Fiona welcomed Ryoichi and apologized: "Sorry, my brother…"
"That's all right. Hope I didn't bother you two, your majesty." Saying that, Ryoi was about to bow to her.
"Save it. That won't be necessary. You're an elite now, and you're my fiancé, so you don't have to."
"Your majesty gave me the glory out of mercy, but I can't forget where I came from."
The words changed a little bit how Fiona thought of him as.
"That's too humble. After all, you saved my life. I haven't said thank you, have I?"
"Protecting your majesty is our job. Saving your majesty is just accidental. And, not keeping your majesty in the palace and putting you in danger are also dereliction of duty. It was just the queen's mercy not publishing me, and such great honor for me to be able to serve you."
Fiona started to like him a little bit more because of his modesty and distance. She was afraid that this strange guard might take advantage of the fact of saving her and becoming her fiancé. However, he seemed like understand what role he was playing and show no intention of breaking rules. He was that gentle, and regarded marrying her as an honor, unlike Jonathan…
Thinking of this name, Fiona could not hold her tears, which flied and floated as pearls.
"Your majesty…"
Fiona turned her face to the other side and tried to calm down.
Ryoichi asked: "Your majesty, I know I'm not qualified to by your fiancé, and you have somebody in your heart. I'll ask the queen to cancel the marry as long as it won't make you cry anymore."
"No, not because of that." Fiona said, "come to my room later, I'll tell you the truth. I don't want to say it in the hospital."
Ryoi agreed.
Before he left, she said: "Thank you, Ryoichi, for saving my life and, and everything. Please just call me Fiona."
Later in Fiona's room in the palace. Fiona told Ryoichi the truth that they used the marriage to turn down the kingdom Pulchritudinem.
"The kingdom has a lot of heritage weapons from the ancient times, such as torpedo, which we're unable to produce now under water. Those weapons are nonrenewable. Although the kingdom possesses a huge amount of them, they need to seek for some sustainable deterrent force. Our queendom just has what they want, which is our capacity to controlling the fierce fish, such as sharks. Fishes under water are inexhaustible, so the kingdom would love to arrange a marriage with us."
Ryoichi asked: "It seems like we don't have such weapons that the kingdom has, so why doesn't the queen turn down the marriage?"
Fiona stopped for a sec, "I know it's a difficult decision for Katharina to make. She takes the queendom very serious, but, I just don't want to. I'm so selfish."
Ryoichi comforted her: "The queen must have other consideration, so you don't have to blame for anything. Sorry for being rule, but I suppose it's because of the prince, isn't it?"
Fiona said nothing but nodded.
Ryoichi thought, 'looks like ethics in this world are not so different, incest is forbidden.'
Then, Fiona brought out some stories in the past days.
"Our father had Katharina with his first wife, but she died after she gave the birth. Then, our father married his second wife, who is the mother of Jonathan and I. However, it turned out that our parents are related, but they loved each other so much and wouldn't want to separate. It shouldn't be any big problem, but some gossip around the elites. However, such a coincidence happened that an aranea disaster came out of the oceanic trench, which ate many fishes and even people. Some people spread the rumor, don't know who, saying that it's the marriage of our parents that leads to the curse of aranea, so that the anger extended to the entire public. They didn't listen to the call of palace and refused to work or lay offerings."
"What happened then?"
"Our father, entrusted Katharina and Jonathan to the General Fergus and … sacrificed himself to the aranea. My mom only took me to hide because a twin with silver hair is a sign of curse. After she died, Katharina found me and got me here, and protected me closely. I understand that she wouldn't want me to leave the palace out of protection. But I do want to help her in some ways. I know we don't have weapons so that we be subject to the kingdom. That's why I start to investigate the land. Although the area of land is small, but there is still a lot from the whole world. And I found out that there are still herbs on the land, living in such dry and poisonous air environment. I thought, by experiments, we might be able to find out the way to go back living in the land. Even just for a little bit longer, we can rebuild the things, the weapons, our ancestors built on the land."
Ryoichi heard her saying, admiring this brave and smart girl, "That's very brave of you, Fiona!"
"Thank you, Ryoi. But seems like you're the only one who will encourage me like that."
"How come! I bet your sister and brother are proud of you. They just never say it."
Fiona smiled with bitterness, "I know. Katharina has always taken me as a child who needs protection. She is, indeed, a very strong woman. I like her a lot. No wonder Jonathan will love her instead of me."
Ryoichi carefully asked, "this might be rude for me to ask, but you can ignore it if you don't want to answer. Why a great lady like you would like him? I'm not saying he's not good. He's handsome and blue, having a sense of artist. But why so obsessed?"
"I don't know. You can's reason love, can you? Just like my parents. We were parted since we were infants. When Katharina took me back and we met again, the familiar brother suddenly became a strange but beautiful youth. We even share the same silver hair, the sign of being cursed, same situation of being abused by rumors. I don't know. I'll just feel tight in my heart when I think of him. But I always know that he loves Katharina, who protects him ever since they were little."
'What a poor girl,' Ryoichi thought. An elite like her will also be in such difficult position. He stood up and gently hugged her. Moonlight shed through the ceiling, just like the day they met each other.