Chapter 47
1691 Words
CHAPTER 47
Lolita prepared the lunch for Queen Amira. Dina was massaging the queen, and she’s going to have her lunch in a few minutes. It wasn’t that special and contains pork meat, vegetables, and soup. She placed everything on her wooden tray before bringing it to the queen.
She wiped her hands on the dress she was wearing. She enjoyed cooking a lot, and it was a thing she won’t get tired of doing.
The door opened without someone knocking. She thought it was Dina, but she also knew she was massaging the queen. It was a guy, but not Hideo. Why is she thinking about Hideo either? He’s one of Hideo’s friends, part of Prince Aragorn’s group.
“Lolita,” he said her name.
She stopped for a while, staring at the man. What is he doing here? He should be with Prince Aragorn or Hideo unless he wanted something from her.
“What do you want?” she asked forcefully, but she didn’t sound mad. She sounded she needed an answer for a second.
“Hideo asked to go here for you,” he said. “I’m the older one, yet I’, the one being sent by a younger one,” he whispered, but she still heard it.
“I already rejected him. If he hated me for that, it’s fine. If he still wants us to be friends, it’s also fine. But I’m not going to marry him.”
“Why? I mean, Hideo wasn’t bad at all.”
“I don’t want to marry until I’m very much sure of that person. If you prefer marrying someone without the assurance that the two of you will stay together, then it’s your choice. But it’s not for me.”
She’s lying. No, it was true. There’s deeper than that. It’s just an initial answer. The fact that she thought Hideo’s suitable for her and Hideo’s great didn’t remove the point she wasn’t still ready for marriage. She’s still young, but her age was already capable of marrying. She didn’t want to become a spinster and didn’t want to marry at the moment either.
“Hideo’s sure of you. He said you’re extraordinary. He describes and looks at you especially, and I can see in his eyes that he likes you. Why do you have t reject him, Lolita?”
She let him face her back. She glared at the food she was cooking, imagining it was Hideo. She stared at the foods as if they did something wrong to her.
“If he’s sure, I’m not. There’s a whole lot of aspects for marriage to consider. He should be earning enough to feed his spouse and his children. He should be trusting his spouse enough and not get jealous.”
“Hideo was that kind of man.”
“So, you visited here just to force me to like Hideo and marry him? You went here to praise him for making me want to like him even more? I’m not dumb, Azrael, and I’m not going to marry him.” As of the moment, she thought, he’s a husband-material but not for the current situation.
She killed the fire and left the room. Azrael followed and tried to catch her in the hallway.
“Wait, Lolita.”
“You don’t have to force me. My decision’s final. I won’t marry him.”
“He made something for you. He wants me to give this to you.” He pulls a paper folded from his pocket and gave it to her.
Lolita opened it and shot a glance at it. There were words, very many words. Lies or truths, she doesn’t know. She let him face her back again and stomped away. When she saw a trash can in the way, she crippled the paper and threw it there. She knew she was harsh, but that’s the only way for him to stop asking her to marry him.
Queen Amira wanted to summon Sphyra in front of her after Dina had massaged her. Sphyra arrived after being called. Queen Amira requested Dina to leave for a while and said she wanted to talk to Sphyra. Dina trudged outside and rolled her eyes as she passed to Sphyra. Sphyra wasn’t shocked when she did that; she expected it.
“Your Highness, Lola said you needed me here,” she introduced.
Queen Amira smiled at her. She crippled her hand on the side of her chair furnished with gold and crystals. “I want you to massage my arms.”
Sphyra's forehead creased. She didn’t know how to massage, and she knew Dina would be mad at her for stealing the queen’s interest in giving her a massage.
“Apologies, Your Highness. I don’t know how to massage, and Dina was the best to do it for you.”
“I don’t need an expert, and Dina had already massaged my whole body. I want you to do it on my arm.”
She nodded and strode on the platform beside the queen. Queen Amira gave her arm to her. She started by pressing and rubbing her thumbs to the queen’s wrist.
“You’re not that bad,” Queen Amira commented. “How did you and Aragorn met?”
Sphyra stopped. She guessed the queen asked her to massage her arms to ask more questions. “In the forest.” She explained the detail of how she almost killed Aragorn. She gave an apology, and the queen laughed so hard.
“Isn’t it fun? The two of you were supposed to be enemies, but you’re the ones who are helping each other.”
“I am very much pleased that I met Aragorn. He’s so kind and great. I don’t know why he wanted to train himself to be a king where in fact, he’s already a king-material for the palace.”
“He’s very much different from all the other kings in the palace. Past kings used their strength, King Dowager Maragon used intelligence, and King Argon uses sympathy….”
“And Aragorn uses kindness and his heart,” Sphyra finished the sentence.
“You’re right.” She smiled.
Sphyra stopped on rubbing the queen’s left hand. She moved to her right hand and started stroking, pressing, and sliding her fingers again.
“Your Highness, I want to apologize for what happened last time. I shocked you, and you almost fell on the floor.”
Queen Amira grasped her hand. “It doesn’t matter. I should be the one to apologize to you. We believed that the phoenix is the true enemy of the palace, but here you are serving the palace. It was our fault that people wanted you to die. They wanted to bring you to anyone who has the royal blood in their bloodstream.”
“I don’t know why only people with royal blood can kill me,” she said.
“It was written in the book of myths. Other creatures from other palaces needed a specific type of person to kill them. Just like the serpent snake of the palace of Rufus, they needed a virgin to kill it. In the palace of Genevieve, they needed someone who’s old and unmarried to kill the banshee. We don’t know, but it was the system that was set many years ago.”
“Is the book still available? I wanted to read it to get to know myself more.”
“Unfortunately, the last person that owned the book was King Maragon. I don’t know where we can find his copies, but it might be lost by now.”
“Can phoenix lay eggs like humans? I don’t know how my mother gave birth to me.”
“No one ever said that the phoenix can lay eggs on their own. If she gave birth to you, there’s a possibility that she made love with a woman.”
Sphyra stopped and tried to digest the queen’s words. “Do you mean that my mother loved someone?”
“It can be, but maybe someone violated her.”
She clenched her fist and hid it behind her. She never had the chance to ask her mother if someone did wrong to her or if she ever loved someone. She lost the opportunity to.
“Does it mean that I have a father?”
“Yes.”
The one-word answer from the queen made her heart thumped abnormally. There’s a chance that she still has a father. But she didn’t know what she’s going to feel when she met him. Should she be mad because he left them when she was a little or be glad that her other parent was still alive? No, she must not think about it. She won’t be able to see her father because she didn’t have any traces of him.
“Do not overthink about it? There’s a possibility that your father’s a bastard for leaving both of you.”
“At least I knew that I have a father. I accept the fact that I might not be able to see him, but I’m happy that I knew he existed.”
With tears falling from her swelling eyes, she smiled bitterly and wrapped herself with her arms.
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