“Clearly, you don’t expect me to get engaged to you,” Choice said to Matt who was still having trouble with closing his trousers. Noblemen trousers. Always a problem to take off and put back on. “Not after what I just caught you doing. You didn’t just humiliate me. You also insulted my family and my father the King.”

“Now wait a second. I haven’t insulted anyone, least of all the King.”

“You haven’t? Then what would you call what I just witnessed. You were with someone other than your fianceé to be. You didn’t have the decency to meet me first. Not to mention you did this at the royal palace. You must be very bold. And so this boldness leads me to assume that it is a purposeful dig at the crown.”

“No. I’m not doing that.”

Choice ignored his objection. “Now that I think about it, you wouldn’t do that to the crown on your own.” Matt sighed in relief that she had understood him but Choice didn’t let him be relieved for too long. Catching him in the act had been a coincidence but this was very convenient for her. She would be stupid not to take advantage of the opportunity that had just fallen into her lap.

“I wonder if you are doing this on the behest of your father.”

“What,” Matt said shocked. He hadn’t expected her to draw that conclusion.

“Yes. I wonder if you father has any objection with my father’s decisions and that’s why he asked you to humiliate yourself like this. Imagine what would have happened if someone else had found you. My reputation would be in tatters. My betrothed was elsewhere consummating with someone instead of meeting me and getting to know me. I bet it would have reduced the standing of my family in the eyes of onlookers. This was your plan wasn’t it. ”

Matt stared at Choice open mouthed after her monologue. This was definitely not what he had expected. Frankly, it had just been a coincidental shag. He had met a friend from Internationale and had decided to briefly rekindle relations before meeting his betrothed. He didn’t think he would get caught and he definitely didn’t think it would lead to him being accused of essentially treason.

“I’m going to take my leave now and speak to my father. He’ll see what’s to be done with you and your family.”

Choice turned as if to walk away but if Matt had been less desperate he would have noticed that Choice had been walking really slowly. If he had been less clear minded, he would have realised that their betrothal and future marriage was too important to both his father and the King for there to be real issues with his misbehaviour.

But Matt wasn’t thinking about. What he imagined was been berated by his father or even going to the royal jail and being hung for the act of treason. And he imagined his family being sentenced with him.

“Wait!” He called out. Choice halted and smiled. Although an ill-conceived plan, the truth was that she did have a right to be upset. The fact was that the sex was not a problem. Many aristocrats had mistresses and affairs and very few were virgins before marriage. So few that they had retired the ceremony of checking for blood on white bed sheets. The problem was that Matt was stupid enough to let his libido control him during an important event for both of their families. Regardless of if this problem was smoothed over by their fathers, the King would always have disdain for the inability of the Colburn Patriarch to control his son.

Still, that disdain would not be enough to prevent a marriage between both of them. She wasn’t like her aunt Bas. She didn’t have the desire to get married and then kill her husband. Also getting married meant that she now belonged with her husbands family. That would make it absolutely impossible for her to take the throne. Except by violent means. Unfortunately, Choice wasn’t like her mother in this way. She could not fight.

She needed the groom to reject her but have him think it was his idea. Now that was something that was emphasised in Perpetual.

“Yes,” Choice replied, “Do you have anything else you want to say. Or do you want to continue humiliating me?”

“I’m not...Anyway, you keep on saying I am insulting your family but you’re not really my fianceé.”

“What do you mean by that? Our parents have already discussed everything,” she asserted with look of surprise on her face.

Matt grew emboldened by her surprise certain that he had finally thought of something that could help save him.

“Yes they have but we haven’t been formally introduced.”

“Because, you were out here,” Choice interrupted.

“Yes, because of that. But our parents are just talking, nothing is definite yet.” Oh everything is already decided. You just think you have a choice. “So,” he continued, “That means that if we weren’t engaged, I wouldn’t be insulting your father with my previous action.”

“But we are to be engaged. I can’t call it off and don’t expect me to do so.”

“But admit it, if we weren’t engaged, I wouldn’t be committing an offence against the Royal Family.”

“I guess so,” Choice admitted grudgingly, “But it’s not going to be possible to cancel our betrothal.”

“Let me worry about that. But if we weren’t to be engaged, you wouldn’t be insulted and there wouldn’t be any need to…” He trailed off and Choice knew what he wanted her to say.

“I guess if our betrothal was cancelled, I would have no hard feelings seeing you with someone else and there wouldn’t be any need to talk about this incident.”

“Yes, definitely. Yes,” he said sighing in relief. He’d managed himself and his family out of a bad situation. How he was going to convince his father and her father to end their engagement was frankly none of her business. He would either be able to fulfill his plans or she would pretend to not have understood what her father really meant when he told her she had a choice. She would just claim to not have liked him and would want to meet other noblemen. The problem with that was that her father would be displeased with her.

She was okay with that though, she would just have to be a bit more careful. Choice decided to return to the party. For now, she had dealt with one problem, there was still a lot more she had to learn.

---

Later that night, Choice waved goodbye to the noblemen and women leaving in their kariots and carriages. It had been a worthwhile evening and she had seen Matt talking in corner with his father. She had even glimpsed them going to a separate room to talk with her father. It looked like Matt was valued by his father more than she had assumed. Choice bet that she would be told about the cancellation of her betrothal the next day.

Did it annoy her that conversations about her future could be discussed and decided upon without her presence or approval? Yes but she just had to bear. They’d be a day when no one would make decisions about her life without her.

Choice waited until the last guests left before walking quickly to her room and quickly tossing aside the gold dress she had been wearing. There wasn’t any colour she despised more than gold. It was so excessively gaudy. So unnecessarily flamboyant. Look at me, it screamed. Look at how important I am. Look at how valuable I am, how glamourous.

She preferred the coolness of silver, it’s quiet elegance and understated beauty. She likened it to a hidden blade. Choice knew nothing about fighting but she knew all about waiting and hiding. She’d been doing it all her life. So no, Choice did not like gold but she wore what was prepared for her and ate what was given to her. The King did not like disobedience.

Choice stepped over the dress on the floor and fell face down on her bed in her slip. There was so much to do and think about. But she would deal with that later. For now, she would revel in her dreams.

Hours later, Choice’s eyes were still wide open as she looked at the grey coloured ceiling of her room. She’d found it difficult to sleep as thought after thought went through her head. She’d been trying to formulate a strategy to take the throne but she always came to the same conclusion. I need allies.

It was impossible for someone to ascend to the most premier position in the land without any supporters. Unfortunately, that was exactly what Choice had. Nothing. Even her own mother would rather support her younger brother and not her.

The main reason why allies were so important in the race to the throne was because of the method used to determine the future King. Each prince was given a part of the country to manage for a particular period of time. Whoever had the most prosperous territory would often be the person to get the throne. Most princes didn’t know anything about managing a territory. In fact most princes ignored places that weren’t in the capital. They wouldn’t know what produce suited which city or how to manage trading routes. They needed people who knew this to take care of it for them.

Apart from that most of them artificially increased the profits of their area by ‘redirecting’ money from elsewhere for the duration of their management. Who cared what happened after it was over and there was no money coming into a region that had gotten used to it. Princes weren’t allowed to have finances unrelated to the royal family because of threat of rebellion. They weren’t allowed to have private armies either. So what did they do, they made deals with allies. In exchange for favours in the future, they would receive help with their territories.

This was one of the main reasons why the power of the nobles had been steadily rising over the past centuries as they were allowed to have private armies and create wealth with only a little bit going to the government. Nobody wanted to talk about it but the family was in sore need of money. Intelligent her father may be but he was horrible at managing his finance. He clearly hadn’t learned the right lessons when he was a prince.

Choice rolled around on her bed before suddenly sitting up. Nothing would come out of lying and thinking about how difficult her task was. She decided to walk to a lake not far from her room in the palace. This was a habit she’d had since she was a child.

Anytime something horrible happened, she would always go near a body of water and instantly feel refreshed. She’d done some of her best thinking near water and so nowadays anytime she had something difficult she was dealing with, she went to a lake or a river and found herself calming down.

The lake wasn’t far from her room and she sat down, she felt her head clearing a little bit. Choice lay on the damp grass and looked at the night sky. Even though it was dark, the moon was full and brightly shining. Choice raised her hand to the sky imagining for a moment that she was holding the moon in her hand. The light of the moon was so bright that for a moment Choice convinced herself that her hand was glowing.

It was uncommon to see so many stars out and Choice felt herself begin to calm down. She hadn’t realised how wound up she had being since she had returned to the palace. She always had to be careful and pretend to be the perfect princess. Also, she hadn’t had sex since she’d finished at Perpetual. Although it had been a horrible time at that school, at least she had been away from any family. Since she was learning to be a perfect noble woman, occasional slip ups were expected. Unfortunately, now that she’d graduated she was supposed to be proper and this meant, along with a few other things, no sex.

Now though, she could feel herself relaxing. She had certainly made the right decision to come here where she would not be disturbed.

The atmosphere was tranquil and Choice told herself that this was a sign. That the stars and the moon and the lake were for her. Reassuring her that she could do it. That she could be Queen. Choice bowed her head and muttered a few words of thanks to the Moon for letting her witness such beauty.

As Choice gave her thanks, she heard a noise. She turned her head to see if there was anyone with her but saw no one. Must have been a animal. Still it was a sign that she had been there for some time. Choice knew she had to return to her room. She was certain that she would be able to sleep and deal with tomorrow’s problems tomorrow.

It was while bending down and taking some water from the clear lake that she saw it. There was somebody standing over her stabbing towards her with a sword. ‘Fuck. Not again,’ Choice thought and immediately rolled away. The blade stabbed towards where she was before and Choice heard a splash as the sword struck water.

Choice didn’t wait for her attacker to recover from her surprise escape. She immediately started running away without asking him any stupid questions like who are you, how did you get here. The man was dressed in servant garb and was clearly here to kill her. There wasn’t a need to ask anything more.

Don’t underestimate Choice because she could not fight. The one thing she was very very good at was running. Choice never forgot the time when she was ambushed as a child and how she had almost died because she was slow at running. Ever since that time, Choice had never stopped improving her running capabilities. It was the one physical action she excelled at.

When the assassin saw that Choice had started running, he immediately gave chase but surprisingly could not catch up to her. Choice ran like she had wings on her feet. She didn’t waste energy shouting for help as she she had gone to a part of the palace that didn’t have many people in order to relax her mind. Stupid, stupid Choice. I should have never trusted that I would be safe in the palace. I can’t die. I can’t die here. I haven’t even come any bit closer to being king. I can’t die.

It seemed that the assassin had realised that he couldn’t catch up to her because she couldn’t hear the sound of running feet anymore. Choice was a few metres away from where she could cry for help when she felt herself stop moving. For a few moments, it felt like she had left her body as she saw herself in slow motion fall to the ground. Then time sped up and she understood why she had fell.

Choice looked at her ankle and saw a serrated knife sticking out from her ankle. Obviously the assassin had realised that he couldn’t catch up to her and decided to stop her from running. Choice opened her mouth to scream for help. There wasn’t any point in not doing it anymore. Alas, as she opened her mouth to scream, the assassin slapped his hand over her mouth and stuffed some cloth to muffle the sound of her cries.

“Well aren’t you troublesome, making me expend so much effort.” Choice tried to use her hands to hit him but he chuckled and stabbed both of her wrists with two knives. She saw the knives pierce through her wrists with barely no resistance and came to the strange realisation that the human body was very fragile. The pain was indescribable.

The assassin tied her wrists and dragged her body back to the lake. Although she struggled all the way, she couldn't free herself from her restraints. He laughed showing his whitened teeth to her and she understood that he had brought her here to kill her.

“Beautiful place, this. Well, what do you expect from a palace.” He noticed her glaring at him and smiled. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s nothing personal. I bet if you knew why you had to die, you would offer yourself up. You love your kingdom, don’t you. Okay, I’m going to free your mouth, any last words.”

“You don’t have to do this, you know. At least tell me why you’re killing me.”

“No can do sweetie,” he said and forced the cloth back into her mouth. Choice tried to tell him to wait and listen to her but he didn’t listen to her. Choice refused to believe this. She couldn’t believe that after having such a lovely time, she was going to die at the same place.

Choice saw the assassin carry a heavy block of stone and had a bad feeling. She began to struggle even further and through luck managed to cut through the rope with the knife sticking through her wrist. She tried to run but couldn’t because of the knife through her ankle.

The assassin turned after hearing a noise and saw her trying to hop away. A flash of irritation came on his face and he took three steps to catch up to her hobbling. As quick as light came the sword that he used to cut her throat.

Choice saw her blood drip down her gown. She quickly raised her hands to her neck trying to prevent the flow but the knives on her wrists just stabbed at her chest making more blood flow out. The assassin shook his head and dragged her body closer to the lake and dumped her on the grass. Choice felt her body grow colder and tried to do anything. Anything to prevent her oncoming death.

But she was powerless and as she felt the assassin wrap the stone to her with ropes, she felt more furious than she’d ever felt in the world. What had she done wrong that she had to be killed on her nineteenth birthday. Why had she been attacked when she was seven. Why did she have to go to Aunt Bas, why did she have to go to Perpetual. Why did she have to go through so many horrible things in her life. Why did the world seem to delight in kicking her down all the time. She couldn’t even enjoy a lake like she used to without happening something happening to her.

As she lay there dying, Choice felt a rush of rage. She had not done anything wrong. She had only wanted to be King. She cursed and hated everyone. Her father, her brothers, Aunt Bas. Even her mother. They’d all pushed and pushed until she’d ended up where she was. Dead.

Even as the assassin pushed her into the lake, as she heard the splash of the water and felt herself getting colder, she held onto her anger at anyone and she swore that in her next life she would never be powerless. The stone was a heavy weight pulling her further down the surprisingly deep lake.

Choice looking at the full moon and screamed a wordless cry of outrage before all fell silent.