Arthur’s POV
Rumors traveled fast inside these stone walls—it was more faster than reason, faster than the truth itself.
By the next morning, I had heard them all.
“The Crown Prince favors the new chef.”
“He visits the kitchen too often.”
“The boy must have seduced him.”
“No servant rises that quickly without a secret.”
They're Idiots.
Every last one of them.
I sat in the council chamber, but my attention drifted to the murmurs behind the ministers’ respectful silence. They thought I couldn’t hear it. They thought I didn’t notice their side glances.
I noticed everything.
Especially the way their whispers involved Daniel.
My jaw tightened.
They didn’t understand what I was trying to understand myself. Daniel was… strange. His skills didn’t match his story, his behavior was too
