Chapter 55 - Emotional

"You're overreacting. The girl's not even dead yet." Halma said in an arrogant tone, initially planning to continue her argument with Venedette after her sudden emotional breakdown.

But instead, she was found speechless by the sudden invasion of Venedette's images as a child in her mind over the years, crying over and over again.

But it was not the main reason why she halted her part in the argument, seeing Venedette cry used to make her veins pop out of anger. Somehow, she always knew how to find her during these times. 

Halma would catch her in a far corner of the castle, or in the darkness, mostly. But instead of comfort, she would always scold her on how worthless crying over everything was. Indefinitely, her words left a deep wrong impression on Venedette.

Halma assumed the real message of her words came across smoothly. Yet, it never occurred to her how that kind of practice would only lead to them faking their emotions..

Family should have been the first ones to accept and acknowledge each other's feelings and help them overcome things but she screened all that away from Venedette and her brothers by being strict.

She was selfish. Yet despite all these emotions, Halma still was unable to cry. Sadness was hardly evident on her face as it was almost always as close to a blank face. She had mastered the next level of "emotional control" and stoic face that became one of her trademarks as this generation's Queen.

Yet deep inside, she still knew her emotions could no longer be contained in a single jar. They were bound to erupt someday.

And that day would be today. Halma may not have noticed it but there was already a shimmering line reflecting the humble lights of the chandeliers under her eyes that Sir Grandoise could not believe his eyes for seeing for the first time.

They looked like traces of tears. But how? Why?

Sir Grandoise knitted his eyebrows and maximized the zoom feature of his eyes to confirm if what he was seeing was true, and indeed, they were tears from the Queen whose heart was said to be made of stone.

Somehow, it was real. 

Too bad the room was drowned by everyone's despair and Venedette's inward sobs for anyone else to have seen Halma's uncommon tears like how Sir Grandoise just happened to be on the lookout for Venedette if ever Halma tried to do something again.

Yet aside from holding Venedette for support, Sir Grandoise was deeply disappointed in himself for not being able to do anything to support her through that heated argument with Halma earlier. Just what kind of husband is he?

Powerless when faced with the Queen.

Then he remembered, he was also just the son of a loser who had been forced to marry a princess to pay for his father's debts. The poor guy who enchanted a princess despite being the most normal human ever in town. Did he use gayuma (love potion) to trick her into falling in love with a loser like him?

But there was no trick involved. He sincerely loved Venedette and Venedette to him. That was why he was always trying so hard to be someone worthy of a Princess like her. But despite all his efforts, Venedette still had to lose face for three days just to beg Halma's blessings for their marriage.

In the end, he was just like a loser as his father was.

His father had the chance of having it all, being married to the next in line of the throne and being her King for the rest of their lives, but he chose to live silently in the rural areas instead, obsessing over his little experiment and creations after sacrificing Halma's love for at least five times before Halma completely became the heartless stone that she was known to be before now.

All the efforts he put in were only replaced with sorrow and misery. He managed to not improve his reputation by even a little bit, yet he only succeeded in driving his children away. He was nowhere prepared nor there beside Venedette when Demi died, Von's distance to him grew further to him, and now, Gem's in a difficult situation with the Queen.

Turns out, the scales of consequences were heavier for the side of his happiness than his request for a better reputation. 

It was all messed up, their parent's past love story and their current situation right now.

But as long as he was here… he remembered Venedette's words; "Everything's okay, as long as you are here," she said. She would always say this to make him feel secure. But this was not the life he promised Venedette.

Ever since Demi died, every single one of them became lost. Then Venedette found these kids, gave him a chance to be part of their lives once again as a teacher for this school with Von as one of his students. 

Halma was the one who gave them permission to do this, in exchange for a deal Venedette would not disclose to him. But Gem was obviously an important piece of the puzzle. Everything was going fine until Halma decided to help without anyone's need for her eccentric ways of doing 'help'!

"Bring her back." Sir Grandoise finally said, breaking the silence of his voice in fears of being judged by the Queen once more.

But now that he had seen her 'weak' side, he suddenly had the leverage to at least say his thoughts out loud in front of her arrogant mask.

Halma, on the other side, had a grasp of the situation with her tears and Grandoise's abrupt tone immediately. 

"She will come back on her own… that is if she still wants to come back," she stated malevolently while clearing her throat in an attempt to gain back her grace. "Venedette! What have I told you about crying?!" 

Halma spent so much time spacing out that even her tears shed without her notice, sparking her old hobby of lashing out to others about this 'no tears' rule of hers, particularly to poor Venedette whom she probably thinks was not having a long day enough all ready to listen to another one of her repetitive permanent scoldings since the day she was born.

And when Sir Grandoise opened his mouth again to complain, a sudden burst of cold breeze suddenly blew all of them away like a bomb made of oxygen. It was damp... Perhaps mist? Which could only mean one thing...

She's back!