"Your majesty,"
His special advisor said coming to stand by him, Lance looked at him."What is it?""Sorry to disturb your relaxing time but the soon to be queen wants to speak to you on the phone,"He revealed, Lance was in no mood to speak to the would-be queen, in fact, he wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone, he was waiting for the maiden he sent out to return, he had asked if she had returned a couple of times and it was the same report, she should have been back hours ago, it wasn't that hard of an assignment that he gave her."Tell her to tell you whatever she wants to say and you can relay it to me later, I am not in the mood to speak with anyone right now,"He ordered, walking back into his chamber."But my king,""No, but Patrick, or else you want to spend the rest of your week in prison,""Sorry, my king,"He said and left, Lance checked the time again, it was past twenty o clock already."Why isn't she back?"He asked himself as he stood up and walked out of his chamber, he called on one of his guards."Go check if the maiden I sent out is back already, it's being hours,""Yes, your majesty,"The guard said as he bowed and walked off, Lance returned to his chamber, he already had a bad feeling about this, he should have had a guard go with them earlier but he hasn't wanted a lot of people to know the diamonds were being delivered and besides they weren't going to anywhere dangerous so he hadn't thought a guard was necessary, now he wished he had, not that she had a phone that they could call her with another thing he should change soon, the staffs were not given phones in the palace and his life would have been easier if she had gone with a phone, what's keeping so long anyway, he just hoped he hasn't done something that would put her life in danger, but then there was nothing dangerous about it except the worth of the diamonds he had asked her to deliver, a knock came on the door before the guard he sent came in."My king, she isn't back yet,"He relayed."Okay, keep an eye out, once she comes in let me know okay?"He said and dismissed the guard, being king of an almost failing kingdom fir nearly five years now he had tried his best to do what's best by his people but sometimes his best wasn't enough and he had to live with the fact that it will take years and years to rebuild the kingdom which his half brother had left in ruin, as a young boy, Lance didn't have much interest in being king, he wasn't even next in line, he had been a product of a mistress and was never once considered for the king's post, he wasn't trainee to be king and didn't even know he will be king one day, he had spent most of his young days abroad, with no thought if ever ruling this kingdom, that changed five years ago when his father on his sick bed had ask him to return home,he hadn't wanted to because his father hadn't being the best dad,in fact his father had not been a father to him, he barely saw him just as he never saw his mom, he couldn't blame his mom though, she didn't have any power and had given him away when he was born, and the last time he saw her was when he was ten years old.Coming back to the kingdom after almost ten years away had been the hardest decision he had made, then his father had told him, he had to rule because his older stepbrother who was the acting king was bringing the kingdom down, in less than two years if his rule, his brother had succeeded in bringing a once growing economy of Otano down, it had taken a while for him to build trust among the elders and he resumed his duties as acting king, a year after that his father passed away and the elders hadn't thought twice to crown him their new king, five years into the run and he was still trying to fix the mess his older brother created, of course, that made him an enemy to Justin who despite being in the kingdom was banished from the palace."My king,"Patrick said entering his chamber and disturbing his thinking."What is it this time Patrick, if you are going to deliver the message from the soon to be the queen then you can wait till tomorrow, I am in no mood to hear her nonsense talks right now,"Lance warned."Why are you so on the edge Lance, you are making me seem like the bad person here, I am just doing my joke, don't be such a pussy,"Patrick said and Lance eyes him, Patrick wasn't just his special advisor but also his best friend, might be his only friend in the whole kingdom, which is why he made him a special advisor, it was easy to relate with someone he was already used to, while he was away from the kingdom, Patrick had been his only source of information about the kingdom, it was only right for him to repay him even though he was regretting it now, the man was a pest, and only him could talk him down, even though he always does it when they were alone."I am not on the edge,""I think you are, first you threatened to get me locked up, you only say that when you have something disturbing you, is it because of the maiden? I am sure she will be back soon,""She should be back already, that's the point here, and I should already get the call that the diamonds were delivered,"He let out."Well, I don't know, I told you this wasn't the time to send it but you refused, that aside, what should I tell the nagging woman on the phone, she isn't taking any excuses,""Tell her whatever, it's not as if our union is a love match she should stop trying already, or I might call off the wedding altogether, I hate pests,"He said in a dismissing voice, Patrick got the memo and left him, he checked his time again and let out a sigh, he just hope nothing bad had hoped, he should have sent a guard with them but he had wanted to be careful now he regrets not doing so.Sophia was beyond exhausted from walking for hours but still, it felt like there was no hope for her, it was already midnight, everywhere was dark and she was nowhere near finding a house or anyone, this was bad, the more she walked the more it felt like it would be better to just sit in one place and wait for her death because as it stands there was no hope for her, she was exhausted, her legs were shaking, she was cold even though she had on so many layers of clothes, if she doesn't die of exhaustion, hunger will do the work or there maybe wild animals too, either way, she looks at it, she was going to end up dead, she just didn't want to die without fighting, she couldn’t just sit and lose, which was why no matter how tired and hungry she was, she kept walking, it looked like it was going to rain too, she hoped it won’t, that would make it worst for her, she just wished she had super powers this moment that would have helped her through this.No way had she thought her life would t
“My king, the driver is back but he was rushed to the palace hospital,"The guard relayed."What? What happened?""We don't know the full details yet but he was shoot in the arms and he was rushed to the hospital as soon as he got back,""Okay, what about the maiden? Where is she?"He asked as he wore his robe properly."I don't know my king, she isn't with him, he was alone,"The guard revealed."Are you sure you saw or are you just saying what you heard, make way for me, I will go talk to him at the hospital,""But my king, it's late already, you can do that tomorrow,"His advisor Patrick said as he walked in, Lance eyed him and walked past him, Patrick was doing the most recently and Lance was seriously considering giving him a sack letter.“Late? You better not get in my way, Patrick,”He said moving out of his room, he couldn’t remember the last time he had been to the palace clinic, right from when he was young, he didn’t have a pleasant memory of the clinic so he avoided it as
Sophie woke the next morning in shock, it took her a couple of minutes to remember what happened to her and where she was, she jumped up from the bed looking around, the previous night, she had been too exhausted to even be scared but now that she wasn’t so exhausted, she suddenly was scared of who the woman who had allowed her to stay this night at her place must be, it was all kinds of thoughts that gathered in her head and none of them was any better than the others, she couldn’t come up with a reasonable excuse as to why an older lady was living alone in the middle of nowhere like there were no houses around, or maybe there was and she didn’t see it the night before, she walked out of the room.The house was empty when she got out, she wondered if she had imagined the old woman last night out of exhaustion but soon told herself to wake up because how would she imagine her if she was in her house right now?“You are awake? Good, you should take a bath,”The old woman said coming fr
Lance was passed worrying for the maid’s safety now, it was obvious she played him for a fool and he had been so stupid to trust her with something as huge as the rare diamonds he had entrusted to her, the driver was too shaken to have been lying and when he had questioned the people who worked with the maid, they all seem not to have anything good to say about her, in fact, they barely had anything to say about her except that she is always on her on and barely interact with them and aside for being very loyal to him, she just doesn’t give her other jobs in the palace much attention, it was hard to believe based of how he saw her be so diligent but many people can’t be lying on her when they don’t have anything to gain from it.“Your highness, the future queen is not happy that her request has been constantly ignored recently,”Patrick said as he walked into his chamber and Lance cursed under his breath, he was beginning to think he made a huge mistake by agreeing to wife the princes
Sophia let out a sigh, she was beyond exhausted from overthinking but the most painful part of everything was that no matter how hard and long she thought about it, there was no way around this, not a single escape route for her, she was going to have to face that reality and leave here.She has been at the old woman’s house for four whole days now and the lady has been nothing but nice to her, giving her food and making sure she was okay, but that didn’t make her feel better, she knew that the longer she stayed behind, the more trouble she gets into.The best decision she has come up with was to try and go plead her case before the king, whatever outcome it might be, but she didn’t have the diamonds with her, if she did, she would have returned it back, and maybe she would have been able to plead her case.“I should just leave this kingdom and go back to my country,”She let out even though she knew that would be worse for her.“Why are you sitting here with such a king face?”The ol
During the ride back to the palace, it really hit her then that her life was going to take a huge turn for worse, there was no other way, and there was no one on her side either, the only person that she could say was on her side, she brought problems to her, she felt sorry for the good old woman and wished she didn’t have to go through troubles for helping her.“I am sorry,”She whispered to herself, hoping that the good old lady will be okay, she closed her eyes and said a silent prayer even though she highly doubted it will be effective.“Time to face the wrath of the king, you thief,”The big man who is the leader said before the car stopped in front of the palace, Sophie looked up at the great walls of the palace and tears gathered in her eyes again, two years ago when she had first seen this wall, it had been like the best place to be, a safe place, but now, she knew that this will be her prison or her death place.She watched as the big gate opened as her heartbeat increased, s
“You have a new fellow,”The guard who had dragged her in after her name was registered as a criminal said as he pushed her towards a group of women all wearing similar clothes, they all looked at her weirdly as she tried to steady herself but she was much too weak to do anything right, aside from the fact that she has been toasted up and down for hours, she hasn’t even eaten and her body was beyond weak.“You better be ready to talk, neither the king nor anyone else will buy your lies, better speak up and get punished,”The guard said and turned to leave locking her up with the women.It was like having a staring contest with the women, there were five of them in the small room, she knew the living conditions here were bad but she never thought it would be this bad, there was basically nothing in here but worn-out beds that looked more like trash than a bed, a small table and nothing else, the beds bunks looked uncomfortable.“Are you going to introduce yourself or do you want a beat
“What is your crime? I already know your name is Sophie,”Leah asked and Sophie wondered if she could be honest with her, she did bring her food and was one of the few people that have been nice to her so far, both she and the good old lady were the only people who have been nice to her.“I didn’t commit any crime, I lost something precious, they think I stole it but I didn’t,”She explained.“You worked for an influential family?”“Yes, I worked as a palace maid,”She revealed.“Aha, that explains a lot about why you were sent here directly, that king will be the end of justice in this kingdom, it was worse before he came and he made it, even more, worse, poor and irrelevant people like us can’t get justice because the ruling king only plays fair to the rich.Leah said bitterly which lead Sophie to believe she must have a beef with the king, it was obvious that she hated him.“Why are you so sure the king is evil, I mean yes he is but, you seem to have a deeper hate for him,”Sophie