Fie was always treated coldly in her homeland, and her father had decided to take advantage of her sister’s wedding to dump her on Orstoll. The moment she arrived, she was shut up in the consort’s chambers. Then, on the day her cook decided to quit, she saw a pamphlet advertising the upcoming squire admission tests and decided to break out of her confines. So that no one would find out, she did the best she could without any food of her own. Then she met Crow, was accepted into the squires thanks to Captain Yore, and the rest was history.
Once she finished talking, Crow put his head in his hands and groaned. “I thought you were a child of illegal immigrants, but it turns out you were nobility all along.”
Roy, on the other hand, suddenly bowed to her. “My apologies!”
Fie was stunned. “Huh? Why are you apologizing? It’s not your fault! The only people who wronged me were my parents and... well, I probably shouldn’t say this since you’re his sworn man, but the king of Orstoll.” She wasn’t sure if she should bad-mouth his boss right in front of him, but she couldn’t deny that it was the king’s fault.
The chancellor sighed. “Do take a closer look,” he said, indicating Captain Yore. “Do you not notice anything?”
Fie tilted her head in confusion. See, now that he mentioned it, something didn’t add up. The chancellor had said he was bringing her to see His Majesty the King, so what were Captain Yore and Sir Crow doing here? Also, this was the first time she had seen the captain without his mask, but she felt like she had seen him somewhere before. She knew he was Captain Yore the moment she had heard his voice, but—well, Crow was pretty good-looking, but he couldn’t hold a candle to Captain Yore. She definitely would have remembered seeing someone this dreamy.
“The fact that she cannot even recognize you speaks volumes to the level of neglect you showed her,” the chancellor remarked snidely.
Captain Yore paled, although Fie wasn’t sure what about that comment was so cutting. Crow made an “oops” face.
The chancellor ignored them and turned to address Fie. “This gentleman is none other than your lord husband, His Majesty King Roy.”
Fie blinked in shock and then took another serious look at the captain. He was right. Now that she thought about it, he was the spitting image of the portraits of King Roy she had seen many times before. Fie shrieked. No way! King Roy and Captain Yore were the same person? Honestly, she didn’t fully believe it. She’d have to check it with him later—
“I apologize,” Yore repeated with another bow, “that you suffered such harsh treatment at my hands.”
Fie frantically shook her head. “No, please don’t worry about it! I never told you, and besides, you more than made up for it with all the help you gave me as Captain Yore!” Then she paused. “Wait a minute. If you were the one who had me locked up in the first place, why’d you let me become a squire? Were you trying to bribe me to keep me quiet?”
This accusation stabbed Roy like a knife. He turned a further shade of white.
Fie quickly realized her mistake. “Oh, okay, never mind! Here, but, um, I guess if I had talked to you in the first place, I probably could have been treated a little nicer, right? So it’s my fault too for not communicating properly!” Fie realized that the only reason she could draw this conclusion now was because she had spent a whole year meeting new people and relying on them. The old Fie could never have done this. She didn’t have enough faith in anyone.
It was Fie’s whole attitude, this cheerfulness in the face of her aggressor, which dealt the ultimate blow to Roy’s battered psyche. But once he calmed down and thought about it, he realized it really was his fault. It was his prejudice that had led to him never once meeting her until, upon seeing her as Heath, he doted upon her in sympathy for her poor background, never once realizing that he was the one responsible for said background. What a farce!
Crow, too, as the one unable to stop Roy from this behavior, was hit by this as well. Talk about just deserts for the both of them... How could they apologize or make up for this? What was Roy to do? Certainly, he couldn’t make a decision here lightly.
But as for Fie, well... She used to want to punch King Roy’s lights out if she ever happened to run across him. Sure, it was probably impossible, and if she did it would have no end of consequences, so this was never a serious plan. Still, that was how she thought of King Roy, but the King Roy of her imagination wasn’t the man in front of her.
This was the man who always thought of those in trouble, who put his absolute best into everything he did, and who looked after Fie with such utter kindness when she became a squire. He was the man who gave her advice, counseled her when she was upset, and took her out to eat even when he was busy. This was her captain, a man who had proved to her time and time again that he had the biggest heart in the world.
Thus, she thought, it probably wouldn’t do to picture him so rudely again. (Mind you, she probably shouldn’t have done so before she had even met him, but what was done was done.) Okay, she decided. She’d forgive her captain, this King Roy. In fact, she’d forgiven him already.
“It’s true,” she said, “that I was treated badly when I first came here. But the year I spent as a squire was absolutely wonderful. And I have you to thank for that, both as King Roy for ruling the country and as Captain Yore for welcoming me in as a squire. So, thank you.”
She hoped this would assuage at least some of his self-inflicted guilt, but it unfortunately only made it worse. Even though Fie’s bad upbringing made her desperate for attention, mischievous, and sometimes mean, she was a good person on the inside. This was especially apparent to Roy, who had watched over her, doted on her during her squire training, and knew her to be a very good person. Whenever he saw her giving her best effort despite her rough childhood (or so he assumed) and small stature, he added another bullet point to the mental list of Fie’s good qualities. That Fie could forgive him for causing her poor living situation multiplied the list’s length several times over and flooded Roy with another wave of guilt. He had hurt this poor child, and the weight of this crime consumed him. He needed to spend his whole life making it up to her and give some serious thought about what action to take now—and yet, here she was, already forgiving him! It only served to trouble him further. It was agony.
Crow, not in the direct line of fire but still being clipped by the ricochet, glanced at Roy and thought to himself, Aw, crap. This was the first time he’d ever seen Roy look this bad. He hadn’t even made this face when a female hostage they were protecting was stabbed in the stomach. Roy looked so furious he might be about to order his own execution. He struggled through the quagmire of his excruciating guilt over this person he had victimized who still struggled on so bravely, so—
The chancellor interrupted this line of thought with a sigh. “This has been an eye-opening experience for me as well.” He rarely spoke this plainly, and Roy wasn’t sure what he meant by this. However, it was clear that whatever he had to say needed to be said. “I have always thought, Your Majesty, that you and I must have a simple lord and subject relationship. I deemed it inappropriate for me to treat you as any uncle treats his nephew. However, I believe that I may have been wrong about this as well. Looking back on it now, I wonder if I should have taken a more active role in your life.”
Roy’s eyes widened. He had always treated the chancellor as his uncle, but it was the chancellor himself who kept this distance between them.
“At any rate,” Zorace continued, “let us save this discussion for another time. We will also discuss apologies and what is to be done at a later date. Your Majesty Princess Fie, we will see to it that you’re given proper housing within the palace in the meantime.”
“Wait, uh... You mean I can’t go back to the dorm?” Fie asked. She wanted to go back to the place she was used to living in. Couldn’t she at least stay there until all this business was dealt with?
“Why, do you plan on jumping through another flaming hoop?” the chancellor asked, glaring at her sternly.
Fie gulped and turned white. Oh yeah, she realized. She was still in trouble for that.
“You jumped through a what now?” Crow asked.
Ultimately, the meeting adjourned, as per the chancellor’s wishes.