Jillian Pov
After cleaning myself up in the morning, Dion and I went to the dining room to have breakfast with the others. I stood quite far away from him to keep some distance between us because I was still feeling annoyed with his actions this morning. Dion glanced at me and stopped paying attention to me.
"Why are you walking so far away from me?" he asked me.
"Why? I don't want to get close to you, you'll do something weird again."
"Heh." He laughed at my words. What's so funny about that?
It didn't take long, we finally arrived at the dining room. The servants opened the door for us and we went inside. There were already the Emperor and Theo sitting waiting for the two of us.
As usual, Dion would sit on the Emperor's right and Theo would sit on his left. I sat next to Dion again after we made up a few days ago.
"You're quite late," Emperor commented as he looked at the two of us.
"Oh that..."
"Jillian was a bit spoiled this morning, she didn't want to let go of me when she woke up. So we were late getting up," Dion cut in to answer his father's question.
Wait, what the hell was that?! What's spoiled, I didn't do anything like that!
I pinched his arm hard, he reflexively turned his head and smiled at me. "What's wrong, my dear? Let's continue in our room later. There are many people here."
My eyes narrowed sharply at the annoying man. He leaned close to my ear and whispered. "If dad finds out we've never been in the same bed, he'll be very angry. It's better if you just shut up and smile."
"Is there a problem?" Emperor asked us again.
"Oh... No. Sorry." I released my pinch on Dion and looked the other way. He's right, we've been married for six months and have never been in the same bed. If the Emperor found out, he would be furious.
When I had time to look at Theo, he was looking at me. He seemed to understand what was going on between us.
We ate together as usual, that morning our breakfast menu had several types of food, one of which was potato salad. I tasted the salad and it was very good, it was the best salad I've ever had. It was sweet and salty, slightly spicy and so soft. I unconsciously took quite a lot of it onto my plate and enjoyed it.
"Did you like it?" Dion asked me suddenly. "You look so happy when you eat it." He grabbed my head and rubbed it gently as he smiled.
"Ehh really? It was so good. I've never made potato salad this good before." I replied.
"Made it? Princess Lian can cook?" asked Theo.
Nodding my head, I told him that I had lived outside the palace several times and learned to live independently, including cooking my own food. "It was fun and so free..." I explained.
Instantly the dining room became very quiet. They stared at me silently after I told them that. I was confused, what was wrong with what I said. The silence between us was finally broken by Emperor's deafening voice.
"Dion, after this I want you to join a meeting about our next war strategy," Emperor said changing the subject.
"Yes father, I understand," Dion replied quietly.
What's wrong with them?
The next war... Which kingdom are they going to take this time?
Keinheart Kingdom is already so big and spacious, how much bigger do they want it to be? But I don't really think about it, it's not my business anymore.
After breakfast, we went about our own business. Dion just left to follow his father and Theo, while I didn't know what to do. I decided to go to my room to do my makeup and get my bow, maybe today I'll go to the training fort to use my bow. Theo had already allowed me to practice there.
When I returned to the room, I saw something wrapped in brown paper that was propped up against the desk in the room. It looked like a medium-sized picture frame. I picked it up and opened the paper covering it.
There was a painting of me and Dion's wedding. In the painting, I was hugging Dion's arm and smiling, and so was he. With a bunch of flowers in my hand and the luxurious and beautiful wedding dress I was wearing at the time. We looked like a happily married couple.
Happy... Huh...
This smile... This happiness... It's all fake...
Our marriage did happen... But not the feelings in it... There wasn't even any feeling that we had in this marriage... A marriage that we didn't expect but binds the two of us forever...
For a moment I thought, will this marriage continue until death do us part? Or will we one day part ways for a reason we will never know?
I touched Dion's face on the painting with my fingers. A smile suited his face, even though I knew it was a fake smile. Just like he did to me earlier. None of his behavior was real.
No sooner did I realize what I was doing than I took my hand away from the painting.
"What are you thinking, Lian? No matter what he does, none of this is real."
I put the painting on the table and then looked around the room, looking for a suitable place to put the painting. My eyes immediately fell on the empty wall right above the bed. I thought it would be a good place to put this painting. I didn't know if Dion would like it or not, but this painting had to be installed or they would get suspicious.
"Yes, I think it's good there. It's pretty clear from the entrance, too. Then I just need to call a servant to put it up later..."
I approached my weapons cabinet and intended to take out my bow and arrow. However, my eyes were drawn towards the place where Dion used to sleep. A small room by the window, it had a small mattress so it wasn't too hard for him to sleep on.
I saw the books he was reading scattered everywhere. It was his territory, but I couldn't see anything messy in my room. I picked up the books and made him bed. I put the book on the table.
"Good, time to go archery."
I picked up my bow and arrows and headed out of my room. I chose a shortcut that was closer to the training fortress by passing through the main palace. When I passed a room, I could hear Dion's voice from inside the room.
Since the door was slightly open, I peeked inside and saw Emperor, Theo and Dion busy discussing something.
"They must be discussing the strategy they talked about this morning..." I muttered under my breath.
The faces of the three of them were serious as they listened to Dion's explanation. His voice was so firm and serious, he sounded more stern than usual. I unconsciously kept watching him.
"Crown Princess, what are you doing here?"
I gasped in surprise when a servant approached me, reflexively I pushed the door and made it open wider. The three people in the room immediately turned to me.
G-gosh... What should I tell them?
Jillian Pov End