For as long as Amrit had known him, one of Lex's greatest qualities had always been his detachment from most things around him, something his counterpart, Kaiden, had never quite mastered.
But, just like everyone, Lex also had his own set of flaws whenever he fronted, the biggest one being his hostile, and often disruptive personality as he rarely got along with the rest of his peers, many of whom had known Kaiden since childhood.
In the royal family, however, efficiency and competence often outweighed close friendships, which made Lex the preferred personality with Baron when it came to shaping him into an exceptional member of the Reyes bloodline.
Because of this, Amrit figured Lex would see the news of the princess's disappearance as just another hassle to deal with before getting back to whatever he wanted to do.
After all, it made perfect sense for Amrit to assume that Lex had lost all interest in the human after choosing to spend the night with Scarlett following the party, yet the look on his face was far from his usual indifferent expression.
Now, it seemed like everything was going to be an afterthought until he found Kaari, and no one could stop him from doing so, not even himself.
He could barely keep up with the emperor's stride as his shadows bled through every nook and cranny of the entire palace, desperately searching for a sign of a presence that had long since vanished.
Each attempt to find her proved useless, and with each failed search, Lex's anxiety only deepened as it became increasingly evident in the ominous shadow that followed him wherever he went.
'I should've stayed.' He thought over and over again, his headache worsening with every erratic thought that went through his head. 'I should've made sure she was safe no matter how upset I was by her words-'
All the awful things he had said to her replayed in his head endlessly while he desperately hoped that he would run into her, but his hopes were crushed when he found no signs of her anywhere, as if she only existed in his head this entire time.
Kaari had truly disappeared without a trace, and now he could not take back anything he had said to her on their last encounter.
He stood frozen in place at the cruel realization, and for the first time in his existence, he did not know what to do as panic engulfed him from the inside.
"Your Majesty!" Amrit called out, obviously concerned with Lex's sudden, erratic behavior. "Please calm down. We are currently doing everything we can to find her-"
"That bastard that was with her... where is he?"
"You mean Sir Gabriel?" Amrit guessed correctly, feeling slightly uneasy about everything that was unfolding. "He's outside searching for her with the Valors. In fact, he was the first person to even notice Her Highness had gone missing. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have found out so quickly."
Amrit's statement alone was enough to make the ache in Lex's chest worsen. Who knew guilt could hurt this much to a Roseabelle?
'Get yourself together.' He thought, realizing his panic wouldn't bring Kaari back. 'She needs you now more than ever. You have to stay focused-'
"Don't tell me you're actually going out there to find her yourself, are you?" Scarlett's voice was piercing as it cut through the silent corridors, having perfectly read what was on Lex's mind.
"You should know better than this, Lexian," Scarlett snapped again at his silence, but Lex barely reacted to her outburst. "A human has no place in a nation like Stygia, let alone in its royal hierarchy."
"... This does not concern you." He replied coldly, not even sparing a glance at her while she walked closer to him and Amrit. "So spare your useless opinions and leave."
"Are you sure about that?" She challenged, and this time, it caught his attention. "Because I think otherwise."
"You talk as if you're the one behind all this." Lex stated with a hint of suspicion, and Scarlett's silence was all the confirmation he needed.
"... You got to be fucking me in the ass." Amrit muttered under his breath once he also realized what the silence from Scarlett had meant. "She really just went and committed high treason in the middle of the night because she was jealous of a mere human."
"You..." Lex fumed angrily, his frown deepening. "Are you even aware of what you've just done?"
"Oh, don't be ridiculous. We both know you're not saying that out of concern for me." Scarlett brushed off his warning with a strained laugh, though the bitterness simmering beneath her mask was clear in the way she glared at the emperor. "Why... just why in the world are you going out of your way to protect that pathetic, good-for-nothing woman? Both you and Kaiden were never the kind to care about others like this, so why the sudden change?"
"So that's what it was all about?" Lex scoffed in disbelief, and Scarlett's expression wavered even more, though she could've sworn there was a growing sadness in his eyes as he spoke. "You chose to bring harm to an innocent girl for some coward who only knew how to hide from his problems?"
"Don't you dare speak ill of him when you're no better yourself!" Her voice trembled as she yelled, with tears threatening to fall down her cheeks. "He was supposed to be mine! You... You have no idea how long I waited for the day where we would finally be together, and you just had to ruin it by taking him away from me!"
"Take him away?" Lex scoffed at Scarlett's ignorant claim, unable to contain his anger any longer. "You think I ever had a say in whether I wanted this life?"
"That bastard owes me his life! Because when he decided to give up, I was the one who stepped in to make things work, time and time again."
Scarlett stepped back as Lex approached menacingly, his face a blank mask hiding everything but a simmering, unspoken fury.
"You think I liked taking his place? What would you know about living as someone else for years on end? About being trapped in a void of darkness whenever he chose to front at will, only to be dragged back to the surface without warning once he's had his fun, over and over again?"
"Your Majesty!" Amrit bravely stepped in between them to deescalate the situation, but Lex continued to spew spiteful words, each one cutting Scarlett deeper than the last.
"Don't tell me you really thought that miserable scum ever cared for you? The only thing Kaiden ever cared about was being a useful tool to the royal family, nothing else. I'm the living proof of that! If anything, I'm sure he only tolerated you because you were the goddaughter of the headmaster, someone with enough authority to place him into a role of power-"
The silence that followed Scarlett's slap was unnerving for Amrit, who was almost convinced she had just decided to throw her life away the moment she struck the emperor.
"What would you even know about loving someone?" She snapped, her hand still tingling from the slap she landed across Lex's face. "When all you are is a monster pretending to be someone you're not."
"... You're right. I don't know what it's like." He struggled to finish his sentence, finding it difficult to realize that his next words were about to be truth. "Because when I finally met someone who could help me understand, you decided to take her away from me."
His harsh words hit Scarlett harder than she'd expected, and she collapsed to the ground with a thud, her frail body trembling as she wept quietly into her hands, having found the dreaded answer to her unrequited love of countless centuries.
"I pray for your sake that I find her safe and sound, Lady Scarlett." He wrapped up the conversation swiftly, casually wiping the blood from the cut above his lip after her strike, seemingly unfazed by her sudden burst of violence. "Because if anything happens to her... it will be your head on the platter."