~ The day after the failed birthday ~

Narrator POV:

Diana is sitting inside one of the VIP rooms, waiting for her two richest male customers to arrive. So she could get some revenge for her house... She wouldn't normally care about it, she'd just let it go. But she's in a bad mood from the events of yesterday, everybody that saw the Crimson Rose annoyed has stayed away from her.

She's starting to become impatient, she knows that changing and joining the schedules together like this isn't the smartest thing to do, but she needs them both here, that way it'd be easier to figure out who did it.

She hears a knock on the door, immediately starting her acting, just like that, her impatience seemingly disappearing into thin air, now all kind and happy to meet her VIPs.

"Come in' She says and the door opens, with one of the workers leading the two men inside the big room. Diana points to the chairs for them both to sit down. They are both confused, nothing, like adding two VIPs together, has happened before, but they aren't questioning it all that much, because they know that Rosa's Park innovates all kinds of events, so they only figure it's one of them.

The two men sit down and stare at their 'maid'. Diana would be okay with them staring if it was any other day, but now it just makes her hate both of them, even if one of them is innocent.The men hear a click coming from somewhere, not realizing that the door to the outside was locked.

Diana points at the door behind her seat and starts acting.

"Gentlemen, I will get straight to the point. Rosa's inside that room behind me, we are trying something new, so no funny business"

The men barely react to what was told to them, confused, they nod...

"So, by now you must've heard that my little house was ruined by somebody, the small farm destroyed and words painted all over"

Both of the men make a reaction, both twitch, now who was the one that did it out of worry for me and who did it out of worry for himself.

"Yes, I have, when I heard it, it broke my heart. Who could do such a thing"

One of them says, the other one seeing that, also starts to try and win some 'points' with me.

"Yes, yes, indeed. It's horrible, how can people be so evil to vandalize somebody's home like that"

One's acting and another one's speaking with true concern. But because they are both nobles, their masks are quite effective. So Diana continues for more reactions.

"I thank you for your worry, you see before our session, I spoke with the guards about it, they told me some things, it seems that there were witnesses"

Oooh? Both calmed down, but one's happier than the other. Now would my true client be happier for Diana, the other one might not be as happy because he thinks there was somebody that has seen his paid-off man.

"That's great, what did they say?" The happier of the two asks Diana.

"That the one who did it, was a man, everybody thought that he did it because he got rejected by me, like everybody else has, so the guards are looking for him, right now"

"Ah, how very barbaric" The other one adds.

"I know, unlike you two, he's not a gentleman, you two would never do anything like this, you're great men after all"

Diana acts coquettishly, trying to rinse some guilt from either of them. But it doesn't fully work, because that just gets them to boast about themselves. Saying that of course, they are better than somebody like that. Understanding that the man isn't guilty about it, but proud. She changes her tactic. Pressure.

She takes the teapot that was there for tea and gets up, but while getting up, she stumbles and drops the object, breaking it, it making sound and the two men try to stand up to help, but a knock on the door interrupts both of them. All this was an act. It was a signal for the second actor to come in.

"Yes? Come in" Diana calls out, while kneeling, so she could clean the broken teapot from the ground.

The two men see a guard come inside the room. Both of them tense up. They see him look around, settling his eyes on them before he turns to face Diana who's still on the ground, who started on her task.

"Miss Frost, we caught the man that destroyed your house"

Diana watching the reaction of the two clients while picking up the broken shards. She sees that both men twitch yet again. But this time, they are both smiling.

"Yes? And has he told you anything?"

The Guard looks at the two men again, making them uncomfortable from the strong gaze.

"Affirmative, with some persuasion, he spilled all that he could"

This gets yet another reaction from the two men. They freeze and after a second smile. Hmm..."Could you tell me everything? Don't mind the customers, they are VIPs, so I am fine with them hearing all of this"

The guard looks at the two men again with a raised eyebrow, making both of the men fidget, then he turns back to Diana and nods.

"Of course, Miss Frost. he told us that he was paid to vandalize your house by some noble, with instructions to paint over the house with words like 'Whore', 'Cheater', 'Ratbag', 'Wagtail'. And then with added instruction to do whatever he wants, that would drive the point that he hates you. Which he told that because the house was too little and too empty to do anything to, he destroyed the next best thing, the farm"

Of course, the 'Guard' looks at the two men the whole time he says this, on purpose, to see if they acted in any way. Both of them still smiling, but one of them sweating and with a strained smile, fingers fidgeting below the table, that the guard doesn't see but Diana does because she's still on the ground.

She started to think that it may be the one. But there are not enough signals. People sometimes get really uncomfortable in law enforcement's presence. So she finally stands up with all the shards in her hands, she goes to the trash can to throw them out.

She turns to the Guard and asks him.

"Did you find anything about the noble, anything that the caught man said about him?"

"No, mam"

This instantly, makes her suspect relax and his perfect smile returns. Which just shows that he wasn't fidgeting because of being in the presence of a guard. That's her suspect. So, Diana turns to the guard, the two clients not seeing her face. Diana winks at the guard in another signal. And with it, the man's newly relaxed smile isn't there for long.

"Ah, there was one thing. He said that the noble was a customer of this establishment"

Both of the men get angry, one because of hating the thought of it being one of the customers. While the other one is mad because his hired man couldn't keep his tongue shut.

"That so? Good to know, I will tell Rosa this, she will know how to handle it"

The 'suspect' hearing Rosa's name starts to pale, during all of this he forgot that Diana said she was in the back room.

"Okay, but if you find him, let us know, we will lock him up"

The Guard says and turns to leave the room, glancing back at the two men, one last time to drive his 'suspicion' since he said that the main suspect was a noble. That makes both of the men gulps.

"Sir Knight"

Diana speaks out, making the guard pause in his step. He turns around to face her.

"Yes?"

"But isn't he a noble? Can he not just pay himself out?"

"Ah... Yes, that is a problem" The Guard says.

"What if I paid more than him? To keep him locked up? Is that a doable thing?"

The suspect hearing this pales, even more, he is rich, but even he knows that Rosa pays the Scarlet Angel handsomely. He doesn't want to spend more than he has to. But there's no way that the Guard will accept such a proposal. To openly admit to taking bribes like that, it's unheard of.

"Perhaps, but, Miss Frost, he's a noble, would you have enough money to do so?"

"Of course, if I won't, then Rosa will help me, you know how she is with her workers, she will defend them as much as possible"

The man's head goes into overdrive, trying to think up a solution to his problem, not only did the guard say yes, but now Rosa is involved, with her, there's no way he has enough money, even if he's a noble. Rosa controls so much of Arendelle's money that barely anybody would want to go against her. If he's caught he's screwed. Wait... She can't hear any of this? Right? He throws a glance towards the backdoor, only Diana caught this move from her dear customer. Soloidifying her suspicions.

Diana starts acting like a good host.

"I am sorry for the interruption of our private time, sirs," She says with an apologetic look. The one that's okay and still happy that they found the one that wronged the Scarlet Angel and the pale one says nothing. Which only pulls more attention to himself, in terms of Diana's fake sympathy.

"Oh, sir, why are you so pale? Is something wrong? Do you have a fever? Do you need help?"

"N-no, everything's alright, I think, I may be just under the weather, it's quite hot here, right?"He says fake chuckling at the end.

"Of course, that's understandable, here take my hand, I will lead you outside, so you wouldn't faint"

Diana pulls her hand in the man's direction... The man pauses, but not to seem too weird, he takes it.

He stands up and starts walking while Diana holds his hand and walks beside him.

Diana turns to the innocent man "Sorry for today, you won't need to pay for this, but we need to cancel today's session"

The man is disappointed, but understanding, he nods and starts to leave, by following the guard.

"You know..." Diana starts, getting both the Guard's attention and the clients.

"I've read in a book written by a supposed doctor, that somebody that is pale and sweats so much without explanation or fever" Diana puts her hand on her forehead and releasing the man's hand puts it on his forehead, after a while, she grabs his hand anew "It's because they feel like that they did something wrong, they feel guilty for something. They stress over it, I wonder if that's true"

The man hearing that only pales even more and grows frigid. The guard answers her speculations with interest.

"Oh, that's interesting, I wonder how true that is"

"I think it has a lot of truth in it"

The guard turns around, which prompts the man and Diana to stop. The guard looks at the red-haired girl and then at the man. Which makes the noble's heart beat faster.

"Why do you say that?"

Diana smiles kindly. Setting some relaxation to the man she has in a handhold.

"Oh, it's nothing... It's just..."

Before it turns to an evil smirk. Making the man tense like he never has been before.

"... The fact that the hand I am holding is the same one that paid somebody off to attack my property. That's what the sweatiness says to me"

The man hearing that breaks away from her grasp looks at her. Not understanding what's going on. His plan was impeccable. The man he hired was one of the best, the fact that he got caught and even spilled all the information about him. It just made him feel vulnerable, especially in the place and situation that he was in.

"How...?"

The other noble and guard look at him. The noble realizing what's going on, with disgust. But the guard with an unreadable expression.

"Oh? I was right? Well look at me, I barely did anything and the culprit showed himself. I didn't even have any evidence"

"What?" The man hearing Diana say that, is also confused.

"Yes, I did absolutely nothing, except for two things. Pay this man right here to act as a guard and say a bunch of nonsense and me dropping the teapot as a sign for him to come inside the room. No suspect was caught, there were no witnesses and there was especially no interrogation that said it was a noble, a customer of this establishment"

She... She played him, this whore, who rejected his advances multiple times, first when she still was poor, he tried to entice her with promises of riches, then with his handsome looks and poetry when she got money herself, anything he could think off. Yet she never even looked at him twice. Treating him the same as everybody else that she worked on. He was just a chess piece for her to get money. And now she outsmarts him? How dare she... She... she needs to know her place.

"You bitch"

He says and attacks the girl. The paid man that was a fake guard and the other noble is too late to react to it, so they can't defend the Crimson Rose. But neither expected that she doesn't need help from anybody.

The man that attacked her, is on the ground, stomach first, with a broken arm behind his back. while the girl is on top of him, holding him in place.

After a few dazed moments, the man feels pain from his arm and he screams. Causing all the private room doors to open and both the 'maids' and VIPs to come out and look at what's happening.

Only to see the sight of the red-haired girl on top of somebody while that somebody wails like a little kid.

"Oh, shush, don't embarrass yourself anymore"

That gets the man's attention, he turns his head sideways to glance back at Diana.

"What did you do?"

"Oh, this? Nothing much, I broke your arm when you attacked me. You, sir, aren't a knight, aren't some warrior, aren't a mercenary or even a trained squire, you're just a noble that flaunts his money and tries to get a young girl to be his 'mistress'. Did you really think that you could actually hurt somebody, yourself? Without paying somebody to do that job for you? All I had to do is be ready for it and sidestep it, therefore allowing me to grab your arm and knocking you down to the ground because of the loss of your sense of balance"

"That's..." The man only got the insults, but not the full explanation.

"Well, I had wasted enough time on you, so I won't explain myself further. You see, that man that I paid off to act as a fake guard, he may not be a guard. But that doesn't mean that there aren't any real ones inside the building. They were ready for this after all. I don't know how long you will be in a prison cell for this... But I don't care"

The man looks forward to seeing the Arendelle knights walking up to them and also coming from their VIP room, only now realizing that Rosa wasn't in the backroom but knights of Arendelle. He starts thrashing around, even with his broken arm hurting, he wants to run away, but he just can't do it, he looks at the girl on top of him again, only seeing a mocking glare directed at him, it only makes him enraged, but there's nothing he can do.

He's just a man without any knowledge. While his opponent, the girl, is from another time. Her parents knew that she was a lesbian and because she was a girl in general, forced her to take self-defense classes, so she's okay against somebody like this pathetic man. Unlike the man that forced upon herself weeks ago, she was ready this time and compared to that big, muscly man, this one is like a stick that even she can break... Like, she broke his arm while barely trying.

The man starts sobbing while thrashing around with a last rush of adrenaline, which somewhat works, it does throw Diana off a little, when she got hit to the face by his other hand, Diana losing the mocking glare and gaining a new one, that of pure irritation, after that she just stops caring and in front of everyone's eyes, breaks his other hand, making him scream more and it makes him stop moving, crying even more. The man always imagined that girl he was going for would be on top of him... But never in such a way.

The girl gets up from him, seeing the knights ready to take him, they do and nod at the Scarlet Angel and start walking away with the now ashamed noble.

"Finally, it's over, way too much time wasted... Now, time for the second and last important thing left to do"

The girl doesn't pay any attention to the confused looks she's getting from everybody while she makes her way to Rosa's office.

Diana POV:

Ah, the door that just yesterday I could look at with some happiness, but now... only sadness. Well, let's get this over with.

I knock at the door and hear a soft 'come in'

I open the door and make my way inside. The disheveled face of Rosa greets me, I can see black circles around her puffy eyes.

"Hello, Rosa"

"Hi, darling," She says back to me. It seems she knows why I am here, she's given up. Good, it will be easier than fighting her on it.

"It seems you realize why I came here today"

"Yes... The guards inside the building and the reschedule of the two VIPs at the same time, it was you catching the one that touched your house... Otherwise, after yesterday you would've not shown up here. So if you left right after it, then I'd know that that was all that you came here for. But now?"

I see, Rosa sighs and shakes her head to rid herself of the new tears already forming.

"You want to leave... Right?"

The only thing I do is simply nod.

"Yeah... Yeah... Okay, I won't hold you, but tell me, was I that bad? Did I really hurt you so much? No emotions of anger and at the moment decisions like hitting your arm on the table like yesterday. Just a normal answer, I will listen this time, I promise"

This makes me sigh as well, I wanted this to be fast, but I guess not, I sit down.

"Okay, you weren't bad at all, in fact, I still like you even now, I just think we need time apart, it's not good for either of us. You practically took me in when everybody was avoiding me, so I promised myself to help you as much as I can, which in turn helped me, so we got your small inn and turned it into something great"

I chuckle a little bit, making Rosa do the same, but it was sadder sounding than mine.

"But, along the way... We both started to change. You felt... responsible for me, trying to protect me in your own misguided way because subconsciously you felt that I was your everything, both in the business aspect and in relationships, you felt like I was the daughter you never had, we stuck together so well"

I gaze at Rosa, only to see her nod solemnly.

"Me? I felt stuck in place, doing the same over and over again, wake up, meet customers, who will most likely expect something from me, and go to sleep. It was fine... I can handle the looks of people that I don't... Or shouldn't really care about it. Until you started watching me excessively and the bodyguard was the last straw, from then I felt like I was a circus animal, it wasn't only uncomfortable, but it was souring my mood and making me paranoid, in terms making me get nightmares, which left me sleepless every night"

I say all of this looking straight at Rosa's eyes, which are looking back at me in understanding and sadness.

"Even if I say this, believe me, I could never hate you. But I think... All of this? Rosa's Park? Our duo? It happened way too fast, so we couldn't properly handle it and it bit us where the sun doesn't shine. So, my point is, we need time away from each other. But don't worry, this is not goodbye, nor is it the last time we see each other. I am just leaving this job, we won't work together again, that way we will spend less time with each other and more of it to ourselves. But we will still be friends, good ones, you can come to me with anything you need, I will do the same..."

Rosa looks at me and finally sheds some tears, nodding and saying softly.

"Of course... I understand, maybe you are right... Who am I kidding, of course, you are right. Just like every time. I am sorry that I made you feel like this. But I am glad that you decided to do something else. It makes me proud. Just like you said, I will be here if you need me. Even with all of this between us, we are still the most terrifying duo... Thank you, Diana, for all of it"

Rosa stands up from her chair, walks around her table, and extends her hand.

I do the same, I stand up and take her hand in a shake motion, but instead of shaking it, I do something that Rosa didn't expect.

I pull her into a hug, squeezing tightly, sadly I am too small compared to her, so I can't encircle my arms around her. But it's fine, it feels right.

After a moment, I feel her arms on my back, doing the same, squeezing tightly, but soft enough, so it wouldn't hurt me.

She glides one of her arms up to my face, with her palm touches the place where the noble hit me, and gently touches it.

"That man won't leave the prison for a long time, I will make sure of it... That's the last time I will protect you as one of my people"

I don't fight it and just nod in her arms.

After a while, I release her and without missing a beat, turn around and start walking away, so that neither I nor her would change their minds.

As I reach the door, I hear Rosa ask me something, effectively making me stop.

"Darling... I hope we can still spend your birthday together, will you allow me that?"

I turn around, so I could answer her, but I pause, my eyes wide, seeing the bracelet I made around her left arm, that wasn't there before... My eyes also start to get teary. I shake my head and with a soft smile answer her.

"Yes"

With that, I leave her office. I would've quit this job anyways because I have to get ready for my meeting with Elsa and anything that comes in the future.

I just didn't think that I would leave it like this... on a bittersweet note, instead of a happy one like I wanted to.

But perhaps, it's better this way. Because there was no way that Rosa would've tried to stop me right now, but if it was all okay, she might've tried.

At least I know, now, that I really don't want to work as a maid for multiple people... just one, and that one is having her coronation in about two months.

Well then... the first thing to do... Find the mountain and the place where her ice castle is going to be and set up a camp of sorts.

Then start working out and walk back and forth on the mountains to be used to it and make it easier to reach the top.

And lastly... seeing if I can hear Elsa sing 'Let It Go' in real-time. Hope I won't miss it.

~ End of Chapter 9 ~