Conquering His Cold Heart
Chapter 475 - 475: Disappearance

Caspian glared at the huge wall clock in his study room for the umpteenth time while holding an exasperated look on his face.

The fact that the clock read it was just quarter to one made him feel even more unsettled.

"Why the hell did you have to let her leave when you had the chance to talk with her?" he muttered from between his sharp teeth.

He steepled his hands in front of his forehead, his fingertips slightly massaging his glabella. And he kept on rambling to himself, "And why on earth would you throw that rude remark just before she headed out? Couldn't you have just shut your trap? You know better than to hurt her. She is already hurt as is."

Caspian suddenly gripped the edge of his work desk with both of his hands, almost as if he wanted to hurl it right at the clock. But he abstained from doing so.

He was already short-staffed after sending a lot of people to several corners of the world in search of the cure. He didn't want to waste the available resources by having them take a round to the carpenter's every other day.

He sighed and rested his forearms on the desk. He then clenched his jaw and kept up his ranting. "I know that I asked her to be back home before four. But should she really wait till the clock strikes four to return? Can't she come home earlier?"

It was not his wife's absence that made him feel this anxious and restless. It was the fact that a few unruly vampires had dared to target her instead of targeting him directly. He had been meaning to deal with Lord Bartholomew once and for all. However, Anastasia had kept him busy and he didn't have time to deal with anyone else.

Caspian let out his heavy breath after a while of ranting and finally decided to finish some of his pending work.

It didn't look like the universe wanted him to focus on his kingly duties though.

The moment he touched the file that was stacked on top of several other similar files, one of the guards who he had sent to follow Anastasia after remembering about it two hours later, knocked on the door.

"Your Majesty! There's a problem," he flung the door open without waiting for the King to answer him and immediately blurted out as soon as he found the King's attention on him.

Caspian narrowed his eyes at the guard for acting like that. However, since he was already disturbed, he decided to listen to the guard. "What is it? It better be a good reason or else your pay is going to get deducted."

At the moment, the guard was more scared of his life being cut short rather than just his salary. The news that he was about to deliver to the King was as dangerous as playing with fire, or even more dangerous than that.

He quickly relayed the information to the King without any delay, praying that he wouldn't bear the brunt of the King's rage.

"Her Majesty had already left when we reached the Warmane Mansion. But we didn't meet the Queen's carriage on the path or saw anything suspicious. We assumed that they might have taken a different path and were already here by now. However, neither Her Majesty nor her carriage and guards are here yet."

"W-What?"

Caspian felt a surge of heat rising from the deepest corner of his callous heart. His chest became so hot from the inside that he felt as though he was going to explode into a million pieces.

"Argh!" He grunted as his cold hand gripped his chest.

He stumbled and almost collapsed to the ground as he tried to get up when his head was spinning around at a rapid rate. He managed to grab the chair and somehow prevented himself from falling to his knees though.

Caspian looked up at the guard who had closed the gap between them, probably to help him from collapsing.

He automatically bared his fangs, scowled at that poor guard through his brows, and slowly breathed in an enraged tone, "Don't you dare tell me she is lost."

His blood-red eyes glistened with fury when his mind began playing tricks on him. "And don't you dare tell me that she got kidnapped or worse…"

The guard instantly clutched his palms together and looked down, but didn't really look though because his eyes were tightly shut.

He got terrified upon seeing Caspian's elongated fangs and giant red eyes that screamed of the thirst for blood. Not just any blood. His blood.

And all that guard could say as a reply was, "I apologize, Your Majesty. We aren't sure about Her Majesty's whereabouts yet." He was trying his best not to shudder or stutter in the face of the King's fury.

*Bang* *Crash*

All of a sudden, the study room was filled with the loud crashing sound of the unfortunate desk followed by Caspian's scream. "Then go and find out where she is! I will kill all of you if you don't find her within 15 minutes!"

The guard could have sworn that he would have peed his pants if he had dared to peek a glance at the King's expression when he delivered that death threat.

Without lifting his head, opening his eyes just a millimeter, he hastily agreed, "We will find her immediately."

That being said, the guard was sure that his and his squad members' heads would roll after 15 minutes. 'Well, this is the end of my life…' he thought to himself but immediately shook his head as if to stay positive.

Caspian didn't sit back down on his chair, not even after hearing quite a lot of footsteps whooshing down the corridor.

He also ran out of the castle before taking the sky route at the top of his speed. He was going to see Vincent.

'Maybe he has some idea about where she went? If not, Tilla might know something,' he thought as the cold wind blew past his equally cold, hard skin.

He was trying not to think anything negative just yet. However, five minutes was a long time for such thoughts to infest his mind.

By the time he reached Warmane Mansion, he was assuming that his wife had either run off with Tilla or that she was hiding somewhere in the mansion itself.

Worst of it all, an image of his wife's lifeless, bloodied body in some cold and dark dungeon constantly flashed before his eyes. To make it worse, he could hear echoes of Bartholomew's psychotic laughter.

"Please be safe, Anna," he uttered under his breath and landed on the surprisingly heavily-guarded mansion's porch.

Those guards seemed to be very quick on their feet because a lot of them were surrounding Caspian before he could take two steps toward the main door.

Although they were paid to especially guard the mansion from the King, not a single guard dared to move any closer than they already had, especially under Caspian's scrutinizing glare that was fueled by raw emotions.

They all knew it would be their last breath if they even moved an inch from their current positions.

If push came to shove, they would obviously have to fight the King. However, they knew better than to poke an injured lion. If there was any way to resolve the current stalemate without any bloodshed, they would take it.

Those nervous guards were contemplating their next action when relief washed over all of their faces after hearing their employer's voice.

"Caspian! I thought you would never visit."

The voice sounded gentle to ears but tugged certain ropes in Caspian's heart as he deciphered the real meaning behind it – Caspian, I had hoped you would never visit.