The moment that this voice rang out, everyone froze.
That was because this voice belonged to the person with the most power in this room.
It was her majesty, Queen Elizabeth.
No one had expected her to suddenly speak up, so they were all standing there with shocked looks on their faces.
After a long period of silence, Alexander's mother said in an unwilling voice, "Grandmother, she insulted our…"
Before she could say anything else, the queen glared at her with narrowed eyes that immediately made her swallow the rest of her words.
Alexander couldn't help saying in a low voice, "Great grandmother…"
The queen looked back at Alexander with a smile before sweeping her eyes across the room with a calm look on her face. Once she finished looking at them, she said calmly, "That's enough from all of you."
All of the members of the royal family had unwilling looks on their faces, but they didn't say anything and just lowered their heads.
The queen then looked at Maria and said with a smile, "Miss Maria, it really is our fault tonight, I hope that you won't mind. You're free to leave now."
Maria looked at the queen with a hint of doubt in her eyes, but after a few seconds, she said with a nod, "Thank you, your majesty."
Then without even looking back, she turned and walked out of the palace.
Alexander was about to follow her, but the queen suddenly spoke again, "Alexander, let's have a little talk."
Alexander jolted when he heard this, but he still stopped in the end and turned around to face the queen.
The queen waved her hand and said, "Everyone can leave now."
All the members of the royal family were shocked when they heard this.
It was clear by the unwilling looks on their faces that they didn't want to follow this order, but this was a direct order from the queen, the head of the royal family. They had no choice but to follow this order and leave the room.
But as they left, they couldn't help looking at Alexander with different expressions.
The one that had the most complicated look on their face was naturally Alexander's mother. As she was leaving, she made sure to glare at Alexander as if she was sending him a message.
As for what that message was, it was a warning not to anger the queen or they would lose their position in the family.
There was no care at all towards Alexander, the only thing that these people could think of was their own benefits.
Once they were all gone, there was a silence that filled the room as neither Alexander or the queen said anything.
This lasted for a minute before the queen finally said, "I know what you are doing."
Alexander was surprised to hear this, before revealing a confused look since he didn't understand what his great grandmother was talking about.
Seeing this confused look, the queen revealed a smile and said, "Child, you don't have to make yourself suffer just for our family. Our royal family has been around for countless years, it's not as if we need the suffering of one child for us to prosper."
This time, there was a genuine shocked look on his face since Alexander never expected the queen to say this.
Still he couldn't help saying, "But great grandmother, without me…"
The queen suddenly raised her hand to cut him off as she said, "Do you really think that the royal family is so weak that we need to depend on you to stand firm on our own? You shouldn't underestimate the power of the royal family."
Alexander still had an unconvinced look on his face, but the queen said, "You should think about what you want to do and not what you think you owe your family. You don't owe us anything, you've already repaid everything that you should repay them."
Alexander's eyes trembled when he heard this.
He couldn't help looking at the queen with a strange look in his eyes since he never expected her to say this to him. After all, she was the matriarch of the royal family and she knew how important his influence was to the royal family.
The words that she was saying now, it was clear that she was advising him to…
But if that were to happen, the royal family's influence and power would definitely suffer.
The queen could understand what he was thinking, so she said with a smile, "I couldn't say anything before as the head of the family, but I don't want you to be chained to this family. There's plenty of things that you can do in this world, but you'll never be able to accomplish them being stuck to this family."
She reached a hand out and patted Alexander on the shoulder. She then revealed a smile as she said, "It might be hard to believe, but all I want is your happiness. You're my great grandchild, I couldn't want anything more than you being happy."
Alexander's eyes couldn't help misting over when he heard this as he said, "Great grandmother."
But in the end, they didn't hug because they knew that it would be too awkward for the two of them to do this.
So the queen just patted Alexander on the shoulder again before saying, "Go and do what you want. Don't worry about the family."
Alexander hesitated a bit before giving a firm nod and saying, "Thank you, great grandmother."
As Alexander left, the queen revealed a faint smile watching him go away. Then she gave a sigh before ringing a bell beside her.
It didn't take long before a door opened in the wall and a person in full armour came out. This person kneeled down in front of the queen and waited for her order.
The queen just said, "There will be those in the family that will oppose this change, make sure that they are silenced."
The armoured person was surprised to hear this, but they gave a nod in the end and disappeared out the same door that appeared in the wall.
The queen looked back in the direction that Alexander had left in and gave another sigh.
…
After Alexander left the room, he found that there were many of his relatives that were waiting in the main hall for him.
When they saw him leaving the room, they immediately came forward to surround him to ask him about his private conversation with the queen. But Alexander just ignored all of them and headed to the exit of the palace.
Seeing this, his mother suddenly came forward and stood in his way. She pointed at him and said, "What do you think you're doing? Do you know who raised you? Who took care of you all those years? Is this how you're going to repay us?"
Alexander narrowed his eyes when he heard this as he looked at his mother with a cold gaze.
Alexander's mother couldn't help being shocked when she saw this since she had never seen this kind of gaze from Alexander before. All of the royal family members also revealed shocked looks since this was their first time seeing Alexander act like this.
He no longer held himself back and revealed the aura that a S Ranker should have.
S Rankers were known as monsters for a reason and at this moment, the royal family members were fully experiencing this. It was as if death was coming for them at any moment and they had been completely submerged in ice.
But Alexander also quickly pulled back that aura since in the end, these people were his family.
He said in a calm voice, "I have already repaid you everything that I owe you. From this day forth, there's no further relationship between us."
All of the royal family members were shocked when they heard this.
Before this, they had been able to talk down to Alexander because they were all his elders, so that gave them a sense of pride of being superior to him. This was made even worse when Alexander agreed to all of the requests that they made of him, making them think that they could freely order him around.
Though the only reason that he was doing this was because of his filial piety.
Now that the queen had told him that it was fine, there was nothing else holding him back.
So he released all of the pent up aggrievement that he had without holding anything back.
After tossing these words at him, he walked past them and walked out the door without turning back once.
But Alexander's mother couldn't accept this and she charged forward to grab his arm. It was a pity that Alexander had already sensed this and quickly moved out of the way, causing her to fall to the ground.
From the ground, she looked up at Alexander looking down at her in disdain as he said, "Goodbye…mother." The way that he said this sounded very strange, almost as if he no longer regarded her as his mother any more and she was no more than a stranger to him.
After Alexander left the palace, there was a strange feeling that filled his heart. It was a bit of disappointment and sadness, but there was also a very strong relieved feeling. It was almost as if he had suddenly regained the freedom that he had lost over the years.
However, that was also quickly replaced with a bitter feeling as he realized that it was too late for him to chase down Maria.
She would certainly be angry at him for the way that she had been treated by his family and how he hadn't come to find her right away. Or least that would be how he would feel if he was in her shoes.
But once again to his surprise, he found that there was someone waiting for him at the gate.
Maria stood there with her back to the gate, blowing into her hands before rubbing them as if she was cold. When she saw Alexander come out, she greeted him with a wave and a smile.
Alexander was completely shocked to see her here because he thought that she would already be gone, but that wasn't the case.
He quickly took off his jacket and gave it to her since he knew that it was cold. Then he asked, "What are you still doing here?"
Maria revealed a bitter smile and said, "Well, I didn't have a way to get home, so I was waiting for you. After all, you're the one that brought me here, so you should be the one to take me home, right?"
Alexander felt a warm feeling in his heart when he heard this.
He could tell from her eyes that this wasn't the only reason that she had stayed here.
She had stayed here because she was…
As this thought passed through his mind, he couldn't stop the feelings that filled his heart.
He had always been interested in her before, but the reason why he had asked her to marry him before was just purely out of interest towards her skills and her value to his family. But now…
When he had watched her stand up for him against his family, he remembered the first time that they met.
Even back then, she had been straightforward and stubborn like this…This was also why he had become interested in her in the first place…
He hadn't realized it then, but perhaps it had been love at first sight.
Now that there was nothing holding him back, his feelings poured out and he knew what he really wanted.
It seemed like he would have to become serious from now on.
After all, there were still plenty of rivals back at the cafe…