The Werewolf King's Bride

Chapter 224: The Decision To Help Ruby

(From Blue's Perspective)

"Your Highness, you skipped your training for two days. One more day is not allowed," Perita said strictly. "Your Highness is the one who told me to force you to practice even if you try to slack off."

"But Her Highness wants to take a little break. It's not wrong, right?" Ruby argued.

"It is wrong."

"Her Highness had a rough night last night," Ruby said. "I don't think she can move much."

"Jeez, Ruby... It sounds weird," I mumbled. It had been one day after the full moon. Even after the full moon night, Demetrius and I did it as much as we pleased. Last night, just like we used to do it before, we did it. It was fun.

The whole palace seemed to know about it.

Not many of them knew that I was pregnant. But they knew that I was sick and because of that, Demetrius and I could not do it for a long time. And now, they knew that we started doing it again. Because of that, they even gave us cake during the late breakfast yesterday.

"It's alright. I will practice today," I said sulkily.

Since I took a break for two days, I seemed to get lazy. Ruby helped me get ready. I told her not to apply any makeup on my face since I was going to get sweaty anyway.

"At least, let me make a proper braid," Ruby insisted.

"You don't need to. Just make a simple one," I said. "And you know, you don't have to work for me anymore. Take a break. Others will do everything."

"No," she declined firmly.

I told her that she did not need to be my personal maid anymore since she was going to marry Luc soon. But she did not listen to me for unknown reasons. I was clearly doing it for herself.

She made a French braid with my hair. It was not just that. There were little clips with diamonds hiding here and there within my hair.

"Prepare something for me to eat after I finish practicing," I said. "Then I will go to meet your family. You will come with me."

"Is it nece...?"

"Don't argue with me," I said. "I told you a lot of times not to argue about this. I have already decided."

"Why is Your Highness going to meet Ruby's family?" Perita asked.

"I have some work there. You will be escorting me, so you will find out soon," I said.

I had told Demetrius that I was going to meet Ruby's family last night. He did not disagree, so it was fine. It would also be my first time to go out of the palace ground after the festival. Going to Ataraxia did not count since we just teleported from here to there and could not see much of a thing on the way.

I was a bit surprised to see that Demetrius did not say anything about it. I thought he would make a fuss. Perhaps he was getting better.

"Perita, what do you think of nobles in general?"

Experience new worlds on M-VL-em|p,yr

"They are all the same. I have met them many times though I did not interact with them much since I have no need to do that. But all of them seem the same to me for some reason," she said. "Of course, Your Highness is very different. Your Highness is kind and gentle, not arrogant like most of them. Lady Evelyn is quite friendly too, but not as much as Your Highness."

"You think I am too kind-hearted? Like people will use me like a doormat?"

"That's never going to happen, Your Highness," she said sternly. "Even though Your Highness is kind, you keep your distance from everyone to let them know their place. Your Highness also stood up to the ones who tried to take you down. So, no one thinks of you as a doormat. No one ever will think that way. They just can't."

Everyone I knew called me kind. But why did they do that? I could give examples of the times when I was rude. I even shouted at the maids one day because I had a headache and it was not going down at all. I was just in a bad mood that day. But it was no excuse for my behavior.

I thought they were going to be angry even though they would not show it. So, I said sorry to them, but they just shrugged and said that it was nothing and not everyone had a good day all the time.

The training was as hard as usual and it was not fun as well. I was just doing it because I promised myself that I would not rely on someone to save my life. If my power was not awakened fully, then I would have to rely on my swordsmanship skills to save my life. It was better to learn it without waiting for my power to be awakened someday.

Besides, I was not sure if someone would actually be able to awaken my power. Dem and I also did not want to awaken my power since it would make a full dark mage and dark mages were not welcomed in this world.

"My legs are shaking," I mumbled after the training was finally over. Were my legs being like this because of last night? Dem and I tried my favorite position again last night, so he went overboard. Well, he actually went overboard all the time no matter what.

"I can carry Your Highness," Perita said.

"Haha, no need. But thanks for trying to help," I chuckled.

For some reason, I looked straight up towards Dem's office. And my intuition was right. He was standing there looking straight at me.

How long had he been there? I did not notice him at all. "What is His Highness doing there?" Parita asked. "I did not notice him before. How did Your Highness even know that His Highness is there?"

"I just felt like it," I murmured the reply.

Dem mouthed something and it was not hard to understand at all. "Come to my study."

"Okay," I mouthed back. "Perita, you can clean up now. I will go meet the king for a bit."

"Yes, Your Highness," she bowed.

I quickly returned to the palace. These days, I had the constant feeling that someone was following me and observing me. It was after that dream the other night. It was clear that my father and brother were observing my every move, but I had no idea how. Dem had doubled the security around here. He even assigned some mages so they could detect black mana.

There was no unusual report yet.

I looked back several to make sure that no one was actually around. Then I quickly went to Dem's study.

"You are done with your practice, right?" he asked.

"Yes," I nodded.

"Are you going to go to meet your maid's family?"

"That's the plan," I said.

"Do you have to?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's her business to deal with you. Do you have to do it for her?" he asked.

I gritted my teeth. "I decided that I will help her. She has been with me all the time and helped me a lot."

"That's her job," he said.

"So what? Not everyone does their job correctly. She did more than her job," I said, controlling my voice. "She is more like a friend to me."

"A maid can't be a Queen's friend, my wife," he said.

"...You did not disagree last night," I said. "Are you going back on your word now? It doesn't look like you don't want me to be her friend. That's not exactly what you oppose, right?"

"Are you afraid I will run away if I get out of the palace ground?" I asked, leaning toward him, placing my palms on the table. "You are, aren't you?"

"It's not..."

"You are lying," I said calmly. "How? How can I make you believe me? You don't believe me no matter what I say... How many times do I have to say the same thing? What do you want me to do?"

"... Take another knight with you," he said.

It was not difficult to understand the meaning of his suggestion. It was not like he thought that Perita was not enough. But he wanted me to take another knight so that knight could keep an eye on me so I would not run away. Even though I told him so many times, he never trusted me when it came to this.

"Why don't you come with me?"

"I have a meeting. It can't be postponed," he said. "Or I would have done so."