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I left Harold to deal with King Ricardo for several days while I continued to recuperate. Elizabeth was often at my bedside, and while Lars sulked at first, he quickly learned there were advantages to the situation. He sat on my pillow and prodded my forehead smugly for hours, and while I wasn’t thrilled with his behavior, Elizabeth’s love was more than enough to help me recover.
At this point, there was no point in hiding my condition from King Ricardo, but when we told him, he just shrugged.
“Figured as much,” he said.
“You noticed?”
“Soon as you saw me, I could tell you thought I was a pain. You did a decent job of hiding it, but Mariabel’s given me that look a hundred times, and I wouldn’t mistake it for anything. I figured that there was more going on than the barrier dropping—and that was ’cause of Plum, right? I figured there was something else going on.”
Really, Mother?
“But I gotta admit,” he continued, “I never noticed you lost your memories. Good thing you got your aide and fiancée! You put up a great front yourself.”
Even as he gave me a too-hard slap on the shoulder, I looked up at him in surprise. He’d taken the explanation of my ordeal incredibly well. I’d only told him because the secret was too large to hide at this point, but I would have thought he’d at least have more questions for me.
“You pass,” the king announced with a grin. “I’ll get out of your hair now.”
I blinked. “I…pass? What?”
“What’s that look for? I told you, a country’s not run by one man alone. You’ve got a whole system of folks who accept you and who wanna support you. You’ll bring happiness and glory to Mariabel’s country; for that, you pass.” I still didn’t know what to say, and he dropped a large hand on my head. “You take care of Princess Elizabeth now.”
With that, he turned and asked Harold to prepare his carriage. He intended to leave, it seemed, especially since he practically forced his way into my parents’ room to see Mother earlier and made her give him a prototype pendant.
So that’s all it takes to get rid of him…
“King Ricardo, I—”
He cut me off. “No need to say a thing. Just keep growing, and you’ll be a great king in no time.”
“It’s not that. You were really only here because of the hole in the barrier, right? This was never about any test.”
“Live happy, now! See you at the wedding!” He whipped about and made for the door but stopped to grab Harold by the arm. “I still think you should become my attend—”
“Absolutely not,” Harold replied firmly. “Your carriage is prepared. May I suggest you make use of it?”
“Right. See you, then!”
With one last vigorous wave, the Nievan king left the kingdom with the same sudden force with which he came.
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“SO, he’s gone.”
Mother sighed with relief as she looked up from her bedroom work desk, which was barely visible under the massive stacks of paperwork. With the king still bedridden, someone had to do the work.
“These are all for your wedding,” she said with only a fleeting glance at me. “Your father’s in no state to work, and you’re unreliable at best.”
Please stop reading my mind, Mother.
For the first time, I noticed that Plum was curled up on her lap. She idly scratched behind the cait sidhe’s ears as she read through the papers, and the cat purred loudly in turn. Mother smiled warmly at the little monster—and then Plum seemed to come to its senses.
“M-Mariabel?! I was sleeping! D-Don’t get the wrong idea nyow, I still hate you!”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t you?”
She paused, rifling through the papers, only resuming once Plum had curled up on her again. Father watched the entire exchange intently from the bed, and I noticed that they were wearing matching loungewear again. It likely originated as a means of deterring King Ricardo, but they even did so in front of me at times, seemingly on purpose.
Mother looked up at me while I was still taking stock of their outfits. “We’d finally gotten out of the practice of matching, but of course, Ricardo had to visit.”
So she’s not even doing it on purpose anymore.
“Your father often has the chambermaids ask what I’m wearing so he can match it on purpose.”
That was surprising, to say the least, and an odd thought. He must love my mother even more than I’d thought.
Mother gave me a serious look. “Don’t become a husband like him. Understand?”
On the bed, Father was breathing heavily, pretending to be asleep. I didn’t blame him. At this point, I wasn’t sure if Mother was extremely unlucky in her suitors or if she was incredibly fortunate to have two different kings pining after her. Nonetheless, I nodded; the last thing I wanted was to trouble Elizabeth.
“Oh, and about Plum,” Mother began.
“Yes?”
“I’ve decided to set it free once your memories have been returned.”
“Are you certain?” I looked down at the feline on her lap, who was pretending to be asleep. Its ears flicked idly.
“The poor thing has been sealed for two whole decades, and its summoner’s geas has long since worn off. It’s merely a cait sidhe now, and as such, it doesn’t belong among humans.”
What I was asking, however, is whether or not the pair had talked to each other about the topic since they seemed fairly attached. I noticed loneliness in the way Mother looked at the creature.
I finally nodded. “Understood.”
Father’s “snoring” grew louder, and not wanting to wake either man or cat, let alone risk another troublesome pet coming to live with us, I kept my lips sealed.