It was a common occurrence for the two brother to disagree with each other. However, this time, it was Leonard who looked away first. “Since when does the first prince of this kingdom have to bow down to lick the prime minister’s boots?” Leonard asked sarcastically. “I’m not asking you to lick anyone’s boots. I’m just asking you to be nice to his daughter!” Darius yelled back. “I’m always nice to her…” Leonard muttered. “You know very well that that isn’t the kind of nice that I’m referring to,” Darius retorted. “What do you want me to do?” Leonard asked with complete disinterest. “Can you just please…visit her at her palace? She just moved here so please welcome her properly,” Darius said desperately. “I don’t want to…” Leonard stated emotionlessly. Darius clenched his teeth. He always knew that Leonard was extremely stubborn. A soft sigh escaped Darius’s lips before his grey eyes returned to Leonard’s face again. “You did not turn up to the afternoon tea party either. She was asking for you and I had to cover up for your absence. Undoubtedly, she has told her father about it,” Darius said. “I don’t care what her father has to say, and I have no idea why you do,” Leonard snapped. “I don’t particularly care about the prime minister, but he does have influence in the royal council. Let me remind you that the head of that council is the King. Our father…” Darius reminded his brother solemnly. Leonard cursed loudly and fluently before his brows drew together in a scowl. Once again, he hated the idea of taking over the throne and thought that Darius would make one hell of a better king. “Why don’t you do it? Why don’t you go to her palace and welcome her,” Leonard suggested with a careless shrug. “Because she wants to marry you and not me!” Darius yelled. “You mean that her father wants her to marry me,” Leonard quickly corrected. “It’s the same thing. The prime minister wants to make his daughter the next queen. Our father seems to be in full support of it and so are all the leading politicians of this nation,” Darius stated as his eyes stared deeply into his brother’s. It was hard for Darius to understand why Leonard was being extra stubborn about paying Lady Regina a visit at her new palace. After all, it wasn’t like those two are strangers to each other. Being part of a very prominent aristocratic family, Regina had spent many years of her childhood in the palace. With their parents being close just like their ancestors, Regina and Leonard along with the other princes grew up as playmates. Everyone who had witnessed their childhood days together would have realized that Regina and Leonard had a special connection to one another. They were always together. As time passed by and the two of them grew up, they were never strangers to one another. Regina visited the palace often and spent time with Leonard. As far as Darius was away, the two got along very well. However, he also knew that they were not lovers. “Leo. Just go and see her. I don’t know why you’re being so stubborn about this. You two are…or were…very close…” Darius said calmly. Leonard seemed thoughtful for a moment before he sighed in resignation. “I’ll go see her. I haven’t seen her for too long, anyways…” Leonard said after finally giving in. “By the way, I heard that the virgin woman that you purchased has been summoned by Regina to be her personal maid,” Darius said before shooting Leonard a pointed look. “You met her?” Leonard asked with a hint of dissatisfaction in his voice. “She was working at the tea party. The poor girl got into an accident and got cuts on her arms. They were not deep, but I decided to take her to the infirmary anyways,” Darius said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Hmm…is that so? You should have told me earlier…” Leonard murmured. Darius wondered what he should have told Leonard earlier. The fact that the girl got into an accident or the fact that she was summoned by Regina, or perhaps, both? “If I did, would you have visited Regina’s palace right away?” Darius asked in wonder. “Maybe…” Leonard mumbled with a distant look in his blue eyes. … **In Regina’s Palace** I stared at the beautiful palace in front of me with it’s mix of pink and grey tone marble decorations. The architecture of the palace was breathtaking and very unfamiliar to anything that I had seen before. Being a lowly maid in the palace did not give me many opportunities to see palaces such as this. It was a far cry from the maids’ quarters and the gardens which were all that I’ve seen so far of the palace grounds. I had a feeling that the entire palace must be extremely big with many buildings that I haven’t seen or been to yet. A guard led me to Lady Regina’s palace on foot and after quite a while of walking, I arrived there. The woman that I saw from earlier at the tea party in the garden was waiting for me in front of the palace. If I remembered correctly, her name is Sophie. “Welcome to Lady Regina’s palace. My name is Sophie and I’m the lady’s personal maid,” the woman introduced herself proudly. “Hello. My name is Mila. Madame Cassandra told me that I should start working here for Lady Regina starting today,” I told her politely. “That’s right. Please follow me,” Sophie said as she turned and began walking. I followed right behind her as my eyes wandered towards the large garden with many tall trees with dark green leaves. Just like the other gardens on the palace grounds, this garden seemed to be well maintained and beautifully decorated with various sculptures of fantasy creatures. To my surprise, instead of taking me into the building of the palace, Sophie led me deeper into the gardens. “This is a very special tree, and the Lady favors it,” Sophie said as she gestured with her hand at the largest and tallest tree in the garden. --To be continued…