"This meeting was totally a waste of time, at least we had the chance to see the first prince."
"Yeah, that was the best part of the whole seance! Seeing him defend himself and going against queen Beatrice was so charming hehe!"
The council meeting ended faster than it started and with the queen away, they still have to discuss important matters with all of the council members. That made some of the nobles and us to step out of the court and wait for them to finish in one of the halls inside the palace. There made the group of girls feel out of place and require another place for them to stay, but as a result, they kept talking about all different parts of the meeting. Focusing more on how stunning prince Alastair looked and other pointless conversations that seemed more like fantasy romance than real-life situations. Still since I was part of the small group of girls that were called as representatives, I had to deal with so many of their attempts to put me into the conversation and their bad-mouthing in front of me.
In all that noise and disturbing gossip without any meaning, no one ever talked about the fact that both the prince and the queen were purposely attacking each other for the throne. On one side is Beatrice that hates Alastair for being the firstborn and wishes for his befall, and on the other is Alastair who wants to get the queen out of the way, by making any of her attempts useless and driving her into insanity. Causing rumors and doing all kinds of mistakes here and there for her to collect and making her way deep into his game.
Seeing that satisfied reaction and the queen's face when she lost and stormed out with rage, what I think is that he purposively did something to Alan so the queen could fall for it, and gather witnesses to see how she was making a fool out of herself and losing her mind bit by bit from her anger. But that's not all, he could have been the one who would come out as guilty if even one of the high ranged didn't lift his hand in agreement.
'It gives me the chills, the thought that he must have planned for both the outcoming to end up in his favor. But since everything ended up well with him just as an indicator of a fight with the young duke, all the nobles are tended to forget about this matter or sympathize with the prince out of guilt for siding against him in the questioning process.'
Queen Beatrice Viotto Aleader, it must have been hard for her character to retreat and end the session with that. If she wished, she would not have taken the public vote into account at all and would have punished prince Alastair herself, but on the other hand, her purpose would have been revealed and it would have been an open war between her and the prince along with the empress.
"Excuse me, can I talk with you for a moment?"
'Argh… what now?'
It was foolish of me to think that the girls would stop their attempt on talking to me even if I stayed far away from the crowd spacing outside the window, but this time it was one of the boys that approached me. It was like a group of normal bullies that gathered together and only one of them is separated from them to get closer and talk. That was not even a polite approach since he didn't greet me or introduced himself and his purpose, and it was obvious that he had hidden meanings within his request, seeing his friends that were smirking at giggling while looking at me. His grace words before I got out of the court ringed in my ear, "Try to stay low and answer politely to anyone that approaches you. Don't create a scandal or a bad name for our family!" but he asked the wrong person to corporate.
"Of course, greeting to you too by the way, nameless person and his band of little girls! How can I help you?"
"Na-Nameless person? Don't you know how I am?"
'I expected him to be frustrated for calling him like that, but it seems that he is just clueless. Well, then it looks like no one has noticed us yet, so lucky me!'
"No, you didn't introduce yourself! Since you expect me to know your name, does that mean that you are an important person?"
"Yes, I am!"
'Don't laugh, don't laugh! Why did he have to say it with such passion and high hopes that I would recognize him by just that? He is even waiting for his friend's approval, pfft! Is he delusional or just stupid, who knows.'
"All right, we will leave it like that. Now why did you want to talk to me?"
For a small group of boys that had gathered together, that at the first glance looked like some kind of bullies in a movie, they sure hesitated when it came to talking. That makes me think if his first question was informal for that kind of reason. He stepped back and tried to cover his flushed face, his friends looked at him and pushed him closer to me. That was unexpected betrayal from their side and he was muttering to himself fixing his eyes at the mini symbol of the crest that the maids put on the right side of my chest.
'Hey can you talk? This silence is making me uncomfortable and I don't know if you are looking at the jewel or my chest. Still, this is disrespectful from his side either way! And I can't stay here like this being around a potential threat or waiting for a rumor to start by making me his offender. Wait, is he doing this on purpose? Him being in a vulnerable state avoiding my eyes and me, emotionless looking like I am bulling him or being rude to him and his friends? I don't see someone looking this way, and everyone is on their own talk, but is not uncommon for this type of person to be looking in our direction and waiting for the moment to point it out. If so, this is all an acting and I should probably get out before they have the chance to set up their game.'
"W-wait where are you going? You didn't give me a chance to talk!"
'Stay calm, don't let the crowd believe that you are trying to run away, but playing the victim is not my style.'
He shouted by getting everyone's attention, someone must have been looking the whole time, so there are three possibilities. He will continue to pursue me with the intention to talk and I would be the girl that rudely is not giving him the chance, he will wait for me to yell back at him for getting in the way, or right now the person who was probably watching in the crowd will show itself and would tell his side of the story. I can't count or rely on public opinion so playing the victim is no use. They would, without a doubt, say things against me just to enjoy the show, and leaving without saying anything is going to make things worst. 'Just act like you don't care and the dogs will soon stop barking or will chaise you even more.' I was ready to take that risk either way.
As I stepped out of the hall, I heard a noise coming from inside. Screaming, shouting and talking out loud in repeat, banging and yelling even from the girl's side. The thought that they wanted a show to entertain them and their boredom from the past meeting scared me, because this was too much to handle if I stayed there and would surely go against his grace's words.
'They sure don't know how to stop when it comes to entertaining huh! I wonder how Mireya would handle this situation if she was here in my stead.'
Since I had time until the meeting was over, I wanted to go outside to look at the outside view of the palace one more time. Now the sun would be at its peak and the light of the shining stones and golden animal statues would be perfect to heal my eyes and mind from the tension that had accumulated from the council meeting.
Not to mention the flowers in the garden I saw around the castles, which I certainly could not leave without visiting. The palace has the most rear flowers and some that were made to suit the cold conditions, which no one could have imagined to have, and now I have the opportunity to visit it. Knowing that no one other than the royal family is allowed to go there, I happily went under the pretext that no one was surveillance it and that I didn't know it was prohibited.
When I found myself in the middle of flowers with the palace in front of me, I was really excited like a little child. Wandering around and looked at the most beautiful flowers that I could find. The cabbage and kale and of course ranunculus were my favorite above all the others. This place was literally heaven despite what is inside the palace.
"This is so beautiful! I wish I could have those flowers with me at the mansion and stare at them from my bedroom window. Well, I suppose if I had this Spencer would scold me for sleeping in the garden or for ditching my lessons to look at them."
A faint laugh reminded me of where I was, I shouldn't have said it out loud when the possibility of someone else coming out of the hall as I did was pretty high. I looked around to spot that person, and I saw the same boy that I was sure had planned the whole meeting to be the queen's downfall, right behind me smiling.
"Greeting your highness, the first star of our kingdom!"
Now that I see it more clearly that is not a creepy smile, even if I was a little scared since he came out behind me, it was gentle and kind of a smile you give a friend or family. Seeing him up close was nothing like looking from the distance. I felt little in his presence and whatever I wanted to say would backfire if he had the intention to fight me, but even his eyes were smiling. A warm feeling, the same as a long hug from the right person. He looked down at the flowers that I was so excited about, and with an innocent face turned his eyes on me.
"You like flowers, right? I can give those to you if you want them!"
'Oh, please sir I don't know what to expect anymore! An innocent child or a manipulative sociopath! So forget what you heard and leave!'