It was clear that the person he loved, Lady Mariott, had been a plant used to strengthen the first prince’s position. The one who’d pushed the former crown prince to end his engagement with Lady Francess, the one who’d asked him to destroy his own reputation and turn aside the throne, the one whose every request somehow ended up benefiting the first prince—it was all her. There was no doubt that the first prince’s faction had sent her to seduce him. But even after all the things she’d gotten him to do, he’d continued to trust her, and now he was living with the result of his actions. All that trust, wasted.
“It’s your fault, mother...” he muttered, still looking at the ceiling. After essentially being a statue in this room, he finally spoke, surprising all of us. “It’s all your fault! If you hadn’t done that, then my dear Lily...she wouldn’t have...”
He’d erupted into a fury over Liliana Mariott, the daughter of Baron Mariott. Her nickname was Lily. Apparently, talking about her was a trigger.
Her Majesty had no words in response. She simply looked sorrowfully at the floor. Though they didn’t say it outright, I could tell what’d happened to Lady Mariott from the way they were acting. Since Her Majesty had suspected they would be attacked, she must have had a plan in place. And the fact that they were here meant the assassins had failed and most likely been killed. It’d have been one thing if the assassins only assaulted their carriage as they fled, but if they’d launched an attack in the establishment where Lady Mariott had lured them, then the only way they would’ve gotten out was by fighting, which would undoubtedly lead to casualties.
“I don’t think you have anything to apologize for, Your Majesty,” Ana said, surprisingly saying something that could result in more heated words.
After appearing in noble society more, Ana had had more opportunities to speak with Her Majesty and had become more sympathetic to her.
“What are you saying?! She’s clearly at fault! It’s because of the guards she brought that Lily died!”
“I think it’s quite natural to defend yourself if you or a family member are in danger of being hurt. Her Majesty is not at fault for repelling the attackers. The ones at fault here are the ones who attacked,” Ana said. Hearing her sound argument, the prince lost his words. He had nowhere to place his anger, so it all got focused into his fist, which was now trembling. “Every time you caused some kind of problem, Her Majesty swept in to solve it. She cares about you so deeply. How can you say these cruel things about her?”
“She only did that to keep her power! Everyone at the palace knew that!”
It was true that there were quite a few people at the palace who thought that. More specifically, there were a lot of people who bad-mouthed the queen in order to keep her in place. The former crown prince had grown up hearing these things, and most likely, Lady Mariott had said them as well. From her standpoint, a rift between the prince and his mother only benefited her. He most likely ate up every last one of her words.
“How does protecting a former crown prince help her gain power? How does her accompanying you to a place where she knew an attempt would be made on your life help? How would defeating the assassins help her? It was all for your sake, because she cares about you deeply. Even her being here today is because of that. She tossed away her pride and essentially prostrated herself before us. Can you truly not tell how much love she has for you?”
The prince looked stunned. Lady Mariott had snaked her way into his heart so deeply that he believed every lie she fed him. No. Wait. Maybe...
“It may be true that many people talked poorly of Her Majesty, but you were right by her side the entire time. It’s hard to think you didn’t know these were all lies. You probably tried to not think too deeply about it because that way, you could easily release your frustration by lashing out at your mother whenever your relationship with Lady Mariott had problems.” I couldn’t help but say this.
The reason the former crown prince was surprised wasn’t because he’d just realized his mother actually loved him; it was because this was the first time someone else had pointed it out. The face he’d made was the same one people made when someone hit the nail on the head.
“And what basis do you have to say that?!” he snapped.
“If she was truly using you as nothing more than a political tool, then you would have distanced yourself from her. However, whether it was at the palace or even here, you show no signs of being wary of her. If anything, I see a strong sense of trust. You know that even if you lash out at her for your own mistakes, she’ll never abandon you. All I can think is that you understand that she will always give you unconditional love.”
“Th-That’s not...”
“I’ve heard that you haven’t changed how you act with Her Majesty at all since you were a child. Most likely, you chose to stop trying to think too deeply about the lies people told versus what you knew to be true. However, you’re an adult now. You can’t keep stretching out this misunderstanding forever. The only ones who can still rely on their mothers while lashing out at them are children. How about you show your mother how mature you’ve become?”
He had no rebuttal and instead stormed out of the drawing room without another word. Her Majesty deeply apologized for his lack of etiquette, both coming and going so rudely.
“It’s quite all right. He’s only twenty-five. Though he’s technically an adult, he’s still young from the view of society.”
“Oh? That’s something that an old person like myself would say, Sir Ginorious,” Matthew chuckled, seeing how Her Majesty was looking at me with a suspicious expression.
Oh, right. I was younger than the former crown prince.
I recommended to Her Majesty that he go through a psychological healing program at our estate. It was the same kind of program that people who lost their family to monsters or carried huge emotional scars would go through to turn them into soldiers.
But that being said, it wouldn’t be anything too hard. Though there was a counseling element to it, at its essence, it was just working the body through physical means. By using the body, the brain would secrete chemicals, essentially creating an endorphin high. By repeating that process, they’d find relief in their heart while delving into training and become great soldiers.
It wouldn’t be too bad for him to go through that. When I had lived in the slums after ending my engagement with Ana, I’d practiced my swordsmanship and martial arts for hours on end. It was best to do some simple but difficult training whenever one felt down. By doing that, you could forget about unnecessary things. Even if my heart hurt to the point where I couldn’t sleep, if I trained until I was unsteady on my feet, I’d simply crawl into bed and pass out.
Ultimately, Her Majesty enthusiastically agreed to my suggestion. What she was worried most about right now was whether or not he would try to take his own life.