[Music Recommendation: The Loneliest ~ Maneskin]

When Oriana exited the room she met Rowan standing guard at the door. Without looking at him, she bowed and left.

Rowan walked back inside the room where Adric was looking at the map, deep in thought. "Should I have her watched? She might send a message to her kingdom."

Adric raised his face. "I guess I’ll feel better if she does that," he muttered under his breath. Then to Rowan, he replied, "Let her be."

Rowan dropped his shoulders as he walked closer to Adric. "You’re not feeling bad, are you?" He pointed at the map. "This is who you are, who we are. Avon wasn’t created with sentiments and compromise. We do anything to survive; it’s your obligation as the next king to keep the kingdom safe," the guard spoke with a matter-of-fact tone.

Adric chuckled, putting the map away. "Let’s have a drink tonight. Tomorrow, we discuss what happens to which kingdom. Taking over Orion or not will be my final decision."

Rowan sighed. "Are you getting weak, my friend? You said you felt nothing towards the princess. Was that a lie? Your soldiers are dying right now; it’s not time to drink. We should be ready! I can’t have Avon turned into a kingdom of mockery during your reign."

Adric moved his eyes from the table and settled them on Rowan, a wry smile on his lips. "I really hate that I’m feeling like this right now. Rowan, trust me, I do. This won’t be the first time we are conquering a kingdom. I really want to know why it feels different now."

The pain Adric saw in Oriana’s eyes earlier was now haunting him. It was a foreign feeling yet so familiar. His heart ached like he had killed an innocent. The girl confessed her feelings for him despite hearing his intentions to attack her kingdom and make her family bow. All he ever did was use her, yet all she ever did was love him in return.

Where did a love so painful ever exist? Adric asked himself, rubbing his temples gently. He wasn’t supposed to concern himself with such flimsy emotions when his kingdom was in dire need of protection. To think that Oriana’s tears could move him like this made him mad at himself. He wasn’t ever someone interested in love.

Adric had his mind wired only to use people for the gain they would bring to him. Even when he went about acting like he was obsessed with the princess of Morado, that was because the kingdom was powerful, if not twice as powerful as Avon with the help of the white lords there. Adric needed such a kingdom to boost Avon.

When he didn’t get chosen by the princess, he let go of the thought of getting married until Oriana came into the picture. What was the reason he saved her that day? The Queen’s army? Or could there be more? Adric was questioning his own thoughts at this very moment.

"Rowan, do you think people like us are capable of accepting love?" Adric asked with a serious look on his face. He knew he was just someone who only used others. Oriana had picked the wrong man to give her heart to. She was best at making the worst decisions, and it was obvious. Just like the map was in front of her but she tried not to look at it, so had she turned her eyes away from the warning signs.

Which normal girl would fall for a man like him, who didn’t bat an eye but slept with her the moment she offered her body, then acted like it never happened? Oriana didn’t know how to choose men for herself. She always headed straight for danger, no shred of wariness in her. How could she have given her heart to a man that forcefully married her and never treated her like a lady, yet teased her nonstop? Was she some type of masochist? These thoughts ran through Adric’s mind.

"We are not saints," Rowan started, replying to Adric’s earlier question. "We are only selfish when it comes to protecting people and things that are precious to us."

Adric nodded, repeating the words. "Protecting people that are precious to us," he had even promised to protect Oriana. Was that what had swayed her heart? The thought of being the reason Oriana had her heartstrings pulled towards him made him even angrier with himself.

"Have you ever been in love or had your heart broken before?" Adric didn’t know these feelings, but he really wanted to know how Oriana felt at the moment. From the look in her eyes earlier, she looked beyond broken, to the point that it made him want to hold her close.

Rowan raised his eyebrows, pointing at his chest. "You and I both know the answer to that," he chuckled. "Love is a luxury we both can’t afford because it means nothing to us. I find it as an excuse to be weak, also a liability to the one giving the emotions. And there is no such thing as heartbreak. One who loves easily is bound to love again. If it is really true that their heart was broken, they shouldn’t use it to love again. Don’t you think so? That is why I think the concept of love is all a fallacy," he paused. "Why are you looking at me? These were your exact words to me, well, not all but most."

Adric stared at Rowan. Hearing his words from another person made him realize how heartless he had been. Without considering the emotions of others, he always tended to act on his own will.

That was why even when he suspected that Oriana was having feelings for him, he took it that she was trying to seduce him for her own gain because that was the only world he knew. A world where he joked about everything, including people’s feelings. Now he couldn’t even understand how Oriana felt right now, or if she actually had her heart broken.

"Rowan, I think we are both broken people," Adric muttered with a dry chuckle. "We don’t understand how people around us feel."

Rowan hummed thoughtfully. "We already know this," he nodded. Dipping his hand inside his pocket, he took out a pack of cigarettes. "Here,"

Adric took a stick of cigarette, placing it on his lips. He smiled. This was who he was, a man who lived only for himself. Rowan was right; it wasn’t a new thing to him. "We should get our soldiers ready tonight."

"And the drink?" Rowan asked.

Adric puffed a smoke and grinned. "Drink would be for men with hearts to love. Cigarettes are for us with black hearts."

Rowan frowned, looking at his pack of cigarettes. "That was a bad joke. Don’t listen to him. You help us relax," he acted like he was covering the cigarette’s nonexistent ear, while giving Adric a narrowed look. Seeing this, Adric smiled.

"We might not be capable of loving or accepting love, but we do know how to protect our own, and I think that counts as being human too," Rowan said, touching Adric’s shoulder. "I will go get the soldiers ready now, Your Highness," he bowed before exiting the room.

Adric took a deep drag of the cigarette, then he puffed it, his brown eyes glued to the spot Oriana was standing earlier. "Protecting our own," he crushed the cigarette butt in the ashtray, then left the room.