The Prince or the Crown

chapter nine

As I approached the crowd of suitors waiting for the doors to open into the royal dining room, I was immediately grateful that I wasn’t wearing a frilly ball gown.

There were a few girls wearing lavish, poofy dresses that I immediately felt sorry for. Those were likely the ones who had very single-minded views of what a princess did and was, much like I had only a week ago. I knew from Marko’s speeches that they were the ones most likely to be eliminated first. 

I searched the crowd until I found Chloe, who sat bored on a cushion now that she didn’t have her phone. We had been ordered to leave them in the rooms, and all wi-fi and data accessibility had been restricted. 

I’d left my phone turned off at the bottom of my unpacked suitcase. I didn’t want to deal with the many missed calls from my mom and Joshua. Hopefully I’d never have to deal with them. 

“Hey, Chloe,” I said as cheerfully as I could, taking a seat beside her. 

“Oh, hi, Bella,” she replied. “I can’t believe we can’t use our phones. That’s so stupid.”

I sighed. “Yeah.”

“This whole thing is so ridiculous,” she told me, smoothing out her pencil skirt. “I don’t even want to be here.”

Shock rippled down my spine. “What do you mean?”

“My parents forced me here. Dad said he’d cut off my money if I didn’t go,” Chloe admitted.

“Why would they do that?” I asked.

“Who doesn’t want their daughter married off to a future king?” she said bitterly. “It was just some way for them to get me out of their house.”

I tried not to gape at the stark differences between her family and mine. Hers wanted her to get away and live an independent life while mine wanted me shackled somewhere I couldn’t escape from.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. 

“Thanks,” she said with a sigh. “I’m going to try and get eliminated as fast as possible so I can go home.”

I felt a surge of pity for Chloe. For the girls like her who wanted simple, easy lives where they didn’t have to work and could do whatever they wanted. The idea of being a future queen was so draped in responsibility that of course she would hate it. And as much as I hated making assumptions like that about people, I knew it couldn’t be too far from the truth. 

Suddenly, the voices around us hushed, and I stood up to see the massive double doors to the dining room swing open. 

I had never in my life seen a table that long. It stretched for what seemed like ages, with enough spaces for all 124 women and more. At the very end sat Yanae and Aevan, waiting patiently with the empty plates in front of them.

Women gasped and whispered as we were ushered inside, scanning the name tags for our spots at the table. 

Each name tag had the suitor’s full first, middle, and last names written in swirling calligraphy, a little printed out flag pasted next to it.

Chloe and I had seats next to each other like every other pair of girls from the same country. Our seats were only about ten seats from the king and queen, but we still had to crane our necks for both their faces to come into view.

Once everyone found their spots and settled in, the queen stood up and grabbed her empty glass, gently clinking her knife against its base to get everyone’s attention.

“Good evening, everyone,” Yanae said, her velvety voice carrying across the cavernous room. “It is so lovely to see so many beautiful faces. Before we dine, I would like to inform you of a few… updates we have for this upcoming week. The day before the Matching officially begins, everyone will be grouped into cohorts to more effectively manage the multitude of possible princesses we have in our palace. The groupings will not be official until Saturday, but know there will be four cohorts of twenty six.”