TEA PARTY

AURUM silently followed the courtier leading her. A few of the servants they passed by couldn't help but glanced at her direction. Most have admiration in their gazes, but some have envy as well. She was already used to those kind of gazes. Being a spokesperson for sPhones, it's unavoidable that she would be recognized wherever she went. With fame, people could either love her or hate her. She doesn't really care either way. But she does love the attention.

It's like when she received the love of the masses, even though she knew it was false, she felt validated. Like the part of her that could kill people with just a single thought doesn't exist.

After a while, they arrived at the palace's lush garden. The garden occupied a large area in the palace grounds. There were different varieties of plants and trees. They continued to walk until they reached a pavilion. Sitting inside around a beautiful crystat table were three young women. Servants were serving them teas and pastries from different trolleys.

One of the women has a wavy chestnut brown hair, wearing a light green dress that complemented her own green eyes. The other two have ice blue hair - a signature feature belonging to Albion's royal family. Which meant that the two were the first and second princesses. The older one of the two has a gentle and graceful temperament. She'd probably be only considered plain at best if not for that. The other princess was more charming but she completely lacked the grace her older sister has.

The courtier announced Aurum's name and the three looked at her direction. She walked inside the pavilion and the three stood up. She curtsied and they did as well.

"Lady Aurum, welcome. Please, do sit down," the first princess said with a gentle smile on her face, gesturing for her to sit down.

"Thank you, Your Highness," Aurum said, also smiling. She sat down beside the second princess.

"This is Lady Therese Bridgerton, the only daughter of the Duke of Orwell. Mother also invited her to today's tea party," the first princess introduced the other girl.

Aurum turned to the brown-haired girl. "Pleased to meet you, Lady Therese," she said.

"You as well. You're much more beautiful than your pictures in [Jiffy], Lady Aurum. No wonder everyone loves you," Therese said. Even though she said it with a smile, Aurum could still hear the mockery in her voice.

Aurum pretended not to hear it and just smiled. "Thank you."

"Yes, you're really much more beautiful in person," the second princess seconded. But unlike Therese, Noelle really meant what she said.

Noelled decided that today she would do her best so Aurum Blackbourne could have a good opinion of her. If she wanted the Duke of Hanover to notice her, then the best way was to be friends with his sister. But she really meant when she said that Aurum was beautiful. Because she was. Noelle had seen countless photos of her on [Jiffy] and just as Therese said, she was even more beautiful in person.

Aurum almost laughed because of the naivety in the second princess' voice and expression. She could see no pretention on the princess' face. As someone who's been well-versed in acting, Aurum could easily tell if a person was acting or not. If she was this simple, then Aurum didn't need to guard herself against her. But she couldn't say the same about the other two young women with them. "Thank you, Your Highness."

"Oh, please just call me Noelle. And I'll also call you Aurum."

"Noelle, I don't think that's appropriate," the first princess gently reminded.

"Oh don't be so stiff, Sister," Noelle complained.

"The first princess is correct, Your Highness. But I would be very much happy if you could call me by my name," Aurum said, smiling at the second princess.

Noelle beamed. "Truly?" Aurum nodded. "Then I would call you Aurum from now on."

"It seems that the rumors are true. Lady Aurum is truly a very sweet and amiable young lady," Icelyn commented.

"I agree. It's a good thing that Lady Aurum outgrown her... unsavory tendencies," Therese said, with a polite smile on her face.

Aurum was not stupid to not understand what she meant. She was obviously talking about the incident when she was four. The b*tch.

"Lady Therese, I don't think we should talk about that here," Icelyn gently scolded.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it," Therese immediately apologized. "I hope you won't take offense on what I said."

Aurum plastered a fake smile on her face. "Of course."

Then a courtier announced the arrival of the Queen.

"Her Majesty, the Queen," the courtier announced in a loud voice.

A woman with dark blond hair and a pair of blue-gray eyes walked towards the pavilion. There were two ladies-in-waiting following behind her. She was wearing an elegant white gown. Her back was so straight as she walked. There was a haughty expression on her face. As if she always looked down on other people. Well, she certainly fit the image of the Queen in Aurum's mind.

The four of them stood up and curtsied to the Queen.

Callista looked at the four young ladies in front of her and her gaze stopped on Aurum Blackbourne. She has long, flowing golden hair, a pair of amber eyes surrounded by golden eyelashes, delicate white skin, pinkish lips - the girl was certainly beautiful beyond compare. She was the perfect combination of her father and mother.

And that only made Callista hate her even more.

Dorian Blackbourne was her first choice for a husband. She was always forward in expressing her feelings to him. But he always found one way or another to reject her. Then her parents decided to chase the position of Queen for her. Before she knew it, she was married to the King. It was fine at first. Being the Queen certainly has its own advantages. But then, Dorian married that barbarian whore.

Callista felt extremely insulted. That he would constantly reject her, but wouldn't hesitate to marry that woman. She didn't give up on him just so he could marry a barbarian! Then he went missing and that whore gave birth to twins. After that, his heir turned out be a useless NoGift. And even though his daughter has an SS level Gift, she just turned into a monster that couldn't control her Gift. She thought those were the punishments the goddess gave to Dorian for marrying that woman. And what appropriate punishments they were.

Until she found out that Argent Blackbourne was the one who founded Silver Corporation.

He might be a NoGift but his intelligence was enough to make up for it. Even the girl was no longer an uncontrollable monster. Instead she was now someone beloved by many.

Dorian was gone but it was like he was still mocking her. That his choice had never been wrong.

And here she was, married to a King who couldn't care less about her and a mother to four children - three of whom were nothing but defective goods. Her eldest son couldn't keep his thing in his pants, her second daughter was a naive fool, and her youngest son was a simpering coward. The only one noteworthy was her eldest daughter. But she was still not enough for the King. The only one he cared about was his bastard son.

Staring at Aurum Blackbourne, Callista could only feel a great suffocation in her chest. Because the girl was a representation of the things she could have had.

As Callista was about to sit down, Lady Therese suddenly picked up a tea cup and splash the tea inside on the Queen's gown. There was a long silence in the air, then there were loud gasps.

"Lady Therese! What are you doing?" one of the ladies-in-waiting gasped in indignation.

Therese let go of the tea cup and began to tremble. "I-I'm s-sorry, Your Majesty. I-I don't know what has come to me. My b-body just m-moved on its own."

"You really expect me to believe that?" the Queen shouted, her already bad mood just became worse.

Icelyn stood in front of Therese. "Mother, you know Lady Therese since she was young. She wouldn't do something like this unless..." She suddenly acted horrified and then turned to look at Aurum. "Lady Aurum, even if Lady Therese offended you, you shouldn't have controled her body just so she would anger the Queen!"

Aurum was almost amazed by their two women show. Obviously, she didn't do what the first princess was accusing her of. She was not stupid enough to do something like this. But from the way the Queen was looking at her, it wouldn't matter even if she explained her side.

"You did this?" Callista, a dark expression of her face. "You have a lot of nerve. If you don't respect the royal family, then I don't think you deserve any respect either."

Callista waved her hand and a stream of water poured down on Aurum, completely soaking her from head to toe.

Aurum was shocked, she completely didn't expect for something like this to happen. She subconciously moved backward, outside of the pavilion. And before she could think of anything, she already pressed the button on her limiter.

"Mother! How could you do this?" Noelle said, unable to believe what she just saw. She was about to walk to Aurum but her mother stopped her.

"Stay where you are, Noelle," the Queen warned. Then she looked back at the soaking wet Aurum. Seeing her in this embarrassing state truly made her feel a bit better. "Kneel and apologize to me for what you did and I might just be able to forgive you."

Aurum clenched both her fists. She was this close to removing her limiter and just kill everyone here. Then suddenly she heard a thud beside her, like someone just jumped from a high place. She felt a coat wrapping around her shoulders.

She looked up and saw her brother's beautiful face.