CH 15.2

While repeating a bunch of questions and answers that she had asked herself for a long time, Iveca suddenly was flabbergasted. This marriage had already gone wrong from the beginning. No matter how kind the husband or the king, or how well he treated her, or how many sweet words he spoke, in the moment it sounded heartbreaking…

She knew clearly that it was a political arrangement, but there had to be at least an element of love in the marriage.

Iveca sneered at herself. Her frustration about E.J., a person she didn’t even know, was the reason why she always felt like she needed to prove her quality for  the Queen position. Or was it because she lacked something from the very beginning. Being the third daughter of the Esselburn was always uncomfortable. As a daughter of an aristocratic family she was able to receive an excellent education and enjoy her life, but as she wasn’t really sure about her bloodline for the beginning, everything was just unsettling.

“Do you know a game called Line Ball?”

As she tried to keep her mouth shut, Daniel gently changed the subject. It was called Line Ball as it was played by hitting a ball that connected to the rackets with a string. It was more like a game for fun than a competitive sport. It was not that hard, as the children or elderly people often passed their free time playing line ball in the park.

“I played with William a lot in the past,” Daniel said, “I wasn’t really close with Ruben, and Ashe didn’t really like sports.”

He pulled out a small ball from the corner of the arena and tossed a racket at Iveca. Out of instinct, Iveca plucked the racket out of the air and quickly hit the approaching ball.

Neither Iveca nor Daniel was bad at sports, so the rally went on for quite some time. As they were exchanging the ball, the gloomy thoughts disappeared without her knowing. Eventually, Iveca, who was the first one that got exhausted and started breathing heavily, missed the ball, and Daniel smiled brightly and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“Wow, I never had a rally like this with William when I was a kid. As expected Iveca, you pass!”

“Pardon?”

“I’m going to hand over the throne at the right time and then have a rest. Maybe play more Line Ball in the park. Let’s live happier when we get older.”

Iveca was catching her breath while looking at him. He was saying this like it was an obvious future that could happen. Did he really intend to be with me for the rest of his life? Did he ever slightly think that E.J. who disappeared so long ago would return? After making the law and having royal heirs, would he still stay by my side as expected to? Did he think there was no possibility of breaking up in the middle?Even if we didn’t love each other, was he saying that we could spend our whole life together as friends, comfortably?

Families should be mixed by blood and couples should have love for each other. As she was a sinner in front of her father because of her blood, she was surprised by how her husband, who didn’t even love her, was talking about their future in that way.

Daniel suddenly held out a pen to Iveca, who was staring blankly at him. The pen that she received carefully was engraved at the top of the tip.

‘From D.A.’

“This is….”

“You will use a pen more often at work starting tomorrow, right? It is a gift.”

Whether he was making fun of her right now or not, Iveca lowered her eyes for a moment. He carried a pen with another woman’s name on it and held out a pen with his name on it. But the reason she didn’t ask about E.J., was that he didn’t talk about Anriq either.

Even if the happiness was just an illusion, she didn’t want to break it.

“I will use it. Thank you,” Iveca answered in a somewhat choked voice.

“Although It’s not a high-end pen as it is the ready-made one…” he said softly, thinking that it was the price of the pen that made Iveca particularly unhappy.

“The starting point was Amenity, who has never approved smuggling activity, but when I started the Bureau of Technology and acknowledged the smugglers my status dropped quite a bit. Everyone praises me for making a great decision, but I know there is a sacrifice in every decision. All phenomena have two sides. Iveca, this… I hope you can keep this in mind from tomorrow.”

“I will.”

Iveca thought it was rather comforting to receive a purpose for her work. Daniel, who had been looking at her silently, suddenly hugged her tightly.

“Oh… Your Majesty.”

Irritated by the fact that she was sweating quite a bit, Iveca unwittingly tried to push him away but he didn’t move even an inch.

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“Iveca.”

This was not related to the succession.

“It is going to be exceedingly difficult in the future. I will try to protect you as much as possible.”

Iveca didn’t reply, but returned his embrace.

“You can quit whenever you want to. It’s okay.”