A year and a half ago.
Marquess Frederick Blakeloch was summoned to appear in front of the Queen of Edalelia. His summons was not unusual as the Blakelochs often mingle with the Royal Family of Edalelia as their families have known each other for a few generations.
Marquess Frederick had silver-blonde hair with icy grey eyes. He was tall and elegant in his posture and steps. He appeared younger than his age of forty as he walked towards the Queen's study behind the butler who led the way that he knew by heart. Even though the Marquess knew his way, he always followed the rules of the Royal Palace.
They finally made it in front of the Queen's study. The study always appeared unguarded, but Lord Frederick understood that the casting shadows were where the Shadow Guards dwelled. He paid them no attention as he was announced to enter the study.
What greeted him was a couple that both had black hair and silver eyes with crescent pupils. They were Walliams' parents who guarded the Queen of Edalelia. As soon as they saw the Marquess, their eyes gleamed joyfully but remained neutral in the Queen's presence. However, their swishing tails gave away their excitement.
"Lord Marquess, please enter," said Walliams' father as he made way for him to pass and closed the door behind him.
"Thank you, Rowland. How are you, Yulia?" greeted the Marquess to the couple that seemed happy to see him.
"We are fine. How are Walliams and your daughter Elizabella doing?" Yulia could not help but ask.
"They are doing well. Walliams is getting stronger every day," replied the Marquess with a smile on his face, bringing the couple to relax visibly.
"That is always good to hear," said Yulia as she nodded and made way for the Marquess to pass, ending their brief dialogue.
Marquess Frederick continued until he was in front of the desk where the Queen sat majestically while looking down on some documents. The Marquess bowed before the Queen as he spoke.
"Your Majesty, how may I be of service?" said the Marquess in mid-bow as he waited for the Queen to tell him to rise.
The Queen leisurely looked through the documents without looking up at the Marquess when she asked him to sit in an empty chair in front of the desk. The Marquess stood up elegantly as he sat down in a chair and waited for the Queen to finish reading through her notes.
"Do you know what We are reading in Our hands?" asked the Queen as she still looked through her documents while the Marquess kept his head straight and looked slightly down on the floor.
At her question, he shifted his gaze towards the desk and saw the documents that she was looking through when Marquess Frederick had walked into the room. From his angle, he could not see what she was reading. Understanding that the Queen asked him a rhetorical question but that she waited for his reply prompted him to lower his head again and respond.
"No, my Queen. What, may I ask, are you reading?"
The Queen gracefully closed her documents in a folder when she turned her gaze on the Marquess. She stared at him with his head bowed, and she smiled elegantly.
"This is Bella's school progress report. We are happy that she is always on top of her grade level. We think that maybe it is time that she takes courses that are more challenging for her, yet equally beneficial for her future," said the Queen as the Marquess was surprised to hear that it was about his eldest daughter.
"What do you have in mind, Your Majesty?" asked Marquess Frederick as he wondered why the Queen was always so keen on his eldest daughter.
From the time she was born, he knew, as well as his side of the family, that Elizabella looked the most like his grandmother. When she was younger, his grandmother was the Queen's favorite governess and stated that if she had not married so young, his grandmother would have been the, then, Crown Princess's Lady in Waiting.
From this knowledge, Marquess Frederick always assumed that the Queen's interest in his eldest daughter was that of in memory of his grandmother. However, the Queen often showed preferential treatment towards his daughter, which sometimes worried him from the nobility's gossip.
In recent months, he has started to hear that the Queen was so fond of his daughter that she was grooming her to be the future royal in-law. At first, he had dismissed this as people reading too much into things. However, recently, he has noticed that maybe, there was some truth to the rumors.
Thinking of this made him nervous as he understood that standing out too much could mean trouble. He hoped that it would not lead to anything significant.
"We think it is time that she takes lessons from Silverleaf School of Fine Arts," said the Queen while the Marquess was so surprised that he could not keep his head down as he quickly looked up at her in shock.
"Your Majesty, are you serious? Although it holds a lofty title in the name, it is not really a school for a young lady of a high noble family. Why would you want my Bella to attend this school?" asked Marquess Frederick as the Queen looked at him before sighing and bringing her hands to rest on the desk in front of her.
"We know Bella very well as We have watched her grow up in front of Us. To put it nicely, she is a good, polite, and even innocent young lady; to put it bluntly, she is naive and gullible. We fear that her future could be ruined at the hands of others if she trusts the wrong people.
"It is Our hope that by going to said school, she will be able to spot the fakes from the truths. We wish to see her apply to the acting department as she is not good at hiding her emotions. A noble Lady always needs to keep her cool. Her future will depend on her understanding of reading people and how to hide her thoughts," said the Queen as she finished and took a sip of her tea, leaving the Marquess to ponder her words for a moment.
"I understand what you mean, but why have her go to such a place to learn these things when we can hire someone to teach her?" asked the Marquess as suspicion crept into his mind.
"Oh, Frederick, do not be so closed-minded. Mingling with the commoners would give her a better reputation. Besides, she should be exposed to all sorts of people. We blame you and your tight leash on parenting for how she turned out to be so naive.
"That side of hers will need to disappear if you do not want her to be bullied in the future when she marries. Now that We are on that subject, have you thought of her future partner?" asked the Queen with interest, leaving Marquess Frederick to feel his back tingling as his suspicions grew.
"Elizabella just turned sixteen. She is still too young to think of this," said Marquess Frederick as he felt nervous over their conversation.
"In two years, she will be introduced to Our society where many young bachelors will take a fancy to her. What if she falls for the wrong one? Have you already discussed with her any of these? Is she currently pursuing an interest, as in someone she fancies already?
"As a noble who has meticulously raised his family well, you need to understand the weight of what your title and name hold. Of course, this is something you proved to be stubborn in somehow. How can a cunning man such as yourself give birth to innocent Elizabella? The world is, indeed, strange. At least where she lacks in cunningness, she is abundant in smarts," said the Queen as she felt a headache from remembering how the Marquess married Elizabella's mother.
Remembering how he convinced the world to marry the love of his life, Marquess Frederick did not know what to say. It was true that he did an elaborate scheme to marry his current wife. He was sure that if the Queen had not hidden the fact of what he had done, the young Marquess at the time would have been executed.
What made the matter worse was that his wife and family did not know what he did behind their backs to marry. In the end, the Queen lets him marry Elizabella's mother.
"Normally, a young man in your position would have just eloped or gotten her pregnant out of wedlock. You just had to convince everyone that she was qualified to marry a Marquess. Honestly, We did not hand you over to the authorities at that time because We respected what you accomplished. You were lucky that no one ever found out; otherwise, We would not have been able to protect you, no matter how close you were to Our sons," said the Queen as she sighed again before sipping on her tea while the Marquess felt his ears burning at her light scolding.
The day he learned that the Queen had found out of his elaborate plan was also the day where she scolded him until his ears felt like they were bleeding. By that time, Elizabella was already two and had stolen the Queen's heart. At that time, he was sure that the Queen saved him because she did not want Elizabella to grow up without a father. He secretly wiped his sweat off his forehead and was thankful for his daughter's existence.
"In the end, all parties involved were greatly benefitted. Even if the way I handled things were considered illegal, I would do it again," said Marquess Frederick, making the Queen speechless.
She stared at the man sitting in front of her and concluded that Elizabella's innocent and naïve nature came from her father. He still did not seem to understand that although on the surface, it looked like everyone had benefitted equally, there was someone in the equation that lost out significantly. If that person were still alive and knew the inner workings of how everything came to be, the Queen was sure that he would regret his choices.
"It appears that you would have also benefitted from attending a school such as this when you were younger. We think that it is excellent to be able to meet all sorts of people. It is good to fail in life to improve further. Too bad that time cannot be brought back to change Our past actions. However, We do not want young Bella to live a life of regrets. She will attend this school, starting next week. We hope that you prepare her properly before your daughter leaves as it is not in the capital. Elizabella will have to live away from you for some time," said the Queen as she dismissed the Marquess, who did not know how to retort and eventually sighed before leaving the study.
The Queen continued to sip her tea as the couple that guarded her looked to her with confused expressions. She noticed their gazes and took another sip before asking them anything.
"Do you have something you wish to say?"
"Your Majesty, who lost out at the end of the Marquess' plan?" asked Rowland as he and his wife looked at the Queen, who sighed again.
"His father-in-law. He became a slave to the King of Glear, and he was never aware of it happening. At least, to Our understanding, that poor old man never understood that the late King of Glear was using him. To be sold and still count their money is always if pitiful sight. We hope that Elizabella never falls to such schemes."