BANG! BANG!
"Your Highness! Please stop this!" Roslyn's cries echoed along with the quick, unrelenting sounds of impact.
"CEASE THIS FOOLISHNESS AT ONCE!" The prince bellowed in anger. Fuming, he quickly spun towards his men. "What are you all waiting for?! Prevent the princess from harming herself any further! And you, send word to Philippe to come to the Moon Palace right this instant!"
"Yes, My Lord!" The knights saluted simultaneously.
The shorn headed knight sped out of the room, while the rest of the men marched towards Adele, who rapidly crawled backwards until she felt her back hit the hard edge of her bedpost. Despite their attempts to keep their faces stoic, the knights could not help but be astonished by their princess' crazy actions.
For most of them, it wasn't their first time to witness Odile's outbursts. In fact, it wasn't unusual at all to hear screaming coming from the princess' palace almost every day.
From their experience, they deduced that there were two most likely reasons why Odile would throw a tantrum...
One, the Crown Prince's indifference. Two, any mention of her connection to her father, Baron Wolfgang Von Rothbart.
If the princess felt that her husband was not paying enough attention towards her, then she would either stomp to his office and hurl endless accusations at him in the middle of his work, or take her anger out on her pitiful maids and ladies-in-waiting by pulling on their hair and scratching their faces.
For the palace servants, it would've been considered a tame day if they only had to clean up broken china or ripped out dresses.
After her father was revealed to have attempted to seize the throne, many nobles have pointed fingers at Odile for being the traitor's daughter. But even without her father's crimes, several noble ladies had already been victimized by the wicked woman for either pointing out her illegitimacy, or for allegedly trying to steal the prince's affections.
That was why those aware of Odile's ill reputation were utterly baffled when the Queen pardoned the young woman completely.
Furthermore, what was most unforeseen was the Crown Prince's sudden announcement that he would be taking Odile as his wife, when everyone knew full well that before the Winter Ball, the prince was disinterested in her bold advances.
To this day, even after almost four years of marriage, nobody had ever witnessed any loving moments between these two. Save for that night when they danced in the Winter Ball, the prince had never shown any sort of special affection towards his wife, which clearly burnt the latter.
So the scorned woman turned to violence to calm her anxiety. She never asked forgiveness for her misdeeds. Instead, she would point fingers at her unlucky victims, sometimes even planting false evidence to blame them for her crimes.
But this was the first time that the usually insufferable Odile humbly admitted to her own fault and apologized. It was especially astounding to see her kneel without a care in front of the object of her obsession, when in the past, her dignified image to the public was everything to her.
Bottling in their bewilderment, the sturdy knights continued forward and attempted to gently take hold of the princess. But the erratic woman rejected all of their advances by flailing her skinny arms around her like an inflatable balloon man.
"No! Leave me alone!"
"My Lady, please calm down!" One of the knights begged of her. Another tried to coax her in a soft whispery voice, as if she were some sort of wild animal.
"You are unwell, Your Highness. Let us take you to bed. Sir Philippe will be arriving soon to check on you."
"NO!"
Adele continued to avoid the assistance of the knights. She focused her eyes determinedly at the prince, who remained frozen by the door.
The man seemed to be wincing constantly in pain, as if he was the one who pounded his head like a halfwit instead of his seemingly delirious wife. His left hand shielded a large part of his forehead, similar to where Adele was sure a bruise was forming on her own.
He must've felt extremely uncomfortable watching his crazy wife hurt herself. Adele would've laughed at him, if she wasn't in so much pain right now.
'For a tough-looking guy, he sure is acting like a sissy. Heck, it's not like I'm even slitting my own throat!' Adele criticized him inwardly before continuing with her act.
"I'm not going anywhere! Not until my husband says that he believes me!"
"Are you truly a fool?!" He gritted his teeth. "After all that, you would dare put the blame on me?!"
Adele huffed like a child. She was about to continue her plight when Roslyn took a surprisingly firm hold of her shoulders.
Oh how the tables have turned!
"Please stop this, My Lady! You don't need to push yourself so hard!" She sobbed as her brown eyes began pouring out fresh tears, not knowing that her mistress was crying for the exact same reason she was.
'Dammit, I really want to stop too, you know! My forehead is freaking killing me!'
But Adele couldn't afford to stop prematurely. Until the hardheaded prince gives in, the woman would not stop her ridiculous grovelling.
Luckily, it didn't take long for the man to endure her shameless conduct anymore.
"FINE! Very well then!" The man tiredly rubbed his eyes in frustration. Sighing, he started speaking to her in a distinctively slower and softer tone.
"... I will believe you this time, Odile. That you do not remember how you found yourself in the lake. Now I beseech you, stand up and cease all this nonsense."
'Effing FINALLY!' The euphoric woman exhaled in relief as she slumped on the floor like a deflated balloon.
Feeling a tinge of dizziness, Adele allowed the little maid to pull her up from her bent position. Even though the bruise on her abused forehead and her red, puffy eyes meant that her beautiful face would look more like a zombie's at the moment, the sacrifice would be worth it if it meant that she could finally escape from this interrogation.
"Help the princess to her bed."
"At once, My Lord."
A kind-looking knight swiftly moved to help Roslyn support the weakened princess. With one arm on each side, the two managed to lift Adele up from the floor, and laid her underneath the soft covers of her wide bed.
"Thank you, you two. I apologize for revealing my disgraceful behaviour." Adele smiled goodheartedly at Roslyn and the boyish knight. The two of them couldn't help but share a glance at each other.
Witnessing their mistress' calm and humbled behavior was such a refreshing experience for all the room's inhabitants. And yet, it was somewhat scary in its unfamiliarity compared to her impulsive actions a minute ago.
Despite being drained from her reckless improvisation, Adele had to force herself to stay awake. After all, she needed to continue to observe the reaction of the people around her, and figure out how to adjust herself according to the current situation.
But the moment she looked up, the dark-haired prince had already turned his face away from her, seemingly busy giving various instructions to his remaining men. Her eyes were soon drawn to his gloved fists that were balled so tightly on his sides. It was almost painful to look at.
'I got out of it for now. But it looks like he's not going to forget this anytime soon.' Adele sighed as she stared at the man's broad back. 'Poor guy. I'm sorry that your wife is a spoiled, selfish nutjob ... But please don't take it out on me, Mister Fairy Prince!'
It then dawned upon her that she hadn't even gotten his name.
A faint knock sounded from the entrance. Behind the door stood a white-haired butler, who silently entered the room and gracefully bowed his head before the prince.
"Forgive the intrusion, Your Highness. A transmittal message from Captain Theodor had just been received. He predicts that he and his men will be able to return to the palace by tomorrow eve."
"Good. Send a message back to the Captain. Tell him to rest well, and to meet me in my office first thing when he arrives."
"Very good, Sir."
As the gentleman turned around to leave, a loud yell rang outside from the corridor. Suddenly, the heavy doors were thrown open, almost hitting the old butler by a hair if it weren't for his quick reflexes.
"There you are, Prince Siegfried! ... Oh, excuse me, Lucius."
A disheveled, platinum blonde man dressed in dark red armor appeared, clumsily turning his body to one side as he allowed the scowling butler to pass through. Panting, he rested a fist on the bedchamber's wall as he tried to catch his breath. His heavy armor clanked along with his movements.
"Phew! I finally caught up to you!" The blonde stranger huffed, relief coloring his smooth tone.
On the other hand, the injured woman reclining on the bed began to feel the opposite.
'.. Holy freaking crap.'
Hearing the newcomer's words, Adele couldn't help but feel her migraine grow. She supposed that the possibility of the prince being alive after the main story had always been in the back of her mind. It's just that given their circumstances, she found it inconceivable that this fictional character would end up tying himself to the same woman who had caused his downfall.
This scary husband of hers was indeed Swan Lake's hapless hero, Prince Siegfried, in the flesh.
To be honest, he wasn't quite what Adele had imagined him to be. Sure, he has an incredibly handsome face, and a majestic stature to boot. But the fairy tale princes she'd known about in the past have always been portrayed as gentle and romantic, if not a little naïve. The various portrayals of the prince in Swan Lake have always been like that as well.
On the other hand, the giant ice cube in front of her didn't seem to fit the "gentle and romantic" bill. If anything, that blonde man and his warm aura seemed a tad bit more accurate to what her image of a fairy tale prince was supposed to be like, regardless of how awkward he looked at the moment.
"What do you want, Benno?"
The said ice cube, Prince Siegfried, rolled his silver grey eyes towards the man called Benno. In turn, the handsome man with dark chestnut eyes clicked his tongue at Siegfried's crabby tone.
"Hey, Your Princeliness! You do realize that riding off on your own without so much as a warning to your best friend wasn't exactly the wisest thing to do, yeah? You didn't even give my Dad a heads up! What exactly caused you to-… oh."
It was then that Benno finally noticed the resting Odile, who until now had remained as silent as a ghost.
Immediately, his goofy expression turned wary.
"... What did this witch do this time?"
Ignoring Benno's harsh words towards the princess, Siegfried waved a hand dismissively.
"I will deal with you and Captain Theodor's lectures later. For now, I need to settle some things with my wife."
The Prince narrowed his eyes at the soundless woman, as he stepped closer to her bedside with his arms crossed once again.
"You may claim to not remember how exactly you hurt yourself. I gave you my word not to push for answers about this mystery ... for now at least. So allow me to ask you a simpler question."
A few wisps of long dark locks fell over Prince Siegfried's shoulder as he bent closer towards Adele. The latter instinctively shrunk deeper into her covers as she tried to scoot away in vain.
'You say that. But why do I get the feeling that this question wouldn't be any easier to handle than the ones before?' She complained inwardly before the man opened his mouth.
"Where did you hide it?"
'…Huh?'
Adele raised an eyebrow.
Hide what now?