Chapter 1: The Second Princess of Hestia
Knock knock knock
"Come in."
A maid quite up in her age entered the room.
"Second Princess, His Majesty is asking for your presence in his office."
"His Majesty?"
Why is father looking for me?
"Princess, His Majesty seems to be in a foul mood. Please be mindful." She scoffed. The maid lowers her head but glances a nasty glare towards the princess, clearly expressing her hatred.
"I understand. I'll be there shortly."
The maid bows very slightly and boldly leaves the room, almost as if she has no respect for the princess in the room.
"Juliet, can you please help me get dressed?"
Another young maid enters the princess's chambers, with large steps and a bold attitude, she stand behind the princess at the dressing table and quietly starts to comb her hair. With a heavy frown, the young maid continues her duties and cleanly dresses up the princess.
"This'll do, thank you Juliet."
The maid lowered her gaze with almost no attempt at bowing and quietly left the room. The princess followed after.
As she walked down the hallways, the maids and servants formed little huddles covering each other's ears filling the entire hallway with mumbles and whispers. Yet the princess continued to walk elegantly paying no mind to the context of those whispers.
She stopped before two large doors covered in intricate metalwork made out of gold. The doors alone exuded the pressure of royalty. Two guards stood in each side of the doors. Upon the princess's appearance, they straightened themselves and spoke with a loud voice,
"Her highness, the second princess, Princess Andrea is here!"
The two large doors opened at a slagging pace and the shadow of the king appeared through the strip of light between the doors.
The princess walked into the office only to find that it wasn't just the king who asked for her presence. Right next to the king stood her majesty, the Queen of the Kingdom of Hestia, Elizabeth Von Ferese Hestia. Following the queen stood the three lights of the kingdom.
The Crown Princess, the First Prince and the Young Prince as well. All five family members shone brightly in the sunlight, with their dazzling golden hair and radiantly blue eyes. They stood with grace exuding the aura of royalty.
On the other side of the room stood the second princess, with her dark brown hair and emerald green eyes, she looked like she wasn't a part of the family. With the astoundingly different appearance, rumours spread that the princess was actually an illegitimate child. The light to those rumours was never investigated.
"Andrea, I've heard some strange news today." His tone was interrogatory, almost like he was questioning a criminal.
"Is it true that you've been writing some obscene articles?"
Obscene? Articles?
"N- no your majesty. I believe I have never written such articles that you speak of." Maybe it's because I haven't seen him in such a long time, my voice trembled.
"So you won't tell me- " The king's expression instantly ran cold. His chilling blue eyes glared at me with sincere anger. "THEN WHAT ARE ALL THESE!?" He stood up and threw a pile of paper into my face. The pages fluttered across the room and fell to the floor. I picked up the pages and my heart stopped in fear.
"Lily only wanted someone she could speak her heart to, and the Crown Prince was the only person she trusted fully. She felt her heart beat rapidly every time he was around, and butterflies whenever he would get close to her. Love, oh what a beautiful thing it is."
My heart was beating so fast that my chest hurt. This can't be. These are the drafts I wrote in my free time. All of them are prompts and dialogues I wanted to use for a future novel plan. Why are they here? I wrote all of these in my notebooks, and those notebooks are stored in a secret location. No one else should know about them. So why?
The King stood up and slowly walked towards me.
A custom that follows the royal family involves the ban of certain activities. The King only permits his children to read the latest philosophy, finance, law and political books. Anything other than those are considered taboo.
The royal library, despite being the largest in the kingdom, does not have a single book apart from those topics. The King wants his children to be educated and limits their entertainment to a minimum. The only entertainment he accepts is military arts and sword practice. This ban has been upheld by centuries of rulers, no one would dare to break it.
"THIS! THIS! DO YOU TAKE MY WORDS SO LIGHT THAT YOU BREAK THE CUSTOMS OF THE ROYAL FAMILY!" His voice roared throughout the room and he slammed the notebooks onto the floor.
"Explain yourself, Second Princess of Hestia!"
I'm dead. What should I do? How do I get out of this situation? I looked around the room as if the answer would be written on the walls behind him, and I felt my heart sink. My mother gave birth to me, held up her fan to her face, her eyes squinted slightly. She tried so hard to hide her expression but her cheekbones gave it all away. Along with the rest of my siblings.
They were all smiling.
Bright grins like they had been waiting for this very moment. I understand. This must be the perfect opportunity to get rid of a thorn like me. They set someone up against me and found those notebooks. They reported it all to my father, the king, knowing it was a taboo and that he would definitely be enraged at the news. They planned all of it. My very sister, my blood sister smirked at me and mocked me in the face.
"ANDREA!"
There's no way around this. I fell to my knees and put my head to the floor.
"Father! Forgive me Father! I didn't mean to anger you. I beg of you, please, forgive me Father!"
I kept my head to the ground for several minutes until I heard a loud sigh from in front of me. The man stepped away from me and walked back to his chair. He sat back down and placed his head in his hands.
"Enough. Get up."
My head was dizzy from the sudden order and I felt faint standing up. Did I pass the death flag? Why is he so quiet?
"I've decided. You are to be engaged to Duke Vincent and you will live in his residence as his fiancée. Once you have your debutante, the two of you can get married. That's all."
Marriage… Father, I'm only 15