My FAIR Lady |FAIRVERSE Book ~ 1|✓

Chapter ♦ 26

Zylith.

When I was a kid, I dreamt of wanting to be a retired lottery winner when I grow up, not an aging royal elderly inside a sealed library on a fine sunlit day.

I looked out of the closed and bolted windows of the Royal library, and silently stared at the bustling capital below which appeared more like dollhouses rather than a real panorama, and secretly sighed all over again.

And then I turned my gaze back to the grumpy old hag.... (Ahem!) I mean grumpy old lady before me and exhaled heavily. At her age, she should have one foot in the grave rather than torturing me with heavy books mentioning royal decorum.

Countess Regina Wroth, was the finest of the fine etiquette instructors the nation of Reveldron had to offer. She was a frail old woman who always had a very gentle expression on. At a glance, her gait looked as if wonky with arthritic joints and her eyesight seemed to be failing faster than my school grades.

But despite all that, I knew what truly lied behind that facet of wrinkles. Stubborn and headstrong like that of a wild boar, with a tongue so sharp, one could nearly be sliced in two if the woman believed you to be worth her time in the very least, let alone bothered to utter a word to you at all. As the first Queen, I had the misfortune of continuously falling victim to this old woman's harsh remarks after the conniving Queen Dowager set me up.

Looking at her now, I felt this foul mouthed 'Old Hag' always had something to say. A comment here and a comment there, about my unkempt conduct or the way I presented myself or walked or talked. It didn't matter if I was in my best behaviour with my demeanour all noble or my performance all awesome; she always managed to find something wrong, from the way I held a fork down right to the way I dressed myself. And all I could ever do, was curse and curse a thousand deaths to her in my heart.

She was everything that I ever hated and more. But the worst part of it all was that, I could not choke this old witch to death who looked like her heartbeats within her pigeon chest would stop at any given moment as she openly insulted me in front of every living being who resided in the royal castle.

"Your Highness." Rang her shrill wobbly voice in my ears and I could not help but clench my teeth in irritation, "I can see that my lessons aren't exciting enough for you to pay attention." She mouthed out in a sarcastic tone and I wanted to kick her out of the library window.

"Of course not, Lady Wroth. How dare I not appreciate your lessons?" My unenthusiastic smile looked as if it was more a chore rather than out of sheer propriety.

She narrowed her beady old eyes as though she detected something foul in my words and snorted in disdain, "It had better be that Your Highness. I can guarantee that you shall never find a more proficient instructor than me in this whole wide nation." Her arrogant bearing was something I had long been used to now. I never thought that a mere countess would not bother to show any regard towards the first Queen of her own country just because she had the backing of the aristocratic faction behind her. Initially she shocked me, but then when I thought about the snotty guards and the head-maid of the Queen Dowager who didn't even put the king nor me in their eyes, I came to the understanding that all the people of the Queen's faction were as conceited as they come.

I'd then made peace with that fact but it still didn't make me feel better when I had to listen to such cutting remarks. I could very well see that this old hag was resolute on making my life a living hell in the palace.

"Anyhow, I hope you will be ready for your inspections tomorrow. I shall want nothing but the best performance from Her Highness on tomorrow's examination." She groused in aloofness.