♠️ Exceptis Centrum ♠️ ✔︎

Chapter 28

Running from room to room, Alfred would frantically scan every single one he visited, cursing and smacking his arm against the wall when the person he sought wasn’t there. He ran up every single staircase, searched all the halls, entered rooms that were currently occupied, and even ran through all the gardens but no matter where he looked he couldn’t find her. He couldn’t find the strange girl.

“Little girl? Where are you!? Please! You have to send me back!”

Alfred bit down on his finger as he got no response, ignoring the odd looks his servants were giving him. He didn’t care. He couldn’t give up, he had to keep searching, he had to find her no matter what. She was the one who sent him to the garden, she had to send him back now. He had to get back and make certain Arthur was alright. He shivered as the memory of Arthur laying unconscious on the ground with a severe head injury whilst the rain fell down on him continued to plague him, it was driving him and with fear and dread.

He asked everyone he passed if they saw a strange little girl but none of them gave him the answer he wanted, they only looked at their King with worry in their eyes. Alfred didn’t realise it himself but he looked like a mess with his frantic eyes and desperate attitude, it was causing a lot of concern for everyone he ran by. He searched all the rooms he already explored again and again, calling out for, begging for her to come out but she never came. He searched the gardens once more, his own room, even the kitchen, but she wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere.

She had to come. She had to send her back right now, he couldn’t wait for the next random visit. At this very moment Arthur could be... could be... he didn’t even want to think about it, but it was those those thoughts that pushed him on. If only he knew her name, she probably would come out if he knew her name. She even said that he already knew it.

Hours passed before he finally had to pause in his search, resting against a wall to catch his breath. Dripping with sweat and breathing like a dog in that was overheated, he had no choice but to take this small break. He wanted to continue but for the first time in his life he found himself too weak and weary to carry on.

“Where are you?” he gasped, heaving heavily to get his heart back under control so he could hurry and continue his search.

“Alfred!”

Yao had appeared at the other end of the hallway, the Jack appeared flustered and displeased, as if he had been chasing after him the entire time. He straightened his hat out before marching towards the exhausted King.

“Alfred, where the hell did you run off to? You can’t just leave a Gathering without alerting anyone, especially one when one of your esteemed guests has collapsed!”

Pushing himself off the wall, Alfred heaved a few times before he managed to get enough air in his lungs to talk. “I’m sorry Yao... but I... I have to-...”

“There are no sorry’s and no but’s!” Yao stamped his foot down. “You don’t just ran away from your duties, and you don’t run around the palace like a madman scaring the staff!”

“You don’t understand... I have to... find her!”

“No excuses Alfred! You can’t just do what you want!”

“I have to find her! I have to find her to get back to him!”

Yao looked like he was ready to blow a blood vessel. “Alfred, you ran out of a Gathering after an important guest fainted, you’ve been running around like a lunatic, and on top of that you left a Joker in the Gathering hall where he has been doing nothing but causing mayhem! Do you have any idea how this makes us look in front of the other Kingdoms!?”