🌾

"Penny, go fetch some water please. Whatever he's going to say, It would be best for us to be alone"

When Maud finally comes back to her senses, she realizes that she can't take the embarrassment of being shouted at or hit in front of her maid. Whatever her husband feels entitled to do because of her disobedience, she doesn't want Penny to be here to see it. That would only make things more awkward and complicated. So while Adelio is still outside the tent, doing god knows what to those soldiers that died to hurt her, Maud makes sure to cast Penny out before it's too late. Her maid understands. She bows once before quickly scurrying away, an empty wooden water bucket in hand. Fetching water will take a long time so Maud isn't worried anymore.

Except she is. Nervously she sits on her chair, just waiting for him to come see her. Her hands are folded neatly in her lap, but she keeps picking on her nails, a nervous habit. The screams from outside have died down but that does nothing to calm her down. What will Adelio be like when angry? He is usually so stone faced and evil-looking, that he passes off as mad every second. Even when they left the palace he didn't wave even once to Makai, nor did he say his proper goodbyes like Maud tried to do at the top of the staircase. He's always scowling, and there is always this glint of annoyance and anger in his eye. But even then Maud has never seen him actually angry before. What will he be like?

Will he hit her? Many men do that. Maud knows that, and it makes her nervous. Because he is her husband he has the right to do whatever he pleases, even kill her. Or maybe he can't kill her because she's a princess and the future queen, but he could definitely do absolutely anything else. Maud can't expect him to have a calm temper, not after what he just did to those soldiers, or after the sour mood he's been having ever since arriving at the palace for the first time. Adelio is a warrior, he's used to dealing with things using violence. Why would now be any different? Maud tries to convince herself to expect the worst from him, but there is just something stopping her.

His gentle hands from their wedding night, the way he has never truly touched her without permission, all of that points to the fact that he is a more gentle man than he appears to be. Sure, he may scowl and look intimidating at all times, but does that have to mean that he actually wants to hurt her? Hurting soldiers who have threatened one's wife is different from hurting one's wife. Maybe he's just keeping a mask over his face, a mask of anger to make others fear him, but in reality he doesn't really care for violence. Maud isn't sure which version of the prince she is to believe in, and how nervous she should be. But at the end of the day, she doesn't have a say. He'll do whatever he wants to do and she won't fight back. She'll stay quiet and still like a good princess should, that's at least something she can do without training to be a princess.

Maud rehearses this a few times in her head. She's supposed to stand up when he comes, bow to him as usual, and avert her gaze. Don't speak and don't fight back. If she doesn't look at him he'll probably calm down faster, because Maud can already guess that her face is aggravating to look at for someone who is a prince of their enemy kingdom. After several run throughs of this, the door of her tent is opened. Maud looks up and stands up at the same time, seeing her tall husband fill the entire doorway as he walks through. Adelio is somewhat less aggressive than she expected him to be, but the blood on his sword paints a very scary picture. Maud watches him throw his sword to the floor and ruffle his hair, walking straight up to her. So she bows and looks down, knowing that this is the moment when she finds out the truth about her husband.

You know what they say, a woman should always try to make her partner very angry before marrying them. Just to know what they would do. Too bad Maud doesn't have that privilege. And even if she had gotten him mad on purpose before their wedding, she wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it from happening either way. This isn't a love match. Makai wouldn't care about whatever abusive tactics Adelio uses, in fact he might use them himself. Maud knows that she is completely alone in this world, and that means that luck is the only person that she can turn to. By luck, Adelio is an exceptionally nice husband. Most likely, like all other men, he isn't.

She waits nervously for him to speak. Adelio takes his time, stopping right in front of her. Maud can only see up to his chest.

"You shouldn't have left this place"

Maud knows. She nods. Adelio's words are quite unexpected though. He is calm and almost bored, but there is a hint of something else in his voice. Maud can't recognise what it could be, but it's definitely not anger. He isn't angry, and that's somewhat surprising. He was definitely angry with the soldiers, why else would he walk in here with a bloody sword. So why isn't he angry with her? Does he treat women differently from men? If so, that would be a huge relief to her. Maud knows how much easier her life would be if she had a gentle and forgiving husband, like Adelio now seems to be.

"I know, I'm sorry"

Maud tries to apologize to the best of her efforts, trying to sound genuine, but it probably falls flat. She isn't sorry, not now and not then. She has to stand up for herself at some point, and if that means leaving this tent even though her husband has told her not to, she'll do it. Maud is surprised at herself at how ambitious she is. Working towards her own goal without worrying about the consequences. In fact, she barely fears the consequences. Even now that she's nervous about how angry he will be, she doesn't regret doing what she did, and it was definitely worth it. She would do it again if she had to, so whatever Adelio is trying to do by talking to her about this, it's probably not going to work.

"There are one hundred soldiers out there and I barely know half of them. I can't trust them enough to be around you, do you understand? They do sh*t like this either because you're a princess from the north or because you're just a woman, and next time I might not be here to stop it"

Maud looks up at him with surprise. She honestly didn't expect him to be so worried about her like this. She thought that he was angry for her disobeying orders, not for the danger that she put herself in. Adelio is completely right. She and Penny are the only women here, but she is the only woman truly from the Blue Knight kingdom, and they don't like that. Even if she's a princess, they would go long lengths to make her miserable. Not everyone, of course not. Not those that are completely loyal to their crown prince. But definitely enough of them are like that, and that's why Adelio told her to either stay inside here or in the carriage. At the Red Lion palace things will hopefully be different, but out here she's still just a princess from the north and that makes it so dangerous.

"I'm sorry"

She's not really. In fact, saying 'thank you' would probably be more fitting. She is thankful for Adelio's worry rather than his anger, and wishes that she could show him that. But Maud knows that she's not out of the water just yet. Men like Adelio, warriors and princes, can be unpredictable and unexpectedly quick at changing their moods. Right now he doesn't look exactly happy either, a frown and glare still over his face. So Maud holds her tongue and doesn't move, not wanting to upset him any further.

"When I said that you belong to me now, I meant it, Margaret. Because we are married we are not two but one, so anything that happens to you affects me too"

Maud feels oddly charmed by his serious words, even when he didn't mean it that way. He means that as a married couple, what she does reflects on him and what he does reflects on her. If he loses his crown, so will she, and if she gets hurt, it's a hit against him too. A part of Maud wishes that it wasn't like that, while another part is somewhat relieved. She thought that she was here to face the world alone, but at the end of the day, Adelio is still by her side. Even if they slander her and try to hurt her in her new home, Adelio will always be there to support her, because things that hurt her hurt him too. His reputation and his ego. In this world, a man's ego is worth more than a woman's life. Now that she has a man's ego on her side, she holds more cards in her hands than she first thought she would.

"Wasn't that a bit extreme out there?"

And now she has grown greedy. There are so many questions that Maud wants to ask, but every time she just tells herself to press it down and keep quiet. It's better if she stays out of his way and doesn't become a bother. But when given the chance, she is ready to blurt out what's on her mind. Especially if she thinks that he will answer her. And she does wonder about this. Why did he kill those soldiers for merely raising their hand at her? Why did he have to be so brutal towards his own men? It's not like he did it out of love for her, they've only just met, and he doesn't seem to like her very much. So why would he go out of his way to literally slaughter two people when all he had to do was reprimand them, and they'd be on their knees.

"What?"

Maud hesitantly looks up at him. She sees his bloody sword in the corner of the tent, and then his unforgiving eyes that are staring right down at her. Adelio looks like a man that would be brutal, but Maud still doesn't understand it. It doesn't make sense.

"I just don't understand why you were so unforgiving towards your own men, when they merely raised their hand at me"

Adelio frowns immediately, looking even more upset than before. Maud regrets saying anything. She should've just stayed quiet and apologized one more time, instead she just had to be greedy and ask him an unnecessary question. All the princess wants to do is understand her husband, but every time she thinks that she gets close, he slips away from her fingers and swipes her off her feet, doing something unexpected and crazy.

Suddenly Adelio raises his hand, and Maud feels her heart jump to her throat. This is it, this is the moment she was waiting for. She flinches and looks down, waiting for the impact. But it never comes. After a few seconds, the princess confusedly lifts up her head again to see why he didn't hit her. His eyes are cold but calm, not angry like they should be before hitting a person. His hand is still in the same position that it was, he hasn't moved an inch towards her face.

"You don't want to be hit, do you? So why do you act as if that soldier trying to hit you was such a trivial matter?"

He lowers his hand. Maud stares up at her husband in shock, suddenly thrown off her feet once again. This is the first man that she has ever met who has opposed hitting women. To the point where he would kill someone if they even raised their hand at her. Maud can't stop thinking about it. His words echo in her head over and over again. 'Why do you act as if the soldier trying to hit you was such a trivial matter?'. Because that's all she's been taught. Men never oppose someone hitting women. That's not natural. The more that she thinks about it, the more crazy this man becomes. A prince, raised in privilege, is suddenly kind towards women? Kind towards her? What is wrong with him? Maud is so confused that it takes a while for her to form a complete sentence.

"I- well.... I don't know"

Adelio sighs. He drags his hand through his hair again, some kind of habit.

"It's not the first time that they've caused trouble, and I didn't kill them. They're just injured right now but that's the consequences one can expect when messing with what belongs to me"

Maud almost chokes on her spit. Belongs to him? She belongs to him? In what world is this possible? From their odd wedding night to his charming words, Adelio must have some kind of split personality. One day he's like this, charming and secretly possessive, and the next he's cold and bored with her. Maud isn't sure which emotion is the right one, nor what he thinks about her. All she knows so far is that he doesn't like it when others hurt her, and he doesn't like it when she expects others to hurt her. What a weird man. A 1000 page novel of a man.

"I'm sorry for causing you trouble"

Maud makes sure to add an extra apology, just to make sure that he's not angry with her anymore. Or was he ever? Maud can't tell if he was angry or just worried. He's so hard to read, every emotion is minuscule at best, and his face barely ever shows any other expression than dissatisfaction. It suits his handsome face, but it doesn't suit his weird personality. If anything, Adelio only seems to get more annoyed when she apologizes.

"Stop apologizing. Just stay inside here from now on, and tell me next time when something like this happens"

Maud nods quickly. Another lie. Next time she'll definitely not tell him, if it means that he'll be this brutal. Adelio turns around, takes his sword and leaves the tent without any other goodbye. Maud watches him leave with a frown on her face, not knowing what to think of this interaction. She stands there and stares at the closed tent door for a long time, completely lost in thought. It's only when her maid rushes through with a wooden bucket filled with water, that she finally snaps out of it.

"How did it go?"

Penny is quick to ask, almost wheezing because of the weight in her arms. Maud feels bad and helps her carry it properly.

"I- I don't really know"

🌾