Chapter 7

“What’s with the interrogation?”

We all turned to see a dark-haired boy blinking back at us. He was tall, slender, and had a fair complexion. Pretty brown freckles dotted his round face; his long, straight nose was giving him a snobby look, but his light blue eyes were shining with mischief. Dressed in a casual sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers, he looked like a normal teenager. It was the empire’s 16-year-old spare heir. The king’s little brother, Frederick.

“Freddy!” The empress jumped up to hug her son. You could tell she missed him.

“Good morning, mom.” The boy wrapped his arm around his mother and closed his eyes, enjoying their embrace.

It was refreshing to witness male royals being affectionate to their mothers. Helena touched her abdomen, as though yearning for my baby brother to be as loving as Frederick when he grew up. I smiled, hoping for the same for my future children.

“Good morning, everyone,” another voice declared. We all stopped and looked, and it took everything I had not to jump up when I saw it was Henry.

He looked dapper in his gray suit. His dark, curly hair was wonderfully coiffed. He looked just as gorgeous and put together as the day I first saw him. My brows furrowed a little when I noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He looked so exhausted a light blow of the wind would knock him off his feet.

I got up from my seat and Helena and Becca followed suit. Henry smiled at me as I curtsied.

“Hi, Selina.”

“Your Majesty…” I greeted him back. Our eyes locked, and I waited for time to slow down, for the world to look rosy… but it didn’t happen. He moved to take my hand, to kiss it. Helena and Becca swooned, but I didn’t. There was no electricity, no sparks, and no fireworks. Nothing. Screw those romance novels, they’re so deceiving.

“Henry!” It was the king’s turn to be hugged passionately by his mother. It was quite comical to see him flailing from her grip. “Are you all right? Why are you here? Why are you boys here? I haven’t lifted the lockdown yet!”

“I took a few hours of break,” Henry said as he stifled a yawn. “I figured I would see Selina before the meetings resumed.”

“Aww,” I heard Becca giddily say. “That is so sweet.”

Henry blushed, and Frederick elbowed him, teasing.

With the two boys standing side by side, Frederick’s resemblance to Henry was obvious. However, their similarities ended there. Because this child had the raucous energy that was typical of adolescent boys, in contrast to Henry’s quiet, reserved, and self-contained demeanor.

“I’m here,” Frederick said, the corner of his mouth pulled in a smirk. “Because I heard Henry’s fiancé crashed into Lupine Pass, got attacked by rogues, and survived. Badass.”

Case in point.

“Freddy!” Camilla gasped. “That is such an insensitive thing to say!”

“What? That was a compliment.”

“I’m really sorry about this, Helena.” The empress turned to my stepmother. “I dropped Freddy on his head when he was a child…”

“Mom!”

I stifled a laugh as I watched the mother and son banter. I felt fingers entwined with mine and when I turned to look, it was Henry. He was blushing and scratching his cheek, embarrassed.

“Would you like to go for a walk with me?”

Henry’s hands felt cool and soft. My heart raced at the way he looked and smiled at me.

“Just the two of us?” I asked back, a little surprised but pleased he initiated. “Can we do that without a chaperone?”

“I was thinking of bringing Becca with us… and Freddy to keep her company.”

I cringed at the suggestion. It’s a tad crowded to have two people join us.

“I’d rather break propriety and walk with you alone,” I said. “You’re my boyfriend, not a stranger.”

“A-are you sure? What if someone saw us?”

“You have staff everywhere. Of course, someone is going to see.” I almost rolled my eyes at him. “But what of it? What are they going to do? Force us to marry?”

After chuckling at my sardonic comment, Henry presented his left arm to me. “I’ve always loved your sarcasm, Selina.”

I could only blush as he escorted me away from the others without another word. We were walking silently for a while until we reached a gravel path where a limousine was waiting idly.

“What is this?” I asked when Henry guided me to the car. A chauffeur exited the vehicle and opened the passenger door for us.

“Since you were not present for the tour prior to enrollment, I decided to take you myself.”

“You mean you’re taking me to school now?” I tried to conceal the disappointment on my face. “I thought we were going for a walk…”

“We are. You’ll see.”

It was a tedious drive from Lyall Palace to the University and we spent it looking at our phones. Henry bought me a new phone because I lost my old one in the Lupine Pass and they never recovered it from the crash site. From time to time, I would show my boyfriend a cute picture or a funny gerbil video I would come across while Henry was busy with work. Sometimes he gets calls and they all sound important. He just couldn’t catch a break. I let him be and minded my own business like a good girlfriend.

When I got bored, I pulled up an online app on my phone and shopped for new dresses and accessories that I planned to wear for the first month of the school year. I was so engrossed with what I was doing that I only put my mobile phone down when I noticed Henry tapping the driver’s shoulder. The car slowed and came to a stop on a dirt road.

“Why are we stopping?” I inquired, looking out of the window. There were establishments, trees, passing cars, and people, but the enormous school was nowhere in sight.

“We’re here,” Henry answered, smiling. He got out of the car and hurriedly went to my side to open the door for me. After slamming the door shut, the young king turned to the driver, who immediately drove away after receiving instructions. He turned to me excitedly. “Welcome to Aldervolf University!”

“Uhm… thanks?” I replied, still looking around, bewildered. It looked like we were in a small town’s commercial place, like a market.

“Yes, but we’re on campus. It’s like a college town within a city,” he explained. “Everything you need, you’ll find it here. Shops, amusement parks, hotels, banks, virtually anything!”

“That’s great!”

“You know what else is great? No paparazzi! And the food, heavenly. Come on, I’ll show you around!”

Henry grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the shops. He pointed at them eagerly, like a child showing off his most prized toys. In a way, if you think about it, they were, weren’t they?

“Hey, Henry!” A couple of girls greeted my boyfriend cheerfully as we passed by a small stall filled with trinkets. They each have a paper bag with the stall’s tag on them. One was a blonde, the other a brunette. They seemed to be of Henry’s age.

‘The audacity of these peasants, greeting and calling him by his first name, talking to the monarch so casually.’ I gave both of them a glare, which wiped the smile off of their faces.

“Hi!” The king waved at them happily. “Selina, these are Edith and Camryn, my classmates.”

Both girls eyed me carefully, perturbed by my earlier behavior.

“Girls, this is—”

“Princess Selina of Rozenberg,” I interjected, my smile not reaching my eyes. “Fiancée to the king. Hi.”

“Uhm… hi,” the sandy-haired girl replied. “I’m Camryn.”

“I’m Edith,” the brunette said, holding out her hand. I stared at it for a few seconds before acting surprised.

“Oh, you want to… I’m ‘so’ sorry.” My smile became tense. “I can’t shake hands. We’re not supposed to touch hands with commoners. Protocol, you understand, surely?”

Edith let her hand drop to her side, red-faced in embarrassment.

“Did you girls have a nice vacation?” Henry tried to lighten up the mood by changing the subject. He placed a hand on the small of my back, and I automatically leaned on it a little.

“No,” Camryn replied. “I helped on the farm with my mom and dad.”

“I went to visit my aunt,” Edith supplied. “But I wouldn’t call it a vacation. She made me take care of her kids the whole time.”

“You poor things.” Henry genuinely looked unhappy that his classmates did not have a great school break, and it irked me.

“Yes, yes, that’s sad.” I slipped a hand on the king’s arm possessively. “Didn’t you have somewhere to be, ladies?”

Edith and Camryn exchanged uneasy glances before excusing themselves and leaving.

“They seem nice,” I commented casually while burning a hole in the backs of their heads until they disappeared from our view.

“They are.” Henry furrowed his eyebrows and took a gulp of air. “Selina…”

I whirled around to face him and, with one look on his face, I knew he was going to admonish me for putting those girls in their place. My father had the same expression every time.

“What is that about?” I redirected his attention with ease. “Why are you allowing them to call you by your first name?”

Henry stared at me with an unreadable expression for a few seconds before sighing.

“The people here won’t treat us as high-born. They won’t call you ‘Your Highness’ or princess, or anything like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re normal people here,” Henry explained. “Sorry, I forgot to tell you. It’s one of my father’s old decrees. So… I’m just plain old Henry here.”

“B-but—why?”

“Because he wished for us nobles to become better acquainted with our subjects. He believed that living among them and being treated like them was the best way to learn about our people. For us to really know what they need. A hands-on approach.”

‘There were other options with the same results,’ I thought to myself.

“Don’t you agree, Selina?”

“I do,” I lied through my teeth, a smile frozen in place. It wasn’t good to oppose him so soon, not when he seems to be adamant about it. Besides, there was already a decree. And it’s not like they imposed it on the entire empire. “Your father was... very wise.”

“He was…”

My boyfriend really admired his dad… and the mere mention of him saddened Henry.

“And what are they going to call me?” I redirected again. It looked like this was going to be a regular occurrence.

“They may call you by your first name or last name if you prefer.” I could tell Henry’s mood shifted. I was glad my method worked on him as well. Men were the same. “You’re going by Rozenberg, right? I use Volfenheim, but of course, you already knew that. Anyway, some people prefer nicknames, so you had better prepare some that you like.”

“N-nicknames?”

Henry’s childlike enthusiasm horrified me. Allow people to call me by just my first name or, even worse, nicknames. It’s disrespectful to tradition, culture, and my stature! I thought he was demented for even thinking about it. And why would Henry want to be treated like a normal person? He’s the king! He was so weird sometimes.

“… Lina is a nice nickname,” Henry was saying, and I cringed so hard I thought I might throw up. “Mary, Percy…”

“Princess would be great.”

“Selina…” My boyfriend admonished me.

“Fine. Selina it is then. But only if you let me call you ‘honey bear.’”

I could tell the king didn’t like the petname that I picked for him. Ha! Served him right.

“All right,” he said finally, smiling again. “Let’s get on with the tour. Shall we?”

“We shall.”

As soon as we were walking side by side again, my own smile dropped.

I just couldn’t believe Henry would agree to it. I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t let go. He owned every little thing in this place, in the entire kingdom, the whole Empire, EVERYTHING! Every single one of these people was beneath him… but he wanted to be treated like them.

‘Demented,’ I muttered to myself, frustrated.

We continued with the tour, with Henry reciting history and random information about the establishments we had come across. I found it adorable, but completely unnecessary. Sometimes we step inside the stores to look at the goods more closely. The town also has temples and churches, which I liked, because the king built the Shrine of the Rozen Maiden, especially for my use. Everything a student living on campus could ever want was within the university walls. It even has its own police force and a steward. It was indeed self-sustaining and I admit it impressed me greatly.

An hour or so later, I was pressing my nails into my handkerchief to stop myself from complaining. My calves and soles were sore from walking and I was sure there were blisters on my feet. If I had known of the king’s plans, I wouldn’t have worn high-heeled shoes.

“Selina?”

“Yes?” I looked at the king with as much enthusiasm as I could muster.

“Do you mind if I...” He grinned at me so cutely, scratching his nape as if embarrassed. “I have to go to the restroom.”

Finally!

“Oh, sure! I’ll be right here.” I tried not to appear overjoyed, but failed.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes! Just a tad exhausted, that’s all.”

“I apologize, I didn’t realize…”

“It’s all right,” I lied again. I had to. “I was enjoying myself. When we stopped walking, only then did I notice I was sore.”

“I’m going to call Bradley.” Henry reached for his phone, but I stopped him.

“You should go to the restroom first. I’m fine.” Henry looked hesitant, but I gave him a reassuring smile. “You may call the chauffeur after.”

“Are you sure? Because I can—”

“I’ll wait here for you. I can occupy myself with these books.”

Henry looked around us. We stopped in front of a small bookstore. There are bookshelves outside the store for easy access as well. Across the street, there was a coffee shop filled to the brim with customers. If I ever needed anything while he was away, I could go to these establishments.

“Okay. Thanks!”

Henry squeezed my right arm fondly before walking away and disappearing into a corner. My smile instantly dropped and my brows knitted together in a scowl. My feet hurt. Like a lot. I sat on the bench situated outside of the bookstore. I struggled mightily not to take off my shoes and assess the damage. Not in front of so many people. If only Becca had been here, I could ask her to go to a pharmacy or something.

After a few minutes of waiting and resting, I grew bored and stood up, ignoring the pain at every step. I absent-mindedly took a book from a shelf and leafed through it, staring blankly at the inked pages.

“Can I help you?”

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