🦋 ARIA 🦋
I had mixed emotions since that morning I heard the prince went on a journey to cut off the marriage, and it had nothing to do with happiness. More like sadness and anxiousness, they were like a shadow lingering beneath my mask or being pleased about the marriage being over soon.
"Would the marriage really end?" I couldn't stop thinking, "I thought the Emperor said the marriage had been done and there was nothing I could do? He had absolute authority, maybe his son, the prince, has one too."
How about the journey? Would it be safe? Although no one lives after the age of 36, there are still robbers and killers, those that aren't afraid of dying, those that think life is so unfair to them for taking away those they love, so they'd just do the same to others, so it would feel fair.
Weirdly, I was worried about the marriage being called off, and deep down, I was more worried about the prince. I was worried about him getting hurt for a reason I do not understand.
That strange connection you feel with someone you had just met for the first time, even if I didn't see his face and still haven't, I felt like I just shouldn't leave.
I have two strong feelings for the prince; fear is certainly the first emotion I feel for him, and the second one is uncertain.
Suddenly, a knock sounded on my door and I jumped up to check. A palace guard stood there and announced, "The King is asking for your presence in the dining hall."
I nodded in understanding, and he walked away.
I went to the dining hall and found the prince dining alone in the dining hall, "Seat my child," he stated and I immediately placed my butt on a chair the palace guard pulled out.
"Leave us," the King commanded, and all the guards present left the dining hall, leaving only us behind.
"You must have thought of me as evil when I forced you into my Son's chambers," he blurted out, "My son is no killer, I see no reason why you are scared of him."
"Well, the people say otherwise," I responded, "I'm not about to have my head on a plate as food because of something a father is assuming… my king."
"Oh, the people say a lot," he chuckled, "They also say my son is beauty himself… have you seen his face?"
"Not yet, and I'm barely interested," I stated truthfully, "But if what they said is true, then just maybe the rumour about him being so brutal is true too."
"Aria, my son travelled a long journey to cut off this marriage," the king announced.
I fixed my gaze on the meal in front of me, "So I heard."
"He wouldn't do that if you had consented to this marriage," he muttered.
I glanced at the king, then back to my food, "If you were me, would you have done otherwise?"
The king looked at me with a serious face, "You are my only hope, Aria, you are all I have when it comes to my son. He has been through hell, and I can understand why he is that way."
"Perhaps if you tell me a story to back up your claim, I might think about it," I retorted with the same energy.
"In the younger days, my elder brother married four wives, making sure he was definitely going to have an heir to the throne. The prince is the last of 36 children; each wife gave birth to 9 children, and fortunately for him, 35 of them turned out to be male children." The king announced. "He was so happy, he thought he had planned it well because in a few years, he was done with childbearing, and there definitely wouldn't be a problem of having an heir to the throne."
"The prince is not your son?" I couldn't help but ask with my full attention.
The king nodded, "I'm simply the king because the prince is not ready yet. One after the other, my brother watched his children turn down marriage, but he was barely concerned since he had a lot of them, until they began to die. The prince grew up watching everyone he loved die. He was loved by every single one of his brothers and his sister, and he loved them deeply. The wives are never found fighting; all that flowed in the palace was love. First, he watched his father die brutally, then all the mothers faced a cruel death one after the other until there was no queen, and then his brother started dying."
"I was born on my mother's dying bed, she was 36 while I was 7 months old in her gut, I wasn't even due to be born, but they had to take me out since my mother was dying, I barely survived that fate, this was a few years before my elder brother died, a few years before the prince was born, so I literally watched them all die alongside the prince, but the pain I felt was only 10% of what the prince felt. 34 of my brother's 36 children died and for their 36 years on earth, they refused to be married or have a child, and when it was just the prince and princess left, I was assigned to take the throne since the prince wasn't ready yet, so in total the prince and princess has lost 39 people, the king, my brother, the 4 queens, including their mother and their brothers. Aside from the palace guards he got attached to while growing up, and the palace maids that took the spot of a mother in his life, at a very young age… they already knew pain." He added.
"It is a challenge for us to have another heir considering the fact that I, his uncle, can't have a wife and a child, because I'm infertile, and his sister wouldn't hear the slightest talk about marriage, she swore to die alone. We need an heir to the throne. You should understand that George is the only heir we have, and if something were to happen to him… we will be left with nothing but dust, GOLGOTHA would fall. He stays in the room all day because he doesn't want to get attached to anyone, and feels this life choking pain again; not even his elder sister can get close to him. Your first mission as a princess and a queen-to-be is to produce an heir, a male child. That is why I need you, Aria, the prince has shut his heart to the world, please — help him overcome this, produce an heir to the throne."