps this time around he might do something more direct in retaliation instead of sneaking around like a slimy snake."

"As Your Majesty pleases. Does this task involve shutting down the masked auction?"

"Not yet. It is a much simpler task. Rose—you do know who Rose is, right?" Caius peered at him as he spoke.

"I do understand she is Your Majesty’s beloved."

Caius looked pleased. "Excellent! She intends to see her father; he lives in Lady Delphine’s manor. You are to take her there, however long she may need, and bring her back safe and sound."

Maximus bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty," he said and exited the room without another word.

Caius watched Maximus leave, and he wasn’t the least bit worried. He had tried several ways to get a rise out of him, but Maximus really only cared about his orders. Caius could tell that Rose would be in safe hands with him.