The Cursed King

Marc Sanderman was just relaxing on his living room couch during the early holiday morning when he received the text from Loriel. His eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets once he ascertained that his grand-uncle was really looking into marriage proposals.

Huh?

After Marc sent a confirmation to his grand-uncle, he put his phone down. The man massaged his temple and shook his head in confusion.

"Isn't it a little too fast?" Marc asked himself aloud.

He still remembered the day when his grand-uncle asked him to find the identity of the woman who stayed in a hostel (which now belonged to him) and all of a sudden she had entered Loriel's life and became part of Marc's too.

Oh, it wasn't like he would oppose his grand uncle's decisions. However, Marc could still vividly recall when Elise first arrived in their office. Even before that event, there were a series of requests that surprised him that turned out to be related to Elise.

The purchase of a small Japanese ramen shop, Marc personally gave a lot of money to a not-five-star hotel where he paid for the guests to leave the hotel and head somewhere else.

Those were the times where his uncle became active again. Marc always thought Elise was special, but he didn't know who she really was. 

Based on his findings, she was not really Madeline York. She was assumed to be the missing girl but the family never did a DNA test.

Daniel York's brother was adamant that the girl was not his niece and he contested the will left behind by Daniel. However, it seemed, Elise also didn't care about her inheritance. 

Once Daniel York, her supposed father, passed away, his estate donated most of his wealth to charities and organizations, especially those that worked on anti-human trafficking and child trafficking. It was quite a noble thing to do.

So, why did Elise donate all the wealth that could have been hers? Didn't she need the money to live? New York was such an expensive city to live in.

Why did she choose to work in the Sanderman Group to make money? 

Was it because she was an impostor and she thought she didn't deserve to claim someone else's wealth? Or did she just do it because she genuinely cared about victims of human trafficking?

Or.. it was also possible that Elise thought she wouldn't need the money since she was dating Loriel Ashborn? Marc's grand-uncle was probably one of the wealthiest men in the world to date.

All the wealth and artworks that he had collected for over fifteen centuries were no joke. He could easily buy the city they were in now if he wanted to.

So, yeah… the York family's wealth was very pale in comparison to Loriel's. However, Elise didn't seem to know who Loriel really was. Did she even know how wealthy the man was?

So many questions were raging in Marc's mind. He wanted an answer, but he didn't dare to pester his uncle to know the truth. Marc could only do what Loriel asked and wait until his uncle was kind enough to explain the reasons.

Hm… so, Loriel wanted to propose to Elise, huh? He wanted to marry her already? So soon? How long had it been?

Three months and two weeks. However, even though it's only been three months, Marc  knew better than to question all the crazy and impulsive things his uncle did.

He had known Loriel and understood the man wouldn't propose to a woman if he wasn't sure. This woman must be special to him. Loriel never even consider any woman worthy of his affection for the many years that Marc knew him.

Loriel never dated anyone. He was not Marc who would fool around with many beautiful women and find a new girlfriend when he was bored with the old one.

So, all the mysteries surrounding Elise's identity became more interesting with the fact that Loriel had decided that he wanted her to be his wife.

Marc pulled out his laptop and started browsing through some wedding sites. He tried to read and visualize the proposals but after trying hard for half an hour, he finally gave up.

Really.. proposals and weddings were not his cup of tea. Eventually, he just sent the links to Alex and chatted with her to look up the best for him.

[Alex, can you prepare a compilation of all the best wedding proposal arrangements? Send it to me as soon as possible.]

[Okay, boss.]

Alex held her breath after she hung up the call. Marc just asked her to find the best proposal ideas?????

So, the womanizer was finally thinking of tying the knot? Was this for real????

Who was that woman so unlucky to capture Marc Sanderman's heart that he was thinking of settling down? Did Alex know her?

She tried to remember the ladies that Marc was dating in the past three months. None of them stood out, it seemed. In fact, he was actually single by the time the 'World's Most Eligible Bachelor Award' was announced. 

Did he meet anyone when Alex was not looking? How mysterious!

Meanwhile, on the other end, Marc was relieved because he already delegated the task to his assistant. He didn't have the talent to propose. Ask him how to woo women, and he would come up with so many ideas. But to propose? Nah…

"Hah, no questions asked at all. That's Alex, alright." Marc chuckled to himself when he remembered Alex was unfazed when he asked her to get him the best ideas to propose. He suspected Alex would assume the proposal was for him, but he didn't care. 

As long as he got the job done. He looked at his watch and realized it was time to go to the office. Even though it was actually the holiday, Marc still went to the office. He had so much planned for next year and he didn't want to lose time by relaxing too much at home.

Soon, it would be 2046. Ha. It looked like Loriel hit it big this time. Marc had known his uncle for his whole life and the man had always been alone. However, if he really proposed soon, the next year, he would finally be a married man.

Marc finished his tea and started preparing himself to go to work. He didn't simply offer additional remuneration for his employees if he didn't go to the office himself.

Along the way, he thought about the situation some more. Marc Sanderman knew he needed to recontextualize the situation in Loriel's perception. 

This was his immortal grand-uncle who had been alive for who knows how long?

Approximately fifteen centuries if his memory served him right. At least, that was what his father told him when Mr. Sanderman senior explained to Marc about who Loriel was in his death bed.

So when it came to a person that Loriel loved and cherished, there was the obvious decision that he should spend those times with her. An ordinary human's life was brief. 

If Loriel fell in love with Elise, then he wanted to be with her and do everything that he dreamed of with Elise.

Compared to Loriel, Elise wasn't immortal as far as Marc was aware.

So if Loriel was really going to love her, then it was natural that Loriel wanted to get married as soon as possible. Marc knew that gaining immortality was a hard and difficult thing.

If that hadn't been the case, then maybe his ancestors would have attempted to be like Loriel.

Marc didn't know the full story of what happened to Loriel that turned him into the immortal that he was today. He hoped someday Loriel would trust him enough to share, even though Marc didn't want to live forever like his uncle. 

Loriel must have had such a sad life that he became an annoying and grumpy grandpa in Marc's eyes. Just imagine, he lost everyone he loved and one by one the people he knew would die too.

In a way, he had to redo his life over and over again with new people, most of whom didn't know who he was. Was his immortality permanent? Could he become a regular human if he was tired of life? 

Maybe not, Marc thought again. Otherwise, Loriel would have died a long time ago. Marc often saw Loriel looking bored or sad and he could swear his uncle looked like he wanted to die.

If he hated life so much why didn't he just stop living? What kept him going all this time?

Marc's steps halted.

Suddenly, a crazy thought came to his mind.

Was Loriel waiting for something? Was that the reason why he kept going even though he hated his life?

Was Loriel waiting for… someone?

Marc swallowed and his brows knitted together. This thought was too mindblowing that he had to stop and thought about it deeply.

Things changed drastically three months ago when Loriel suddenly asked Marc to buy a hostel, a ramen shop, hire a woman in his office, and then…

WHOAA...

So many light bulbs suddenly turned on in his mind, and slowly, Marc started to connect the dots.

Elise's background was very mysterious.

Loriel changed so much after he met her. 

Loriel, who never even gave a woman a second look, was acting like a teenager in love around Elise. And now he wanted to marry her right away. He also seemed to know a lot about Elise despite her mysterious background.

Was she… the person that Loriel had been waiting for?

Marc couldn't help but be in awe of Loriel's dedication to one woman alone.. Love really made people do so many unthinkable things.