Kay watched with his own eyes as Osborne I stood on the city walls, beaming with joyful anticipation while waiting for his new queen to enter the city, only to reveal undisguisable disappointment and disgust once he saw her appearance clearly.
“Damn it! Outrageous! That hateful Saint Ruby!!”
After having someone escort the new queen to her chambers, Osborne I, seething with fury, ordered that the portrait of the new queen—sent by Saint Ruby and kept by his bedside—to be brought to him.
Then, in front of his trusted aides, he viciously smashed the portrait, which bore not the slightest resemblance to the new queen.
The major nobles tried to console Osborne I soothingly, but the uncontrollably furious Osborne I waved away his aides who tried to support him and cursed, “Don’t you understand why Saint Ruby deceived me!?”
“This—”
The great nobles all awkwardly averted their gazes, including Kay’s brother, Jayce Osley.
After a long while, one of the nobles finally spoke up: “Your Majesty, please don’t be angry…”
“Yes, for the sake of Castellion, please endure a little more…”
“Even if the queen might not be a virgin and her reputation is too poor to marry into a great nation, please endure.”
“Your Majesty, we in Castellion cannot confront Saint Rubifalist head-on. For the nation, for the people, please—”
“Shut up!! You want me to tolerate this!? I wanted a pure and clean wife! If I had known Saint Ruby’s princess bore no resemblance to Freya, how could I have agreed to marry her!?”
“Your Majesty, please calm down. The queen has such beauty; it’s forgivable even if she isn’t a virgin.”
Osborne I’s eyes flashed with murderous intent as he turned to the speaker, Chibman: “…Lord Chibman, what do you mean by that? Do you know something?”
Chibman spread his hands: “Your Majesty, I’m only speaking of possibilities—one of which. I’ve heard Saint Ruby has only one princess, and Your Highness the Queen grew up surrounded by brothers… So, is it possible that Her Highness the Queen did not willingly give up her virginity?”
Hearing Chibman’s words, Osborne I revealed an expression as if he were about to vomit: “You mean—”
Chibman did not answer; he simply bowed his head in salute and fell silent.
The surrounding nobles crowded forward, all trying to persuade the ashen-faced Osborne I. But the more they advised him, the more he gnashed his teeth.
“Saint Ruby dares to fob off such an impure woman on me, wanting me to sire heirs with this impure woman, use her offspring to replace Snow White, and eventually devour Castellion, turning it into a vassal state of Saint Ruby…”
“In their dreams!!”
“Saint Ruby is having pipe dreams! I won’t let Saint Ruby have its way!! That filthy, impure woman will never become a true queen!! I won’t let her bear my heirs! …No, a woman so filthy and lowly doesn’t even deserve my touch! Let her grow old and die alone and miserably in this castle!!”
—
Eric nodded: “So Your Majesty vented that resentment, which he couldn’t unleash on Saint Ruby, onto the queen.”
Kay, who had recounted all this, felt somewhat weary: “Looking back now, those words were probably slanderous lies against Her Highness the Queen… Just like the news two months later that Your Majesty learned about—Her Highness having a bastard child in Saint Ruby—which were all fabricated lies meant to drive a wedge between Your Majesty and Her Highness the Queen.”
“Even if it wasn’t a lie, Your Majesty shouldn’t have blamed it on the queen.”
Eric propped his chin on his hand: “To be honest, I think the queen is quite pitiful. It’s not like she wanted to marry into a cold, small country infested with monsters.”
“Think about it: if she had a lover in Saint Ruby, had a child… Forced to separate from her beloved, marrying a man she doesn’t love for her country, to fulfill her brothers’ and father’s grand ambitions of expanding territory, even bearing children with a man old enough to be her father… Yet she could never see the child she bore for her lover again.”
“—If I were the queen, I’d be heartbroken enough to hide under the covers and cry secretly every night.”
“…”
Kay did not respond to Eric’s words.
He discovered a fact: after realizing the queen was not the wicked woman he had imagined, one who came with ambitions and desires to swallow Castellion, he began imagining her as innocent and pure.
He was refusing to accept the possibility that the queen might have had a lover in the past, might have borne a bastard child.
…This wasn’t like him. What had come over him?
Could it be that, admiring how the queen had endured numerous humiliations and hardships without breaking or going mad, still maintaining her dignified bearing, he had begun to deify her?
“Never mind that, Eric. You understand what I mean, right?”
Putting aside his strange feelings, Kay raised his wine glass again.
Eric let out a long sigh—“Aahh—” before saying: “I understand completely. You mean the great nobles, including my father and your brother, were all involved in sowing discord between the queen and Your Majesty.”
“They want to get rid of Your Majesty as king, then the frail princess, and carve up Castellion, right?”
“Exactly.”
His verdant green eyes fixed on Eric: “So what will you do? Side with your father, or do nothing?”
Eric pouted: “Don’t say things to test me… You knew I wouldn’t choose either option, so you came to discuss this with me, didn’t you?”
Kay finally smiled. Eric was like a younger brother to him, also like a disciple. Now, this younger brother seemed capable of standing on his own. As a disciple, Eric wasn’t far from graduating successfully.
“Helping Your Majesty and the queen reconcile… That’s impossible. Protecting the princess alongside the queen feels feasible.”
Eric, who had not campaigned south and north with Osborne I, did not believe the “mad king” Osborne I was worth staking his life to protect.
Compared to the aging, hot-tempered king, he believed the still-growing princess might bring a brighter future to Castellion someday.
Kay did not want Castellion to be divided. He knew all too well what a formidable warrior his brother Jayce was, what a violent man devoid of compassion and empathy—and thus was certain Jayce could not bring the people prosperity and comfort.
Among the other great nobles, similar to his brother, there were indeed one or two capable of governing a city or town. But if Castellion were divided, could those cities and towns really withstand large-scale monster invasions? Even if they could, a fragmented Castellion would eventually be swallowed by greater powers, like nations such as Saint Ruby…
The nobles could flee with their gold, silver, beauties, and fine horses. But the people? The children playing in the streets?
Jayce, campaigning far away, did not know how frightened his younger siblings had been when enemy armies reached their village. But he could never forget that fear, helplessness, and frustration.
Now, he was a knight, and a knight’s duty was to protect.
He would protect Castellion, protect its people. That was why he became a knight.
…
Eric proactively requested a transfer. Seeing that he wanted to serve as Snow White’s close guard knight, Osborne I approved it without hesitation.
But before Eric took up the post, Osborne I threatened him, roughly saying: Don’t even think about becoming my son-in-law, kid. If you dare touch my Snow White, you’ll lose an important part of yourself.
Eric found it both amusing and exasperating. Never mind that the princess was only seven; even at seventeen, he felt she wouldn’t qualify as a “woman” yet.
He still preferred fragrant, soft, sweet-mouthed big sisters.
Snow White showed no particular reaction to having a tall, handsome big brother knight by her side. But she was overjoyed to receive a rose from Ye Tang.
Every day, Ye Tang would stroll in the courtyard, saying it helped build stamina for her arm wound to heal. After Snow White learned of this, she insisted on accompanying Ye Tang on walks every day. And since Snow White grew dejected and listless, uninterested in lessons for half a day whenever she was pulled away from Ye Tang, fewer and fewer people dared to separate her.
Ye Tang realized this wouldn’t do—the court tutors lacked the resolve to take Snow White away, which would delay her studies. So she personally took Snow White to classes and audited them beside her.
Ye Tang’s original intent was to learn this world’s common knowledge. But after auditing a few court lessons, she gained nothing. These court tutors endlessly drilled Snow White on virtues of wise, good, chaste, and virtuous conduct, useless not only for governing a nation but even failing to give Snow White basic common sense about the world.
If the court tutors continued like this, Ye Tang had no doubt Snow White would turn out just like in the original fairy tale—blissfully ignorant, barging into others’ homes, eating their food without permission, devouring every meal in the house without confirming it was safe, and sleeping in their beds.
From a modern perspective, this was a bungling thief caught red-handed after illegal entry, theft, and squatting.
If the seven dwarves weren’t kind enough, if they took offense at Snow White’s intrusion… If it hadn’t been the seven dwarves’ home but seven farmers’—
One could be kind, but not rely on others’ kindness to act. No one could be sure what lay behind “kindness” or how long it would last before turning into something else.
Before being trained as a national heir, Snow White needed a crash course in common sense.
On fine, sunny days, Ye Tang had tables and chairs brought out and told stories to Snow White in the courtyard. After one or two stories, she led Snow White to identify plants in the courtyard, and explained the animals in the outer forests, the people on the streets, and their occupations.
“It really looks heartwarming just watching them.”
The maids watched from afar as Ye Tang and Snow White, big and small, walked hand in hand, and couldn’t help but chuckle softly.
“Indeed.”
Eric had completely changed his view of the queen. He smiled and chimed in with the maids, startling them. But the maids quickly blushed and chatted with Eric.
Osborne I hid behind a distant tree like a resentful woman. Seeing Ye Tang and Snow White so intimate, he punched the trunk, sending pine needles raining down.
Kay, standing behind Osborne I and guarding him, kept his hands clasped behind his back. His king’s current appearance was truly hard to look at straight. He was almost forgetting what the once dashing Osborne I had been like.
Unaware of the undercurrents among the nobles, Osborne I—furious every day that his daughter didn’t cling to him but to the stepqueen instead—felt no sting from the pine needles. When a maid approached to brush them off him amiably, he slapped her to the ground, leaving her face red and swollen.
Why!? How long had Marinfield spent with Snow White? How could Snow White be so attached to her!?
Though Snow White had liked her father king before, she had never smiled so happily in front of him!
He gave Snow White the most expensive silk, the most dazzling gems, the most luxurious of everything… Why had Snow White never kissed him like this, hugged him like this!?
Could it be just because Marinfield was a woman and he was a man?
What magic did Marinfield have to make Snow White so obsessed!?
“Get out! Get out! Get out!!”
His eardrums echoed with his daughter’s shrill, furious screams. Thinking of the pillow she had smashed into his face, Osborne I, who had not had a proper conversation with his daughter in three months, felt both jealous of Ye Tang and furious at Snow White for being so ungrateful, her elbow turning outward toward outsiders.
“Mother… Father’s gaze is so scary…”
Noticing Osborne I’s look, Snow White shivered. Ye Tang stroked the top of her head with her uninjured hand and soothed her. “Then don’t look at your father. Just look at me.”
With that, Ye Tang opened her arms, letting Snow White throw herself into her embrace.
“Mm!”
Holding her mother and feeling the warmth from her body, Snow White relaxed a little. She lifted her little face and said to Ye Tang, “Mother, in two more months, it will be Snow White’s eighth birthday.”
“Does Snow White want a gift?”
Ye Tang naturally knew what Osborne I, acting like a resentful wife, was thinking — put a man in a woman’s position, and the man would become a woman. The pain and madness that the former Marinfield had felt was exactly the jealousy and heartache Osborne I now suffered.
“Snow White doesn’t want gifts! Snow White just wants Mother to celebrate Snow White’s birthday!”
Hugging Ye Tang’s neck tightly, Snow White smiled sweetly. “This will be Snow White’s first birthday with Mother by her side!”