Crowned Prince | hendery

7: Trust Me

After the dinner, the crowned prince and princess began heading back towards their room. The two seem to share the silence as they begin walking off the dinner that they just shared with the family. It was at this moment that Taeha lifted her head with hands behind her back observing the lighting and structures of the halls of the imperial castle at night. Indeed though the land of Sui sat close they were different. Their basis of colors are different down to how they position beams of the ceiling, even the patterns on the window seem drastically different from Sui.

"Your highness," if only her mind wasn't interrupted by a person calling out their attention, she turns around expecting one of the castle maids, or some guard, but once they did turn around the last thing she expected to see was Count Illia.

"Count Illia." The prince calls out his name acknowledging his presence.

"Your highness crowned prince." His head bows much further than a noble man would, but lifts almost immediately.

"What's the purpose of stopping us before we head in to rest?" Maybe she heard it wrong when he called out his name earlier, but it was quite evident now, there was a hint of anger in his tone. Taeha couldn't exactly point out whether it was the sudden lowering of his voice or the lifting of his head higher, but there were definitely hints of his dislike towards the count.

The count looks over to her and almost immediately she regrets ever looking at him. "The princess and I are old acquaintances."

"As she is my old acquaintance as well," Hendery truly was making it painfully obvious that there was bad blood between them, "as is with every child of a king." He did not lie, though Hendery and Taeha have never exclusively spoken to each other, it wasn't wrong to address each other, at the least, acquaintances.

However things were different between Taeha and Illia.

"Apologies, your highness, but the princess and I are friends." The count corrects himself.

If the prince's head could snap, it would have at that moment. He turns his head towards the princess the moment the count speaks of their old friendship. Yet Taeha turned to look at the prince with just an equal amount of determination. With their eyes on each other, she simply shook her head.

The prince slowly turned his head to face the count once again. "The princess and I came from travels. If you wish to speak with her, you may do so after she's rested."

The count's face took a cold turn as he looked over the princess whose expression did not change the moment she turned around. "I understand," he bows his head, "I shall send a letter to notify the princess in advance of our meeting." He stands back up and looks at the engaged couple.

"Then we shall leave, Count Rox."

"Your highness," as soon as the prince used his last name, he should have anticipated what was coming was just as much as an insult as his, "you are always welcomed into our estate to visit your niece and nephew." That was the last thing that came from the count before turning around and walking away.

The prince, who had already turned his back away from the count, suddenly stopped walking. He stands there taking a few deep breaths of his own. From the side, his clenching jaw and obvious change in temperament made it rather clear to the princess that now wasn't the time to whether or not he was doing alright when it was blatantly displayed in front of her that he was not.

"I shall head back," Taeha bows her head and proceeds to walk ahead.

"Wait."

Even before she could take three steps away from him he called out her attention, though her distance from him felt a lot safer than when she was standing next to him, she still felt scared to turn around. In the end, she did.