Chapter 18 : The girl with the red hair

"A war?"

The tension in the room was getting thicker, as the nobles present contemplated on what king Burchard had said.

The entire continent of Ronia Cresus had been at peace for almost a hundred years. Sure there had been a bit of territorial conquests in the west, but that was mostly for the control of uncharted territory. Smaller kingdom's were mostly integrated by means of peaceful alliances, arranged marriages between nobles, and trade. There had never been a more peaceful time than the present.

King Aldos turned and looked at the tall dark haired king with wary questioning eyes. "What war?" He asked. "You're the largest kingdom in the continent, even if this supposed war you talk about comes to pass, who in their right mind would target you?"

"To that question I have no answer." King Burchard responded. "But I have very strong intel that a war is probable."

The dark haired kind turned to look at king Aldos, "as you've said, Gavaria is a very large and very stable kingdom, if this devastating war does break out, who do you think will be the first to succumb to it? The smaller kingdoms, Meria inclusive."

Everyone's face suddenly darkened, they couldn't voice it out but the Gavarian king was right. Meria was one of the smaller kingdoms, so it was prone to attack.

"So your best bet is to form an alliance with Gavaria so if the time comes, we will both stand a chance to protect our citizens and our kingdoms from attack."

King Aldos lay back on his chair and pinched the folds between his brows. Burchard did have a point, but was it wise to worry about an imaginary war that they weren't sure would even happen?

"I say we forge the alliance."

Everyone turned to look at the young prince who had spoken out. Prince Nathan straightened his posture before speaking out again, "think about it." He spoke. "Meria has nothing to lose yet something to gain. If the war doesn't occur, then well and good, we'd still have a resourceful and powerful ally on our side for any other future conquests. And if it does happen, we'll be ready for it."

King Burchard nodded at the young prince, clearly impressed with the young man's analyzation. He reminded him a lot of his own son, strong willed, decisive and sharp.

King Aldos let out a defeated sigh, "Alright," he spoke, he turned to lord Morrell. "Prepare a royal decree, Meria and Gavaria will be allies from now on."

*

"Your grace this is so boring, can't we do something a little more interesting?"

Julia had been sitting watching Prince Adam filling out paper work all morning. Ever since her father and the king had left for Meria, the queen had asked the young lady to stay a few days at the royal palace in hopes that her son and lady Julia would become closer.

But unfortunately, the entire arrangement seemed to be having the opposite effect. The more time Julia spent around the palace, the more time prince Adam spent away from it.

Today Julia had concocted a plan and asked the prince if she could accompany him wherever he was going, claiming to be bored being alone in the large castle.

Clearly Julia had not expected that the prince was actually out doing important duties, she thought he was just leaving to try and avoid her. And now she was stuck there, watching him read mountains of books and scribble on paper.

"Aren't you tired your grace?" Julia complained yet again. "Why don't we take a break and have lunch together or something?"

Adam took a deep breath and twitched his brow in annoyance, but he made sure that the girl could not see his reaction.

He forced a smile and turned to Julia. "If you're that bored my lady, you're free to go and get something to eat, you don't have to stay here if you don't want to."

The young lady furrowed her brows and folded her arms over her chest. "I want to get something to eat with you your grace, be a gentleman and accompany me."

Adam pursed his lips and closed his eyes. Was this the girl his parents wanted him to marry? Gosh she was so clingy and annoying, he appreciated her as a friend but she was trying too hard to take their relationship to the next step, and this made prince Adam very uncomfortable.

The prince opened his eyes and nodded at Julia.

~If having lunch with you will get you to leave me alone, then so be it.~ the prince thought to himself.

As he rose from his chair, the doors of the study the two had been sitting in swung open and a well dressed butler walked into the room.

"Your grace, the king has returned from Meria."

~Oh thank the gods~

Adam turned to Julia, his face almost beaming with relief that he didn't have to have lunch with her.

When they were younger, Julia was really good company, they'd play in the gardens, jump in water puddles and get messy like all other kids did. But as they grew up, Julia became more and more snobby and a bit tiring to deal with. All she ever did was gossip about the other ladies of the land, talk about how prettier she was compared to the other girls, talk about all the nice clothes and shoes she wanted to purchase and all sorts of other boring spoiled rich girl topics. She literally had zero personality and yet somehow, Adam was expected to one day make her his wife, were his patients absolutely blind?

"Forgive me my lady but I'm afraid our luncheon plans have to be canceled, I'm terribly sorry." Adam spoke, not feeling sorry in the slightest. "We should go welcome the royal procession."

Julia glared at the prince as he hurried towards the door, when was he going to stop playing hard to get and accept her, couldn't he see she was the only woman who was good enough to be by his side?

*

"Darling.."

The queen walked over to king James Burchard and gave him a hug. "I'm so relieved you're back in one piece."

"You're not getting rid of me that easy." The king chuckled and planted a kiss on the queen's cheek.

"Father."

Adam bowed before his father and smiled at him, "judging from your mood I can only assume that the meeting went well."

"Indeed it did my boy." The king responded merrily

"The king of Meria seems to be quite the stubborn man." Lord Boleyn spoke as he gave his agitated daughter a hug. "But we managed to get through to him."

"Ah yes we have that son of his to thank," the king added on, "prince Nathan was it?"

"Yes your grace, prince Nathaniel Aldos."

"Fine young man, he's very sharp just like you Adam." The king gave Adam a hard pat on the back, "I think you two would get along swimmingly."

"He seems to have a way with words." Lord Boleyn commented. "He's going to make quite the sly king one day."

"Explains how he managed to get himself such a lovely young las." The king spoke while teasingly hitting his son's back.

"Father please, this is not the time." Adam responded, he knew where this conversation was going and he wanted no part in it.

"You should have seen her my boy, gorgeous little young lady with bright blue eyes and red flowing hair."

Prince Adam's eyes went round, what had his father just said? A girl with bright blue eyes and red hair? Could it be the girl from his dreams?

Adam grabbed his father's hand and looked at him sternly. "Are you sure father? About the girl? Did she really have red hair and blue eyes?!"

The king was a bit shaken by the heist in his son's voice. "Why yes, I saw her with my own two eyes. Do you know her?"

Adam's breathing had become heavy, if the girl his father had seen really was the girl from his dreams, then he had to meet her. He had so many questions, his dreams, the feelings he felt every time he thought about her, why he felt like they were connected somehow, all those needed answers. And to top it all off, even though it sounded completely ridiculous, Adam felt like he had feelings for this girl. Maybe he was going insane, falling for a girl he'd only seen in his dreams, but he really couldn't help it.

Now that he knew she was real, and now that he knew where to find her, he was going to follow her and claim her heart.

"Adam?"

Adam awoke from his trance and shook his head, trying to soak in the words his father had said.

"I'm sorry father but may I be excused?" The prince asked politely. "I'm suddenly not feeling very well so I'll be heading to my chambers."

Adam didn't even wait for his father to answer, he just turned and started heading towards the staircase.

This couldn't have been a coincidence, what are the odds that the girl who had been gracing his dreams every night since he was a child belonged to a country they'd just made an alliance with?

No, this was no coincidence, this was destiny. Adam was meant to find this girl and make her his.