"His Highness is alright, his poison resistance has saved him." Felipe replied to Frederick's question.
"Poison resistance.." He frowned as he remembered how his former crown prince died, "If not for Jev's death, I wouldn't force my children to develop resistance against all kinds of poison."
Felipe looked at the emperor's frown and sighed. "Your Majesty, His Highness has entered the outer gate." A man wearing a black hood appeared out of nowhere.
Frederick nods. The hooded man disappeared as the emperor and his butler leaves the office to wait before the main gate of the palace for Henry's return.
...Few minutes later
Trumpets sounded and the crowd became more lively as they saw Henry's carriage along his subordinates within their sight. Multiple soldiers entered the crowd and made a way for Henry to enter.
They sheathed their swords as they gently warned Henry's admirers, "Please miladies, make way."
Slowly, the crowd was halved into two. Similarly to how someone halved the ocean with his long wooden staff. [Wink, wink, ahem.]
Henry's white carriage adorned with designs made of gold and a red sword crest signifying this carriage as one of the exclusive Scarlett Carriages. The crowd of women began to create noise.
"Your Highness!"
"Oh my god, I saw his hair. His beautiful scarlett hair and his smooth skin~!"
"Wait, where?!"
"AHHHH, Your Highness!!"
Henry gulped, his subordinates were looking at different directions to ignore their master's pleading face while Irene is controlling herself not to laugh.
Frederick was speechless but at the same time, he is proud that his son has hundreds of marriage candidates. Meanwhile, every soldier who is controlling the crowd are trying hard to block all the crazy women.
Before Henry's carriage could enter the opened large black gate, a woman was able to pass the security and ran to the carriage.
She opened the door of the carriage and gave everyone inside shock. 'Your High— who is this bitch?!' she thought inwardly as she stared at Irene with a distorted face.
Irene looked at the woman and coincidentally shared eye contact for almost a minute. She felt her piercing gaze amidst Reyna and the others went in between them both.
"Lady Burton, how dare you—"
"Shut up, slave!" Lady Burton yelled at Reyna while searching for Irene, "Who is that bitch in front of Henry?!"
"Mind your manners, Lady Burton. Your family may have a history of loyal paladins and is extremely influential but you dare to call His Highness in his name," Julian said in a flat tone while giving her a stare which meant: 'Back off.'
Before she could humiliate the Burton surname more, her brother interfered and grabbed her wrist. "What are you doing?!" he whispered in a worried tone.
She looked at her brother with an angry face before taking her hand back. Then she ran to the crowd while her brother bowed three times before following her.
After she stormed out, the crowd began to murmur and created theories, or rather, malicious gossips.
Frederick shook his head while Felipe sighed as he made a gesture that signaled the coachman to continue. Both the grown men, especially Frederick know that rumors will surface about how Henry has a woman inside his carriage.
In a few minutes, Henry's carriage finally entered the front gate and they closed it immediately for the fear of another apocalypse.
Frederick crossed his arms as he saw Henry's main subordinates stepping out first and Henry followed. The father and son looked at each other and nods.
"Lady Crimson, please wear this." Julian offered an enchanted white cloak before stepping out the carriage.
Irene looked at the white cloak on her hands and sighed, then she wore it. Henry fixed his suit with his gaze on the ground, afterwards he wore the new white gloves offered by Felipe.
About seven minutes passed, Henry offered his hand as Irene finally stepped out the carriage. The crowd of women stared with widened eyes while biting their nails, creating an eerie mist.
Irene's hand on top of Henry's white glove, the sight of an unknown woman accept a rare offer from the number one bachelor made all the women reek the sin, envy.
Monique saw the whole moment amidst being far away, she clenched the wooden handle of her old-fashioned binoculars. "Audrey, do you know anything about that vixen?" She said with a curious face that didn't match the flat tone she spoke in.
Audrey looked at her sister while munching the biscuit in her mouth before taking a sip of sweetened tea. She gulped whatever was inside her mouth before replying, "Who exactly?"
Monique looked at her sister with a blank expression before exclaiming, "How would you know if you are not seeing what I'm seeing?!"
Audrey immediately stood up from her seat then took her own binoculars on the table before standing beside her angered sister.
She took a awhile to find Irene's figure before Monique pointed at a certain direction, "Uhmm.. Who in tea and biscuits is that?!"
"Stop thinking about food and why is your information network so unreliable?!?" She raised her voice.
'Really? That woman just appeared today, how would they know who she is.' Audrey complained inside her mind before making a forced smile on her face, "How about this: You will send a letter to the palace to meet your beloved fiance and personally ask him who in Aveline history is she."
"..." Monique stayed silent while looking at Henry as he and everyone else went inside the palace.
Even if there was nothing to see anymore but the dispersing crowd of women, Monique still placed her gaze towards the closed palace doors. While she is in deep thought, Audrey went back to her seat and continued enjoying the tea and biscuits.
Audrey dipped a biscuit in her tea, she voluntarily soaked the biscuit until it got soggy and broke. Suddenly she says a meaningful quote, "Hey, Moni. Don't tea and biscuits give us a lesson.. not to fall for someone so deep that you get broken."
"Shut that mouth of yours, I'm thinking here!" Monique interrupted her sister before returning to deep thinking.