Seeing everyone look like they were supposedly having fun at this gathering, I sorta felt like I was the odd one out. Did they really think this was 'fun'? Or where they just acting?

I didn't want to act...But I also didn't want to bring any attention to myself. It was like a double-edged sword of being killed with boredom or acting…A lose lose situation!

Sighing, I went back into being the 'Princess' that I was supposed to be and tried to think of something else.

Anything, anything is better than looking at people who can just sit there like statues or give fake smiles and interest.

Yet, this was why I was able to handle the next half hour...Because I was holding myself back from laughing about one of the people down to one side from where I was.

The Crowned Prince and I were seated closer to the King then this person, and this person, I had heard something about him a week ago.

He was just a normal official and apparently, he had lost something valuable while working. If my information was correct, this person was trying to keep a low profile right now because he hadn't found what he had lost yet!

The maids had giggled after I heard them speak of this, as it seemed they knew the answer to this poor man's mistake.

I had tried to stick around to find out, but I had been told to move on from there and work elsewhere, before I found out!

But still, that person must be looking high and low for what he had lost, and I just know that someone knows where it is but isn't telling him…

 

“Try this, Your Highness, it is divine!” Still, that voice nearly makes me cringe every time.

Straight away, I lose my interest in the official and his business and automatically become bored once again.

Ah, she pokes her head in aye…

I call this second wife of the Crowned Prince, the weasel. She even looked like a weasel!

She was tall and had big ears...I really tried to wonder how she continues to think that she's pretty!

I hate it that she stands before me and I have to look up to her, it's really annoying!

Apparently, I'm the Princess Consort, yet, I don't feel like it whenever I'm around the weasel...

“Thank you.” I heard the Warmonger say, as he takes whatever she gave to him.

I wouldn't take it Warmonger, it could hold some disease that makes you get big ears…

Taking my eyes away from them, I nearly slumped in my chair again, to my annoyance and being bored.

At the moment…I feel utterly surrounded by enemies…

The Warmonger might say he's protecting me, but he rarely sees me, and apparently that is seen by many and is still a way of bullying.

The weasel has used her height, status and power against me a few times, which only makes me feel even more lonely in the end.

How was I supposed to know that I needed an aunt or uncle that could help me achieve anything!?

My dad and I had no other family, no power, so...All I had...Was myself.

Sadly, a couple of times now, Diane had even copped some of the troublesome things that have happened...Both being my maid and becoming the 'Princess Consort' for a day...

 

Taking another look at the weasel, she smirked at me from the other side of the Warmonger and I raised my eyebrows in confusion.

What? You are fighting with me again? Ok, you win! Take him, he’s yours!

I have absolutely no idea why she continues to think that we are at war…

I concede to her whenever she wants the attention of the Crowned Prince, why...Oh why, does she continue to bother me!?

She loves to bring up that she had a better wedding then I, that she has more attention of ‘His Highness’ then I and that I am abandoned, while she is not.

Ah, you know…I just wished that I cared, because then she wouldn’t be wasting her precious, valuable time on having a competition with me!

There’s more to live you know, weasel! How about you start living instead of wasting your time!

But…If I had cared, boy would I be winning though, so she'd probably be even more terrible to me!

Yep, I had that much confidence that I could make any man fall in love with me! But did I want that?

Uh...Well, maybe later, just not right now. Right now, I feel stuck and want to find my dad, romance isn't really high on the list...

I have to admit though, the Crowned Prince does have his perks and has a manly type of attractiveness. If it wasn't for the fact that he was the Crowned Prince, I would probably try to flirt with him, when I was ready for romance.

 

Giving the Crowned Prince a decent once over, I nodded my head, not caring that he was looking straight back at me.

He had shoulder length, blonde hair but it was decently combed and not in his eyes. His eyes were a nice colour of blue, my favourite colour, and he didn’t have any blemishes or scars on his face, to show the years of service that he had done in the army. His hands were rough though, stating that he’s worked hard, another attribute that I liked, and his gaze was literally piercing, either making you feel good because you had all his attention or making you shiver because he could be thinking of ill things about you.

Now that I think about it, he looked very much like the King, but only younger.

Finding a man wasn’t just about looks though! Take my father for example, he had scars and had a wild look sometimes on his face, but he had always treated me like a real Princess! Someone that should be cherished!

...Then it once again came to me, that this man beside me was someone that had killed a lot of people. He was a warmonger through and through!

How could I have a peaceful life with a warmonger!?

Two countries had fallen and now joined Setchra, mostly because of this man, so…How many people did he have to kill to have that happen?

Granted, those two countries, that are now a part of this country, now actually are better off, but…

 

I looked away from him, hearing him chuckle, not caring though upon why he did that.

No...I had to choose someone that was just as handsome and interesting, that didn't kill people for a living! Actually, at first, I hadn’t really cared too much that this was what he did. I mean war was war and people die…It’s a part of live, but…One day, it became something against him, and I just sort of stuck to it.

I know it, deep down, that when he started to give me gardenia’s, I was becoming soft hearted and it was…Not what I wanted. He was someone that I had never dared to wish for, he was also someone with another wife, so I had just decided that from then on, he was a Warmonger and that him killing others was enough reason not to fall for him.

Mmm...Someone better…Someone nicer…If at all possible, even someone more handsome!

Actually, there was one thing I noticed, since I had traveled, and that was people originally from Setchra had a lot of blonde hair and then people from the other countries had brown or black hair…Even the eye colors were different over there to here…

 

Maybe I could go for a black haired, brown eyed man instead, someone completely different to the Warmonger!

As I tried to look at some of the males in the room, I once again heard the weasel ask the Warmonger to try something and looked at her again.

Why can't she be quiet?

Looking away from her and showing her that I don’t care about what she was doing, I never realized that the Crowned Prince Jorne narrowed his eyes towards me…No…It’s not that I never realized, I notice a lot of things about him, I just try not to think into it…

Yes, I was in denial!

I have taken in each of his chuckles, stares and glares…Each of his teases and laughs, but I only put them into a safe area where I don’t think too much about it. If I thought about it, I might do something stupid!

…Ah…I wanted to go already!

So boring…

 

Finally, after two more hours, I was able to leave and returned back to my room, where I saw Theo at the window seal.

I laughed and ran to him, “Tell me! What’s the news!?”

The bird turned in circles and flapped his wings, and I smiled at him, “Yes, yes, I missed you too!”

Patting the bird, he calmed down and jumped onto my hand, walking up my arm.

We gave each other a friendly hug and I put him back on the window seal, “Now tell me!”

Theo popped his head down and moved his head from side to side.

Nodding, I said, “You looked? And…Did you see Father?”

I watched as Theo put his head down and stayed like that.

Sighing, I straightened up and muttered, “It’s alright, don’t worry about it.”

Theo had started to scout out the close by towns of Setchra, having not found my father in the capital, soon…

I felt Theo on my shoulder then, putting his head into my neck.

Patting him, I didn’t speak…

For at least a year now…I have ever been told ‘no’…

Theo has never found my father…And, with the way things were right now, I was in no place to leave the palace to look for him.

If I was just a maid, it might have been a bit easier, but a Princess Consort going missing might not go down well…

I had nothing else to do, but to continue to do what I’m doing. Which was to try to entertain myself and continue looking for my father through Theo…

 

***

 

For a couple of days, I lounged about with Theo after that. I wasn’t ready to potentially be called as a maid to look after that vixen…

I had nothing…To do…

So boring!

On the first day, I was called into breakfast, lunch and dinner, like any other day that the Warmonger was here, and we ate mostly in silence.

It was great though, that the second wife was there actually, she brightened up my day!

She would offer something to the Warmonger and…Keep offering more until he snapped at her and I would let out a small chuckle and take a drink, trying to conceal it. Ah, it was my highlight!

The obvious disdain that the Crowned Prince had for his second wife made me feel extremely good!

On the second day, much of the same happened and again I gave a small chuckle, but this time the Warmonger looked at me with narrowed eyes.

“Yes, Your Highness?” I asked him.

Yes, I was curious! Why look at me like that!?

 

“Why is it that you never offer any food to this Prince? Do you not think any of it is good enough for my liking?”

I dearly love to laugh!

Isn’t this the finest food in…Well pretty much the whole world!?

“Your Highness, if I give you one thing, I might as well give you everything! Everything tastes very good! I didn’t think that you would appreciate that.”

For me, whom was a commoner, I think this way and automatically thought that my job was to give him the best of everything…Isn’t this what the weasel was doing?

But…Obviously, I did not think that this food was already tasted by the Crowned Prince before and that it had nothing to do with quantity or how good it tasted! Well, I didn’t want to think of that! If there was any chance that he just wanted to get food from me in a flirting type of way, it was a no-good idea!

Just leave things as they are Warmonger, eat the food your other wife gives you and leave me be…

…I then got innocently confused when he sighed and looked away, shaking his head.

Hehe, are you not happy with the best food in the world, Warmonger?

Ah, hard to please, hard to please…

I wanted to shake my head too!

Wasn’t he a bit ungrateful!? Why can’t he be happy!?

Yet…Deep down…I had wanted to give him food…

 

Having grown up with my father, I could eat just about anything, anywhere…

I got used to strange things that weren’t used here, as well as lowly things that the Crowned Prince would probably never put into his mouth!

Oh, I want to do that one day, give him something that he won’t like! Haha!

But thinking about the ways of a commoner and where I was right now…

Ah, it always confused me upon why I was here in the first place…

I was a commoner after all, why would I become the first wife of a Crowned Prince!?

Never…Never do I get that question answered, even by Theo…He was never of any help in that department…

 

***

 

…The third day was different!

I was invaded upon the new addition of this ‘Venus’ woman and she sat down on the highest chair before I could even invite her in!

What a scary girl!

Since she totally disregarded me as someone higher then her, I walked out and pretended she had never come by, going directly to the garden outside…

See how she likes that uh!

Well, like the obvious, she did not like it at all and came storming up to me in no time.

“Little one, you are surely very obnoxious! How could you not greet me!?”

I turned and looked at her innocently, “Oh, I get confused sometimes…Young one…That perhaps I am dreaming.”

I smiled at her and she looked at me as though I was crazy!

Should I point out to her that she was the crazy one!? She was the one that wanted to look above me, me…The one who was in the position of being the Queen in the future!

…And…I’m not young…I’m older then she is, dammit!

But why…Why do I have to look up!?

Dammit, being short was falling into a disaster!

What was worse, was that I could do absolutely nothing about it!

 

“Some people need to learn their place!”

I nodded, totally agreeing with what she said, “Indeed!”

“Are you trying to make a fool of me!?” She asked me, making me want to laugh in return.

Ah…

I blinked a few times at her…

She was making a fool of herself! Did she possibly not know?

She came closer to me then, and smirked, “Do you know who I am? I will not only be Queen in the future, but I have come from a very prominent family. You are best to take heed and follow me now, before it’s too late!”

I looked at this vixen and really wanted to shake my head at her, is she…Crazy? The real crazy, like where the person is literally in their own world and unable to accept reality?

I didn’t know what to say, I was…Completely dumbfounded.

At the gathering, did she not hear the King state that she was the second wife? What family? Your family is in another country!

 

Seeing her suddenly fall over, trying to grab me in the process, I really wondered if there was something wrong with her!

“Princess Consort, I am very sorry! Please forgive me!” Her actions were so fast that her being on the ground and bowing before me rendered me utterly speechless!

Uh? Your apologizing for tripping?

She had completely changed from threatening me to be a weak, little lady in the next second!

“…What have you done to our sister in law, sister?”

I looked up and finally understood…

So, they…Were crazy together…I get it!

It’s seems that this Venus person acts differently when others are around…Great…

“Are you ok, Lady Venus?” That weasel asked the vixen…

Ah, I forgot her name. I always forget her name!

 

I watched as the two made a show of me apparently pushing Lady Venus down.

Wow, what a combination…Dammit, do I really have to fight these two together?

The weasel glared at me but still did not yell, “Sister, you really need to control yourself!”

Right…I totally agree, control myself to not hit both of you…Don’t hit them…Don’t hit them…

“What is going on here?”
“Your Highness!”

I turned to see the Warmonger walk towards us…Seriously, I thought he’d be busy. Why does he have so much leisure time lately?

And…What the…Was the time of this ‘act’ done accordingly? Have they all teamed up together!?

I bopped my head towards the Warmonger and then looked back at him innocently. All I did was walk out of my living quarters, Warmonger…I have done nothing!

 

“It is my fault, Your Highness, I angered the Princess Consort.”

What…When!? Do I look angry to you!?

I turned to this Lady Vixen…I mean Venus, and saw her eyes shining at the Warmonger…Oh…

What an idiot!

She wants to be with him!

Haha, go ahead, I dare ya!

“I saw it, Your Highness, sister seemed unsatisfied and pushed Lady Venus!” The weasel’s voice brought me back out of my thoughts…

Uh?

I scratched my head and wondered why they were making such a big deal about…A play…

Oh…

I get it…So…It looks like they want to fight…Dammit…There’s goes my lazy lifestyle…Not good…

I really had the urge to become a maid, just to get away from these two! I didn’t care for the work, I just knew that this was going to get a bit tiring.

 

I looked at the Warmonger and smiled, not saying anything. At the moment, I had two against one, there might not be any evidence but even if I was to say something, would he hear me out? Most likely not, while the weasel was here…She would undoubtedly interrupt my innocent speech and maybe even put more ludicrous ideas onto me!

And what should I say anyway? If I state that I had not pushed Lady Venus, wouldn’t they try to state that I did and bring nothing to this conversation? Uh…What to do…

He looked at me and narrowed his eyes…

He does that a lot! And always at me…

I didn’t even do anything!

Normally, I don’t care too much for it and want to poke out my tongue to his glare, but this time I wanted to frown. Does he already believe the weasel and vixen’s lies?

I was sort of let down by this, losing enthusiasm to fight for myself…Seeing not much point to it.

Over something like this, what would be the punishment? It wouldn’t be too much, but still, this was just too stupid!

I didn’t want to deal with this anymore!

I’ve decided, I’m going to be a maid tomorrow to get away from this!

“Your Highness, perhaps Lady Venus needs a physician?” I heard the other woman, whom I keep forgetting the name of, say.

I nod, “Yes, Your Highness. She seems clumsy and who knows if there’s anything wrong with…Her…”

…Just take her far away!

 

I saw the Warmonger widen his eyes and then cough to the side.

Uh?

I suppose…I did want to say ‘her head’ but I held myself back…Did he notice? Was he relieved that I hadn’t said it?

“Call a physician for Lady Venus.” Was all he stated, going back to his normal self once again.

I watched, as Lady Venus dramatically limped over to a seat nearby and sat down, the other woman hovering over her like a scavenging mutt!

I decided then…That Theo won’t like the vixen anymore. She might be pretty, but her voice was annoying, hopefully Theo will pick up on that.

Letting out a smile, I quickly put a small item to my mouth and blew through it, then waited.

Hearing a chirp close by, I bit my lip, to stop me from either laughing or smiling.

Then…

“Ah!” It was so good to hear the vixen suddenly call this out! Ah, so good!

Bit my lip, bit my lip…

I turned and covered my mouth…

I loved Theo so much!

Trying to straighten myself out, I looked back at the mess my dearest friend created and tried to not let out that it was the funniest thing I’d seen in a week!

“Lady Venus…Apparently…This is good luck!”

Looking at the Warmonger, seeing a lift to his mouth, I smiled as well, “Ah! I think His Highness is right, Lady Venus!”

…Now stop bothering me!