Chapter 41

41 A Forbidden Pursuit

Everard couldn’t stop thinking about Anastasia’s beautiful face the whole time he was in his bath.

He finished freshening up and changing into clean clothes and waited for his best friend to come and take him to greet the King and Queen of Orsenia.

As promised, Alexander came to pick up his friend.

“Here’s what we are going to do,” Alexander briefed the plan that he had made for the day, “We’ll greet my parents. Then we will have lunch. After that, I will give you a tour of the castle and also a tour of the Capital.”

“Will Anastasia join us on the tour?” Everard couldn’t help but ask that so that he could tease his friend.

Alexander gave a corner-eyed look to Everard and led Everard towards the throne hall without saying another word along the way.

“Come on! Don’t ignore your special guest!” Everard kept on hovering around Alexander and trying to make him speak.

However, the two of them arrived at the throne hall before Everard was successful.

Alexander gave a low bow to his parents who were sitting on their respective decorated thrones on the elevated platform. “My sincere greetings, Your Majesties.”

.....

“Welcome back, dear son,” King Desmond had a huge grin on his face upon seeing his son.

Queen Helena was also ecstatic to see her son after several months. “Welcome back, dear.”

Everard also gave a bow to the King and Queen of Orsenia and greeted them. “I offer you my greetings, Your Majesties. May the Kingdom prosper under your rule.”

“We are glad that you finally graced this land with your presence, Crown Prince Everard,” King Desmond politely welcomed the future King of Xanmar to the Kingdom of Orsenia.

“I’m the one who is grateful to have been invited to your beautiful Kingdom,” Everard gave a polite smile.

“Aren’t you such a gentleman?” Queen Helena could only praise the well-mannered Crown Prince. “Make yourself at home while you are here, Prince Everard. If you feel that we are lacking in offering something for your comfortable stay then please, feel free to let the Head Servant know.”

“I will, Your Majesty. Thank you for showing me your generosity,” Everard replied with the same warm expression on his face.

The Queen turned to look at her son and ordered him, “Take good care of your friend, Alexander.”

The two Princes bowed to the King and the Queen before heading out of the throne hall.

Alexander then began showing all the important buildings and beautiful gardens to Prince Everard.

Everard showed the most interest in the Royal armory of Orsenia. Firearms were the revolutionary weapons that were displacing the traditional weapons like bows and arrows, and swords. And Everard was impressed to see that the armies of Orsenia had already adapted to the change.

“Our Kingdom is a little behind in the modern weapons. Maybe I should send some of my men to learn the new way,” Everard said to Alexander while admiring a flintlock pistol.

“Sure, I would be happy to arrange a training workshop for the Xanmar troops,” Alexander agreed without thinking for a second.

Everard narrowed his eyes and mocked his friend, “You don’t even think a second when I say that I want my men to learn your military secrets, something that concerns your national security. But why are you so stingy when I say that I want to learn more about Princess Anastasia?”

“Ugh! Again!” Alexander held his head with both of his hands and said in an irate voice, “Stop talking about my sister already! Would you tolerate me if I become this pesky regarding your sister?”

“Er... well, since I don’t have any sister, I don’t mind you talking about them,” Everard gave a mocking smile to Alexander. And he instantly asked, “By the way, when are you showing me your sister’s residence? I would love to give her a visit.”

Alexander smacked Everard’s head and shouted as he headed out of the armory, “Don’t even think about it. Now, if you want to see the Capital, then follow me. Or else, go back to your room and stay there for the rest of your days here.”

“Don’t be so mean to your best friend,” Everard quickly caught up to Alexander and put his arms around his friend’s shoulder.

The two of them had a lot of fun, exploring the bustling streets, enjoying street foods, watching a street play, and many more.

Similarly, Alexander had arranged several activities to keep his friend busy and entertained during his stay in Orsenia.

The next day, they rode their horses to the nearby forest and went hunting. Another day, they were busy discussing the possible future cooperation between Orsenia and Xanmar with King Desmond. And then the next day, they simply indulged themselves in good food and some activities like sword fighting.

Everard was well aware that Alexander was doing everything in his power to keep him from even accidentally encountering Princess Anastasia. For some reason unknown to him, she wouldn’t even join them at the dining hall to have meals together.

“Let me meet Princess Anastasia,” he asked Alexander as he leisurely sipped on some quality wine in the beautiful garden behind Alexander’s personal quarter.

It was his last day in Orsenia, and he wasn’t returning home tomorrow unless he got a proper audience with the only Princess of Orsenia.

Alexander denied his request like always, “You don’t need to meet her. She will just ruin our happy mood.”

Everard stared deep into the glass of his red wine and asked with all seriousness, “Are you restricting me to pursue her because I am not a King yet? Will you let me court her and eventually marry her once I take over the throne?”

Alexander’s facial expression turned sad all of a sudden. “That’s not why I am not allowing you to see her.”

Everard leaned a little closer to his friend to study his expression. He couldn’t tell what Alexander was worried about, though.

So he tried to reassure his friend, “If you are worried that I will lose my interest in her after marrying her, then I assure you that it isn’t in my blood to be unfaithful to my woman. She will be my one and only woman until the day I die.”

‘That’s what I’m worried about. I don’t want you to be alone for the rest of your life if my sister...’ Alexander silently thought to himself as a wave of emotion hit him, and the rims of his eyes got filled with tears. But he quickly turned his head away before Everard could see his eyes.

Alexander didn’t think that he would be able to hold back his tears, so he abruptly stood up from his seat. He cleared his throat and said, “I’ll be back.” And he immediately took off.

Everard could feel that there was something that Alexander was not telling him about Princess Anastasia. He just wished that his friend would be direct rather than always beating around the bush.

‘Is Anastasia perhaps already promised or engaged to someone else? But if that were the case, then he would have said it outright.’

Everard thought of going after Alexander and confronting him, but his thoughts were interrupted by the woman whom he had been longing to meet this whole time.

“Greetings, Your Highness,” he heard a sweet voice directed at him.

Everard’s heart almost stopped when he heard that melodious voice coming from behind him.

He turned around to take a look at the Princess with bated breath.

The gentle wind was softly blowing her loose dark ginger hair. She was wearing the sweetest smile on her lips. Her emerald green irises looked so vibrant and deep that he wondered if it was possible to get lost in her eyes.

Everard forgot about everything that had been bothering him for the past few days after taking a single glance at the innocent-looking Princess.

“Good afternoon, Princess Anastasia. Your brother and I were just talking about you,” he stood up and took her hand to politely kiss her knuckles.

Anastasia looked around the garden and queried, “I don’t see my brother.”

“Oh, he just went inside. He’ll be back.” Everard gestured for Anastasia to take a seat and asked, “I bet milady is here to meet Alex.”

Anastasia gave a playful smile and replied, “Crown Prince Everard is keeping my brother all to himself. So I thought of paying a visit myself.”

Tilla was accompanying Anastasia like she always did. She helped the Princess to sit down and stood behind her.

“You were right to come here then. I will scold Alex for giving less attention to his sister,” Everard said in a calm voice. But inside his heart, he felt as if hundreds of firecrackers had been lit up at the same time.

He had several things in mind that he wanted to ask the Princess. But now that she was sitting beside him, he didn’t know why he was feeling so nervous.

‘Is it because of the wine?’ He cursed himself for insisting on drinking wine in the middle of the day.

Anastasia was also not used to talking with people other than Tilla and her immediate family members. So she went quiet after exchanging the initial pleasantries with Everard. She looked towards the back door of the building and hoped that her brother would come out soon.

Though Everard looked composed on the outside, in his mind, he was trying to think of a nice topic that he could use to start a proper conversation with the Princess.

But in his nervousness, the first thing he blurted out was, “Is milady available for courtship?”