Great Master Hardik escorted Tanya to her quarters while she was a mess. She had stopped sobbing, but the tears were still streaming down her face.
He walked slightly ahead of her to shield her from being seen by anyone the would encounter as they made their way.
"My apologies my lady it wasn't my intention to make you cry." He apologized still feeling awkward about the whole situation.
"No, it's quite alright, your grace," Tanya reassured him. She was slightly intimidated by how he looked, and his voice sounded a bit gruff to add to his scary persona. However, his manner of speaking and actions were gentle. "Thank you for accompanying me and thank you for what you did earlier," she expressed her gratitude for stopping the servants from continuing to gossip.
"It's no problem at all." he said.
When they arrived at the door to her room they stood in front of it.
"Take care," he said, then turned away from her and walked away. He seemed like he was rushing somewhere.
As he walked away Tanya watched him leave. He still wore his warriors' attire so he must just arrive at the palace today she thought to herself. She wondered what he was doing in the prince's palace though, maybe he was going to see the prince?
This was the first proper interaction they'd ever had. Tanya was embarrassed that this was how it went. In the last 7 years she lived in the palace she rarely saw him because he spent most of the time in the military sub-palace and often went away on battle missions for the Empire. Hardik was older than Malek
At first, he used to get a lot of attention for who his mother was. Now he was making a name for himself in the army.
Some say he wanted to become a General in the army.
As she settled down in her room, Tanya felt twice embarrassed, first by the servants' gossip and then by Great Master Hardik who had seen her cry. She wondered what he thought of her since her title had been revoked and then she just suddenly burst into tears in front of him. Things just kept getting worse for her.
Then the words of the servants rang in her mind.
"Is she a fool?"
"He only made her a lover so as not to embarrass her."
For the past week since her title had been revoked, Tanya had told herself to ignore the servants who would glare at her as she walked past them whenever she moved around the palace. She told herself it didn't matter and she didn't care what they thought.
But hearing their thoughts about her out loud was too hard for her to ignore. She began to doubt herself and her actions. her mind was spiralling. Was what she was doing wrong?
She remembered something her mother had always told her before she passed away. "You must fight for what you want!"
That's exactly what she was doing. She thought she would get what she wanted if she put in more effort and just have to persevere and wait until things changed.
"You can't work hard to make people love you." Hardik's words rang in her mind.
As the tears, she had worked hard to stop coming out, threatened to pour out once more the memory of her parents came to mind. She remembered just how proud her parents had been of her when she was first chosen to be the Crown Princess. All of the nobility knew the Emperor was scouting for a fiancé at the time and so many noble families with daughters began making their rounds at the palace whenever there were royal balls or festivals.
His Majesty chose her in the end. Her parents were ecstatic when she was chosen. They were over the moon. She made them a promise that she wouldn't let them down. That she would be the best Empress there had ever been.
When they tragically died in an accident three years later whilst travelling, Tanya wanted to keep her promise even more. Now she had failed them.
Not to spend the rest of the afternoon crying in her room she decided to leave her room. It would help take her mind of things if she began preparing the Asyire prince's arrival. She had to research the Asyire Prince and the things he liked to help her prepare his wing and so she headed for the General imperial library which was in a main palace. She always did this whenever she had to meet a foreign guest when she was the Crown Princess.
The Imperial palace was divided into several 'sub-palaces.' Like Emperor's harem These sub palaces or wings were separated from each other, as each one had a wall surrounding it and so they didn't directly connect from one to the other.
Tanya entered the gates of the next palace and soon found herself in the library. She was greeted by the two librarian managers on duty, one was a court lady and the other an elderly man. They were used to her since she often came to the library.
"What can I help you with today, Lady Tanya?" the male librarian asked her. His name was Emilo, he was an old man with a friendly face he had been working there for decades.
"I'm looking for any reports or documents on the Asyire Empire and the Crown Prince for his upcoming visit," she told Emilo.
"By the way you still owe me a Roku re-match," he told her. "I'm yet to defeat you."
"Oh yes, I'll make sure to play later today," Tanya promised.
"You still haven't given up Grandpa Emilo? Hasn't it been the hundredth time that she's defeated you?" Rayna, the court lady commented.
"I know I will defeat her. If I keep trying I'll eventually I'll defeat her."
Those words were familiar to Tanya and struck her a little too close to home. Roku was a popular board game played in the empire. Noble men typically played it but oddly Tanya was a young woman who had taken an interest in it. It was a two-player game that entailed a board with a matrix-like grid drawn on it and two sets of pieces with opposing colours for the two players.
The point of the game was to eat all of the other opponents' pieces .
"My soul won't rest in the afterlife unless I defeat her," Emilo went on about why he had to play with Tanya once more.
"Stressing yourself like this will only make your soul pass faster and your nightmare will definitely come true."
"You foul mouthed viper!" he complained to Rayna. "You young people lack respect these days!"