7 The Golden Chain of Fate

"Father!" Leon was as startled as I was.

"Why?" I whispered.

What's happening here?

Both of us were bewildered for slightly different reasons. Ever since we were kids, this was the first time that we were pulling on the same side of the rope, but even then we were neither moving back nor forward. What is happening here? I was confused. Wasn't it that the King and Queen were urged by the Duke's power and Dahlia's whining that they forced Leon to swallow this injustice?

The Queen had stepped back to the Kings side, her eyes determined and avoid the sympathy it showed before. The once approachable looking King suddenly looked like King Darius that he was - not just like a mature version of Leon. And Queen Marianna, although she still watched over Leon as a mother would, her shallow smile contained deep pitying.

Alarm clocks were ringing in my head.

"Leon, your engagement to Dahlia was announced to the whole continent when you were but six years old. Not only our nation but all of our neighbours, allied or not, are expecting you to rule one day over our peaceful Florencia," he paused in the middle of the sentence, not looking at me but at my Father, Duke Rubin, "with Dahlia at your side. Everyone involved believed that no one else could be a better fit for you than her."

It felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over me.

It was not the first time I've heard those words. I wrote them down myself, imagining a King pressured by the one and only Duke of his Kingdom, someone who was almost on par with him considering power and influence. No, maybe Father was one of the few people who could decide over the nations fate even more profoundly than the Royal Family.

In his hands, a large part of the military and even worse; his dukedoms were on the border to the war-driven north, which is unceasingly trying to expand its territory and is, most time of the year, a warzone.

Florencia was peaceful because father did his job brilliantly, protecting the nation from the northernmost Empire Valeria and upholding the status quo with them. If he were to neglect his duties, maybe the peaceful days would burst just like a bubble. Worst case, he could conspire with Emperor Artuso or any of the Princes and serve Florencia on a silver platter, quenching their thirst for conquest and rule over the land himself - as a vassal king to Valencia.

I understood now. Even if Father doesn't threaten the Royal Family, it doesn't change the fact that the danger was hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles.

Storywise, this was the moment the Royal Family had to bend their heads over Father's power, which he used for the first time for personal gains. He was out of their control. They had to acknowledge that their dependence on Father would cost them the happiness of their one and only son. To satisfy Father, they had to satisfy me. And what I wanted was Leon.

They would not forget the humiliation thought, and the day they could get rid of us, they didn't hesitate.

Precisely because we obliged and displayed our demure nature to resign from the engagement without a word of resistance, that the royal couple became alert. What was the reason - were we not the least bit interested in the throne? Wasn't I in love with Leon - why would I let go so quickly?

Imagine having a well-fed lion, leisurely walking and playing in your backyard, scaring thieves from approaching, but once you mistakenly step on its tail, all hell will break loose. So even if the lion has no intention to go berserk, the owner still has to tread carefully around it. They couldn't afford the risk to agitate it. Keeping a lion was dangerous, but it was even worse setting the lion free - in case someone else would profit.

So this whole meeting wasn't about who loves who or a boy breaking up with a girl, but a kingdom trying to keep a lion chained. Father was the lion, and I was the chain. As long as I was to become Queen of Florencia, Father would diligently watch over its borders. And so would my brother on the day he takes over the title. Leon and my betrothal was the renewal seal to an unspoken arrangement between our families, which has been around for decades. Father and Mother's marriage might have started because of the same reasons as well. The balance was well kept between our families from generation to generation that way. Now the scale was on the brink of turning over.

Who would have known that the sole Prince of this country would, God knows why, fall for an orphaned country bumpkin, thus shaking the whole fundament of this nation?

With the change in action this time they weren't guarded against us but instead panicked. Panicked because this incident could estrange our families. That I would back down so quickly was proof already.

With looks and background as Dahlia possessed, she wouldn't have to search long to find another suitor. Best it would be some Marquis or Count, but what if it was a hostile force? With father, a great many people would want to get him on their right side. Just to weaken the solidarity between the Royal Family and the Duke, it would have been worth it. Also, with me out of the picture, allied nations would want to push their princesses towards Leon, trying to make her the future Queen of Florencia. Many more problems would arise by then.

Suddenly, Leon and I found ourselves back to back in a political thriller instead of a love romance. How come we were so gullible before?

Since he was the Crown Prince, it didn't take long with his accumulated knowledge of politics and history for him to understand the underlying concerns of his father's words. The moment he found out that this marriage was inevitable and that he had fewer rights to decide his fate than a farmer's son, he turned ashen and stepped back in horror.

"This is ridiculous," he said and ran out without another glance.

"Leonhard!" His mother cried, obviously heartbroken.

I gotta give it to them, to watch this drama unfold as a live action was even more cringe-worthy than just reading it out loud.

To my surprise, this whole act ended just the way it ended in the book. Even with Father and me deriving from the script, they managed to say the same lines and follow the plot almost to a T.

I felt a little bit flustered. Wasn't I clear enough? Should I say something to break it off myself? But would it not make us the unreasonable ones then? Would they become hostile towards us? Or should I stay quiet? Marry Leon? No, that guy would rather elope than let go of Ellie. I know him much too well in that regards. I wasn't only his ex-fiancée but also the one who made his character design.

"Dahlia, let me talk to His Majesty for a moment. It's best you take a break outside." As I was brewing over my thoughts, Father must have sensed that I was in turmoil and asked me to step out before I said something wrong. Or they were going to talk about state affairs and didn't want me to listen. Either way, I excused myself and left the room, guessing that Father would surely know which actions to take from here on.