Weeding Out The Truth

Sophia then realized Emilia's true intentions. To weed out the truth.

She was catching on to their ruse.

Nicholas answered calmly, "I'd say I know a decent bit about her."

Emilia looked intrigued.

"Do you now?" She asked rhetorically, wanting to find out.

The other watched in interest, none of them saying a word as they decided not to intervene in what was to come.

Even with the little to no time they had to get to know each other, they'd already planned in the eventful case this happened. If someone decided to go digging and grilling any one of them for clues or answers. They were prone to be interrogated about each other, it was all a matter of when. Talk about planning ahead.

_

Hours ago, the two were in the palace gardens, having a short icebreaker session that proved to be extremely useful later on.

"So, starting off with getting to know each other simply, your favorite color?" Sophia asked.

Nicholas answered quickly, "Black."

"And yours?" He asked in return.

"Crimson red," Sophia answered without any hesitation.

"Next question," Sophia declared.

"Favorite pastime," Nicholas decided.

Sophia answered, "Currently, spending time with my loved ones."

"And what might yours be?" She asked Nicholas.

Nicholas answered coolly, "Playing the pianoforte."

'You play the pianoforte?' Sophia wanted to ask before quickly stopping herself. They were short on time.

'Another question for another day,' she told herself before moving on to the next round of question(s).

"Free round," Sophia decided, having run out of questions for the moment.

A question popped up in Nicholas' head.

"What's one thing about yourself that no one but those you truly trust know?" He asked her, his voice void of any emotion but nevertheless interested in what she had to say.

Sophia thought about it, before answering truthfully, "I suppose that one thing's that I… don't really believe in love."

She didn't bother to ask him a question in return.

Nicholas decided to ask her, "And why is that?"

Sophia admitted it was a good question. One she didn't have an answer to.

Thinking about it long and hard, she came up with a partial answer, "If I'm to be honest… I could say I don't believe in love after what it's done to the people I care and or used to care about. It… love, I mean, landed them in… hot water, so to speak."

She infrequently opened up to people, it was rare to see her open up to those she didn't know particularly well, especially to a man she hadn't known for more than a week.

Perhaps it was because she hadn't found the right person to share it with, or perhaps there was something holding her back.

She wouldn't come to know as she was ridden by the past. Of course, her not believing in love didn't mean she didn't love her family. It was romantic love she didn't believe in. Not the same type of love she held for Clarisse, Louis and Julia. That was a wholly different situation.

What Sophia was referring to was where love brought all her loved ones. She'd never gotten to know her mother since she'd passed away shortly after giving birth to her, something she blamed on herself and partially to love. Her father had married Emilia and that love they shared ended up with him buried six feet underground and Emilia to currently rule over Beldovia, whilst her grandmere Julia suffered months on end after the dreadful loss of her husband to a deadly sickness, Reginald, Sophia's grandfather or as she called him, 'grandpere'. Even if love hadn't directly caused their demise, it played a major part in all their fates that were equally as tragic. Her mother was dead, her father suffered the same fate, Emilia was ruling, but not for long, and Julia…

Nicholas remained silent, processing her answer.

He wasn't one to judge when it came to love. After all, he'd never experienced it before.

Growing up, he had Julia and only her. The remaining of his family were only to be called that solely because of their blood relation. Other than that, they were complete strangers, him and his family.

They wouldn't have given a damn about him, and neither did he them. He had no reason to, after how he was treated ever since he was in leading strings.

Despite him being heir apparent, being the royal most likely to succeed in the place of his father and take his place as king, he was treated with no such respect by the people he still called family.

If he had it his way, he'd rather not be a royal of Sanguis. He'd rather not be a descendant of Sanguis' current king, or heck, come from Sanguis at all.

He loved his kingdom, of course, but its current state was havoc.

His father wasn't the right royal to rule, and instead of being there for his family when they needed him most, he did right by Julia and came to Beldovia.

Did he feel the slightest bit pitiful towards his suffering family? Truth be told, no.

If he were to return to Sanguis, it would've been due to his inclination to fulfil his duty of protecting and serving his kingdom, by whatever means necessary.

Sanguis had been at war with a neighboring kingdom for months on end, having not been able to find a way to make peace with one another without bloodshed. It hadn't stopped, and by the looks of it, wasn't to stop any time soon.

With the blood of multiple innocent citizens on its hands, Sanguis was a bleeding kingdom that was on its knees. Someone had to step in and take hold of the reins, and if not its current king, who else other than one of his children?

Of course, that was where Nicholas was to come in, but he had fled to Beldovia, where he was now upholding an intricate ruse with the royal, Duchess Sophia of Beldovia.