"You don't deserve happiness? Why do you say that?"
Valindra's statement baffled the man because he was aware that their queen deserved happiness more than any other elf.
The reason he could tell that she was broken inside was because he had a lot of experience dealing with children, who sometimes don't say how they truly feel or try to keep things hidden, so he had developed a sixth sense of sorts for feeling a person's true emotions.
Valindra's tears continued falling, and she started talking about her life from the very beginning with a soft voice.
How she was born to her loving parents and how she had a brother she loved to play on a swing with.
But everything was taken from her when Morrsath decided to destroy her happiness and bring her back to the palace.
She also said that she had carefully thought out a plan to kill all of her siblings and take Morrsath's place on the throne.
Valindra knew that she swore to keep the massacre a secret, but after finally finding someone who saw the real her and was willing to listen, she kept talking, not worrying about her secrets.
Was it a logical decision? Of course not. But at that point, Valindra was just so empty inside that she didn't mind sharing her full life story.
The rest of her years as a queen were very monotonous because she was always doing the same thing.
Sometimes she would have to show her strength to keep the other continents in line, and sometimes she would sit at her desk, writing documents for an entire day.
After describing how she had felt during this period, how her heart stung sometimes and how her tears would start falling by themselves, her quiet voice slowly trailed off.
The man, who had listened to Valindra and always nodded or said "I see" to show her that he was listening, remained silent after hearing her entire story.
Because of his past and the way he grew up, the man didn't find Valindra's past actions evil.
He understood why she had done all the things that she had done, and he knew that he would have done the same if he were in her position.
Just like the rest of the elves, though, he always thought that their queen was perfect in every way. That she didn't have any worries and that her life was filled with only joy.
But now he was learning that beneath that thin veil of lies hid a small girl that kept crying for help as everyone was too busy admiring her mask to help her.
"…So, you want to quit being the queen, but you are scared that if you quit, you won't have anything else to do, right?"
"…yes…"
Valindra weakly nodded, and her sobs became softer because she felt a lot better after telling someone about her troubles.
"Now that you have told me about yourself, can I tell you about myself?"
She nodded at the man's question and began listening to his story.
He told her that his name was Darfin and that he was a caretaker at an orphanage, but he had become one only recently.
Darfin said that he grew up poor and would have to eat rats and moldy bread to survive.
He had never seen his parents, so he didn't know if they had abandoned him or if they were dead.
Darfin would also sleep on the streets, and together with the other kids that he grew up with, he would always try to steal from the rich to fill his stomach.
Sometimes it worked, and sometimes he would get caught and beaten until he was barely breathing.
His friends would later all die because some would catch a disease and some would die of starvation, so he slowly became alone in this world.
He truly had nothing, and he envied the people who had a roof over their heads and food on their plates.
One day he was walking through a street, and everyone avoided him because of his terrible smell.
His clothes were dirty, and he had to walk barefoot, so his feet would sometimes start to bleed after he stepped on a sharp piece of trash.
Darfin felt a terrible pain in his stomach, as if a beast was gnawing at his insides, but he was already used to it.
He needed to find food or he would die, so looking around, he tried to find someone that was eating because the people would sometimes throw some of the food away and he could finish it.
Hearing something flutter in the air, he turned his head, but a piece of paper suddenly slammed into his face.
So Darfin quickly removed it and looked at it to see what it was.
He grew up on the streets, but one of his friends wanted to become a teacher when they grew up, so he would always steal books and teach his friends.
Unfortunately, this smart friend died after trying to steal some copper coins from an old fisherman, and he never got to fulfill his dream of becoming a teacher.
One of the people that he taught was Darfin, and because of him, Darfin could read.
So when he looked at the paper, he noticed that it was a newspaper and the headline was written in bold letters.
"BREAKING NEWS: QUEEN VALINDRA HAS ASCENDED THE THRONE AND PROMISED TO CHANGE THE COUNTRY FOR THE BETTER."
Reading it, Darfin scoffed because he grew up while Morrsath was the one sitting on the throne, so he thought that all royal elves were evil, stuck-up scums that never cared about their country.
But contrary to his expectations, the new queen delivered on her promises.
Darfin started to live in a shelter, where they fed him and gave him a place to sleep.
And as the people started to slowly repair the country, the queen kept using her great leadership to make everyone's lives much easier.
She also kept creating new job opportunities for the citizens, and as everyone wanted to start working to stop being poor, they all quickly found a job that they liked or were good at.
Darfin quickly secured a position as an orphanage caretaker, and because he had grown up around young, poor children, he was excellent at his work.
He always thanked the queen before he went to sleep because he knew that without her, he would be a corpse lying on the side of the street about now.
And despite the fact that his days were slow, he was always in the company of joyful children, which made him happy.
Sometimes he would get too tired of playing with the children and decide to sleep in his office, and that is why Valindra found him sleeping there.
"I have always wanted to thank you for what you have done for this country and what you have done for poor people like me who are alive thanks to your efforts."
"…"
Valindra was used to hearing sad stories from her subjects, but the way Darfin described his every-day starvation with every detail made her realize that she never truly understood how much she had helped the others.
Darfin then stood up and grabbed Valindra's soft hand.
Kissing it, he looked into her tear-filled eyes with a gentle smile.
"I am only alive because of you. If you had ever chosen to run away instead of fighting for the throne, I would have died."
He placed his warm hand on her cheek and wiped her tears away with his thumb.
"I cannot give you much. I can listen to you when you feel sad and hold your hand when you are scared. I can wipe your tears away and tell you that you are beautiful every day, so if you ever need someone to make you happy, you can come to me, alright?"
Darfin truly felt sad to see his queen, his savior, like this, so he tried to comfort her to the best of his ability because he didn't want to see her crying. In a way, he cared for her a lot because he felt like he owed her for being able to live and breathe every day.
Valindra suddenly blushed when she heard Darfin's words, and she blurted out the first thought she had.
"I love you."
She was used to speaking her mind and never sugarcoating her words.
Being a queen made her learn to say what she wanted without being afraid of the circumstances, and when she heard his caring words and saw his gentle smile, she felt her chest get warmer, so she immediately told him how she felt.
Darfin was a little taken aback, but he then realized that what he had just said sounded like a love confession.
He never planned to confess to her or anything, and all he wanted was to make her happy.
But after hearing her words, he realized that, after seeing her beauty up close and having a heart-to-heart moment with her where they shared their life stories, he had hopelessly fallen in love with her without even knowing about it.
It was like a curse that had made him charmed, but it wasn't a bad curse because his heart was beating with happiness and his chest felt full, so it was more like a blessing.
The fact that he saw her as his savior might have also had an impact on his emotions. Either way, it was too late to go back now.
Because he was usually busy with work, he didn't manage to find himself a woman that he could spend the rest of his life with, but now that Valindra stood in front of him, he didn't have to look for one anymore.
Darfin touched his beating heart and then looked at her with a smile.
"I am happy to hear that because I love you too."
They then stared at each other with a blush on their faces while they both admired each other's charm.
In the heat of the moment, Valindra closed her eyes, and Darfin, understanding what she wanted because he wanted the same thing, leaned in to kiss her.
They weren't little kids that would get embarrassed anymore, so after they both confessed to each other and felt like the mood was right, they did what their hearts told them to do.
Their lips touched, and Valindra felt a shiver go down her spine. It was like there was an emotion in her body that had been locked away and discarded, but it was now resurfacing and filling every part of her body.
She didn't know if she had confessed because she felt vulnerable and Darfin gave her support or because she finally found a man who wasn't afraid to look at her with loving eyes.
Or maybe she was just so starved for love that she just wanted someone, just one person, to finally love her for who she was.
But the reason didn't really matter because, feeling the warmth of his big hands and his soft lips touching hers, she knew that, for the first time in thirty long years that she had been a queen, she truly felt happy.