Chapter 15: Wedding’s Eve
A single day remained before the royal wedding between Princess Patricia and Prince Dario. The wedding dress was complete, and Patricia was fidgeting as she tried it on for one final test run—equal parts giddy and terrified, by my estimation. She had grown quite close to Dario over the past month, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was starting to see him in a more romantic light—not the volcanic passion of two Bondmates, perhaps, but a tiny candle’s flame, burning soft and slow.
“Ooh, I’m getting nervous...” she murmured, clutching a hand to her chest.
“It’ll go just fine, don’t you worry,” I reassured her. There wasn’t much left for me to do now except to style her hair on the morning of the ceremony.
In times like these, I could only imagine the massive weight riding on her shoulders, knowing that this wedding bond would make her the new future queen of Vaxwald. Technically I was free to return home to Myulan just as soon as she felt secure on her own, but looking at her now...the way she smiled even in the face of anxiety...a part of me wished I could stay at her side forever.
For now, we just have to focus on making it through tomorrow, I told myself.
Unfortunately for me, however, the next incident wasn’t willing to wait that long.
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“YOU’VE got a big day ahead of you. Be sure to get plenty of sleep tonight, all right?” I told Patricia that night as I braided her hair for bed.
“I’m afraid I can’t make any promises. I’m simply too nervous to sleep!” she exclaimed.
“Shall I bring you something warm to drink?” Rebecca suggested. “Perhaps a glass of warm milk, or some sleep-inducing herbal tea?”
“Herbal tea would be lovely, please.”
“Right away, Your Highness.”
With that, Rebecca turned to leave. Meanwhile, I had just finished Patricia’s bedtime braids and had started to pack up my hairstyling supplies. As for Mona, she was sifting through the incense in order to select tonight’s fragrance. And Sari—
“Sari? What’s the matter?” Rebecca called as she headed for the door.
Sari was standing a short distance away from the rest of us, staring down at her hands with a hard look on her face. She was holding something concealed between her palms, but I couldn’t make out what it was.
“Sari!” Rebecca called once more.
But Sari ignored her, turned, and walked straight over to where Patricia and I were sitting.
She pulled her left hand away and raised her right.
Her fingers were curled around a pair of gold scissors.
Haircutting shears.
Was she going to exact her revenge on me over Kirion?
No.
Her eyes were focused on Patricia.
“Sari, no!”
I tried to stop her, but she dodged past me, her blades closing around one of the braids descending down Patricia’s chest at approximately neck height.
The Princess screamed and jumped back, squeezing her eyes shut in terror. Too thick to be cut with a single snip, the braid now dangled half-intact from her shoulder.
But Sari was intent on finishing the job.
“STOP!” I screamed on impulse. I could imagine no fate more cruel than to lose her beautiful long hair...and on the night before her wedding, no less.
Fury flared inside me. Gritting my teeth, I put my hand directly in front of her half-severed braid to shield it from further damage.
As a result, Patricia’s hair was kept safe. Unfortunately, my palm was not so lucky. For my efforts, I received a deep gash all the way to my pinky, blood streaming down my arm in red rivulets.
“Sari, how could you?!” Rebecca roared, seizing Sari from behind and pinning her arms up. Sari flailed, eyes bloodshot, waving her bloodied scissors in the air—but just then, our backup arrived in the form of Ray and the other bodyguard who had been stationed just outside the room. They took one look at Sari and apprehended her immediately, confiscating her weapon.
“Mayna!” Ray gasped, staring at my injured left hand. He whipped out a pair of handcuffs, slapped them on Sari, left her with the other guard, then rushed straight over to me. “Mayna, you’re hurt! No, don’t lower it. Keep it raised if you can!”
“Forget about me—worry about the Princess first! Sari cut her hair!”
Still holding my hand in his, Ray turned and looked over at Patricia. “Are you hurt, Your Highness?”
“Mayna...you’re bleeding...!” Patricia whispered at nearly the same time, staring down at my hand in shock, just as Ray had. “How awful... We need to get you patched up at once!” Her voice shook with emotion as the color drained from her face. Someone she trusted had just physically attacked her, and yet she seemed more worried for my well-being.
“But your hair...!” I choked in anguish.
“What about it?”
Only then did she finally turn her gaze to the nearby mirror. She inhaled sharply and froze for a moment, unmoving.
As Ray tended to my wound, he glanced at the Princess, then turned to Mona. “Go and call for the knights. Anyone will do—we’re shorthanded. Then call for Prince Dario. And while you’re at it, go to the infirmary and summon the doctor, too.”
“R-Right!” And with that, Mona scrambled from the room, clearly flustered.
“Why...?” I muttered bitterly, my eyes on Sari, who stood cuffed beside the other guardsman. Far more painful than the sting of my palm was the deep ache in my chest when I looked at Patricia’s dangling braid. I could understand wanting to hurt me, but the Princess? What did she ever do wrong?
Thinking back, Sari was the only one of the three servants who had yet to warm up to Patricia, but even then, she had never shown any strong contempt toward her until now. Or had I simply failed to notice it?
“Isn’t it obvious? She’s not worthy of our Prince,” Sari retorted, curling her lip in a haughty smirk. “Making her queen would put Vaxwald on the path to destruction. She’s just a gold-digger.”
“That’s patently false,” I shot back. “How could you possibly buy into those rumors? You had a whole month to get to know Her Highness for yourself—or were you not paying attention?”
“The rumors are real. Kirion told me so.”
“Kirion?” I furrowed my brow. I could sense Ray frowning along with me as he cradled my hand like it was a precious jewel.
“Yes, Kirion. He says the rumors are true.”
“And you believe him?”
“Of course I do. He’s my Bondmate. I would never question anything he says.”
“And that’s the only reason why you cut her hair?”
“Kirion told me we needed to put a stop to the wedding to protect our country. So he asked me to help him.”
So it was Kirion who gave the order to damage Patricia’s hair. My hands automatically balled into fists.
“Don’t squeeze your palm like that. Relax your hand,” Ray scolded me.
But before I could respond—
“What will I do...?” Patricia whimpered in a tiny, feeble voice, still staring blankly at her reflection. She lifted a shaking hand and brushed her fingers against the severed strands. “The wedding is tomorrow...and my hair... It’s horrid...!”
It killed me inside to see her so utterly crushed. But now was not the time for me to lose myself to emotion. Suppressing my anger toward Kirion and Sari, I spoke in a tone of forced composure.
“It’s going to be all right, Your Highness. I know how to style it in order to conceal the uneven parts. Luckily you didn’t lose all of it—once it’s done up, no one will ever be the wiser. Trust me, I can cover it up. It’ll be all right. This won’t affect the wedding, not one bit.”
I knew I must’ve sounded like a broken record, but I was genuinely confident in my ability to cover for the missing hair. Nevertheless, tears still welled in Patricia’s eyes. No surprise there, of course; I could hide the uneven cut all I wanted, but it wouldn’t undo the fact that her hair was cut in the first place.
Together we had put so much love and care into those long locks. They were an important part of her self-image. And now, with all that hard work down the drain, her confidence was in tatters.
“How could you do this to her, Sari?” Rebecca asked sorrowfully. “Even if you didn’t physically injure her, it still counts as assault. Did you really think you could get away with it?”
“I can and I will,” Sari declared proudly. “Kirion said he’ll come and rescue me.”
And the very next moment, sure enough, Kirion strolled into the room.
“Kirion...” I whispered.
He wore a gleeful smile, his eyes shining with mirth.
“I did it, Kirion!” Sari shouted...but Kirion wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Ray, who stood with his hand on the hilt of the sword at his belt.
“You despicable reprobate,” Ray growled as he stepped forward, positioning himself between Kirion and me. Looking at him made the room feel a good ten degrees colder all of a sudden. His rage was barely suppressed.
But Kirion had no response for Ray. Instead, he raised a hand in Patricia’s direction, muttered a few words—an incantation?—and in the next instant, a fiery vortex shot out from his palm in the Princess’s direction.
“Patricia...!” I shouted. She let out a high-pitched scream.
But before I could move to shield her, Ray had already taken action—he scooped her out of her chair and dashed out of the blast radius at the last possible second.
A handful of knights stormed into the room. Evidently they had quickly put two and two together; they wasted no time in drawing their blades and closing in on Kirion.
But Kirion wasn’t ruffled. Grinning, he leapt straight at me.
“Mayna!” Ray screamed.
“Kirion, what are you doing?!” Sari howled.
Kirion pulled me close, reciting another incantation.
And then the world around us vanished from sight.