“E-E-Ed?! Why are you here?”
“Hello, Amy. Why…? Oh, did you not read the letter yet?” Edward smiled as he saw the paper still curled up in Amy’s hand. “It seems like I’ve caught you by surprise!”
She quickly unrolled the paper. It was a brief note simply to let her know he was on his way to visit.
“The roads were empty, so I got here much quicker than I normally would.”
“I-I see that.”
Amy was so shocked she could barely think straight.
Edward looked slightly concerned. He scrutinized her face and put a hand to her forehead, checking for a fever.
“Are you feeling okay? This was the first time you’ve said you wanted to talk to me, so I rushed over here, but if you’re still feeling unwell…”
“I-I’m okay! I got a little sad when I saw the letter because I thought it meant you weren’t going to come, so I’m just a little surprised to see you.”
“That made you sad?”
“Um! That’s not—I mean—I guess—um—”
What on earth am I blabbing about?!
Amy blushed furiously and slapped a hand over her traitorous mouth. Edward—slightly belatedly—flushed red up to the tops of his ears.
Seeing him blush, Amy couldn’t make heads or tails of anything anymore.
“You said that thought made you sad—”
“L-Let’s go talk over there!”
Amy found it hard to navigate her newly realized feelings of love. Despite being interrupted, Edward graciously let the subject drop.
Edward gave a brief signal to Darios, who stood at a distance, and one of the Northland family servants, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, and then he and Amy made their way toward the gazebo.
Even though Edward had come all this way to see her, they couldn’t just leisurely enjoy each other’s company. Amy got right down to business as soon as they sat on the gazebo bench.
“Do you remember at the tournament, when I went to your waiting room before the team matches began? Well, after that, I was trying to get back to the first aid room when I happened to come across Her Majesty the Queen.”
Amy continued to explain how, although the queen was supposed to walk past her, she stopped in front of her for some reason, as if she knew her. Then, she gave Amy a ring.
“A ring?” Edward asked, sounding surprised.
“Yes. Finn told me it was probably a proof of recognition for me as a healing magician.”
“Yes, I’ve heard there were such things, but…”
Amy took off the pendant necklace that she always wore around her neck and removed the ring from the chain. Carefully holding the softly glimmering gold ring, she placed it in Edward’s open hand.
Edward inspected it closely, and then his eyes widened in surprise.
“Yes… This is definitely a royal crest.”
Amy hadn’t realized it before, but it wasn’t just a royal crest—it was the queen’s official coat of arms. With that ring, not only could she go to the Grand Bookshelf and Greenhouse One, but all areas of the castle were open to her…even the private wings of the palace exclusively for members of the royal family.
It was far too magnificent a treasure to be given to a healing magician as a proof of recognition.
Edward would have never imagined that the queen, who very likely only thought of him as the “Third Prince,” would give something like this to his fiancée candidate. But the queen could not have removed the ring from her own finger and given it to someone else without knowing the significance of that coat of arms…
Only members of the royal family have rings like this. For her to personally give it to someone, then that would mean…
Edward stared at the ring’s engraving with a torn expression. Amy moved her head a little closer to get a better look, and then gently pointed to the underside of the coat of arms.
“Ed, look at the inside of the ring.”
“The inside? Here?” Balancing the ring between his fingers, Edward brought it up to his eyes and moved it around. “There’s very tiny letters engraved here… Huh?”
The tiny engraving jumped out at him, and once its significance sunk in, Edward found he couldn’t speak.
“This ring…” said Amy. “The queen must have worn it every day. Probably for many years.”
There were tiny scratches on the surface of the ring, meaning she had probably worn it daily, not just as ceremonial decoration. Amy realized that the engraving on the smooth metal inside the ring wasn’t words—it was a name and some numbers.
Edward’s name and four numbers representing a date.
“This is…” Edward managed to say.
“It’s your birthday, Ed.”
The king and queen had always kept their son, the Third Prince, at arm’s length to preserve the kingdom’s political stability. Even though they lived in the same palace, ever since Edward was little, they only saw each other on official occasions and barely spoke to each other at all.
Edward understood that these measures were necessary.
But deep down, he wished things didn’t have to be that way. And maybe…the queen and king wished the same.
She must have kissed it good morning and good night every day, in place of the son she could only watch from afar.
Edward had frozen in place, the ring still held up to his eye. Amy took his hand, once again pressed the ring firmly against his palm, and closed his fingers around it. He could feel the warmth of the ring in his hand, although that was probably the heat it had absorbed from where it had lain on Amy’s chest.
Edward’s gray eyes wandered around so rapidly, it almost looked like they were shaking. Amy firmly held his gaze with her own gold eyes and smiled faintly.
“I think she really wanted to give this ring to you, Ed.”
It wasn’t the right size to fit Amy’s tiny hands, but it would probably fit Edward’s finger perfectly.
Edward didn’t respond. He gently pressed the hand holding the ring against his forehead.
The only person who could understand how it felt wearing a ring engraved with the name of the son she couldn’t see—and the reason for entrusting it to Amy—was the queen herself.
After a while, Edward brought his hand back down and opened his fingers.
“…You have it, Amy.”
“Really? Me?”
“I want you to,” he said, putting the ring on Amy’s finger.
Amy’s cheeks flushed at how similar the motion felt to a pretend wedding ceremony, but the ring was too big and swung loosely around her finger anticlimactically. Amy and Edward looked up at each other.
They both started laughing, neither sure which one cracked first.
“Can I put it on my necklace with your pendant?” Amy asked.
“Sure. I’ll be giving you a ring that’s perfect for you, anyway.”
“E-Ed!”
At nearly the same moment Amy’s heart pounded so loudly she could hear it in her ears, Edward swooped down and planted a kiss over the loose ring on her finger.
Amy’s whole body blushed a deeper shade of crimson and her lips trembled. Edward simply smiled even wider.