-A Friend- Chapter 7

"Zachhh!!"

Someone suddenly called his name

Zach turned around to see who it was and saw a man running in the hallway.

"Louwei!" Zach called him the moment he recognized who it was

"Is he your friend?" Elijah asked

"Yes, he is Louwei Hale, we met when I was out for an errand" Zach replied

"Pleasure meeting you Sir" Louwei greeted

"Hale...Is your father perhaps Duke Richard Hale?" Rowan asked him

"Oh...um, no" Louwei replied avoiding his gaze

"Well still...nice to meet you," Rowan said then smiled at him.

Louwei who seemed uncomfortable for a moment replied

"..Y-yeah".

"W-well what are you here for anyways? not anyone can just enter this place" Zach asked to break the awkwardness

"I came here to send a letter from my fa-...I came here for an errand.." Louwei said

"Fa...?" said Rowan who seem to have caught on to what he was about to say

Elijah hit Rowan with his elbow as a sign for him to stop

"We'll get going now, you guys can talk more," Elijah said then dragged Rowan out of there

"Sorry about that haha" Zach let out a nervous laugh

"No, that's fine" Louwei replied

"It's just that...my father...after my mom left...he...changed a lot" Louwei added with such a broken tone in his voice as if he wanted to tear up.

"Oh...I'm sorry about that" Zach felt bad about him

"Please don't apologize, it's not your fault neither was it his, he's just probably missing my mom," Louwei said

"Ohh and by the way, congratulations on being the Prince's Personal Knight!" Louwei said trying to brighten up the mood

"Y-yeah thank you, how'd you know?" Zach asked

"On my way here I heard a knight saying your name so I asked where you were and told me that you were at the Queen's and then he let me know about what was happening currently" Louwei replied

"I see, are you still busy?" Zach asked

"A little, yeah...why?"

"I feel like I might be bothering you for talking too long so..." Zach said

"No, not at all! I'm glad that I get to see and talk to you again so thank you for your time" Louwei reassured

"No problem," Zach said then smiled

"but Louwei...not that I'm being nosy or anything.." Zach added,

"hmm? what is it?" Louwei asked

"What happened to you? The first time I saw you you were all beat up sitting under the tree, I even mistook you for a beggar" Zach said

"I guess you were curious, I mean I would be too haha," Louwei said while smiling

He's smiling but he doesn't look happy at all.

"You see that was a week after my mom left my dad and me, my father still couldn't accept it so he...he said it was my fault that she left then beat me up and told me to not call him a father anymore...and so he just treats me like a servant now," Louwei said as the smile on his face slowly disappeared

After hearing Louwei's story, Zach realized how similar their experiences were. He also lost his mom and got treated as a servant by his father together with his new wife.

"Everything's gonna be alright so just keep holding on alright? Be brave!" Zach told him as he remembered that someone had told him that before but...who was it?

"Y-yeah I hope so," Louwei said then they exchanged smiles

"I'll be going now before Duke Hale gets mad at me for being late" Louwei said

Zach was about to ask Louwei if he needs to go back to his father but he stopped himself to avoid more conflict happening between them.

"Yeah take care," He said instead

"Mhm! See you!" Louwei said then ran as he wave his hands back to Zach

"I wish you the best" Zach whispered to himself

Zach then decided to go after Elijah and Rowan who are headed to the training ground to meet the newly recruited knights.