"Alucard..."
The croon of his name with such a masculine and scratchy voice successfully shook Alucard free from reliving the haunted memories of his past. He, who was startled out of his trance, snapped his head up, meeting a hollow and disorienting gaze. A pair of pale eyes stared right back him meaningfully. A flash of a troubled expression flitted across Alucard's face, but Gabriel could recognize it wasn't one of annoyance at having been discovered lurking in front of the opened door of the King's. It didn't take a fool to guess why he was found in front of the King's bed chambers. The only question was... how it ended up like this.
'Shit! He caught me in the middle of me reminiscing my daddy issues!' Inside of Alucard's head were gongs and alarm bells resonating with each other. He had been pulled out of his melancholic recollection, and was mildly frustrated that a professional actor like him had made terrible blunder. Alucard resisted the urge to grab at his hair and kneel down howling like a wolf on a blue moon.
The gears in his head quickly turned, trying to formulate a explanation to why he looked as pathetic as he did now when his original characterization was a haughty sonuvabitch that would cross God themself.
In the end, Alucard could only pose a rhetorical question. "... Why are you here?" His inquiry was full of hostility, questioning why Gabriel had 'coincidentally' walked in upon him when there were so many other routes to take that didn't have to bypass the King's chambers.
Originally, the king's bedroom wasn't some place that was easily accessible. It was justified of Alucard to first interrogate Gabriel. Good! He just acted very natural now.
However, Gabriel's next question made Alucard's facade slip for a split moment.
"Because I knew I'd find you here."
'Ha?' Alucard was completely thrown off by the honest answer. In fact, he had been anticipating all kinds of answers, but this one didn't conform to his understanding of Gabriel. Well... it wasn't as though Gabriel was his capture target. He had no reason to nitpick the other's personality. What he wasn't expecting was for one of the protagonist shou's goldfishes to be seeking out his own kin. If not for fighting and provoking each other for the shou's fair hand, why else would Gabriel specifically seek him out?
"How can you know?" Alucard asked him in an abrasive tone. "When I don't even know myself."
"I feel as though the crown prince has changed so much in one night," Gabriel commented in a light voice. His back was straight and erect, displaying his impeccable etiquette. Alucard noticed the disparity between himself and Gabriel, and quickly straightened his posture.
"You comment as though you've known me at all," Alucard sneered, puffing out his chest with pride. "Tell, me, Duke Themis, are you and I close to the point that you can tell? From what I recall, I am in a position where normal men like you can't simply look into. What does a peeping Tom like you know about me?"
Gabriel's eyes strayed from Alucard's menacing figure, falling onto the broken door that laid right by Alucard's feet. His eyes suggested that he seemed to have found a breakthrough, like someone that had seen through all of Alucard's ploys. Only Alucard wondered what kind of creative essay Gabriel was writing up in his mind right now.
Sure... his beaten appearance right now might be linked to the King, seeing the destruction that had occurred unbeknownst to all. If one were to look from a neutral perspective of an outsider, it wouldn't be hard for them to come up with a multitude of theories.
After a while, Gabriel's low voice spoke up. "That underneath all that gold and decadence that you surround yourself with, all the dreadful rumors, the image of a self-absorbed man that only cares for himself, you are man that craves attention from a man you could never obtain love from. No matter how mischievous, or frivolous you appear, regardless of the haughty words that you speak off, they're merely illusions to cover up the truth."
YOU ARE READING
Save Mr Lu
Fanfiction(Book cover art belongs to @yamada_mkra) After failing his college exams, Lu Cheng was beaten to death by his adopted father. In exchange to redeem his miserable life, a thing called system struck a deal with him. His mission: To be the shittiest, m...
