I walked inside of the dining hall after taking a long bath. Since I had been in the back gardens for the entire day, training and just idling about – there was just too much sweat and grit on me which I had to wash off. But the prime reason for my unwillingness to step foot inside of the castle was to avoid the Queen.

She had been quite clear with her “punishments” for me and I didn’t want to give her more opportunities to take advantage of my minor status in her life. Sure, I had the maids and the guards bow to me whenever I passed them by, and yes, I also had Elric bow to me and talk respectfully with me, but I was still just someone who was in the castle for the Queen.

If she wanted to, she could easily dispose of me. And that was exactly what I wanted, which was why I was avoiding her. She would see my avoidance as being disobedient and then she would throw me out of the castle right after divorcing me.

That sounded like such an ideal reality, but I knew it was too good to come true.

The universe also did not want me to find any happiness since the Queen was already sat on one side of the long dining table. Her eyes snapped to me even before I could turn around and leave.

“My King!” I flinched at the way her voice rang in the hall. Elric only spared me a glance as he went back to bowing his head. “Ah, your highness.” I bowed my head as well, making sure that I was being proper. But wait, wasn’t I supposed to disobey her commands? Immediately being reminded of what my plan had been, I raised my head high.

The Queen inspected me with narrowed eyes before she turned her head towards the food served on the table. “Come, eat with me.” That was a simple command, and I was famished from all the training I had done the entire day. But my pride. Oh, my pride. It grabbed me by the lapels and shook my head side to side.

A frown graced the Queen’s face as I kept my eyes at her. “I am not hungry, your highness.” I lied straight through my teeth, almost regretting it when the Queen regarded me with the frown. Her eyes remained on me as she raised a spoon of rice and brought it to her mouth. I gulped at how she was provoking me, but I shook my head again.

“I will go straight to our chamber and sleep, your highness.”

I expected her to remain sitting, but she stood up, pushing back her chair. The screeching sound of her chair being pushed back brought a grimace to Elric’s face as he looked up at me. “I will join you then, my king.”

My eyes squinted at her unamused expression as she walked over to me. What was even happening?

“You should stay and have your meal, your highness.” Elric walked forward, following the Queen as well, while I tried to convince her to stay. “Yes, your majesty, please eat something.” The way Elric had worded his sentence ignited my curiosity.

The Queen glanced at the older man which had him sigh in defeat. “I will rest in my chamber with the king.”

I frowned when she grabbed at my arm forcefully before pulling me away with her. We exited the hall through the open doorway, and I could only send a rescue glance back at Elric. He was of no use to me since he only shook his head and walked away.

Accepting my fate, I let the Queen drag me away to our chamber where she was going to abuse me into sleeping beside her again. Oh, and all of that on an empty stomach. Why did I even lie? As I kept berating myself in my head, we had reached the bedchamber. She opened the door with ease and pulled me inside before closing the door behind us.

“Did you enjoy being in the back garden for the entirety of your day, Bran?”

I groaned at her venomous question as she went to sit on the bed’s edge with a frown on her face. “Yes, I enjoy fresh air.” My answer was short and vague which seemed to annoy the Queen more. Sometimes, there were just some things I had no control over. One of those things was my destiny, and also the Queen’s mood.

You would expect the Queen to be as fierce as she usually is and not her to just take off all her reservations and weep like a child. My eyes widened as I realized what was happening and my limbs moved on their own.

“Why are you crying, your highness?” Even before I could sit beside her and try to comfort her, I felt her flinch away from me. “Don’t touch me.” I straightened immediately but her tears were still streaming down her face like the shiny pearls she had been wearing the day of our unfortunate marriage.

If she didn’t stop crying, I could get into serious trouble. What if she called the guards and they misunderstood everything?

“I-I apologize if y-you're crying because of me.” She paused in her sorrowful weeping as she looked at me. But then shook her head and resumed sobbing. Seeing her in such a state only caused me distress. I didn’t know what to do and she wasn’t telling me anything. And I really didn’t want to be prosecuted for making the Queen cry uncontrollably.

Disobeying the Queen was one thing, but making her cry was an entirely different story.

Feeling helpless and desperate, I dropped down to my knees. “Please, your highness, tell me what has happened?”

There was no answer other than her loud cries which were painful to see and to hear. Somewhere inside of my heart, I felt incredible sympathy and pity for her, as if I didn’t hate her at all. She was younger than me – only by a year or two! -- and somehow her life was more stressful than mine.

She ruled a kingdom and yes, her parents had played a large part in my parents’ deaths, but she wasn’t to blame. Right?

Despite the previous command, I felt my hand move on its own as I touched the Queen’s cheek gently. Her cheek was soft and wet but at least it wasn’t from sweat. My palms were sweaty from nervousness, so I brought back my hand and wiped it on my mantle, but the action did not go well with the Queen. “You even hate touching me!”

Oh, she was finally speaking. And her first sentence was that.

A frown replaced my concerned expression. “You told me not to touch you!” She halted her cries for a moment to throw a glare my way. I gulped down my complaints while shifting on my knees. They were starting to ache, and I had just realized how close I was to the Queen’s legs.

“I didn’t mean it.”

I frowned at her words, not understanding what she was trying to do. Why was she even crying, and why was she not sharing the reason with me? Maybe it wasn’t even my fault for her sobbing.

“I’m crying because of you!”

Alright, she was being straightforward now.

“What did I even do!?” My voice got an octave higher since I felt targeted for no reason. Well, I did disobey all her commands, and then acted as if she wouldn’t do anything to me. She had no reason to not just outright punish me for insubordination.

For a moment, her tears dried up and she sniffed like a small child. The visual of her sniffling with her crown and mantle still on, sparked a certain emotion in my heart. And no, it wasn’t pity or sympathy. It was more painful, as if her hurt indirectly pained me as well.

We sat in silence now, and I was grateful for it, even when I wanted it to be filled with the sound of anything other than my loudly beating heart. It was as if my fear was still there, and not some other distant emotion like affection. No, shoo!

“Get up.” I gladly obeyed this order since my knees were killing me. It wasn’t such a bright idea to train for most of the day, and then not having anything to eat which was also the Queen’s fault. But I didn’t want her to start crying again, so I kept that complain to myself.

She regarded me with tearful eyes before standing up as well. I frowned at her saddened expression as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around my body in a deathly hold. A groan escaped my lips while I tried to grab at her hands which were already interlocked together. She squeezed me further and I couldn’t help but to endure this torture which was packaged into an embrace.

“I-If you really love him than I’ll let you go.” Even with all the strain on my back, I frowned at the silent muttering of the Queen. “What?”

Ignoring my confused question, she continued. “Y-You can go back to your life with Felix, and I won’t come between you two anymore.”

As she finished her sentence, I had only two questions.

First – why was she taking Felix’s name as if she was spitting it out? And second – what did she think was going on between me and Felix?

The question died even before reaching my lips since I felt her arms squeezing me further as her head tried to nestle into my shoulder. I was certain that my back and shoulders were going to have large craters after she would let me go. If she was even planning to let me go.

“Even if our m-marriage was short-lived, I thought you were the perfect spouse.” Now, that was a lie, and I couldn’t believe she thought such a thing. “I didn’t want to marry any man, and you were there solving all my troubles, like a gladiator angel.” I coughed at her words and thought I saw blood coming out of my mouth, but enough was enough. Grabbing onto her arms tightly, I tried to free myself from her hold, and finally succeeded.

“What are you even talking about, your highness?”

“You don’t have to pretend not to know, Bran. I have discovered everything about you and Felix.” She looked away from me but didn’t stop spitting out Felix’s name. It amused me and also confused me. Was she really convinced that Felix and I were involved? Romantically, at that too.

“Do you think Felix and I are in a relationship?” I asked the question straightforwardly and watched her eyes turn to me helplessly. Of course, she thought so. “You don’t have to lie to me, Bran.”

I shook my head with a frown. “I’m not lying. There’s nothing romantic between him and me.”

The Queen frowned as she shook her head as well. “Stop lying to your Queen, Bran. He told me about you two.” My eyes widened at the information I had been given. He told her that. That wasn’t possible. “When did you even talk to Felix?”

As if realizing what she had mentioned, she looked away and pretended to be confused. But I saw through her façade, and I was not going to let go of her slip-up. “Tell me, your highness, what did Felix say about our relationship?”

Her face reddened and she looked almost helpless but then she turned to me with a glare. “You dare question your Queen!”

Yes, that was not going to work on me anymore. I shook my head with my arms crossed in front of me. “So, you’re allowed to cry for hours and then blame me of having extra-marital affairs, but I can’t ask you why you think so?” I couldn’t even believe all that had left my mouth but seeing the Queen’s mouth hang open, was a delight. “I didn’t cry for hours!” The Queen tried to retort but she wasn’t going to escape my interrogation so easily.

Keeping up with my questioning, I continued. “Now, what did he say which implied that we were anything more than just friends?”

The Queen was lost for words, and I could tell that she was racking her brain for what to say. Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she nodded her head before speaking. “He said you betrayed his trust. Did you not do that?”

At the mention of trust, my shoulders slumped immediately. I knew he must’ve said something like that.  It didn’t even matter when the Queen had this conversation with Felix since he had already told her the one thing, I was disappointed in myself for.

“Yes, I broke his trust.”

“So, he was right.” Her voice had turned gentler. I sighed before explaining to her. “I knew how much he wanted to marry you but that old man wanted me to compete in the --”

“Wait.” I paused in confusion when I saw the frown on the Queen’s face. Suddenly, I felt the need to pat her head and soothe the lines on her forehead which was an odd thought. “He wanted to marry me?”

Oh, so she was more focused on that part. “Yes, he wanted to win the battle and propose to you.” The thought that I had gotten in his way made me feel bad again. But I had no choice either, well, right after I had chosen to participate in the battle. After that, I had no choice. Before that, well, I had all the choices in the world, but I still chose revenge over everything.

Standing in front of the Queen now brought a guilt which was foreign. Was I feeling bad for wanting to ruin her?

“That’s absurd!” I was brought back to the reality with a jolt as I looked at the Queen’s smiling face. Why was she even smiling? “You both are only friends.” I narrowed my eyes at her joyous expression before nodding my head. “Yes.”

“Nothing more?”

“No.”

“You have no feelings for him?”

“I feel for him what a friend would feel for another friend.”

“You both never even held hands?”

I frowned at the number of questions she was asking in mere minutes as I shook my head. “No, no, there is nothing between us which could count as romantic.”

The smile on her face widened and I was suddenly engulfed in another bone-crushing embrace. I didn’t understand her sudden change of mood. “You’re a big idiot, Bran.”

As she muttered in my shoulder, I joined all the points together and felt a laugh tumbling out of my mouth. “Was this why you were crying?” Suddenly, I was being pushed away and I found the Queen’s cheeks turning a deep red. I was right!

“Oh my! The Queen was jealous!”

“I was not!”

I covered my mouth with a hand as my laughter resonated in the room. Her cheeks were still red with embarrassment, but it didn’t matter. At least she wasn’t crying.

“If you do not stop ridiculing me, I will have you thrown into the dungeon.” Even her threats were hilarious as I shook my head. “I’d actually appreciate that.”

Suddenly, the room was quiet as my laughter died down and her expression softened. “Can we not...just try, Bran?”

The question confused me as did the Queen’s sudden movements. She stepped towards me with clear hesitation and brought one hand to wrap around mine. My mind suddenly brought up the memory of her kissing my lips which I forcefully pushed out of my head. This was not going to be a repetition of that.

“Can we try to be like the other pairs in the kingdom?”

I wanted to answer her question but before I could get the opportunity to – incessant knocking on the room door brought our attention away from our ambiguous relationship and over to the door.

“Your Highness, it is me, Elric!”

Groaning at the advisor’s voice, I grumbled to the Queen. “What does he want now?”

She ignored my complaints as she moved towards the door, opening it with ease. I followed her and looked at Elric, who was standing before our door with a worried expression on his face.

“Did someone die?” I wanted to be funny but had to swear off jokes for life, after hearing Elric’s monotonous reply. “Well, yes, someone did.”