The Cursed King

Seeing his son confused, stressed, and seem about to go crazy, finally Jacob Sanderman explained everything.

Marc lost count on how many 'great' should be put before the word 'uncle' when it came to Loriel. His father told him that actually, Loriel Ashborn was an immortal. He was the only Ashborn who was still alive to this day.

The Ashborns were the ruler of Summeria, a kingdom from a continent that no longer existed. It was a long story.

Anyway... Loriel was the last Ashorn and he was now around 15 centuries old. He had been their family's guardian since forever.

The Sanderman was the descendants of his favorite nephew. He had five sisters who married princes and noblemen who later tried to usurp power. It was a big mess of a family.

Loriel only got along with one of his nephews and they maintained that good relationship until generations to come.

Now, the Sandermans were the only people in this world who knew who Loriel really was and his secrets. They were also the only people he liked enough to spend time with.

Loriel disliked most humans and preferred to be alone, but he would come to visit the Sandermans from time to time and kept the relationship between them.

Loriel entrusted Marc's family with his wealth and both sides had been enjoying mutually beneficial relationships for centuries. The Sandermans had managed to maintain a pretty high-profile lifestyle and successful businesses for generations.

In a way, the Sanderman ended up becoming somewhat Loriel's trustee. They took care of his affairs and needs. Whenever he needed anything, the Sandermans would provide it for him and take care of everything he requested.

When Marc's father passed away, Loriel came to his funeral. It was after the funeral that the man finally revealed everything about him to Marc and ever since then, Marc replaced his father's position to be Loriel's confidante.

Secretly, Marc thought his great uncle considered them as his mere assistant. He had lost count of how many times this great uncle of his asked him to do trivial stuff, exactly how he would ask Alex to do trivial stuff for him too.

If he didn't already promise his father that he would do whatever Loriel asked of him, Marc would have cut ties with the man.

Gosh.. if only those directors who shuddered under his gaze knew that their big boss was just an assistant to his uncle.... they might be shocked or looked down on him.

Marc massaged his temple. His great uncle often made surprising requests or decisions, but this was the first time that his request didn't seem to make sense.

Marc remembered, one time, Loriel was traveling to the Himalayas, and he forgot something. He asked Marc to send that stuff all the way from New York to Nepal, then have a sherpa carried it to the peak of Everrest.

Another case was when he felt annoyed by some drunk men in the resort he was staying at. He asked Marc to buy the resort so he could kick out those annoying guests, so he could have a peaceful holiday.

Now, Loriel wanted Marc to buy a small hostel in New York? How strange!

Marc really couldn't think of a reason for his great uncle's request this time.

Why would he need to buy a hostel? And... why in fifteen minutes? So rushing...

Gosh.

Someday, he would find out his great uncle's secret. The man was really too mysterious.

KNOCK

KNOCK

"Come in, Alex," Marc looked up from his watch and saw his assistant, Alex, entered.

He loved calling his beautiful and sexy assistant by the name Alex, even though her actual name was Alexandra, instead of Sandra.

So, when he was dating a new girl, they wouldn't be jealous of his sexy assistant because they thought Alex was a guy.

Alex was an efficient assistant, aged 26 years old, who had been working for him for the past three years. She was a go-getter, smart, and very reliable.

In fact, Marc called her 'Alex The Reliable' behind her back, like she was some sort of magician or an escape artist like Houdini.

Without Alex by his side, Marc wouldn't be able to run his group at ease while taking care of his great uncle's affairs every now and then.

"Is there anything I can do, Sir?" Alex the Reliable looked at her boss with a knowing look. She had seen the weekend meeting ended abruptly and could guess something urgent had happened.

"Well, I want you to buy this hostel for me," Marc showed the picture on his phone screen to Alex and massaged his temple. "Can you do it in less than fifteen minutes?"

Alex took Marc's phone and studied the address. She swallowed. "Uhm... I can try."

"Good. I will go down to stretch my legs. When I get back I hope the hostel is already mine."

Marc took his suit from the chair, put it on, and walked out of his room with a faint smile, leaving behind Alex who pursed her lips and quickly made a call to buy the hostel.

She had stopped questioning the motives behind rich people's actions and decisions. She thought she would never understand them. These people were too weird.

Now, she just did what was asked of her and didn't even think about it. It was easier that way.