"You have to marry Lady Clara, Noah!" Queen Elena said to her son.

"But, Mother, wasn't she a mere commoner? She doesn't even have noble blood."

"Lady Clara was indeed a commoner. But she is adopted daughter of Duke Brentwood. Inevitably, you must make her your wife if you still want to secure the position as crown prince," Queen Elena concluded in a cold tone. "There is no other choice. You know it, don't you, that His Majesty is very close to Duke Brentwood? They even have plans to marry Clara to Prince Nicolas after he returns from the eastern field."

Prince Noah was the first born son of King Ethan Harrington. The Barsalon Kingdom's wealth was indeed in crisis due to the prolonged war with the Luzica Kingdom. The fastest way to recover financially was to marry off one of the royal families to the wealthiest nobles in Barsalon.

If only King Ethan had a daughter, matters would be simpler because the king could easily marry off the princess to any noble who dared to pay a heavy price to the royal family. However, King Ethan only had five sons from all his wives. One of them was the son of Queen Elena, Prince Noah. He was already 21st years old. The king's other children came from concubines. The second oldest one was Prince Nicolas, son of Lady Bianca, King Ethan's true love. He was only one year younger than Prince Noah. Whether the other princes were still under 15 years old.

It has become a tradition in Barsalon royal family, the mother of the prince was in charge of selecting a potential wife for the prince. Sometimes, there was more than one candidate.

Only Prince Nicolas had one candidate. Therefore, King Ethan intended to immediately marry Prince Nicolas to Lady Clara, to save the kingdom's finances from bankruptcy.

Knowing the current power of the Brentwood family, Queen Elena felt that the King wanted to make Prince Nicolas a competitor of her son for the position of the crown prince. This was not unreasonable because the two are close in age.

"Then, what about Violett?" Prince Noah argued again, mentioning the name of his fiancée, Lady Violett Griffin.

"Forget about Lady Violett. Her father is bankrupt. She won't be able to help you in any way," Queen Elena replied sarcastically. She admitted that she had chosen the wrong potential wife for his son. She should not have been fooled by the dowry given by Duke Griffin back then so that she would choose his daughter to be Prince Noah's future wife.

"But I love her, Mom! You chose her for me," The prince begged for another option.

"Huh, love? Didn't you see your father? Once he got me and made me a Queen, he married all the girls he had betrothed to. Including the bitch Bianca. The street dancer your father married out of love." In a harsh voice, the queen explained. Everything about Lady Bianca was a pain in her neck.

"Mother! How could I ever share my love?"

"Noah!" Queen Elena snapped. "If you still want the throne and my support, then do as I wish. Understand?"

There was silence in the room. Prince Noah always obeyed his mother.

"Then, is it possible to get Father's permission? After all, Prince Nic and Lady Clara have been close since childhood."

"Yes, it is. I'm going to tell His Majesty that Prince Nic could have been killed in the eastern field. The kingdom's finances must be saved immediately. You're the one who's forced to marry Lady Clara as soon as possible."

***

Obeying his mother's orders, Prince Noah and his loyal bodyguard, David Watson, came to the residence of Duke Brentwood. Prince Noah wanted to meet Lady Clara personally before formally proposing to her.

Prince Noah didn't know anything about women other than Lady Violett because so far he has only had one love. As for Lady Clara, he'd heard words or two stating that she wasn't classy. This kind of thing made him feel reluctant to obey Queen Elena's orders.

"David, if it is true that Lady Clara was a commoner, why did Duke Brentwood choose to adopt her?" Prince Noah asked in doubt.

"According to the information I have received, some people say that Lady Clara is Duke Brentwood's illegitimate child. However, some say that she is the daughter of Duke Brentwood's younger sister who ran away from home."

The explanation did not satisfy Prince Noah's curiosity. "Which one is true?"

"Sorry, Your Highness. I do not know either. Duke Brentwood has kept his adopted daughter's background secret. So did the rest of his family. Nobody knows," David answered in a flat tone. "Who knows. Maybe he wants to protect his daughter from threats."

While being engrossed in conversation, suddenly a horse rider approached Prince Noah and David at high speed. Fortunately, the knight in armor was so agile that he stopped just before he could hit the visitors. David swiftly confronted the rude knight. The sword was stretched to David's neck and vice versa.

"Who are you?" the knight asked. His voice was a little strange, maybe because he was wearing a helmet.

"You may be a knight, but you have been disrespectful to the royal family. This is His Highness, Prince Noah, King Ethan's first son and I'm David, his bodyguard," David explained fearlessly. He was one of the top ten knights in the land. There was no way he would be afraid of a low-rank knight who was guarding the Duke's house.

"What does Your Highness, Prince Noah, want here?" the knight asked again, in a rude way. "This house only knows Prince Nicolas. It's only natural that we don't know the face of King Ethan's other son."

"We want to see the daughter of the Brentwood family," David replied again.

"Oh, you should have announced your arrival first. So I won't misunderstand."

David fell silent. How this person spoke was impolite, even though he knew that what he was dealing with was a person from the royal family.

"So, what did you need to see me for?" asked the knight who was still wearing his helmet.

David sighed. Prince Noah was already getting annoyed.

"I'm here to see Lady Clara Brentwood. Are you deaf?" Prince Noah rebuked.

The horse rider laughed out loud. He then took off his helmet, leaving Prince Noah and David wide-eyed, in disbelief.

"If I say I'm Clara Brentwood, then what's the matter?"