Ever Ever After - Chapter 38

“It’s not much,” Clint rubbed his head. “I’ll get you better jewelry to change it to next time.”

Ailea smiled while nodding her head. She looked at the blue ribbon. Glimmering smiles filled her happy face. This ribbon, she often used it to tie her hair. Did it always look this pretty?

The tones of blue looked different to her.

She died once at the hands of Lawrence; the prince charming was not in the slightest bit interested in her. He never looked her way. She was a hideous thing to him. Now she would marry a man who did not want a wife.

But this was enough. She could be happy with this. It was not much, but she was content. She could finally tell her brother and sister that she will soon marry. Cyril’s fourteen-years-old now. He was left behind after Ailea went away and desperately raised Euliana Castle alone. She did not want to add another worry to his mind, so she wrote a letter every year about the happy and fruitful life she lived in the Imperial City.

It was a lie, though.

But she was not lying at this moment. She was happy, endearingly so. She was like Clint. Her goal was not love but marriage. She loathed having to lie to her family. But at least she could remain truthful that she was happily married.

She did not want a fairy tale ending nor a happy ever after. The dream had long ceased to exist. A fairy tale ending was not meant for a beastly woman like her. She read stories about it before. They were beautiful princesses and… she was not. She had given up on that dream.

‘At least I can marry and try to live well.’

If she could write letters to her beloved brother and sister like this, Ailea needed nothing more.

***

After Clint dragged Ailea upstairs, the knights begrudgingly headed to their living quarters.

“Commander didn’t seem to enjoy the party much. What good things would he explain to her?” Kaiton muttered, slowly.

“Things like a dress? There’s a lot of those in scarlet color. I think I’ll buy a scarlet dress for my wife, too,” said Louison, a devoted husband.

“But what sort of stuff are they talking about in private? It’s been so long,” Shantee mumbled, rubbing his stomach full.

“I know, right. If the commander had a conversation for this long…” Kaiton came to a sudden revelation.

Tarren stopped and gasped. “Don’t… don’t tell me… he did such things with Ailea!”

The knights drew in a sharp breath.

“No, that can’t be!” they said in unison.

Kaiton rushed to Ailea’s room, pressing his ear to the door. He could hear muffled sounds of Ailea crying.

“It… it seems that Miss Ailea is crying…”

“Don’t tell me he touched Miss Ailea!”

“What a wicked man!”

Worries surged up in their hearts. Agitated, Shantee knocked on the door.

“Ailea, are you okay? I hear voices crying!” Kaiton asked, worried.

Clint opened the door as Kaiton banged hard on it. Kaiton glanced up at him warily. “Don’t tell me you seduced her…?”

“If a soon-to-be noble seduced her, how can a simple maid refuse it?” Clint smiled naughtily. His eyes turned calm and eerie thereafter seeing his subordinates show signs of rebellion. “She’s Ailea Elgar Euliana,” he said, calmly.

“Pardon?”

“She’s Captain Ron’s daughter and the woman engaged to the Crown Prince. Don’t call her name so carelessly like that.”

“Don’t tell me… she’s… she’s been living at the Outer Castle? Since two years ago?” asked the quick-witted Louison.

Only four people ever slumbered in the Outer Castle, Captain Ron included. They were also soon-to-be-nobles.

“The Crown Prince has another woman. His Majesty wishes to pair up Lady Ailea with me,” Clint announced to his knights. He trusted them in certainty and Ailea, who at this moment, was approaching them.

“Are you saying that… Lady Ailea’s engagement to the Crown Prince will end because she is to marry you, Commander?” Louison asked.

Clint nodded.

“Ailea… no… what kind of wrongful thing did the commander do to Lady Ailea?!” Kaiton asked, vigorously.

“Hey, calm down,” Louison scoffed.

“But how can she spend two years here alone?!” Kaiton trembled, unable to hold his anger. He and the Knights Order held considerable antipathy towards the emperor’s power for how they shamelessly used Captain Ron and similar others, sending them to death.

“This is a secret,” Clint added. “We can’t be here. Ailea is still the Crown Prince’s woman, yet that fool goes around flirting with other women. She has yet to hold a ceremony to break her engagement to the Crown Prince. Do you understand?”

“Yes, understood,” Tarren answered on behalf of everyone as the vice-commander.

“Now, let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Yes, commander.”