What She Wants

Your Majesty is a man of benevolence and great reverence. You wouldn't go against your words, would you?" Princess Lily squinted her eyes in question.

"Haha." The king burst into laughter, "Tear of that page then."

Lily read the entire page first to make sure that it only contained the unsettling clause before tearing it off." She then signed after rereading it multiple times.

"I'll take my leave now, Your Majesty." She bowed and squeezed the torn off paper in her hand before leaving.

                          * ~ *

"Your highness!" Mary popped out of nowhere, she grabbed Lily's hands in hers and led her to her room.

"Is there a problem, Mary?" Lily tilted her head, shocked by Mary's sudden outburst.

"Are you fine, My princess?" Mary answered Lily's question with a question of her own.

"Huh?" She made a face, furthur bewildered by Mary's behaviour.

"I heard you asked his majesty for the langsher land?"

"I did, so...?" Lily trailed her words.

"It's a cursed land, My princess. Don't tell me you want to live there from henceforth." The worried look on the young maid's face was truly amusing, hence Lily teased, "What? Are you afraid I'll send you to a cursed barren land?" She slurred her words dramatically.

Mary flushed at Lily's words, "No! Why would you say that, Your highness?! I was merely concerned about you!"

Lily covered her ears with her hands to save her eardrums from Mary's shrill scream. She didn't want to scare her any further by teasing her, hence, Lily clarified in an assuring voice, "Fear not, I have no plans of residing in the Langsher's manor."

"Then..." Mary trailed off before picking up where she left off, "Why are you over-exerting yourself? You're barely even ten, My princess, you should be playing happily with dresses and dolls just like Princess Camille."

Lily blankly stared at her. It really would seem strange from an outsider's perspective; a young child working so hard and getting herself in danger more times than one.

"I thought it would be the end of you when you went against the second queen."

Lily glanced at the maid; how did she know that she went against the second queen? But then again, maids do gossip and the maids who were present then must have spilt the beans.

"But then, you returned poisoned one day, and one day, you walked all the way to the west wing only to cry yourself to sleep."

The young princess watched her aide bawl her eyes out, she couldn't console a crying person, especially when the reason for that person's tears was her own self.

"You skip meals and you sleep so late." Mary peered into hey eyes, "Does your highness wish to not grow tall and remain short and teeny-tiny forever?"

"Ha..." Lily scoffed internally. Was she trying to scare me with those words? But too bad, she already knew how much she'll grow as long as she ate and rested well enough.

"I'll be just fine, Mary. By the way, don't you think you have something to do?"

"What? How unfair, Your highness, you're ignoring my question."

"Aren't you in charge of the new servants? Are you perhaps, neglecting your duty?"

"But they don't even reside here and they barely even come by... just to do a few things here and there and then, leave."

"Well, whilst they are still here, go supervise their work."

"Ah." Mary finally resigned to her fate with a low groan before leaving.

After confirming that Mary was truly gone, Lily picked up her book. She had no way to grow her political power or strengthen her social standing at this point since she was still a little bit too young, hence she could only rely on Queen Hannah. Even the langsher land would be handled by the Eastern Duchy.

However, what she could do now was learn. Though, she already knew everything from basic to the most advanced etiquettes, she still needed a teacher. One that would stay for only a few month but their presence should be at least, strong enough to cause a stir in the noble social circle; she just needed a person who would act as a strong cover.

If she decided to just use her memories of the past life, tongues would wag. People would talk about how the first princess never had an etiquette teacher and a tutor, even if she was good in all topics.

Lily drew in a deep breath.

Marchioness Helen would've been a great candidate if not for the fact that she was hellbent on matchmaking her with son.

Queen Hannah couldn't do it, too, because of certain reasons, but, those were the only powerful people she had come in contact with since her regression.

The person who tutored her in her past life was a small baroness who had earned her peerage through dubious means, hence, she had a very bad reputation. However, the person who was responsible for tutoring Camille was a well-known socialist from the capital.

The only person who could help her at this point was Queen Hannah, but Lily felt like she had troubled the young queen enough. Though, they had a deal, it was only right to remain within the line.

"Tsk...I should have just asked him for two wishes." Lily murmured underneath her breath.

If she had asked the king for a governess of high status, then she would not be in this squabble at this time.

Such peril.

Still, the graphite mine in the langsher land was much more important than...

Her thoughts trailed off when a small head popped into her room from the slightly opened door.

"Hello." The voice so cute that it was upsetting rang out in the room, and the familiar child with long golden blonde hair and bluish green eyes entered the room.

"Sister, mother is still pretty out of it after what you did." Camille spoke with a calm tone, "Camille was worried about you."

Lily was not in the mood for this so she said nothing. She had warned the servants not to let anyone other than Queen Hannah in, so how did the little twat get in here?

"Camille wanted to speak to sister on that day, but sister was very angry, so sister avoided Camille."

Lily almost shrank back in disgust, however, she was too tired to move, thus she sat motionlessly. The king and the capital nobles had already drained out all the energy she had, now this?

-