Year 2918

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They say time waits for no man and lately, I happen to witness it firsthand. In the blink of an eye, I was 8 years old, waiting for Prince Edmund’s conferment ceremony to begin. Today, he was getting titled Crown Prince and as for me, I had been in the royal palace all day, preparing for our dance together afterwards.

I took a sip of juice and rested my head on my hand, wondering what had changed from before.

A few things had for sure.

One, I wasn’t trying to cling to my mother at every opportunity. And she seemed not to hate me as much as she did in my previous life. Instead, she was wary of me. I guess a 5 year old talking like that spooked her out more than I thought.

But even if it was a decision on the spur of the moment, I didn’t want to live my life as a tool to get the Duke’s affection. It didn’t work before, it wasn’t going to work now. Most of all, I didn’t want to get slapped again. Ever.

Before, she dared to slap me despite my status as the soon-to-be Crown Princess because she knew I wouldn’t say anything. But I refused to be a doormat for my mother in this life.

Another thing that had changed was Rowan. The first time I distinctly remember talking to Rowan in my previous life, was after my engagement was broken. I believe I was 15 at the time.

I am not joking.

For most of my life, I think I even forgot I had a brother. Half-brother but still.

Anyways, the thing that had changed is he keeps watching me. When he’s on break from the Academy, he comes back for a day or two and just watches me. It’s creepy as hell but I’m not really sure what to do so I just leave him alone.

Finally, my relationship with the Prince had changed. Not a surprise but it was a welcome change. Most of our discussions were empty and we only met because we needed to. And as I predicted, the Prince was beginning to grow cold and his expression was no longer as easy to read.

If it was the previous me, I might be wondering why Prince Edmund was growing cold or what was making him grow cold. And as a matter of fact, I did try to find out why in my first life, but Prince Edmund kept me at arm’s length, preventing me from knowing. In this life, I wouldn’t even bother because I wasn’t curious in the first place.

“Milady, it’s time,” my maid whispered to me and I handed her the juice in my hand. I stood up and left the waiting room. After walking some distance, I saw my companion for the day.

“Your Highness,” I bowed.

“Lady Lydia,” he nodded back and positioned his elbow. I put my hand through and put on a polite smile.

“You seem nervous, Your Highness,” I remarked.

“Not quite,” his voice was flat but oddly soft.

“Oh really?” I glanced at him, “That’s good then.”

He hummed but said nothing else.

We walked to the front of the hall in arms and waited to be announced.

“Announcing His Highness, Prince Edmund Yvoneheim Kahler de Edis and Her Grace, Lady Lydia Nitha Blackburn.”

We entered with smiles and nodded at those who greeted us. My eyes moved to the throne at the end of the hall and I froze.

‘Where is the King?’

“Announcing His Royal Majesty, King Alexander Yvoneheim Kahler de Edis and Her Majesty, Rowena Shudri Kahler.”

King Alexander was a harsh looking man. His face was chiseled, his red hair looked like a lion’s mane and his green eyes looked like they would cut through steel. However, with Queen Rowena by his side, his harshness seemed to be sliced in half. Queen Rowena’s entire aura radiated peace itself. She seemed like mother nature itself. Gentle, loving but hard when required. Despite the intensity of her crimson hair, it fell down her shoulders like a gentle lake.

However, Queen Rowena was someone whose eyes I wouldn’t dare look into. Her black orbs were like a penetrating abyss, peeling you down to a flimsy bone.

Everyone rose to pay their respect and remained standing till the Royal Couple had seated.

The Prince and I separated, and he took his seat right beside the King while I sat down on the second seat by the Queen’s side. I glanced at the seat by my right.

Princess Selena isn’t here yet.

Then I glanced at the seat on Prince Edmund’s right. And I almost hiccupped.

There he was, with a childish grin on his face, his eyes darting all over the place in excitement.

Prince Julius.

Even till now, I wasn’t sure if Prince Julius and I were close. We weren’t friends, that’s for sure. He found it amusing to joke around me and watch me get annoyed. Prince Julius was someone who found status stupid and me, stupider. He never acted like a prince should and decorum was never one of his strong points. One of the things he always did was laugh when I called myself the future Queen of the kingdom. And above all, he was extremely childish. He was so childish that for a time, I firmly believed he was dropped on the head as a child and his growth was stunted.

However, I didn’t expect myself to be as sad as I was when the boy died. He passed away from an unknown illness and it was quite sudden. One day, he was there. The next, he wasn’t. The bothersome, annoying, little runt was suddenly gone. It didn’t really hit me until I proclaimed myself the future Queen and his stupid laughter was nowhere to be found.

I brought a hand to my chest and took a breath. When I took another glance, I noticed he was waving at me. Quite obviously too. I couldn’t help but chuckle. I waved back and noticed a stunned expression on his face.

Did he not think I would?

‘This is the first time we’re meeting…right?’

I may have been to the royal palace several times but the places I went to were very specific. Prince Edmund’s quarters and the training hall. I didn’t go anywhere else and the royal guards wouldn’t dream of letting me wander around. Child or not.

However, Julius’ expression was as if he had expected me to react in a certain manner. Why?

A loud voice interrupted my thoughts and I noticed the theatrics had begun. I had already gone through this once, so I didn’t bother paying attention. Instead, my mind went back to what happened when we entered the hall.

The King was not there.

In my first life, the King and Queen were already seated by the time Prince Edmund and I arrived. So I expected their presence and the fact that they weren’t there jostled me.

However, it was easy to tell why that had changed. Before, I wanted to spend more time with Prince Edmund, so I wasted time, making us arrive after the royal couple. But this time, I didn’t do anything, so we went straight to the hall and the royal couple arrived after us.

This was a tiny change. It didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but I was happy. I was very happy. Everything was changing, one at a time.

I glanced at the King and once again considered asking for an audience. This seemed to be my only chance and I didn’t want to miss it. There was the option of just being rude and screaming out that he should cancel my engagement in front of everyone here. The King would be furious, but he’d end up doing it, simply because I would have undermined the royal name and didn’t deserve to be the future Crown Princess.

The problem was the aftermath.

The King would take out his anger on my father, the Duke but that was okay, I couldn’t care less. But Queen Rowena? She’d probably get assassins to kill me and feed me to the dogs.

Queen Rowena was nice, don’t get me wrong but she was obsessed with the honor of the royal family. And I mean, madly obsessed. As long as you don’t disgrace the name of the royal family, you’re in her good books. Aka, she was a psycho.

Suddenly, I felt a chill down my spine and looked up. Stopping just before I locked eyes with Queen Rowena. She smiled at me and I smiled back. Then she turned back to the Prince who was in the spotlight, getting his new Crown.

I cleared my throat once I was sure she wasn’t paying attention to me.

Anyways, being rude to the royal family was a bad idea. But I hadn’t seen the king for 2 years and I had to do something because I wouldn’t see him for another 6 or more years.

The crowd began to stir, and the heavy sound of clapping echoed through the room, signifying that the ceremony was over. Prince Edmund had become the Crowned Prince. Now that it was noisy, I figured this was the best time to strike.

“Your Royal Majesty.”

King Alexander turned slightly to me.

“I would like to request an informal audience,” I was clapping too but my eyes were not on the Prince in the middle of the hall.

The King’s expression didn’t change but I knew he heard me. Some minutes passed before he nodded, “Accepted. You shall be seen in two days.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.” ‘Yes!’