Athelinda : The Forbidden Name

Ch 40 : Last Day's Boredom

Suprisingly that one more day ended rather swiftly. After she fell asleep on her bed the day before, she woke up for dinner and ate along with the rest of the royals but remained quiet throughout dinner.

The royals didn't question her either and Nicholas was quiet on his own as well.

And now on the last day, Claude was supposed to leave after dinner, and drop Athelinda to the Academy.

The punishment for the Quweez had been decided. Emperor Esteban had said that since the girl dared to disrespect royalty of her own nation as well, she would be deprived of her status of nobility and forced into exile to a border town where she must live until said so otherwise.

As for her father, Raymond who was partially responsible for his daughters acts, as he encouraged her and didn't discipline her.

At first, half of his fortunes were going to be transferred to Obelia's royal family. But Esteban stepped in and suggested, "Well little princess, shouldn't half of his fortunes belong to you as he did give you the hardest time?"

Athelinda just said with a smile, "Hm, I'm not so sure about laws and crimes, but I believe in my father to make the best decision."

Esteban looked at Claude who nodded after staring at Athelinda for a while.

And this caught Athelinda by surprise. Claude was allowing her to have her own money. Half of the duchy's money was no joke. She could do so much with this much, even bad stuff, yet Claude allows her to keep it.

Suspicious as hell.

Maybe her response yesterday had made Claude realize he was being too obvious and so he's using this little gift to make her drop her guard.

Athelinda just smiled at the conclusion the emperor's had reached.

And so half the duchy's money had been transferred to Athelinda's own pocket money.

Athelinda decided to divide the money into four sections, one she'd use in Arlanta. One she'd keep for extreme emergencies. One for buying the most important of things. And the last amount of money for starting a business.

For now, Athelinda only kept one section of the money and decided to take more out when she returned to Obelia for winter holidays.

But the Duke wasn't so nice to simply hear the punishments he and his daughter were receiving and so obviously he retaliated. He practically lost his mind and started cursing all over, and he tried to attack the royals and therefore, Duke Raymond was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Death would be the actual punishment, but along Raymond's cursing, he addressed Nicholas a few times as well and well Esteban was a completely adoring father for his son if I hadn't mentioned before. And so that's that.

Now that the whole incident with Quweez was under wraps, the last day in the Palace felt boring. Nicholas was who knows where, and Athelinda was just sitting bored in her room.

She didn't feel comfortable enough to read books in the Palace anymore. And it was also daytime, so stargazing wasn't an option.

A walk in the garden sounded nice. Athelinda got up and made her way out, followed by Noah.

If you're wondering where the knight had been all this time, then that's simple. He came to the Palace right behind Athelinda but knights of Obelia weren't allowed to roam the Palace easily so there were a few complications. But now they were cleared.

Athelinda walked across the hallways wondering where the garden Nicholas took her to was.

And I suppose it was no surprise she got lost.

"Noah, you wouldn't know the way around here, would you?"

Noah just shook his head.

Athelinda sighed before walking to the edge of the hall and turning swiftly, resulting in her bumping into someone.

And that someone was coincidentally Nicholas.

The two didn't exchange any apologies as Nicholas stood up and stretched out his hand for Athelinda to take.

Athelinda stood up on her own though, causing Nicholas to just smile nervously.

"Your Highness, where were you heading?"

"To the garden, but I'm afraid I got lost."

Nicholas stared at Athelinda for a while, "Are you. . . mad at me?"

"Why would I be?"

"Oh-Uh, you've been acting strange since yesterday."

"Well, I can say the same for you."

"What-no-I mean yes-but. Uh, I was just thinking. . ."

Athelinda stared at him for a while  wondering if she should just tell him her thoughts.

"I'm not mad at you. There's no reason to be mad."

Nicholas's face brightened up a bit. He fidgeted with his fingers for a while as if gathering courage to say something.

As he finally looked at Athelinda Nicholas suddenly widened his eyes,"Ah, I should get going!"

Athelinda raised her eyebrow, "I was supposed to meet mom five minutes ago."

Athelinda blinked, confused.

Oh right, Arlanta's Emperor and Empress are both alive. She had forgotten that little detail.

"Um, our meeting is in a garden as well, would you. . .like to join us?"

Athelinda stared at him with disbelief. "Thank you for the offer, but you should enjoy."

"I'll enjoy more if you came, and you haven't met mother once ever since you came to Arlanta!" Nicholas held her hand and began guiding her to the garden where the mother and son were supposed to meet.

Nicholas was back to his excited and cheery expressions. Athelinda felt glad he was back to being himself.

And now she wondered about the Empress. She hadn't come out to meet them, so there must've been a good reason. Athelinda searched her brain for any information and she found quite a lot which if summarized would be :

The Empress was said to have poor health.

Athelinda felt she was intruding on Nicholas's precious time with his sickly mother, but Nicholas was smiling so brightly that Athelinda decided to stay quiet.

And so the two royals reached a garden filled with a variety of flowers in shades of pink, peach and orange.

Nicholas guided her to the seatings, and as they approached the table set up under an area of shade from the sunlight, Athelinda saw her.

A woman, sitting ever so gracefully on a chair as she held up a book. Her nose held squared glasses which she used to read the contents of the book.

The Empress had cherry red hair that fell ever so beautifully down as it was tied into two braids from the front reaching to the back into a ponytail and set upon her left shoulder.

She had a youthful face with not a single wrinkle, or damage to her skin.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the Empress were her purple eyes. Her eyes looked so calm and loving. Just one look and Athelinda felt as if this person was a kind and trustable person.

Athelinda's guard melted away as she stood before the beautiful Empress.

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