2 The lucky man
Draxan walked away from the girl and went back home. Unaware of the trouble that he had stirred up by standing up to the girl.
The girl stood in the same spot as he had left her. She was speechless after having met him and spoken to him. He had not just dared to stare back at her and talk back to her. But the bit had the nerve to stand before her and call her names.
She had never met such a rude person of the male gender in her whole life. She was fuming mad.
"Princess Ariadne," her manservant called to her. He was carrying all the shopping bags of the things that she had bought at the market. He had his head bowed as he called her, he was well aware of the princess's temper.
She hated it when men met her gaze. "The carriage is here," he informed her.
"Let's go," the princess ordered. She walked with him back to the carriage and got inside. Her eyes dared not think of the things that had happened at the market but she couldn't get the scene out of her mind.
Her mind kept flashing back to his hazel eyes staring into her own eyes. The confidence and fire that she saw in his eyes not just made her mad but also gave her goosebumps.
At first, before they spoke he had found him to be quite eye-catching but as soon as he spoke she couldn't help but frown.
She was so frustrated by his words that it made her want to kill him. She leaned back on her seat to think of a way to make the young man pay for the insult she had received.
She was the princess of Acerradia and she was not going to let some man talk down on her. Her mind replayed the scene from the market to her over and over again.
She quivered with indignation as her brain exploded with fury. Her heart was throbbing with anger from the thoughts of what the boy had done.
It was quite obvious that he needed to be taught a lesson for the rude way that he had dared to act.
"What did he say about deserving the same respect as me?" she mumbled angrily.
The audacity of the male to compare himself to a woman was shocking and mad. It was utterly and completely ridiculous and that was it.
He could not bear to even think of what could happen if he infected other people with his mentality and made other men think like him.
It would be a disaster if men were to start thinking that they had the same rights as women in society.
They had simply lived, staying at home and looking after the house while they did all the heavy work but no. There were still some pests in the society that wanted to change how things were done.
She opened her eyes, folded her right hand into a fist before her eyes, and spoke, "I will cripple your thoughts dear man. And you will have no choice but to accept that men can't compare to women."
The carriage arrived at the Jasmine palace, the palace that belonged to her mother. Since they stood at the top of the four lands, Queen Isabella had built a separate palace for her daughter opposite her own.
The princess was privileged to everything that the Queen had. Her palace was the replica of her mother's palace except for the color of the things used to decorate it.
Her mother's palace was the Jasmine palace while hers was referred to as the Lavender palace.
Lavender was the princess's favorite color and flower. She could never get enough of it.
"We are here," the manservant informed. He helped her down from the carriage and watched as the servants of the palace, who were mostly men from low-class families that had to work for their families to survive.
They arranged in a line and showered her with flowers and greetings as she moved past them. The princess was way too upset to think about them or reply to them.
She couldn't get the arrogant boy out of her mind and it getting on her last nerve. "How dare he call me mannerless?" she questioned to herself as she rushed into the palace.
The vein on her forehead looked like it would pop any minute from how angry she was.
"Call me the royal painter," she ordered to no one in particular.
Knowing her temper and not wanting to get on her bad side seeing as she was in a bad mood. All the servants ran to go and find the painter and bring him to her.
The painter was brought before her in less than three minutes. She took a seat and asked him to do a painting for her.
She closed her eyes and pictured Draxan's look in her mind and described him inch by inch to the painter to draw.
He has shoulder-length black hair, beautiful hazel eyes that pierced through a person's soul. He had very sharp features, from his nose to his jaw that makes one want to trace it with their hands. His lips were thin and with a bit of rosy color to them, very alluring and tempting. He was a fair height while his physique wasn't so bad.
The princess went on with her description as the painter went on to make a painting of the male. He could help but be a little jealous of the boy. He had managed to capture the heart of the princess on just the first meeting.
The princess was not easily attracted by things. She had the world and never really yearned for anything more from it. The way that he had made himself important enough for the princess to remember what he looks like.
It was only a matter of time before the man came to the palace. The way she spoke of him was with so much affection that he couldn't help but think that she had fallen in love.
"Done," he informed her after he had completed drawing the painting.
Ariadne glanced at the painting and smiled at how it turned out. "Leave," she demanded of him.
"With this photo, I will track you down and then you will have nowhere to escape my wrath," she said to the painting.
Just then her mother arrived at the room with her escorts. Seeing her in the room brought a smile to her face, she dismissed everyone to have a moment alone with her child.
"What do we have here?" she asked happily while giving a hug to Ariadne. "I had to idea that you will visit me," she added.
Isabella broke the hug, she turned around to have a seat when her eyes caught the painting in the room. Her eyes went wide with surprise when she saw for the first time a painting of a boy in the palace.
Her daughter was never one to enjoy such things. She always preferred to be independent and frankly she had thought the girl would end up alone and on her throne with no future heir.
"Who is this lucky man?" she asked curiously while examining the painting.
Ariadne didn't know about luck but she sure knew that the man was going to pay for her insult. And what better way to make him miserable than by marrying him.
To have him marry her when he doesn't like her, that too when he hates the idea of being reminded that he was of the weaker gender. It was the most perfect plan that she could have possibly come up with for him.
It was the best punishment for his ego. He was a man and according to her, he should learn how to remain within his limits instead of trying to be something that he wasn't meant to be.
"The lucky man has captured my heart mother and I came here to ask you to make sure that he is mine in the next twelve hours," she said sweetly to her mother but her demand came out icy.
She couldn't have thought of better words to get what she wants. Good family or not, her mother would care less who she married as long as it ensured an heir for the throne.
After all, even if she married from a good family or not it would still be the same. A man's biggest job was procreation and that was it.
So even a beggar was capable of this and it wasn't a big deal.
"May I ask what it is about him that he has captured your cold stone heart?" her mother asked unsure about the capturing of heart part of the request. The boy had caught her attention not her heart.
She was no fool, she knew her daughter well and the poor thing hated the idea of love. Many women do as it made them weak. Love made mad enough to assume that they were equal to their partners and hence most women avoided the topic of love.
"I don't know mother, the moment I set my eyes on him. My heart melted and I knew he was the one," she let out.
The queen gazed at her as she spoke and noticed the glint that flashed in her eyes.
'So that is how it is. You want him because he has wronged you,' she thought.
It was evident that she wanted revenge. She had the look on her face that she wore whenever she conspired to end a person.
