Chapter 244 - Duke Romanov Family Returns To Livstad

<Riga Royal Palace>

"Sigh, finally." Nicholas rested his back against the back of the chair as he had just finished reading and stamping the last document of the day. On his desk, there were five piles of documents and each were as high as the moon and stars.

He stretched and considered resting in his room, but just as he was about to stand up, a man with a thin mustache entered the room and carried  a pile of new documents that had to be stamped.

When he saw the document placed on his desk, Nicholas gulped and felt like passing out.

The man explained that the documents contained applications from Armeria nobles asking for permission to enter and settle in Riga. The man also added that after lunchtime, Nicholas had an appointment to meet with envoys from several kingdoms of friendly countries to discuss their regional cooperative relations.

Nicholas now rubbed the bridge of his nose in what appeared to be of annoyance.

Once the explanations were finished, the man bowed respectfully to leave the room.

"Wait!"

The man turned to face his king, who now seemed to be propping his chin up.

Nicholas' eyes that had been surrounded by dark circles stared at the man in front of him wistfully. "Get me a rope."

"Ha?" The man looked confused for a moment, but then he nodded. "Very well. Your Majesty."

"Don't you want to ask what the rope is for?" Now Nicholas leaned  back in his chair with his arms crossed.

The man didn't understand. "W-what for, Your Majesty?"

"To hang oneself."

"What?"

"You can go."

"Ha? Y-yes, Your Majesty."

After the man left, Nicholas snorted and exhaled tiredly. He then stood up and walked to the window. A gust of wind made him feel a little better.

Couldn't he just relax for a day? Sometimes he thought of running away and leaving the palace life. He wanted to live as a commoner, who enjoyed a free life where there were no piles of paperwork. No more such and such encounters, and other stressful things.

Haha...

He exhaled tiredly once again.

"Your Majesty."

Someone's voice caught his attention. He turned and saw Karenina who stood by the doorway.

If one decided to make a list of things that could stress Nicholas out, then one needed to  add Karenina's name to that list.

"Can I come in?"

Nicholas nodded then walked over to a sofa while Karenina walked in with a cake.

They were now seated opposite each other and separated by a table.

Karenina put the cake down.

"I noticed Your Majesty seems very busy these past few days. You must be tired, so I thought a cake would make you feel better," she said with a sweet smile.

Nicholas looked at Karenina and then the cake in turn. Honestly, he felt sorry for Karenina.

Karenina was a kind and caring woman. She was a woman who was coveted by many men. If she wasn't already engaged to Nicholas, she would have gotten a lot of proposals.

Nicholas himself didn't understand what had happened to him. Why couldn't he love Karenina even after nearly five years of their engagement when she had no flaws at all? She was devoted to him but his heart was not moved. 

"This is my first time making this one, I hope you like the taste," Karenina said as Nicholas started tasting the cake.

Nicholas couldn't lie, Karenina's cakes were really good. "You are very talented at making cakes, I'm sure if you opened a cake shop, you would have a lot of customers. It's really delicious."

Karenina chuckled. "Glad you liked it."

Nicholas nodded.

There was silence for a while until Karenina spoke again.

"By the way, does Your Majesty remember Erina?"

Nicholas raised an eyebrow and looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, I remember. She's your cousin, right?"

Karenina nodded with a smile. "Yesterday I received news that she had just given birth to a son."

Nicholas put down his fork and looked straight at Karenina. He knew where this conversation was going now.

"Your Majesty, how long have we been engaged?"

"Karenina..."

"People used to call me the flower of the Kingdom of Riga, and now I have a new name. Can Your Majesty guess?"

Nicholas silently looked at Karenina, who looked like she wanted to cry but kept the smile on her face

"Withered flower."

Nicholas bit his lower lip.

Karenina quickly wiped away the tears that had started to fall, she had tried her best not to cry, but she failed. The tears wouldn't stop.

Nicholas' heart ached to see the woman cry. He felt very guilty and felt he had become a very bad person.

Karenina tried to control herself then looked back at Nicholas and forced a smile. She then said, "It's soon my twenty-fourth birthday. I want to celebrate it with a lively atmosphere."

Her voice trembled as she continued her words. "I was hoping you would announce our wedding there, but if you don't want to, that's fine, or if you want to wait until people call me a dumped flower, that's fine too. Excuse me!"

Karenina immediately stood up and walked quickly out of the king's study. Nicholas knew that the woman came out in tears, but it wasn't entirely his fault either.

Nicholas had already told Karenina that he didn't love her. He asked Karenina to break off the engagement, but Karenina didn't want to do that, she thought that one day she would be able to make Nicholas love her.

Nicholas didn't have a choice either. He was forced to keep making excuses to postpone the wedding and hoped that she would give up and call off the engagement.

If Nicholas was selfish, then he would break off the engagement long ago, but he couldn't because of his mother and also because of Karenina.

Even though he didn't love that woman, he cared. If he was the one who canceled the engagement, then Karenina would not get a proposal from any man. People would think Karenina had a major flaw, which was why the king called off the engagement.

And because of that concern, people gossiped about him as a man with a deviant sexual orientation, and he used Karenina to cover it up. Nicholas knew how many gossips were flying out there about him actually being into men because before announcing his engagement to Karenina, he never seemed interested in any woman.

And now, he already had such a beautiful fiancée, but for five years, he had not married her. If he was not gay, then what? That was how people gossipped.

They didn't care that Nicholas also suffered. Still, he was considered a bad antagonist in his mother's and Karenina's eyes.

The young king again exhaled tiredly, he really felt depressed. He got off the couch and went back to his desk. He really didn't have time to relax.

When he just opened the document, an informant suddenly came.

"What is it?" He asked. Nicholas momentarily glanced at the informant's face and then focused on the document in front of him.

The informant nodded and conveyed the news that Duke Romanov and his family had returned to Livstad.

Hearing the name 'Duke Romanov', Nicholas immediately thought of the blue-eyed woman who was the wife of Duke Romanov.

He looked at his informant intensely as if asking for reassurance.

The informant nodded and said it was true.

Right now Nicholas tried to ignore this and lectured himself that he should stop thinking about that woman, the woman he fell in love with at first sight. 

She was someone else's wife.

He tried to shift his mind to the documents in front of him, but the image of the woman kept popping up.

To be honest, Nicholas was happy to hear that the woman had returned to Riga but he was also ashamed of himself for not being able to forget her even though she was already married and Nicholas himself was engaged.

No. He didn't plan to create a scandal.

But ….

The image of the woman appeared in his mind again.

He saw the informant and realized that he was still there in front of him. Nicholas then told him to convey his message to Karenina that the king had agreed to her request for a festive birthday party, but he would not make an announcement.

Nicholas did not mention what announcements he was talking about to the informant because he thought it was a private matter between him and Karenina.

No. Nicholas had absolutely not thought of using the birthday party as an excuse to invite Duke Romanov over so he could see and meet the duke's wife.

Not at all.

.

.

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From Missrealitybites:

I especially love this chapter because Nicholas finally found out that Sophie is BACK!

OK, that's the last chapter for today.. I hope you like it  ;).