The Hidden King's Stolen Wife
Chapter 60: Funeral

Chapter 60: Funeral

If Soleia had been sleepy just now, she was no longer tired any longer. Whatever remaining bits of drowsiness that had been haunting her had quickly dissipated into nothingness. She had never been more awake than now, with her eyes wide open.

"Marry you?" she said, wondering if she had been so vain that she heard his request wrongly.

Unfortunately, Ralph nodded once, a faint blush rising to his cheeks. All of a sudden, the ice shelter that had been infinitely warm and had kept her snug and comfortable felt as though it was an icy prison.

"I..." Soleia trailed off, looking left and right. "I didn’t... I thought..."

Seeing her struggle for words, Rafael instantly felt the intense desire to give himself a tight slap across the face. He had come off so headstrong that this might as well be a profession of his love! And right after his supposed best friend had accused them of adultery! It was as good as hammering the last nail into the coffin.

Thus, he quickly shook his head, laughing slightly.

"I am sorry," he apologized. "I shouldn’t have said that. I have made things awkward now, haven’t I?"

His laughter turned a little more forced, a little more awkward. So much so that Soleia didn’t twice before lunging forward to hold his arm when he turned to leave.

"Princess?" Rafael asked, confused. He stared at her hand and then met her eyes, his eyebrows knitting together slightly.

Instead of meeting his eyes, however, Soleia looked at the ground beneath her. Her eyes traced the snow a thousand times before she finally gathered the courage to raise her gaze. When they collided, she felt her heart skip a beat.

"I... I am not unwilling to marry you," Soleia quietly said. Her voice was so soft that Rafael had to strain his ears just to listen in better, and even then, he could hardly believe he was hearing the right things. "But I am afraid there is more harm than good if I agree to such a thing."

"I understand, Princess―"

"No, you don’t," Soleia said, cutting him off. She took a deep breath, and this time, her gaze was much firmer than before. "I am not my father’s favorite daughter. My marriage to Orion Elsher was the King’s ploy to make sure Orion was a controlled strategic force who would listen to Vramidian royalty. There is no love and no alliance in this marriage. Not between Orion and I, and certainly not from my father to me, his daughter."

Rafael remained silent as he listened on. He shifted his body a little closer to Soleia, showing that he wasn’t going to leave as he initially planned. Even then, however, she didn’t loosen her grasp.

"If Orion requests for the King’s permission to take on a second wife, I... might not be able to keep my head," Soleia confessed with a choked sob. "That is all I am good for in my father’s eyes― a political marriage. If Orion goes a step further and requests for divorce..."

Tears gathered quickly in Soleia’s eyes as she struggled to keep them back. She pursed her lips, biting down hard so as to force herself not to cry.

"Well, there certainly won’t be a second wedding between you and me. It could mean my funeral."

"So Orion was right," Ralph slowly said. "He didn’t like this marriage in the first place because he knew everything was a mere power play. He wanted to marry―"

"For love," Soleia finished with a nod. "How could there be love between a general and a princess, Sir Ralph? We’ve never met before."

This time, Ralph was quiet. Soleia couldn’t blame him.

She had figured that some of the jokes and comments he made were a little flirtatious, and for a man who often spent his time away on the battlefields, it was natural he had no time to seek a bride. Even if he did, not a lot of good women would wish to marry him due to the long months he would be spending away from home.

Soleia was probably his best bet, unfavored princess or not. But now, if marrying her came with the price tag of dying, it was natural for him to rescind that request. They weren’t a couple in love. Only a fool would risk death to court someone like her.

Silence filled their little shelter, and just when Soleia was starting to turn uneasy, Ralph spoke again.

"Your father will not kill you."

"What?" Soleia asked. Her head snapped up in surprise, looking at Rafael with wide eyes.

"If your marriage ending in divorce would mean the end of your life, we simply have to make sure that Orion doesn’t divorce you," Ralph said. This time, his voice was a little more firm. "I will protect you at all costs. You have my word, Princess."

For some strange reason, the back of her eyes felt like they were burning with tears, and her nose soured at those simple words. She felt her throat clog up with emotions, and just like that, the dam had broken and her emotions were set free.

Soleia’s shoulder started to quake as she sobbed, desperately using the back of her hands to wipe the tears away. But no matter how much she swiped at them, they just couldn’t seem to cease.

A pair of arms pulled her into a warm embrace, and Soleia leaned against Ralph’s chest, her tears quickly staining his clothes.

It had been two years― two long years ever since she was wed off to Orion. But even more than that, she couldn’t remember how long it had been since she had last received such words of affection from anyone else other than Lily.

"I am terrified," she confessed, her chest rising up and down as she sobbed.

Ralph’s hands gently pat her back as though he was pacifying a baby.

"I know, Princess," he said. "Everything will be alright. There’s nothing to fear."

While the Princess was curled up in his arms, Rafael’s eyes landed on the small bag of crystals. Right at the top of the pile was an amethyst, just big enough to replace the pendant that Soleia had destroyed earlier today. It was dull, nowhere as bright and colorful as the one Elowyn previously owned, but it was what Elowyn would probably want.

Rafael resisted the urge to scoff. This amethyst — and the rest of them in the stash — would not be going anywhere near Elowyn if Rafael had anything to say about it.