Although I had a tingling feeling that it would be a bad thing, I still asked her, "What should Al ask me?"

With a dazzling smile, she answered me as if it was a matter of course, and made me control every single fibre of me to hold back the slap my body subconsciously wanted to hit her.

"Ask the land for us to live outside the capital when he abdicates... was I wrong?"

'I am a king with a n.o.ble bearing. I am a king with a n.o.ble bearing. I am a king with n.o.ble bearing...'

'F*ck this. What did she just say?'

"Ah! Didn't Al asked you this? Sorry. I spoiled the surprise"

Seeing the terrified face and the ridiculous scream, I realized that I lost my cool and spoke my thoughts. After taking a deep... deeep breath, the kind smile came back to my face.

"He didn't, but I will discuss with him later. Actually, I wanted to talk to you alone"

The fear in Miss Julia's face and a misleading 'I'm behaved' face appeared.

"Say, Miss Julia, I've heard that some Misses in the Royal Academy bullied you, right?"

"It was mostly Miss Ceci-"

"What would you think if Albert befriended one of them behind your back even when he knew you hated them?"

"That wouldn't happen"

"Lets supposed it does okay? Would you feel betrayed?"

"Hmm... I guess so"

"Right? What if because of his new friends.h.i.+p, you started to suffer bullying from those that were nice to you and the bullying from those mean got worse, what would you feel?"

"Of course I would be sad! But as I said it's impossible for Albert to do this"

"You're right. It's impossible for HIM, but YOU just did that to him"

"... me? No? You are wrong!"

"Let me explain this to you in a form you can understand. Because you are stupidly naïve, Duke Fournier, who allied himself with Boudin, took advantage of you by having his son befriend you. You knew he was our family for and still became his friend and told him our plans. Because of that unnecessary deaths followed and our country was p.r.o.ne to change royalty"

I looked at the feeble girl in front of me and couldn't understand what exactly Albert saw in her.

"You endangered my family, my citizens and my kingdom. I don't care if you did unknowingly but I will punish you for all of this"

I raised my hand to stop for having her spouting nonsense.

"Your punishment won't change if Albert abdicates. This may be the way you find to escape from future situations, but let me ask Miss Julia... why should Albert give up on his life dream because YOU can't stop being silly? I don't need an answer. You should reflect on yourself. Honestly, I never thought you would become someone worthy of the throne, but I hoped you two could prove me wrong... alas"

I beckoned Sebastian to come closer.

"Miss Julia henceforth isn't allowed to enter the Royal Palace until further notice. She must perform the social duties in the slums and the poorest population for three months. She also may not spend the money from the Royal Palace. She's banned from accepting help from anyone in the n.o.ble circle. You can take her away now Sebastian"

After the door closed, I shut my eyes and sunken in my chair.

'I hope this nightmare ends soon'

————

Queen POV

"Was it worth it?"

The voice of my husband kept repeating the same phrase inside my mind.

I remembered the hatred and the hurtful glare that Ceci-chan gave us in the Parade and felt my eyes becoming a little watery.

Cecile was like a daughter to me, and hearing today she so resolutely cut ties with made my heart ache much more than the time Albert took that deplorable girl side instead of mine.

A depreciating chuckle escaped my lips. This all started because of this incident. My pride as mother took a severely hit with Albert siding with an outsider instead of me. Since then I decided to separate both of them.

All the shameful actions that I took in the past week replayed inside my head and shame crept onto me.

What was I thinking? Is not like I'm unoccupied to spend my time with such futile things.

I groaned in frustration and looked at the city visible outside my window.

'I almost destroyed all this for a petty jealousy'

Closing my eyes, I started to think what could I do to redeem myself. Hmm... let's first start with a sincere apology to all those who suffered in the process.

————

Prince William

"Why do you have this face, I am the one supposed to be like that"

I looked strangely at my brother who looked like he just received the news about the end of the world.

"You don't understand Bill. No one can... I tried to talk about Julia today... she needs to change right? And she..."

"She what? By the look of your face obviously didn't agree. Did she said she would escape here?"

Amused by my own ridiculous idea I laughed.

"...yeah. But she wants me to go with her. What should I do?"

'You should drown this b*tch' is what I wanted to answer, but I looked at my desperate oniisama and gave up.

"It must be harsh to be told to abandon what you trained your whole life to"

"Yeah"

"But is be a king your dream or something others expect of you?"

"... I don't know"

"It's a pity we don't know someone to pa.s.s through for something similar. You could use some advice"

My brother only nodded, and we continued our walk in silence.

In the middle of nowhere, brother stopped, and like he just found the answer for a terrible disease his face had a huge bright smile.

Saying nothing, he ran in the exit direction.

As I saw my brother back leaving, I felt a tingling sensation of bad omen but attributed to the day I was having.

Forgetting my love fool brother, I started to rack my head to plan an apology to Cecile. If only I knew where he was going by that time I would never let him leave the Palace