Ronan Is Proud Of Himself

"Please continue," said Ronan, which made Arielle nod.

"Thank you," she replied and then spoke again. "And… the Queen's duty isn't just to sit beside His Majesty. A Queen needs to take part in managing the Kingdom, right?"

The princess continued, "The ideal queen is someone who can be a king's adviser. She must be wise, clever, and broad-minded. So… Your Majesty cannot just arbitrarily appoint a queen. I'm sure William or Lucas must have a decent lineup of names to accompany you in governing the Northendell Kingdom."

Ronan rolled his eyes disinterestedly.

"Done?" he asked.

"What?"

"Speaking of a queen."

Arielle mumbled while wondering if she had anything else to say or not. Since she felt it was enough, Arielle nodded. "Yup, I think that's enough."

"Okay, now it's my turn. A king has the prerogative to choose whoever his mate is. Even the queen. I'm sure as a princess you know that even the King of Nieverdell can choose anyone to be his wife, right? How many wives does he have now? Three? Four?"

"Five," answered Arielle.

"Oh, five. So even if I choose you as my queen, no one can stand in my way but yourself."

"But myself?"

Ronan nodded. "I don't want to force my will if you are uncomfortable. So… Does Princess Arielle want to be the Queen of Northendell?"

Arielle bit her thumb. "Err… but I don't know how to manage a kingdom. I don't even know how to read and write."

"It can be learned."

Arielle remembered a fairy tale that Tania had told her about love. Honestly, she didn't understand what true love meant. However, when she listened to Tania's fairy tale, Arielle hoped that one day she could be blessed to meet her love.

Arielle did not know the form or taste of love, but she could imagine that she would be happy if she met the person whom she could know and call love.

"But I need love to be happy," she said.

Ronan was silent for a moment. He then nodded. "Ah… fair enough."

He knew what she wanted now. Princess Arielle was the type to put love above anything else.

Ronan himself was someone who didn't really believe in love. From the book he read, every marriage would be blessed with love. But when he looked at his parents' marriage, it was clear that there was no love between the two.

He became annoyed by the nonsense called love, and Ronan burned the book.

He looked down at the girl in front of him. Princess Arielle was too naive to believe in the bullshit called love. The man thought he had talked enough for the night.

"Okay, I think it's getting late, and the princess needs to rest."

Ronan circled the table in front of him to get closer to Arielle. He touched Arielle's chin to look up at him.

"I came here to apologize for what I said yesterday afternoon. I really didn't know the reason behind your decision to choose painting over reading and writing. Now I know and now feel guilty for saying it so harshly."

"Your Majesty… you don't need to apologize."

Ronan smiled and lightly pinched the cheek of the girl in front of him. "Even though I'm a king, if I do something wrong, then it's only right that I apologize."

He then realized he didn't want to take his hand off Arielle's cheek. He wanted to keep staring at those sparkling eyes. He smiled as well when Arielle smiled at him.

"Okay, I've forgiven you."

"Thank you, Princess."

His hand went up to smooth Arielle's silver hair. He placed a hair and tucked it behind Arielle's ear. Afterward, Ronan allowed himself to resign, and Arielle escorted the man to the Whitethorn palace grounds.

Ronan thus left the Whitethorn palace along with the thick snow, walking toward the Blackthorn palace. He smiled and felt funny about his own words.

"If I do something wrong, then it's only right that I apologize? How can I say those words?" he muttered proudly. He was proud of himself for saying those words. Ronan thought he sounded so wise before the princess and that made him very pleased.

It reminded Ronan of William, who was constantly bullied. Hm… Ronan had thought about apologizing to William if he met the man.

Unfortunately, when he saw the face of his personal bodyguard who was all smiles and raising his eyebrows, the thought immediately faded away.

"Did Princess Arielle forgive you?" William asked the king. He forgot the status between the two of them.

"Shut up," said Ronan coldly.

William only held his chest and grimaced. The king's treatment of him was especially cold today.

***

The next day, together with Tania, Arielle walked through the snow to the Cathedral. Some of the people there had known Arielle during her first visit with King Ronan.

As she passed the garden with the Frostberry trees, Arielle stopped in her tracks. There were still plenty of Frostberries ready to eat on the tree, but she didn't have permission to touch them.

"What is it, Your Highness?" asked Tania wondering why Princess Arielle stopped in the middle of the road.

"If Your Highness wants to taste it, we'd be happy to give it."

Arielle turned back to the front and saw Priest Elis with some of his students walking towards her. Arielle saluted as Priest Elis bowed to her.

"What is the need for you to visit the Cathedral, Your Highness?"

Arielle looked doubtfully at Tania for a while. The woman clenched her fists and silently encouraged the princess. Arielle has made up her mind. She didn't even talk to King Ronan about this but hoped that Priest Elis would understand her position.

"I actually wanted to see you, Priest."

"Me?"

Priest Elis looked around in surprise then told his disciples to go ahead of him. "Follow me. We can talk in my office, so you can be comfortable, Your Highness. This morning it snowed really hard so it will be cold if you linger outside, Your Highness."

Arielle nodded and then walked beside Priest Elis, as did Tania, who walked not far behind the two of them.

They were led down a common passage leading to the Trigrams Hall of Light. However, Priest Elis turned in a different direction and opened a smaller door. Priest Elis stretched his hand into the room for Arielle and her maid to enter first.

"Apologies if this room is quite messy," said Priest Elis.

Arielle sat on the sofa by the fire. A trigram vine appeared in Priest Elis' right hand, and the wood in the fireplace began to heat up and form small embers. It didn't take long before the fire blazed through the wood.

Arielle stared in awe at Priest Elis' abilities.

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From the author:

So, the conclusion of this chapter: Ronan feels proud of himself for sounding wise before Ariell. XD

And now Arielle comes to the Cathedral to ask for a job.

Btw, welcome to the Month of Love! Thank you so much for your support of Ronan's and Arielle's love story. I hope this February I could write more fluffy scenes on them to brighten your month. xx