"Alright then!" the attention was once again turned to the old man on the throne. He stood up, having in response, all the courtiers stand. I had been very well acclimatized to this and I was proud for not being confused ,rather standing up along with them- as a part of this court.

As Neel's girlfriend.

"I have 2 announcements to make. First, the full moon day within 2 months is an auspicious day, Yug and my daughter Aarini, will get engaged on that day." There was a great chaos- a good chaos- following this announcement. Aarini standing next to his father, looking at him in awe, then blushing while stealing glances at Yug, who was himself painted red with this announcement, occasionally bowing down to thank the ministers who mouthed him 'congratulations'

"And this is not all." The old voice had shut the court back to pin drop silence. "I, along with Aarini and Neel shall be moving to the Central Palace tomorrow." Now this was surprise, a good one. Unexpected. More to Neel than anyone else. He seemed baffled, confused, puzzled. But over anything-happy. He looked at me, not smiling, but contented. Satisfaction brimming his eyes.

His father smiled at him, at not just that superficial smile, a genuine, real one. A one that said 'sorry', one that said 'it'll be fine henceforth'.

"I want you to not announce this to anyone, not even your mother. I want to surprise her." The former king continued and Neel just nodded in agreement. Too speechless to say a yes or no.

---

"Did you know?" Neel asked me. We had managed to steal time post lunch, walking around in the corridors of his personal quarters. They were silent. We weren't on any risk of getting caught by anyone.

"Know what?"

"That father knew about Yug and Aarini?" I knew this question was coming. This had to come one time or the other.

"Hmm" I looked away. Scared of how he would react. Maybe he would shout and be disappointed, telling me how it should have waited for his decision. That father doesn't know anything since he has been locked up for a while and the world has changed. That now he cannot over rule his decision and that we have given the life of his sister in 'wrong hands' and now everything is hopeless and wild.

I was preparing myself to answer those questions.

But on the contrary he just kept quiet, his face, like always, had that unreadable expression which compelled me to continue

"Aarini got impulsive last night, and went to your father to confess." I sighed. He nodded clearly already half way in to his deep thoughts.

"Are you seriously not okay with Yug?" I asked again.

He sighed, pulling himself mentally out of wherever he has been. "It's not like that." He spoke half-heartedly. Paused. Took a deep breath in and eventually continued. "Yug is nice. He is amazing infact. And if he has had the courage to accept his feelings in front of royal court, despite knowing the potential consequence, I am sure, there is no other man I can trust on, with Aarini except for him, but-"

"So what's the issue?"

"Queen mother! She wouldn't be very pleased. She might go to an extent to break this whole thing down and I don't what can I do. She-" he took a pause to catch his breath and collect his words. "She can destroy this."

Right. Queen mother. None of us had thought about her. What would she do.

"do you think she'll be okay with us dating?" He might perhaps not be expecting me to say anything , that when I spoke he was caught off-guard.

"Hmm?" I don't know if it was that he did not hear or that he was confused about the unwanted, unknown foreign word. But I decided to frame the entire sentence again.

"Will your mother be okay with our relationship?" I asked, sounding serious.

He looked at me and held my gaze for a while before he started walking again and answering.

"No. But I will fight for that. I don't want you to worry about-"

"Exactly!" I interrupted.

He looked at me confused. I raised my eyebrows to point out some thing that was so evident here.

"You will fight for it cause you are certain about us. Let Yug and Aarini fight for themselves now. Since they are certain about each other."

"You are not understanding" he spoke again "She is Aarini's mother, she is my step mom. She doesn't care-" and then decided to catch his words in his mouth. "okay" he resigned.

---

Had there been a better option for me to choose I would forever select staying in that palace, where Queen Mother and all the other built up royal members did not exist. But here I was, after spending one and half month peacefully in the other palace, that I'll call the 'Cupid Palace', since romance was all there to it, standing in front of the gates to the central palace.

I was more upset after the realization that once I step out of that palace, I might never ever ever get to see it again. I did not realize up until now, that with each passing day I was also bidding good bye to something that I was growing fond of.

This place had started growing on me. These people had started growing on me. I don't know what would I do once I leave her.

But right now, the central palace had already successfully turned my vibes off.

We were waiting for the Queen Mother to come and welcome, the totally unexpected members. Aarini, no doubt looked excited to see her mother after months, or years—I don't know how often queen mother visited the Cupid Palace.

She looked surprised, shocked, happy, all of it, like you would naturally expect a mother to look like after seeing her child in like forever. And Aarini mirrored the same. But I cannot actually point out what the king's father looked like.

I tried reading his face and caught Neel reading mine. He gave me a fake smile plastered, as if, he knew what I was looking for and he was sure that if I find it, it wouldn't please me.

Neel 's dad wasn't necessarily excited about seeing his wife.

"I – I am speechless. I can't believe you all are here." Shravya spoke.

"Mother! We-" Aarini tried speaking.

"How did you manage to get him here." Shravya turned to the king.

"Thank Jiera for that. She is a magician. All she has done is just bring good luck to all of us." Aarini interrupted again. of course who wouldn't like hearing good things about themselves. I smiled at myself and then turning to Neel, who secretly managed to give me a handsome wink, which made me blush more as I turned away from him afraid to get caught.

"Really!" the queen mother sounded dry and uninterested, not to forget mentioning- jealous. I had done something she couldn't manage doing in years. If at all she had tried.

"We had to be here" the king's father finally spoke. "We have some good news to deliver."

"really!" she said again, of course in a different tone this time. A good one.

"We have decided whom Aarini will get married to, and she is getting engaged next month."

The 'not so old' mother went ahead with rainbow of expressions, with euphoria hitting her vocal cords, that she went mute for a moment.

"Who?" she spoke meekly. "Is it the Prince of the West, who had come to me with a proposal for Aarini. I told you about it, you remember?" she turned to Neel , who stayed silent looking at his dad.

"I heard he is going to be crowned as the next king in 3 months. This is going to be a very good opportunity for all of us, we can expand our empire and-" she had huge expectations, bad on top of that, the one that had turned everyone's mood off.

I looked around, internally thanking that Yug wasn't around. He had excused himself, to give the so called royal family some personal space.

I don't know what were I doing here though.

It wouldn't take Yug a lot time to give up on himself for Aarini, for a so called 'better prospect'

"No!" the former king affirmed firmly.

"Then?" she was finally reading the atmosphere. None of them said a word until Aarini spoke for herself.

"I am marrying Yug. Minister Yug." She affirmed firmly. Not ashamed. Not guilty. Unbothered . Unfazed. As if knowing that Yug is there for her, with her, made it easy for her to deal with everyone. She was standing there like the Royal boss that she was.

And now I wished, Yug would get to see this.

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