When the coronation had ended, the crowd of high borns in the throne room slowly tricked out to the hallway, making their way to the ballroom, where the remainder of the celebrations would take place. Caspian was led through a door in the back by his team of guards, all of whom congratulated him on his title in hushed tones as they escorted him down a separate corridor to the same room. The former prince’s head was still swimming with the knowledge that he was now the sole ruler of Aspiria, but most of his nervousness had eased when the cameras and eyes were no longer fixated on him.

With a moment to catch his breath, his mind wandered to Iris for the first time in a while, and he wondered how she was doing all alone in their hotel room at the [i]Sunset Veil[/i]. He still felt guilty for practically abandoning her there, but at least she was safe. As long as the resort was under strict instructions to keep their suite private, the capital’s security wouldn’t be able to find her. He just hoped she wouldn’t get too impatient or upset with him about the fact that it had been two days now, and he hadn’t been by to visit her. If he could have ditched the banquet, he would have done it in a heartbeat, but since it was a party in his honor, he knew he would never get away without someone noticing within five seconds of his absence.

So, he walked with Jacob and the rest of his guards to the ballroom, where he waited behind a set of double doors for a few minutes until the security team on the inside announced that they were ready for his second grand entrance of the day. The guards arranged themselves in an array behind him while the doors were opened from the inside, and the new king was greeted with the sound of applause once more. This time, it was easier to relax in the presence of all the other high borns in the room. He’d been to balls and gallas before, and some had even been held in his honor on past birthdays, so it wasn’t a new experience. This event was much more relaxed than the coronation.

Still donning the Aspirian crown on his head, Cas strode into the room and made his way to the back, where a long table had been arranged with a decorative golden cloth and a place for one individual had been set up behind the tallest chair in the center. It was almost comical how such a wide space had been reserved for just him, but it had been that way since the rest of the royal family had been banned from the palace. Before his father had passed, they had shared the entire thing between just the two of them, with Atlas in the center and his son seated at his right.

The memory dug unexpectedly at his heart, and he swallowed, forcing the emotions down as he took the place that was designated for the king.

Over the next few hours, he ate a meal alone and then left the table to mingle with the other high borns. Live cameras tracked his every move for the rest of the kingdom to watch, just as they had when he’d received his crown, and he stopped to talk with men and women whom he recognized as members of his father’s council—now [i]his[/i] council, he supposed—high ranking families with influence in the capital, foreign dignitaries and generally wealthy people who had been invited to the event. Every once in a while, a news reporter would approach him in an attempt to get answers to questions that the public wanted to know, but he dodged them more often than he indulged them.

Everyone in the room had questions that they wanted him to answer, but he didn’t have replies ready on the tip of his tongue when he’d only found out the day before that he would be taking over as the new monarch. They asked him about the state of the kingdom, plans he had for new legislature, whether or not he intended to pardon any of his father’s criminals, and, most often, interrogated him to find out if he had any prospective partners on the horizon. He was introduced to the daughters of influential families throughout the entire afternoon, the parents of whom tried to stoke his interest by telling him about their talents or experience with delegation.

Each time, he managed to excuse himself by latching onto another conversation partner, but the repeated questioning about his bachelor status made him realize that the Aspirian people expected him to choose someone to be his queen, and they expected him to do it quickly. He had to wonder what they would do when he finally revealed that he was with the girl who had been made out to be a terrorist by his father’s administration.

By the time the festivities rolled to a steady close, Caspian was thoroughly exhausted from all the running around he had done to speak with as many people as he could before they all left. The high born guests filtered out of the ballroom until the only ones left were the king and the palace staff, who either stood guard around the perimeter or cleaned the aftermath of the banquet. It was about eight o’ clock, so he still had a couple hours left before he expected Iris to call. Taking a nap to recover from the long day sounded like a great idea, so he started to make his way back to his bedroom. However, before he got very far, Jacob stopped him.

“Your Majesty, the servants have taken the liberty of moving your things into your new room while you were here,” he announced, standing at the ballroom door to intercept the fledgling monarch.

Cas faltered. [color=#b97703]“New room?”[/color] he asked, though inside, he already knew which one the security guard was referring to. Now that he was king, it was expected that he would move into the room his parents had previous occupied. Deciding against making Jacob explain it to him, he went on before the other man could reply, [color=#b97703]“I didn’t realize that would happen so fast.”[/color]

“You don’t have to sleep there if it’s too soon,” Jacob pointed out, but the former prince shook his head.

[color=#b97703]“No, it’s fine. I’ll go up to start settling in,”[/color] he said with an exhale. It was too late and he was too weary to put up a fight. Even though it felt strange to take over a space that was so thickly layered with memories of his father, it was going to happen sooner or later. With a couple hours to kill and no clear picture of what his free time was going to look like going forward, he figured he might as well take advantage of the time he did have that evening.

He uttered a curt goodnight to the guard and headed to the stairs, taking off his crown as he walked and quietly studying the intricate details as he held it distantly in his hands.