HAND IN MARRIAGE

Ashleah with her bored eyes and pursed lips lazily walked her way beside her father's throne, even though she was lazily walking her way you cannot help but to admit it that she was so elegant. "Her Imperial Highness, Princess of Genry Greetings!"

A total of 5 men with 5 older men, she was guessing that those are the Princes asking her hand for marriage. She showed them her fake smile and nodded her head. "Greetings." With her being annoyed with the current situation, Ashleah was about to look but suddenly the door popped Nash out of nowhere.

"His Imperial Majesty, Emperor of Genry Greetings!" Nash firstly greeted her Father without a smile plastered on his face, very intimidating. "Her Imperial Highness, Princess of Genry Greetings!" His eyes landed on hers, both did not want to break the eye contact yet the only difference was Nash seemed a bit off today.

"My, what brings you here Duke Deoncan?" The Emperor asked, everyone inside the throne room had their eyes on him. Still, Nash looked so composed.

"Gab and Kian wanted to inform you that there are more guests coming so this meeting should end a little faster, your majesty." With that being said, it felt like Nash was an angel sent from the heavens above.

Meanwhile, the Emperor just shook his head with a cheeky smile plastered on his face as he nodded and stood up from his throne. His gaze went back to those men in front of them, and his grinning face quickly changed back into a straight forward one.

"Please do accept my deepest apologies for we have a lot of upcoming guests, let's just quickly finish this meeting with what you five young men and what you wanted to say to my daughter, shall we?"

No one dared to speak up nor go against his will, they just nodded their head and one by one, the Princes took a step forward and bowed their heads. The first one with a very bright smile plastered on his face, making him look dashing took a step forward and introduced himself to the Imperial Family.

"Greetings, I am the Crown Prince of the kingdom Kahlo, Prince Blake. I am here today to formally court and ask for the Imperial Princess Izel's hand in marriage." He smiled, well, he was indeed handsome and his smile would definitely make you feel at ease. Ashleah thought.

Another Prince took a step forward with a rather dashing smile and with his eyes that held competitiveness the Prince introduced himself. "Greetings your Majesty, your Highness. I am the Crown Prince of Zeyra, Prince Enver. I am also here today for the celebration of his Majesty's birthday and to ask the Princess' hand in marriage."

Ashleah looked back at the huge window behind them and slowly shook her head with her eyelids closed. She was feeling a bit off and uncomfortable that they really want her to be their wife.

The third Prince took a step forward, he wasn't smiling– ah, scratch that. As soon as his feet landed on the step that he took forward, the man tried his best to smile yet it still looked like it was fake.

"Greetings, I am the Crown Prince of the Kingdom called Ecanus, and I am Prince Akriel. The only difference with my presence here today is I—"

"Prince Akriel!" His Father suddenly called out for his son, and did not let him finish what he was going to say. Ashleah saw how Prince Akriel rolled his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking up again.

"I am here to also ask for the hand of Princess Izel in marriage and also to celebrate with his Majesty on his very special day." He said, emotionless. His eyes held depths of despair as he took another deep breath and exhaled.

And with that, the last Prince took a step forward, he also had this what am I even doing here aura and his emotionless eyes landed on the Princess. "Greetings, I am the soon to be Crown Prince of Viede, Prince Lovis. Unfortunately, I never knew I had this many enemies for the hand of her Imperial Highness." He chuckled sarcastically making his Father, the king of Viede clear his own throat.

"Oh, so these Princes right in front of us wants the hand of my precious daughter in marriage?" Emperor Adler raised both of his eyebrows, obviously surprised yet his eyes were looking at Nash who was behind everyone, with that he saw how the Duke rolled his eyes and tried to distract himself. "Good luck then, let's see if you can crack this Princess up."

The audience meeting continued, Ashleah now had a throne of her own; The only difference was that her throne was a little bit smaller than her father's, of course what would she expect? She still is a princess that dreams- no, erase that. She still is a princess with a plan to be the very first Empress that would take over on her own.

"Now that's finished I can finally take a lot of rest-" She was wrong, indeed wrong. Widened eyes and pouting lips, the Princess was now inside her room, yes. She is, but there were a lot of maids and the Imperial Family's personal fashion designer was there too.

Ashleah finally realized why everyone was going chaotic. Tomorrow was her Father's birthday and they totally forgot about the dress that she was going to wear. "I do think that it's okay for me to repeat another dress that I do not even use that much-"

"Your highness, NO!" Everyone inside her room responded making her widened eyes blink a couple of times with her amazed scoff, her hands swiftly got removed from her own closet room door. "Tomorrow is his Majesty's birthday, and a lot of nobles, even kings from different kingdom came. I even heard that the other Emperor from the South came here." Nanny Riley said while she was taking measurements of the Princess' waist.

"Oh my! I even heard that there are a total of 5 princes already asking for her highness' hand in marriage, what even more tomorrow?" The fashion designer blurted out, as she continued to sketch out the gown that Ashleah was going to wear tomorrow.

"I go for the prince of Cielo!" A maid that was holding piles of fabric raised her hand with a bright smile plastered on her face said out loud. "He is very dashing and handsome, isn't he?"

"I say that Prince of Zeyra is way cuter than any of them!" Another maid blurted out, Ashleah just chuckled as she suddenly felt like she was at ease because their maids didn't feel like they were different when they are with them.

"But, the Prince of Kahlo was also cute, do not forget about him!" with that, the young female maids started to vote which Prince was better making Nanny Riley laugh as she shook her head.

The princess thought that this was too childish for them. Seriously? Voting for who the best Prince was, she was not even interested in any of them-

Ashleah could not finish what she was thinking when Nanny Riley spoke up. "I do think that Duke Deoncan would be better." With what her nanny said, Ashleah almost choked up on her own saliva as the blood came rushing to her cheeks.

The maids squealed as they nodded their head, some even did a facepalm on themselves. "How can we even forget about out first candidate!?" They blurted out, Ashleah with her head down pursed her lips as she felt her heart beating loudly than it was before.

Meanwhile, the man outside who overheard their conversation made a TSK sound that came from his mouth making Axis chuckle as his hand slowly lifted up and shakes Nash's shoulder. Trying to cheer up his friend.

"At least Nanny Riley did not forget about you." Axis chuckled even more because of how sour Nash's expression was. "Man, cheer up. It's not like Ashleah would go out with them- Oh."

Axis stopped and froze on the spot, making Nash lift his head up and he now felt even more ticked and annoyed. A smiling bright face welcomed them, as Axis' eyes examined the man in front of them and saw that he was holding a bouquet of red roses.

"Greetings Duke Deoncan at to our future high priest, Axis." Prince Enver said and yet again smiled at them, Nash was about to roast the sh*t out of him when the door suddenly opened, revealing Ashleah and the maids behind her, everyone was.. quite surprised and did not know howwould things go after this weird encounter.