“I DON’T WANT TO MARRY HIM!”

“What do you mean you don’t want to marry him? He’s a Prince, the Crown Prince!”

“If I marry him, I’ll be forced to be the Crown Princess and later the Queen. I don’t want to be a Queen!”

“Who doesn’t want to be Queen?!”

“ME!”

A blond man with sharp blue eyes rubbed his temple, “Camilla I worked hard to get this engagement between our families…”

“Yeah, between families. You never once asked me! If you’d asked before going to all this trouble, you wouldn’t have to turn around and cancel now!”

“I’m not calling it off!”

“I won’t marry him!”

“You WILL marry him!”

“Oh yeah? MAKE ME!”

“If I have to lock you in your room until you’re old enough to marry, I’ll do it.”

A blond girl of about 10 years old, with tightly curled hair and sharp blue eyes, just like the man, stood there red faced and furious. She took several deep breaths before calming down.

“Daddy… you’ve always given me what I wanted in the past. You said you’d give me the world because you love me. Why is it in this one thing you didn’t even ask what I wanted?”

“I thought you’d be happy.”

She shook her head slowly, her eyes fierce, “You didn’t think about me at all, did you?”

There was silence between the two, finally the man couldn’t take it anymore.

“Fine! I didn’t think about you being happy! I was thinking about what’s good for the entire family!” He gave her an equally fierce glare. “And how is that wrong? What’s good for the family is good for you too!”

Camilla gave an angry laugh, “Oh, is it? When I become Queen, you’ll have to obey me, not the other way around! You think I’ll have forgotten you forced me into it? You think I’ll let things be easy for you?”

“Cammy, how could you say that to your father!”

She sneered, “Are you sure you’re my father? Because right now you’re not acting like one.”

That was too much for him and he straight away slapped her on the face.

“Girl, I’ve given you everything you wanted. You said it yourself. After raising you this well, making you everything BUT a princess, and now even given you that, you’ve got the gall to threaten me?! You ungrateful—”

“I DIDN’T CHOOSE TO BE YOUR DAUGHTER!” She screamed, holding her aching face, eyes watering. “I didn’t choose to be in this family. Could I have turned down any of the things you gave me? Could I? No! I had to accept everything! If I never had a choice to begin with, why should I be grateful? A forced gift is no gift, it’s a burden!”

He stood there speechless for a moment.

“You… you never said you didn’t want what I gave you!”

She rolled her eyes, “How often did you ever listen to me? Even if I tried to turn it down, you insisted you were doing it because you love me. If I turned it down, it was the same thing as turning away your love.” She laughed bitterly, “But it turns out it was never done out of love. It was so I’d owe you later.”

A stab of guilt pierced the man’s heart, but he shook it off.

Calming himself down, he said stiffly, “Whatever you say, it won’t change the fact your engagement is set. If I dared to try and break it now, you think the King would let me off? Ah right, you don’t care about me, let me rephrase… You think he’ll let you off?”

She grimaced. It was true the current king was a bit of a tyrant. He was only flexible in very specific areas, otherwise it was his way or the highway. His son, who he had high expectations for, was not an area he was flexible on.

“Fine.” She finally agreed, her heart hollow as she stared at him. “But since you treated me like a tool and not a daughter, I will treat you like a master and not a father.”

“What? What does that mean?”

She straightened herself and curtsied, pulling her dress out to the side at a perfect angle.

“May I be dismissed now, Duke Florentine?”

His heart trembled slightly at her coldness but then he thought: She was just angry right now and throwing a tantrum. One she settled down, she’d forget all this nonsense of him being a master not a father.

With that rationalization to sooth his heart, he found himself inexplicably tired.

“Fine, fine. Go do whatever.” He frowned, adding, “You’ll be traveling to the capital to meet the Crown Prince tomorrow, keep that in mind.”

She bobbed her head, “Thank you, your grace.”

He watched her leave, his heart feeling a little stuffy. But he thought again how it was just a tantrum and regained his mental equilibrium.

Years later he would look back on this time and feel like a fool.

*

Albert looked at his fiance and knew something wasn’t right. There were only two people in his life who ever showed displeasure towards him: his father and his swordmaster. Otherwise, everyone loved and coddled him to no end. Girls his age always fell all over themselves trying to make him happy.

But this girl, Camilla Florentine, was behaving in a polite but disinterested way. He’d been carrying the conversation, with her only responding where necessary. Occasionally they’d fall into lulls of awkward silence but she made no effort to fill in the gaps.

He couldn’t figure out why she was like this. They’d met several times and it was the same every time. It was frustrating and finally he decided to ask his swordmaster. He would get an honest answer from that man and, unlike his father, there was no chance of anyone getting hurt.

When the swordmaster heard his complaints, he looked surprised. “Hm? Doesn’t that mean she doesn’t like you? Who knew there was a girl who didn’t like the Crown Prince...”

This revelation stunned him so severely he made several mistakes during the training session that followed.

He wasn’t liked?

Him?

Albert Silvador, Crown Prince of Ailandale?

The next visit he observed her closely. Instead of trying to carry the visit by doing all the talking, he kept as quiet as possible. To his shock, she actually appeared…. Pleased.

It seemed she really didn’t like him! In fact, she disliked him so much she preferred him to not say anything when he was around her!

That stunned him into silence for the rest of the visit. It was only now, the following visit, that he thought to ask an important question: Why was he disliked?

But this kind of question couldn’t be asked around adults and servants. He was 11 now and had his pride as a man!

He suggested walking around the garden by themselves and, naturally, his request was accepted. The problem was once they started walking around, he found the question lodged in his throat. He’d been trying to ask for over 30 minutes and hadn’t been able to.

For the first time, he experienced the fear of being rejected.

In a rare twist, Camilla noted his behavior and initiated conversation:

“Pardon me, Prince Albert, but how much longer are we to go on walking?”

He stared at her blankly and then realized this was a valid question. They’d been walking around all this time without saying a word for each other.

Gnawing on his inner cheek, he hesitated and finally asked, “Did I do something to you?”

“What?”

“Well, I was wondering if you were mad at me.”

“Why should I be mad at you?” Her brow furrowed, “I barely know you.”

“Isn’t that because you won’t talk to me?”

She tilted her head and raised her eyebrows.

“Oh yes, I suppose so.”

“Then, if you were to bother having a real conversation with me, you are sure to like me.”

“And why should I do that?”

“...why?”

“Yes, why.”

“B..because… we’re engaged?”

She smiled brilliantly, “Let me ask you, if someone is engaged but is refusing to get along with their fiance, what do you think that means?”

Albert went silent. If he knew the answer to that, would he be having this kind of trouble?!

“Lets reframe the question,” She said after seeing he didn’t understand. “Let’s say there are two boys who don’t know each other. Without anyone asking them, their parents decided they ought to be friends. So they keep meeting up and putting the boys together to have them play. Now one of the boys looks bored during these meetings, talks very little, and is eager to go home. The other boy does all the talking and suggests all the games, basically doing all the work. Every meeting is the same. Why do you think the first boy is behaving the way he does?”

Albert knew exactly the reason and answered, “Isn’t that because he never wanted to be friends to begin with and his parents forced him into it?”

She nodded, “And what do you think about the other boy in this story?”

He frowned, “Isn’t he dumb to keep trying to be friends with a boy who doesn’t want to be friends with— ah.”

Albert suddenly made the connection, “You mean you never wanted to be my fiance and were forced into it?!”

“Mmmm hm.”

“But why?” Realizing he’d been treated as a burden this whole time poked his heart uncomfortably. “I’m the Crown Prince, I’ll be King in the future! Being my fiance means you’ll be Queen!”

She rolled her eyes at him and raised an eyebrow.

“In your mind, does every girl want to be queen?”

He opened his mouth to say yes and then paused. If he said “yes” in the face of a girl who obviously didn’t want to be queen, wouldn’t that just make him an idiot?

“...I… don’t know.”

“Well, now you know.” She snorted. “Besides, if all you’ve got to offer a girl is the position of queen, isn’t that really pitiful? That means there’s nothing interesting about you outside of your status.”

“What do you mean? It’s not like the Crown Prince and I are any different, we’re the same person. I, Albert, am interesting so naturally I, the Crown Prince, am interesting.”

“That’s not how people view you. They don’t think of you as Albert, the 11 year old boy, they think of you as the Crown Prince, future ruler of the world and current favorite of the King. You, Albert, are only important as long as you’re competent. Beyond that, your likes and dislikes, people only care about those things to win you over because you’re the Crown Prince. ” She paused, “Pardon me, I’m being roundabout… what I mean to say, they aren’t interested in you as a person, just your title. No one really likes you, Albert. They only like you, the Crown Prince.”

“That’s— that’s not true!” His face flushed in anger and he tried to refute, “My Father, Mother and Nanny like me!”

“...if they’re the only three, isn’t that just sad?” She sighed. “Right now, all you have is your status and title. In the future, will you be able to make any real friends? Won’t they all just be after the power you can give them? You can’t trust people like that you know. Imagine your whole life never making a real friend and only being surrounded by people who want to use you. I’d be depressed.”

His heart chilled. Even without her saying it, he knew there was some truth to her words. He could already tell when someone was approaching him to get to his parents. It offended him, not only that people wanted to use him, but that they thought he was a weakness that could be used to manipulate his parents. But as to the other people who treated him nicely….

This was the first time he wondered if they were treating him nicely because they liked him or because he was the Crown Prince. If he was just an ordinary person, would they be anywhere near as affable?

Suddenly he didn’t want to be around his fiance anymore.

This was the first time they’d had a serious conversation and nothing good had come from it. He unconsciously took a step away from her.

Hands gripped into fists, he tried to level out his voice as he said, “I… I think it’s about time I go home now.”

Her face lit up and he felt like he’d gotten punched in the gut. Even though he was 11 and shouldn’t cry like a baby anymore, his eyes watered slightly at her obvious joy at him leaving.

“Do you need me to see you out?” She asked in a light voice.

He only managed to choke out a “no thank you” before almost fleeing from her.