Love & Duty

Chapter 20

"Julien?" A voice stops him, "Where are you going?"

"I have business to attend to; I won't be coming back for a few days." he informs.

"Again?" they mumble.

"Did you say something?" he says, annoyed; he heard it loud and clear.

"Julien, I truly believe concentrating on Redwood is more important than the neighboring Kingdoms."

"Don't tell me what to do, Mother." he scolds her. She looks down at his stern voice.

"Your father wouldn't accept this. You know that." she tries again.

"Don't. You. Dare. Bring that coward up in our conversations!" he turns to her and yells.

"Don't speak of your father like that. He was a great man! He worked hard for his Kingdom." she raised her voice slightly; it was nowhere near as loud as his, though.

"I don't care! He went and got himself killed like the idiot he is! Unlike him, I know what I'm doing." he ends his conversation here and continues on his way.

He needed to get to Greenwind before the ball started.

Queen Mary has always been the quiet type. A timid person from the start. It started to change when she married the King of Redwood.

King Stefan.

Even though it was an arranged marriage, she gradually began to love her King, and so did he. Just a year after their marriage, they were like young lovebirds. King Stefan brought out Queen Mary's voice, and she started to join him on assignments and meetings.

However, when the tragedy happened... Queen Mary directly went back to her old self. Without her King by her side, she found no use or courage to speak her mind or smile.

During the last war between the Kingdoms, King Stefan lost his life in battle. Everyone speculated that he was the reason the war started in the beginning. Still, it turned out to be Redwood counselors that wanted to overthrow the King.

He proved his innocence and allegiance to the Kingdoms by sacrificing himself and protecting King Winston from a lethal hit.

King Winston is constantly reminded of this act and lives every day to ensure no one has to go through that again. He keeps his allegiance to Redwood on behalf of the fallen King, even though his son could be taught a few lessons.

With no other children but Julien, he is the rightful heir to the thrown. Nonetheless, everyone can agree he is nothing compared to his father. If he continues on this path, he will surely come to destroy everything his father worked hard to achieve.

Alas, no one can stop him or even advise him. His hatred for his father and the way he passed, he is determined to do things his way. Even his mother doesn't have the strength to stop him. She is reminded of her love daily, and it breaks her heart to see how Julien speaks of him.

Life in Redwood has never been this complicated or hard before.

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Back in Greenwind, things have been busy and hectic. Everyone was occupied getting everything ready for the ball. Ren has had less and less time to even scratch his head. He has to send all sorts of letters to every invited family. He even tried contacting his brother.

The future King has to attend a ball in his own castle.

Sophia and her team made sure to finish all the needed reports and send them to Whitestone; that way, she would be free during the ball and even afterward. She would try to help whenever she could, but not everyone was comfortable with a Princess helping out.