The Rival Queen

Chapter 25| A Certain Queen's Invitation

Sorry for the late update. Here's the late chapter, hope you all will enjoy !
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All I could do was stare. The boy that was supposed to be dead is currently sitting on a chair, smiling at me. As if nothing had gone wrong. I bit my lip, feeling relief flood inside my chest. I furrowed my eyebrows. Relief ?

As I shrugged my previous thought away, he continued to smile and I couldn't help myself from smiling back. Duke Gregory was quite surprised by my sudden change of expression and found himself staring at me and the boy I was smiling back at. It only took a moment for him to realize something. Whatever sudden revelation he just seemed to have uncovered made his face brighten up with a warm smile.

"Young love this days..." He accidentally said out loud. Lucas and I jerked our heads back, turning at the Duke in quiet disbelief. The Duke bit his lower lip and with an apology, he successfully averted his humiliation into a flashback story. Me and Lucas however, were not swayed to his adventurous stories that easily and blushed at the comment the Duke made. The room instantly lowered its temperature and I felt myself being stared at by two more people.

Just before I could catch the two other pair of eyes set on me, the current queen, Beria, stood up from her throne and stared at me with intent. Forcing the urge to feel intimidated aside, I stared at her with the same intent she had been using at me and after some time, finally quietly conceded with a small smile playing on her lips.

"Good morning, my dear people of Septimius Kingdom" sudden murmurs rippled from the aristocrats, "for those who do not know me, I am Queen Beria, the current queen of this kingdom"

I silently watched as she continued to gain the ever so moving favor of the aristocrats. As she was coming to the close of her quite particularly speech that I unconsciously tuned out, she suddenly gained my attention when my name was called.

"-and such, I will be requesting you, Lady Aurelia, to enter the academy now instead of the required age of fourteen" she ended in as smoothly as possible. I froze, too shocked to realize that they were awaiting my answer. With a strong jab on my shoulder from my mother, who somehow noticed my absentmindedness, I tried to hide my groan with a small awkward smile.

I realized in horror that by just saying yes, I was going straight to my impending doom. But before I could stop anything from happening, the queen ended the meeting with a pleased smile.