Vengeance of The Broken Lycan Prince [BL]-Chapter 391: The Ghost of His Present

Chapter 391: The Ghost of His Present
[KOSTA]
For weeks, no one saw Tamiko.
Not even a glimpse of him.
Not even his lavender scent.
It was as if the prince of Kawai had never existed. Like he had never once set foot into the palace and reigned like the good prince he had been. It was strange, and people had begun getting worried.
Because people like Tamiko never just disappeared off the face of the earth.
Tamiko was the crown prince.
He was the best thing that could have happened to the king. He had the hope that the people of Kawai had been waiting for. And yet for weeks, no one had laid their eyes on him. Not even the palace staff.
And so, the rumors began.
The rumors of the prince.
The one who had been so heartbroken that he decided to leave the kingdom.
The prince who lost everything that he cared about, and yet never once put up a fight.
The prince who had given his Erasthai what he had wanted without causing any chaos.
They had seen how bloodied he had been and how hard he had carved out before the assembly meeting that day.
But after that...
After he had left...
No one saw him.
The royals were not letting anyone know anything.
Not even the ministers and much less the Lycan chief of Kawai.
"The prince needs to sign these," Kosta had said one day, and the response had been courteous and practiced.
Like it was not what they wanted to do.
Like it was something that they had been commanded into.
Like this was just a man who spoke to the ghost that had once lived.
"The king will sign them," Danny had said, his tone so formal without any warmth or even emotion. The man may have hated Kosta for what he had done to Tamiko back in Grealor, but that didn’t make a show, now that no one had seen Tamiko.
"The reforms demand his attention," Kosta said a week later when the meeting had gone on for so long and yet there wasn’t a scent that hinted at Tamiko.
The king was at the meeting.
The Lycan Lord, Sadako, was at the meeting.
The prince’s best friend, Lord Daniel, was at the meeting too.
But not one sighting of the one man who should have stepped up to talk at these meetings. No one dared to raise questions in front of the king, but Kosta did. He hadn’t seen Tamiko for a long time.
He needed to see him.
Even if it was just in passing.
Because the silence was killing him.
It was fucking with his mind and he didn’t know what the fuck he could do.
"All official matters will be handled by the Lycan Lords and the king, Chief Konstantin. Any matter that pertains to the prince is referred to the king. That is the current order of things," Danny said, once again, his tone formal, like they were strangers to each other.
It wasn’t supposed to bother Kosta as much because he had been the one who wanted to be free of Tamiko. He had wanted to end his life and put them both out of their misery.
He had figured that his life would be worthless without Tamiko, and he begged for the prince to let him go.
And Tamiko had done just that.
He had removed all the bounds to Kosta.
Once, Kosta had tried to cut himself out of curiosity, because previously, Tamiko would die before he let anyone leave so much as a scratch on Kosta. And yet that day, when Kosta cut, the blade went through and sliced him.
The pain was unbearable and expected.
It was a strange feeling after all these years.
And Kosta wasn’t sure what to think.
Because he had gotten his freedom from the prince.
He had managed to be an omega.
His healing process was no longer that of the Lycan prince’s Erasthai, no. It was the healing of a regular Lycan. Two to three days tops with unbearable pain. That was what every Lycan had to go through after every battle.
And for the first time, Kosta hadn’t been sure he had made the right decision.
Not just because his skin could cut through or because he was vulnerable like he had been long before he had known the king and Lord Sadako as his sister’s Erasthai.
He was just a man again.
The one that was protected enough by the royals because of their promise.
But not the one that was loved fiercely like it had been with the Lycan prince.
"Is the prince alright? He has missed seven sessions so far," Kosta said when weeks went by without sighting the prince. The meetings were as boring as they had been long before Tamiko had come into their lives.
They were stale and out of character.
"Any matter that needs his attention is sorted already, Chief. Or do you have an agenda with the prince? As it is, he is your ex, and his mark on you has faded. I doubt your Erasthai would like it if you keep asking about the man who abandoned you, right?
"Let’s stay focused," Danny spoke again that day, his tone stiff and filled with warning for the man he hated.
It was not emotional, no.
It was just a refrain as if this was not the right place for the Lycan Chief to be asking about his failed love interest.
That hurt.
He hadn’t expected that.
Danny had told Kosta once that Tamiko would never kill him, and Kosta had scoffed at that. He didn’t mean anything to the prince now, but what he hadn’t expected was for Tamiko to completely disappear and for his father to still be as calm as he was. Y
The prince’s wing was out of reach for everyone who previously had access, save for Danny, the king, and Lord Sadako, who took turns cleaning the place like they had been the servants.
Kosta had once dared to peek using his magic, but all he met with was emptiness.
No one asked questions.
Kiyoi, in the kitchens, never smiled like he did before.
Everything around them changed.
It was like the light of their lives had disappeared, and no one knew what to say.
"This is a meeting about Kawai. Are we done here?" The king asked, his tone neutral than it always was, and for a moment, Kosta wondered if he had set off this chain reaction.
He didn’t know what to do, not anymore.
He was a stranger in his own world.
And that was haunting.
"No more questions, your majesty," Kosta had forced out, and not soon after, the meeting ended.
As usual, the royals were the first to leave.
The ministers lingered for a while, but hours later, were they all left too?
Kosta was the only one left in the throne room, seated on the long conference table.
At the end of the table, where Tamiko’s seat should have been, was nothing.
No replacement, no nothing.
Kosta hated what was going on around him. So, when the tenth week went by without any sighting of Tamiko, he went back to his chambers with Sanji, desperate for answers.
"You knew him... He came to you for advice... How come you haven’t reached him?" Kosta asked desperately.
"Yilena. Ask Yilena Sidorova," was all Sanji said in earnest.
Kosta sighed.
It was the same answer once again, and perhaps he was going to go to his guardian for answers this time.