The Crown Meets The Heirs

Chapter 004: An Arrangement

(Clara's POV)

I didn’t know his condition was this serious.

I glanced at the figure lying on the white hospital bed. His eyes were closed, his lips pressed into a thin line, and honestly he looked almost exactly the same as when he was conscious. I remembered hearing a bullet whistle past my ear right before I blacked out. Grandma had said it hit him squarely in the chest, dangerously close to his heart, which was why he still hadn’t woken up. One of his vital points had taken the hit.

Seeing him like that reminded me all over again how serious my parents’ situation really was. I took a deep breath, refusing to let myself sink into it, and sat down in the chair beside his bed.

“Thank you for saving me, even though I could be a handful,” I said quietly. “I hope you get better soon. I know that if it weren’t for me, you’d probably rather be at my dad’s side than stuck protecting a weak princess like me.”

I sighed. The only sound in the room was the steady beep of the machine. After sitting there a while, I got up, checked that the humidifier was still running properly, and left the room satisfied.

That night I went to bed with my mind full of everything, especially my parents. I hoped they were safe wherever they were, and that they could hold on until my grandparents found a way to help them. Eventually I drifted into a restless, dreamless sleep.

The days that followed were incredibly boring. My routine went something like this: breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner with my grandparents. Asking for news about my parents that never came, and staring at my phone hoping for a message that never showed up either. Checking on Richard, still lost somewhere in his coma. Occasionally helping Grandma host her parties. Long walks with Grandpa, or a game of chess.

Yeah, you heard that right. Grandpa and I had actually gotten close, though the only catch was that he liked pretending he didn’t care at all. He was such a tsundere.

The one part of my week I actually looked forward to was whenever Uncle Theo came home. He was my grandparents’ second son, the one who’d taken over Grandpa’s conglomerate after Dad left to marry Mom. Grandpa stayed on as Chairman, but Uncle Theo ran things as CEO, though you’d never guess it from how he acted. He was wild, carefree, completely untamed. When I once teased him about it, he blamed the whole thing on my father, insisting he was never supposed to inherit the company in the first place and that Dad had stolen his freedom from him. So whenever he came home, which wasn’t often, he’d sneak me out to dangerous car races. Grandma always found out. Uncle Theo always got an earful for it afterward.

That routine held for nearly two weeks. I honestly thought life would keep going like that until word finally came about my parents. Then, one evening at dinner, everything changed.

“Clara, I just spoke with the Dean of Crestfield Imperial University in Country C and enrolled you as a freshman.”

“Pffft!” I spat the juice right out of my mouth, thank god the dishes had already been cleared, or Grandpa would probably have chased me around the dining room with his cane. Even so, I still got a glare from him as he calmly pulled out a handkerchief and wiped down the table.

“But Grandpa, we never even talked about this, and you’ve already enrolled me?”

“Hmph.” He snorted. “What is there to talk about? Were you planning to become an illiterate princess? I’ve never heard such nonsense.”

“Don’t mind your grandpa, sweetheart,” Grandma said warmly. “What he means is you can’t stay cooped up with us old people forever, not until your parents are found.” She squeezed my hand gently. “You still need to go to school and earn a degree like any other child. And don’t you want a normal teenage life for once? Socialize, spend time with people your own age. It’ll be good for your future too, building connections while you’re there.”

Thinking about it, she had a point. My entire life had been spent homeschooled, everything taught inside the castle walls: etiquette, languages, sports, painting, history, politics, anything Mom believed a princess should know. I didn’t even have a best friend. Honestly, I didn’t have a normal friend either. Most of my free time went to books or scrolling through videos on my phone. Looking back, my life had been surprisingly dull. I wasn’t afraid of people, exactly. I just never really went looking for them.

“But what about my parents?” I asked quietly. “Is it really okay for me to keep living my life like nothing happened? We still don’t even know what’s going on with them. How would I know if something changed?”

Grandma’s smile softened. She took my hands in hers. “First, I don’t think your parents would want their daughter putting her life on hold for them. And second, we’ll tell you the moment anything changes.”

That pretty much dissolved whatever argument I had left. Truthfully, a part of me was thrilled. I wanted to see the world. Maybe being cooped up in that castle for so many years had left me quietly starving for freedom.

Grandma must have noticed the excitement I was trying so hard to hide, because her expression turned serious. “But I want you to be careful. Remember who you are. Protect your image and your reputation. Enjoy your freedom, but don’t abuse it. Understand?”

“Yes, Grandma.”

Then another thought hit me. “What about my accommodation?”

“Hmm… hmm…” Grandpa cleared his throat, a little too deliberately. “You’re staying with four other people.”

I narrowed my eyes. That cough had sounded extremely suspicious, but I had bigger concerns anyway. “Grandpa, living with four people in a dormitory sounds crowded. Do they even know about this? What if they don’t want some extra person living with them?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” A strange little smile crossed his face. “I’ve already arranged everything. It’s perfect.”

For some reason, that smile made me nervous. If there was one thing I’d learned since arriving here, it was that Grandpa could be unbelievably mischievous when he wanted to be. Come to think of it, that was probably exactly where Uncle Theo got it from.

Before I could ask anything else, Grandpa stood up abruptly. “Get whatever you need together. You leave in three days.” Then he practically fled the dining room, humming to himself like a man escaping further interrogation.

Grandma just shook her head, smiling like she knew something, and refused to explain a single thing. Instead, she spent the next hour giving me advice about university life. Afterward, I went back to my room, lay on my bed, and stared up at the ceiling, the artificial night sky twinkling softly overhead, though I wasn’t really seeing it. I was thinking about university. About freedom. About meeting new people. And underneath all the anxiety, I couldn’t quite stamp out the excitement building in my chest.

“Dad, Mom. I wish you were here to see me off to university,” I whispered.

Not long after, I drifted off to sleep.

**************************

“Charlie, why didn’t you tell Clara that you arranged for her to live with the four elite heirs of the world’s top conglomerates?”

Grandma Shaw folded her arms and glared at her husband. She knew him well enough by now to recognize that particular look. He was definitely plotting something.

Grandpa Shaw glanced up, all innocence. “I simply thought it would be good for Clara.”

Grandma narrowed her eyes. “Oh?”

“They’re all boys. They’ll naturally protect her, spoil her a little, since she’ll be the only girl in the house.”

“Hmph.” She snorted. “I hope that’s the whole reason.” She pointed a warning finger at him. “If I find out you’re plotting something else, I’ll have you kneeling on a washboard.”

Grandpa walked over and wrapped his arms around her. “I swear I’m not planning anything.” Then he grinned. “I just think it’ll be hilarious.”

“Hilarious?”

“Can you imagine their faces when they meet each other? Clara’s face. Those four brats’ faces. It’ll be priceless.” He burst out laughing.

Grandma just rolled her eyes.

What she didn’t know was that Grandpa was hiding another motive entirely, and a fairly important one at that: marriage. He was secretly hoping one of those boys would catch Clara’s eye. Even better if she ended up marrying one of them. And he wasn’t alone in this. Earlier that week, during a mah-jong session, he and his four old friends had made a bet, a genuinely ridiculous one, over which of their grandsons would win Clara’s heart first. The old men were worried, after all, since none of their grandsons had ever shown the slightest interest in girls. Some hadn’t even held a girl’s hand before. To Grandpa and his friends, it felt like a national emergency.

The more he thought about it, the more amused he got. Poor Clara. If she ever found out her own grandfather had basically placed a bet on her love life, she’d probably cough up blood on the spot.