The Cursed King

Elise and Loriel walked together after they got off the train. The hostel that they were going to was already within walking distance. Gosh... if they kept walking at this pace, they would arrive in ten minutes.

Loriel really wanted to delay for as long as possible, but seeing Elise' tired face, he didn't have the heart to take a long detour just to delay the inevitable.

He wanted to spend more time with her... but how?

He took out his phone to check the report from his assistant ahem.. his great-nephew, Marc. Usually, that guy could do whatever Loriel asked him in a timely manner. But, it's been over half an hour, and he still had not sent his report.

What happened?

Was it really that difficult to purchase a building in fifteen minutes?

Loriel pursed his lips.

Fine. Maybe he was too demanding. One, this was the weekend and maybe it's more difficult to locate the building owner to buy the building from them. Fifteen minutes was simply unrealistic.

He should think of a way to stall and still spend more time with Elise. What to do?

"Uhm.. hey, what do you think if we stop by a place to grab something to eat?" Loriel suddenly got an idea when he saw a small restaurant at the end of the street. It was a popular ramen restaurant and he thought it would be a good excuse to ask Elise for dinner.

So, he asked her. "I am hungry. Would you like to have dinner with me? My treat."

"Di-dinner?" Elise looked reluctant to accept his offer, but she didn't want to seem rude.

"Yes. It's dinner time. Do you like ramen? That place over there has nice dishes," Loriel explained.

"What is ramen?" Elise looked clueless and she shyly asked the man what did he mean by ramen.

If it was other people, they would definitely think this girl weird for not knowing such a popular dish. And if this was not Elise who asked the question, Loriel would definitely growl impatiently.

However, this was Elise, who looked at him cluelessly and asked what ramen was. For Elise, Loriel's well of patience was deeper than the Mariana trench.

He was guessing that Elise might not be exposed to modern dishes a lot and still learning about many things. So, he would be kind to her and explain everything she would ever know, patiently.

Ahh.. he was not a patient person in the past, especially to Elise. He regretted it. Now, If she needed anything from him, even if it took him a long time to care for her needs, he would do it.

So, Loriel explained to her what he meant by ramen. He even showed pictures. The beautiful girl gulped when she heard his explanation. Yeah.. ramen sounded perfect for dinner.

Eventually, she nodded. "I'd like that."

"Great! That place over there has great ramen. Quite famous," Loriel pointed at the ramen shop to their left. "Wanna go there?"

Elise could recognize the white building at the end of the street where her hostel was located. So, they were already close, she thought.

It should be okay to have dinner first before going back to the hostel. It's very close and she could just go there alone if Loriel decided to go after dinner.

"Okay," Elise replied meekly. Loriel reached out his hand and the girl took it out of instinct. When she realized she was holding hands with a man who was almost a stranger to her, she pulled her hand with a blushing face.

Loriel was disappointed when Elise let go of his hand, but he pretended not to notice or pushed her to take his hand again. He didn't want to creep her out. Just seeing her right beside him already gave Loriel immense happiness.

He should be grateful and tread carefully. This was the day that he had been waiting for for over fifteen centuries. He could wait a little bit more.