The Crown
I gasp so does the entire population present here.
"W-What do you mean you don't want to marry me, Lilian?" I stutter a bit before getting my shits together.
"Yes, Miss Lilian Blackwood." The emperor grimaces. It's evident in his expression that he is not at all pleased with the things playing out before him. "I would like you to explain yourself."
"I believe I said it loud and clear. I don't see any reason that Your Majesty the great emperor not to understand my words." Lilian slides away from me at a respectable distance, "I said I don't want to marry the royal crown prince, Lush Von Blade. I have fallen in love with the second prince Ash Von Blade."
My head spins. No, the world revolves around me.
What the fuck is happening here?! Lilian loves Ash! How?! Why?! What the fuck. What the actual fuck?!
"Holy sh-" Edward gives me a look "-saint."
"What are you talking about Miss Blackwood?" The empress frowns from her throne.
"Ash and I are deeply in love," Lilian repeats herself firmly. She is standing her ground and her resolve is not wavering even for a moment. Her every word is like a sharp arrow, piercing my heart.
Guess I need to learn from her. She is way better than me in expressing her feelings. But why now? Why the fuck now?! Oh, Cupid please don't just shoot your arrows here and there when you are not there for the damage control afterward.
"Is that true, Ash?" The frown is the emperor's face deepens as he inquires Ash.
"Yes," Ash says, his voice calm and unwavering, his eyes never leaving the Emperor. The tension is making my stomach twist into a choking knot.
Now, how should I feel about this? Should I say that my younger brother is stealing my fiancé? Or should I be happy for them? Gods only know about this shit now. I am trying to swallow down the uncertainty stuck in my throat but it isn't going down as my eyes bounce between Lilian, Ash, father and mother.
"Why didn't you tell us before?" The empress presses the matter.
"I_" Ash starts but I cut in.
"I sincerely apologize for my interruption but I want to suggest Your Majesties to not discuss this here right now." I say with my mastered aloofness, "We can discuss it inside."
"You are right, Lush." The emperor acknowledges, "We shall discuss it inside. I apologize to all the guests attending here today and excuse ourselves for a little while. Please enjoy the party to your fullest."
The room is eerily still as the five of us: Lilian, Ash, The emperor, the empress, and I occupy the room that is located beside the ballroom. I double-check if the door is locked or not.
"Explain yourselves." The emperor orders, clearly disappointed at the work of his second son and his soon-be-daughter-in-law.
"We are in love." They both recite together.
"Do you know what it means?" The emperor grits his teeth to control his anger.
"We know." Ash states, "It means that brother won't be able to inherit the throne until he finds another bride for himself and I am sorry for that from the depth of my heart."
"You don't need to," I assure him. "You just fell in love, it is not your fault."
But not being able to love is my fault. I couldn't love her enough…
"Lush, don't dote on your brother." The empress chides, "You spoiled him and now face the outcome! He stole your bride!"
"Oh Mother," I try to reason with her as politely as I can. "Please don't blame him for falling in love with someone. It is not his fault. He just fell in love. We can't help it. And over that, Lilian loves him too. If I marry her now, will it not be humiliating for both of us? For the entire royal family?"
My heart aches and the knot in my throat squeezes my oxygen pipe painfully as I spell these words.
"So what do you want to do, Lush?" The emperor asks, "I leave the final decision to you. Your words will be the law here."
I smile mildly and nod, "Father as they love each other, let them marry each other when Ash reaches the appropriate age. And I will find myself another worthy bride. I can also talk to Rosalia on this matter and propose her to marry me. It will make the bond between the two countries even stronger. What do you say?"
Bullshit. Who is marrying Rosalia? I would rather eat shit than marry her. She will ruin my life if I marry her. Her volcano-like temper and poisonous mouth will burn my life down to ash. I am just throwing out bullshits to reason with my parents to make them approve my proposal and show them there are still many ways open for me other than Lilian. I don't want to break my younger brother's heart in any way. Even if it means that my royal coronation will be delayed.
The Empire of Red and the Empire of Blade are two neighboring counties. While the Empire of Blade has lush greenery and resourceful green vegetables and fruits the Empire of Red has very rich meat resources. We have a strong alliance between us in trades and other matters. So if I marry Rosalia then it will benefit both parties. Win-win.
Now maybe you have the question of why the Empire of Red and the Empire of Blade are named such as this. That's because they are our signets. The Empire of Red is a land surrounded by volcanoes and red hills. And the royal family of that Empire exceeds in fire magics. While almost everyone in our empire exiles in sword or blade arts. But the royal family also exceeds in Light magic.
Now, what the hell is magic? Magic is a must in this world. Everyone in this world has mana power or magic power coursing through their veins that helps them generate magic from their body or some nonanimated object. Everyone has their own magic attribute. They are such as Fire, Light, Green, Water, Ice etcetera. Magic attributes are hundreds and thousands if you want to count them but they basically grow from these mentioned attributes.
"You are right, Lush." The emperor acknowledges, "I must admit that you are very good at giving out judgment. So I will go out now and give out the result of our discussion. Do you have anything else to say?" The emperor gestures to Ash and Lillian.
"No," Ash shakes his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the floorboard.
"Fine then. And please don't do anything that humiliates us any more than this."
The emperor and the empress leave the room. I pat Ash's shoulder before walking out too. I am happy for them but there is still a bitter taste that is lingering in my throat. I didn't love Lilian it doesn't mean that I didn't like her. Other than that people pointed out to me that Lilian is the one who I will be spending my whole life with. And I believed their words. That is what I practiced since childhood. But it seems that Cupid doesn't want me to spend my life with a person that I don't love.
Appears that I will have to wait until that shithead shoots one of his dumb arrows and make me fall in love. And I already know that it will be bad for me. Because I have always thought of love as a nuisance. They always turn out with the worst tragic endings. I have read those stupid romance novels, thank you.
The ball is filled with heated conversation and gossip. Everyone is whispering to themselves. Well, not exactly whispering since I can almost clearly hear them talking about the scene that just transpired in front of us.
The gossip dies down when the emperor cancels my engagement with Lilian and then announces the new engagement between Lilian and Ash.
The party ends in an extremely catastrophic way but it's all right since it will make two lives beautiful. I lay in my bed wide awake. I can't sleep even a blink. Because of the things that happened today, maybe? Who knows. I just know that I can't sleep. I feel like someone is snatching a piece of me away from me
The whole night passes and I can't even sleep a blink. After the sunrise, I sit up and get dressed. Laying on the bed wild awake is a waste of time. I could have gone out too but Edward has sealed the passageway, so I can't get out.
Suddenly Edward barrels into my room, jolting me out of my skin. "What the fuck, Edward? You startled me!"
"Oh, Perses… Lush come with me." Edward grabs my hand and drags me out of my room, "Now!"
"W-What are you doing?" I ask multiple questions but he doesn't even say a word as he drags me toward the throne room.
Everyone is present there, including some high-ranking ministers and the head of our knight order. They are all wearing a stern expression on their faces.
"Lush, did you force yourself on Miss Lilian Blackwood last night?" The emperor asks.