The Cursed King

Loriel smiled to himself as he left Elise's room. His heart was filled with warmth to the brim.

Ahhh!!! After enduring this wait for over fifteen centuries… finally, he saw a glimmer of hope.

He just needed to make sure that this was Elise or not. Once he knew, he could decide on what to do.

When Loriel entered his room, he started his next plan. The man took out his phone and contacted Marc. He hadn't thought of it earlier, distracted by the presence of Elise… but now he knew what to do to find out who she actually was.

So, as usual, he sent a message to Marc.

Even if Elise didn't trust Loriel yet to give away her private information, he could still get his hands on it.

Elise actually provided it when she stayed at the hostel. So, they must have it on their record.

It was true that Loriel was thinking to make Marc hire Elise in his office, so she could work in a safe place and made good money.

Now, Loriel didn't need to wait for her to be hired by Marc to get the information about her family background and her home.

The hostel held Elise's ID details that he wanted to know. And he didn't want to delay it by another day, he wanted to figure it out as soon as possible.

For someone like Marc who had been dealing with Loriel's requests and demands throughout the years, this was piece of cake.

Loriel soon provided the details about Elise's appearance in order for the hostel's employee and Marc to identify her. He also mentioned that the woman was the one who had been reluctant to leave the hostel yesterday night.

While Loriel didn't have her real name, a striking woman like Elise was easy to remember. He was sure that the employee in the hostel would remember her.

***

Marc suddenly received a text again and the man blinked. "Did Uncle need something from me again? This is the fourth or fifth consecutive time."

He loved this uncle of his, but sometimes Loriel could be difficult. Even though he looked so young, like he was in his early thirties, Marc knew how old he actually was.

So, in his mind, Marc kept thinking of Loriel as a grumpy grandpa.

And that was how he was most of the time. Loriel would complain about noise from fellow hotel goers where he went for a holiday and asked Marc to buy the hotel, or he would suddenly want a new home in Australia just because he felt like it.

However, those requests didn't come often. Don't get Marc wrong. Loriel was chilled most of the time. So, Marc never resent him for his requests. Besides, he had Alex The Reliable to do all the dirty work.

Well.. not actually dirty, because they never did anything illegal to reach their goals, except for one or two instances.

Ah, okay… except for one or two dozens instances.

Cough cough.

Marc would not be apologetic with some of the means he used to reach his goals. Loriel told him that rules were only made for the commoners so the royalty could have an easy life.

And since Loriel was a king, even though his kingdom was no longer around, commoners' rules didn't apply to him.

This means, by extension, those rules also didn't apply to Marc.

Anyway.. where were we?

Ahh.. that's right. Loriel's five consecutive messages in one day.

You see, just like Loriel often had his mind wander everywhere, Marc had the same problem. His mind was easily distracted.

When he was thinking of something, suddenly another thought could pop up in his mind and he wouldn't remember what he was thinking or even doing earlier.

Like, have you ever walked into a room to get something, but as soon as you passed the door you didn't remember why you were there? That's exactly how Marc's mind works.

The handsome man took out his phone and checked the incoming message from his uncle. His brows furrowed as he realized that this was Loriel's fifth message for the day.

This was quite rare to happen and now Marc was curious to know what on earth was going on with his uncle?

When he read the new request submitted by his uncle, he soon rolled his eyes in annoyance.

[I need you to find the identity of a woman who was checked in to the hostel earlier today. She has creme long hair and is extremely beautiful.]

[Imagine the most beautiful woman in the world.. times one hundred. That's her.]

[She is the reason I asked you to pay the hostel to kick out their guests with faulty electricity excuse.]

[I believe she returned to the hostel at around 7 pm to collect her bag.]

"What…?" Marc sighed but said yes to Loriel. That was all he could say after all. His grand-uncle should have asked him while he was still in the hostel earlier. Now, he had to return to that place and ask this detail. He didn't want to ask such a private question by phone.

At least the details of this woman's appearance were given to him, but he doubted he'd be able to get it tonight.

"I need to drop by myself or Alex tomorrow at the earliest time."

That was another errand he needed to do first thing in the morning. He set an alarm for 8 am and made a note to himself to go there before he left for work.

After everything was set, Marc looked down on his phone and whispered to himself.

"Has my uncle gone crazy? This doesn't sound like him at all. Is he finally chasing after a woman? I thought he is gay or asexual. He has never dated any woman before. Has love finally struck?"